Hello folks, my first time on a forum so most likely a bit clumsy at first. I suddenly became a Freelander 1 2003 owner late last year when a mate of mine turned up outside my workshop in his new Land Rover offering me his old one. His asking price was way under the normal for Norway so after a test drive and an inspection I agreed to buy as I needed a vehicle with more space for armchairs and small furniture than my veteran 82 Mitsubishi Colt. I could see that the front brakes needed a lot of tlc and the front suspension arms did too. During the winter I collected most of the parts I needed from LR Spares, Britpart, Craddocks, Eurodel etc. The VCU was a bit suspect so about a month ago I removed it and the propshafts and the car now drives a lot smoother and rolls a lot easier. To me it seemed that as it is in action perhaps only 1 or 2 % of the time and with its delicate nature it was a piece of redundant kit that even in the unpredictable 6 month winters here in the south of Norway I did not really need. Have driven FWD since 76 in all conditions here and don`t go looking for obstacle courses I retired the VCU to the garage.I knew nothing about the build of the Freelander and was pleased when I swa how solid it was and that the bodywork is galvanised which slows down a lot the inevitable iron oxide. I did wonder why the suspension and petrol tank cradle was not. Last year we had big problems with misting, a wet footwell and rear door leaks. I put 2 bottles of the equivalent of Radweld in the system after draining out about a litre of coolant to make room for it it made a big difference. It seams that the heater matrix has a design fault and many of them leak sending warm steam onto the windscreen and into the rest of the car. When the carpet in the LH footwell had dried the misting went away. However the rest of the car was very damp and I found that there was a pond in the tool well at the back. Somebody had tried to drill some holes in the floor without success so I pulled out the rear carpet, washed the mold off it and hung it to dry. In the meantime it had rained a lot and I could see that water was coming in through the rear door seals. As many of my customers own boats and come to me for help I thought that I could use a boat trick on a car. First I replaced the bottom RH seal onto its flange and used a dry suit seam repair adhesive to hold it in place (not Black Witch). I then cleaned the rubber seals in the bendy areas with white spirit. let it dry and spread on a mastic and used spit or washing up liquid to smooth it out so that it looked good. The part of the door that would butt against the mastic was given a liberal coating of silicon grease as a releasing agent. I waited 3 days to make sure it was cured, opened the door and there was a true negative mold of the door edge on the rubber. I did the same to the bottom right hand corner where I had glued the seal back in place. It seems to have worked even after our springtime deluges. I have a couple more projects in the pipeline so as I might have bored you enough for this morning I will say good night now and hope to call in again before too long.