Decided to do a return trip to Salvator Rosa National Park north of Tambo via the Wilderness Way. Good trundle for anyone heading out that way.





The ranger must have been on leave for the last 9 months as the grass in the camping area was thigh high



How can you NOT go through this????






Wendy enjoy the relaxing surrounds but kept her feet up in case of snakes!!!!



The back of the crew cab works pretty well when we are camping although there are plans a foot to improve things quite a bit.

 
nuggetstuff said:
If you are in town, let me know. Is your sister north of Bundaberg?
Click to expand...

Sister is SW of Bundaberg, would be a problem if she was SE i suppose! :eek:

She lives in Laidley. I actually went to pick my parents up from the airport and hour ago, they've been there for the last 3 weeks helping with there latest gran daughter.

I believe ill be heading out sometime around November.



Again, loving the pictures. Don't know how keen i would be about putting my feet down either. :( i had a brown cross in front of me while walking the dog last year! the dog hid behind me with a whimper! :doh:
 
I absolutely love you're build segments, and of course the stories and camping trips! Fancy selling me your Defender? :p
 
Not the most hard core mod ever done but probably the most important one I will ever do. If the chief cook and bottle washer want a vanity mirror, it is a vanity mirror she gets, with lights.



Found a VW something sun visor on ebay, stripped out the mirror assembly and inserted it into the original Defender one.



She is wrapped and as all blokes know, if she is happy, we are happy.
 

The current project has been a work in process for the last couple of months. I can honestly say that it has been the most time consuming of any project I have done on any of my trucks.

I am still in the process of making the infill panels to finish the job, but to help it all make a bit more sense, this is where I am currently at.





Back to the beginning.....this is the build from the start...

Trying to use OziExplorer on a small screen has always been a 3 corner jack in the reg grundies and I decided to fix it once and for all. Concept which is slowly turning into reality.....

install an in car pc with as big a screen as possible which will not only run Ozi Explorer but also be navigator, radio, music, rear view camera and engine diagnostics.

Google is my friend and eventually all the goodies started to arrive from the USA and Germany. Starting by the ariel and working anti clockwise we have....10.4" open frame(ie I will make a surround to suit) VGA touch screen, rear view camera, OB11 engine diagnostic, pc box with blue tooth USB stick on top, HD Radio unit, Blue tooth phone connector and navigator. A later addition was a USB hub with an additional 6 USB connections.

I won't go into all of the technical detail of each unit but would be happy supply answers to any questions. I will list a bit of info on the pc which has 140GB SSD hard drive and is fan less, both important issues in a 4WD as the SSD hard drive won't skip etc and dust will not be attracted to a fan. The unit also has a special delayed starting/shut down facility and runs Windows XP.



I decided to mount the screen between the round AC vents, sacrificing the fixed vents and clock. With a bit of good, well a lot of good luck, there would also be room for the pc box with a bit of modification to the AC ducting. Heart in throat, that inevitable point of no return had been reached and it was eyes closed and air saw ahead....



Eyes open and all good so far



That worked so well it was time to remove the centre part of the ducts....



Blocking off the centre ducts has actually meant better air flow through the adjustable vents so it has actually worked better than I thought.

Silicon is my friend and the big screws were just a safety to stop it all dropping into the duct. They were removed once the silicon set.



I'll keep this pretty short as I am not sure there is much interest in this type of mod.

Next was to machine the screen surround, and mounting frame



making the most of every nook and cranny is a must and the space in front of the passenger was too tempting to pass up.



assembling the radio unit



First assembly of the screen. The pc sits in the cradle under the screen. On the passenger side is the 6 port USB hub, fuse box and relay






more wire than a space shuttle



Close to finished. machined up a little mould to make the radio slot infill






Whilst the Defender infill looked good, I decided that space would actually be a great place to mount the scan gauge so I made up a mould and moulded a polyurethane holder for it to try and keep it all looking as original as possible.





The final product in use on a trip. The final moulding filled in the gaps around the screen and made it look like a pro job.



Was paid the ultimate compliment on this trip when I arrived in Perth, I put the truck in for a service. When I went to collect it the Service Manager was waiting wanting to know how I had got the factory navigation system because they had not been advise by LR that it was even available!!! I was pretty happy with that.
 
huddy229 said:
Excellent work, what's next on the to do list? Seem's as though you have every base covered already!
Click to expand...


Quite a lot still to reveal :D Fuel carrying capacity is a big issue for me due to the remoteness of areas I travel to and resultant distances between fuel availability. Roof top tent, storage and carrying gear, tyre pressure monitoring, under body protection and rear recovery are all issues I address down the track of the build.

Thanks for your interest. It is often difficult to guage as a poster, especially from over seas if you have an interested audience or not.

Cheers
 
pressbrake said:
very nice but I couldnt trust a puma in the outback
Click to expand...

Not the first time I heard that but seriously I have to beenplaces most people only read about and it never let me down. Mine doesn't leak, has not had a drive train failure or all the other miriad of things "traditional/real" defender people complain about.

The truth is that I had a Range Rover 10 years ago which I couldn't and wouldn't take outback because it was so unreliable but I would and have taken the Defender to the remoteset of places without hestitation.

My hobby is photo journalism and I do freelance work for one of the Australian 4WD magazines. My last trip was 10,000kms across Australia and back with 7,000kms on dirt. It included areas so remote I had 1200kms between fuel stops and 100 kms of cross desert travel where the only foot prints were camels. The Puma excelled.
 
Good for you in getting a good un, I think luck has a lot to do with getting a good one or not as one of my customers who uses his as a car needed new transmission at 2years which is shocking and a failed clutch cylinder at 12 months which was a pain being a internal job.

When I was a engineer at fords all the good stuff(engines) went for export and the not so good home markets.

I fancy a puma 130 with its proper heating but im dubious

I do like your universal mill, never seen a compact one before:)
 
There are guys here in Aussie who have not had good experiences as well but you get that on any brands forum from what I can see. I had the 110 for 3 years, did 75,000kms and only had self induced problems. Closest to a real problem was an intermitent electrical fault when I came in from the outback to Alice Springs.

The local dealer wanted to repalce the wiring loom!!!...my dealer put his finger right on the problem as being a main relay which had vibrated enough due to long sections of corrugations I do, to have spread the pin holder legs and was getting intermittent contact. Nipped it up and back on the track with out further problem.

I have now changed to a 130 which I will follow when I have finished posting the 110 build. Still got a long way to go as i ahve only just started but it should keep me posting here for 12 months or so :)

The universal mill was a great learner for me and the horizontal feature was really handy. I have now upgraded to a bigger turret mill which has a 3 axis controller on it so I can program it. That has sure opened up the design possibilities enormously and has enabled me to make much more complex parts.
 
nuggetstuff said:
Quite a lot still to reveal :D Fuel carrying capacity is a big issue for me due to the remoteness of areas I travel to and resultant distances between fuel availability. Roof top tent, storage and carrying gear, tyre pressure monitoring, under body protection and rear recovery are all issues I address down the track of the build.

Thanks for your interest. It is often difficult to guage as a poster, especially from over seas if you have an interested audience or not.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Hells bells you got a interested audience, Look forward to what ever you put up daily. Like a junkie, can not get enough. And what you do is amazing. And what was it you did for a living? some very amazing pictures of your work shop.......Tissues please

And thanks for putting this thread up, got to be one of the best yet
 
pressbrake said:
Good for you in getting a good un, I think luck has a lot to do with getting a good one or not as one of my customers who uses his as a car needed new transmission at 2years which is shocking and a failed clutch cylinder at 12 months which was a pain being a internal job.

When I was a engineer at fords all the good stuff(engines) went for export and the not so good home markets.

I fancy a puma 130 with its proper heating but im dubious

I do like your universal mill, never seen a compact one before:)
Click to expand...

The transmission cooler for uk is different from rest of world sale. You guys got cheated. Ashcroft sells them.. This is what you need..Ashcroft Transmissions
 
Thor1950 said:
Hells bells you got a interested audience, Look forward to what ever you put up daily. Like a junkie, can not get enough. And what you do is amazing. And what was it you did for a living? some very amazing pictures of your work shop.......Tissues please

And thanks for putting this thread up, got to be one of the best yet
Click to expand...


Mate, much appreciated. Because our conditions are so much different, and hence what is a really important mod to us in Oz may be of no interest to you guys. Also some of the products such as Ozi Explorer may mean zip.

I suspect the car PC could be a bit like that but here in Aussie, especially when remote touring, navigation can literally be life and death. The big screen just makes it so much easier and was a huge bonus for me but many would probably wonder why you would bother.

I don't have a trade back ground at all but I do have a polyurethane moulding business which has come in very handy:D
 
Not sure if that makes them a problem. Maybe it has in the UK but I am not aware of it here. Main issue has been diffs, transfer case and leaking roofs.

I find the 6 speed great and actually even better with the 2.2 in my 130. Main issue I find is the driver who when off road in low range changes to 2nd out of habit but in the 6 speed, idiot I should change to 3rd.:D
 
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