This morning the wife and I had a few errands to do so we took the land rover. The shifter works nice. I like how the neutral detent is but lots of vibrations when idling. Now for the sound deadening sheets, we drove the same road, same speed as before. Sound level was the same but the only difference we noticed was when a rock flew out of a tire and hit the wheel well. Now the sound is dull instead of sharp rifle shot like before. Overall I am not yet impressed with the effects of the sound deadening sheets. There is still the original sound deadening material on the floors and seat box but I added some sheets to the box and 1/2" acoustic foam under the seats. Not sure how to go about reducing the sound. Went ahead and ordered the new engine mounts. This only can improve the vibration issues well I hope it does.

What I like,
Seat base mod was a major improvement for visibility.
The looks, just a nice little rig to knock around in :cool:
The simplicity of it
Slick shifter
Overall I really like it and can accept the little issues but the noise is just horrible.


Still to do,
Front window weatherstripping
sliding rear window weatherstripping
Fix the other seat base
Improve the heater
Go through the front axle
Install new engine mounts
Possibility of another layer of sound deadening.
Install headliners




Wish list :D
Heated seats
Power brakes
Power steering
Smaller steering wheel
Tow hooks on front bumper
Parabolic springs
225/75r16 tyres
Petrol engine conversion for less noise and vibration
Change the exhaust to have a muffler and resonator like that came from the factory
Larger alternator
Electric fan
Heated windscreen
Replace rear door with tailgate and hatch or tailgate and canvas top


20210226_085028.jpg


Tailgate and hatch I would like to find at a reasonable price.

Screenshot_20210226-092838_Gallery.jpg
 
Lovely looking Series. Some nice work you are doing. Have you watched "My 911" on YouTube? He has restored his old series 3 which looks very similar to yours. Great series of videos to watch.
 
I cleaned the old insulation and glue from the bonnet. Installed the new noico sheets. It is a lot brighter under the hood with the shiny aluminum sheets. Drove a couple hours yesterday. Went on the 5 mile noise test road. Virtually no change. So I thought how much is engine noise. While going 60 I put it in neutral and coasted. The decibels went from 86 to 79-80. Was quite a difference in the noise. Waiting for the new motor mounts to arrive. Maybe the vibration problem will be improved and will it change the noise??

Was told about someone that has a pickup cab and tailgate for sale. So thats something to give serious thought about. Need to see if I have to get it reclassified from a 7 seat van to ??? I am sure the taxes will be higher :eek:

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20210228_130938.jpg


20210228_163226.jpg
 
I'm surprised the new bonnet insulation didn't make any difference. I didn't measure the difference with a sound meter but before fitting mine it was impossible to have a normal conversation whilst doing 30mph but after it was. The difference was significant. Mine already had factory fitted insulation on the inside of the bulkhead above the tunnel. I fitted dense foam carpet underlay under the seats and inside the door cards too. Mine has a headliner but I don't know if there is any insulation under it, probably not. There is a thick rubber floor mat in the rear load area and I've put thick rubber mats in the foot wells. I had to have the passenger footwell replaced and this also helped. I went on a acoustics course years ago and remember that metal panels that transmit sound often only need small pads to dampen the vibration thus cutting out the noise. I just wanted to drive mine without behind deafened, not to make it as quiet as a modern car. At 40 to 50 mph I still can't hear the radio very well unless I turn it up so much that it is deafening when I stop. To be honest, I get more noise from the bangs, rattles and squeaks than I do from the engine.

Col
 
This morning I removed the shifter boot. I got in a hurry when installing the slick shifter and did not build up part of the area. My intention was to remove all of the original sound deadening on the transmission hump and put new on. Now its built up level. Reinstalled the boot. It was better but still loud. I did notice where the boot went over the shifter was loose. Took a wire tie and got a real tight fit now. Put some deadening sheets on the front of the seat base. Huge difference, my wife and I can actually talk to each other now. We do need to talk loud but before it was impossible. I can hear some rattles and wind noise now. Guess thats something else to work on.

Looked at installing some sheets on the bulkhead but the felt/plastic stuff is glued on. Maybe tomorrow I will be ambitious and remove the felt to see how to install more sheets.


Before building shifter boot area
20210301_121347.jpg



After but sloppy workmanship :confused:
20210301_121724.jpg
 
Started on the heated seats today. I probably should just put power to the harness as is. That would be easy and for some reason I don't like easy. First mod was to change the switches. Instead of the rocker switches I will be using toggle switches located in the center dash pod. I think it will look better with them. I have the center dash pod wired up except for the LED seat indicators. Waiting for them to show up. It possible they might be too bright so I might need to install resistors in the LED circuits. Hopefully I will get key on power for the seat heaters, 1 USB port and get constant power for 1 USB port and the power port in the center dash somewhere close. Now the original seat harness is not going to work as its too short where the switches are now located. Also need to think about where to locate the relays and new harness. Don't want to have to remove all the harness if I need to remove the seat box or at least make it a simple job. I am thinking about mounting the relays in the tool box and put a weatherpack connection close to the chassis. There will be 4 wires from dash switches to the tool box relay center. Then run the wires to the heating pads. That sounded too simple.

20210311_100503.jpg


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20210311_161343.jpg
 
My wife installed the heat pads in the seat bases. The width of the pads fit perfect on the foam but had to cut off about 6" in length. I installed the metal pan on the other base. Now to make a new wiring harness.

20210312_152250.jpg


20210312_131228.jpg
 
This bit reminds me when I was riding motorbikes in the winter, I was freezing cold all over but mostly my hands. I invested in a pair of heated gloves and they were brilliant but suddenly I realised how very cold my feet were. I can't help thinking, your bum is going to be nice and warm but you feel much colder elsewhere.

Col
 
Been looking into about improving the heater. I took my IR gun and the temps at the engine heater outlets are 160°F. The temp at the metal piping is 119°F. The temp at the matrix/core is 89°F. Will start by cleaning everything then replace the control valve and install a circulation pump. Will see if the changes anything.

The new motor mounts have been stuck in customs since the 4th. No idea if I will get them or if they will be sent back to the UK. Will start on installing the wiring for the seat heaters in a few days. I did find a cat-flap and tailgate but at £1000 I am not sure I want to sink that much more into it. During one of my jaunts I ended up in Billnäs so I took a quick pic.

20210301_131905.jpg
 
steve2286w said:
View attachment 231395 I put some round engine mounts as I fitted a 200di last year , so no real vibration probs I’ll have a look and see where I got them from, here they are, these are soft others might be hard type but these work well for me
Click to expand...

I ordered the same motor mounts and this is what I received. Bearmach BFM 560. It only cost me £58.34

20210317_172927.jpg
 
Well I was just beaming with intelligence today. I removed the dash to route the new wiring harness for the seat heaters. While I was in there it popped into my head, why don't I add key on headlights. The other day when looking for toggle switches for the seats I found an on/on 6 pole toggle switch and it occurred to me I can use it for my headlights.

Made a short harness with 3 wires,
#1 power from headlight switch to toggle
#2 toggle to headlight switch
#3 key on power to toggle.

Headlight switch still turns the lights off/on but now I can flip the toggle switch and when I shut the engine off the lights go out. I think in Finland it might be required to have headlights on during the winter because I get lots of lights flashed at me if I don't have my lights on. Don't know how many times I came out from somewhere and found my lights were on. So now I don't need to worry about leaving the lights on. The headlight harness I made is plug and play. I ran the seat wiring harness along the chassis and installed a weatherpack connector under the floor. When the seat box needs to be removed all that needs to be done is just disconnecting the weatherpack connector. Relays are mounted in the seat tool box. Still need to run the wires to the seats and install the dash panel. Didn't think about taking any pics when I had it apart.

20210318_130005.jpg
 
While installing the seat heater wiring I decided to replace my amp gauge with a volt gauge. Before I can finish the center dash install I will wait for the volt gauge to show up. Now when I install a larger alternator I don't need to tear the dash apart. Took the headliner to the local upholstery shop. They ordered some material but will be a couple months before it gets here. Still not decided if I will take the top off for the summer. Still waiting for the tailgate and hatch/cat flap, no idea when that might happen. I have 383 miles on the overdrive install so I still have a few miles to go before the oil change. Its still has the gear whine noise. I hope it goes away soon. The new window channel weatherstripping has arrived so that will get installed in a few days. The new motor mounts will be installed in a couple of weeks. Before next fall I will work on improving the heater. Will start with adding a new control valve and circulator pump. The noise level has not been reduced much so I have been thinking about installing a silencer to the exhaust. Probably a waste of time but it might help. I have read several different posts about noise issues and have looked at what I can do to help the issue. Not much more can be changed so now I just wear ear plugs when driving. The last 20 years I operated heavy machinery and wearing ear protection was required so I am used to using ear plugs.

So far the best improvements have been the tire change, fixing the brakes, slick shifter, metal seat base install and new shift boots. The key on headlight mods are probably best during the winter. LED headlights, nice to have DRL's in them, still have not drove in the dark of night so not sure how the are. The original lights had the silver reflection material falling off so I needed new lights anyway. The overdrive is only used when above 45-50 mph so for my type of driving it gets used rarely.

Probably not much more will be done for a while as spring is around the corner and hopefully I will be driving it more.
 
I ran across this picture last week on our computer. While out riding my bike yesterday I got to thinking about the picture and reminiscing about the good old days. I thought about the good times I had with it and how similar the FJ40 and the Series 3 are. They ride, drive the same and the interior space is very similar. The major difference was the FJ40 was petrol powered and had dual heaters. Would love to have the dual heaters now but with fuel being €1.60 a liter in Finland I am glad I am not feeding the 10 mpg FJ40.

I bought this FJ40 back in the early 80's. I parked it sometime in the early to mid 90's I'm guessing. Can't believe it almost 30 years ago. We pulled it out from back of the farm a couple years ago and washed it up thinking about getting it back on the road. The floor was rusted out and a few animals made a home in it. They ate the seats, wiring and made a huge mess of everything. The engine was locked up, the body and frame were rusted out so that idea didn't pan out very well. There was very little left that was good so we sent it to the scrap yard to be recycled. The picture looks a lot better than it was.

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