RichardMoss

UFO is one of my favourite telly programmes of all time - and my teenage daughters love it too.  I'm a fan of Gerry Anderson's work in general but UFO was his finest hour, closely followed by Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds. The scripts were excellent and they were not afraid to spend a bit of time developing a story - unlike today's "flash, bang, wallop" stuff.  UFO was great for totty, too - Wanda Ventham as Colonel Lake, Gabrielle Drake as Lt Gaye Ellis, and a whole host of horny S.H.A.D.O. girls.  Some of the costumes were tasty, too - there was a rather raunchy red leather dres that appeared in several episodes - including one where it was wrapped around the lovely Deborah Grant:

My old company car had 3:

My old company car had 3:

Piper PA-28 Cherokee TDi.  The (crappy) Lycoming O-360 engine, which produces 180hp from a 5.9L flat 4 aircooled motor, is replaced with an (even more crappy) inline 4 cylinder Thielert Centurion which produces 135hp from a 1.7L Mercedes A-class 4 cylinder water cooled unit. The cooling system is a lesson in poor design and poor execution - just take a look at all the hoses, pipes and jubilee clips.  The picture shown here is actually a Diamond DA42 which was designed to used the Centurion - the Cherokee retrofit is nowhere near as well executed!

 
Other than a significant reduction in fuel costs, they have little going for them.  Squeezing that much power out of a 1.7L unit that has to run at high rpm for long periods (climbing for example) leads to overheating, blown gaskets, cracked heads and even injectors being spat out of the engine!  The gearboxes have to be replaced every 300 hours, the fuel pumps every 600 hours and the whole engine every 1000hours.    No wonder that warranty claims (aided by a bit of embezzlement) bankrupted the company.

I'm glad that it went to an appreciative home. It's a bloody good car.

I finally got him to send me some photos. He still forgot the engine bay one, though.






 
This is the worst bit on the car and given that the beastie cost less than than 12 months tax it looks like a bargain. It's a good job he bought it - his Xsara estate TD died this morning.

The MOT runs to 24/4/2016 and it has a Bosch pump. The car is near Bedale, just south of Scotch Corner.

My father in law has recently purchased a 405 diesel turbo estate with aircon etc which he describes as being in "fantastic" condition with an engine bay that "looks like a 4 year old car". I've asked him to send me loads of pictures, which I'll post up here.
 
Jammy bugger - I'd love that.

Let's not forget that the "interia" is usually mint and often fitted with "Ricardo" seats (the ones on an 800 Vitesse have Recaro written on them!).
 
I get annoyed when I see the car"s model name mis-spelled: Rover STIRLING? Is that some sort of Scottish special edition (perhaps a play on words thanks to its independent suspension). Just look at the f***ing bootlid!

"aircon needs a regas" - but only after replacement of the holed condensor and all the seals in the compressor
 
Harold Shipman's Renault Espace was owned by a doctor.

My old company car had 3:

My old company car had 3:

My old company car had 3:

My old company car had 3:

My old company car had 3:

My old company car had 3:

Advertise it on a "Classic Diggers" forum and get someone else to do it for you (for free!)

Mo pretty much summed it up:
 
Rusty sills (square section, repair straightforward) 
Rusty rear arches - repair panels not available
Water leaks in the boot - the normal place i rear light but also (on coupes) poorly sealed panel joins near the boot hinges.
 
On all 800s, fuel fillers rot from above thanks to a mud trap between the filler and inner wing. It might be repairable if not too bad but you may have to fabricate something with tube/hoses.  The little metal fuels pipes sandwiched between the top of the tank and the boot floor rot - the tank has to come out to fix them.
 
Doors and all fittings are unique to the coupe - as are the seats and all other interior trim panels apart from the dash and centre console.
 
Mechanically they are the same as any other 800.  Key weak points, front suspension bottom balljoints, anti-roll bar droplinks, exhaust flexi pipes, dodgy solder joints in the fusebox, ineffective handrake (rear caliper fault - similar caliper to MGF/TF), blocked sunroof drains. The KV6 engine IS weaker than the others and expensive to fix if the headgasket goes (when rather than if?) but lovely if running OK.

It's what they do, sir.

Photo catch-up time:
Old water pump and new water pump - spot the difference.  When will people realise that you still need anti-freeze in the desert? (not for the frost protection but for the anti-corrosion properties).  The amount of crap that I flushed out of the radiator and engine was incredible.




Windscreen lower trim panel replaced.  The old one literally fell apart when touched (damaged by UV light). The missing A-pillar trim has been replaced.



Bigger tyres fitted on the standard wheels.  By flipping the spare wheel carrier through 180 degrees you gain enough space to fit the bigger wheel on the tailgate.  I found that the wheel studs were ripping out so I welded them back into place.





The steering trackrod was replaced because of worn balljoints:



Rear bumper repaired.  Front to do





Finally, here it is on the sand

Another job was fitting a front winch.  I didn't want to fit a heavy (and expensive) metal "winch" bumper, so went for a winch plate under the bumper.  It's a "rugged Ridge 8,500lb winch which I picked up at an attractive price from Icon 4x in Dubai.  Fitting was fairly straightforward:  the mounting plate needed a little "adjustment" with an angle grinder in order to get it to fit around the steering guard brackets but it fits nicely below the main bumper bar and in front of the radiator and aircon condensor.  A little bumper trimming was required, not a problem as the bottom of the bumper was already broken, and it now looks neater anyway.  The steering guard plate has been removed because it clashes with the winch mount - it will need to be trimmed to fit.
 
the control box is mounted on a bracket in front of the aircon cooling fan - but the box is mostly in front of the fan motor body and should not significantly reduce the airflow.   The remote control plugs in on the front of the box and the plug is accessed through the slats in the grille.

Well a few things:
First, it turned out that it DID have a lockable centre diff - despite the fact that as a 2003 model it shouldn't have.  So I just bought a second hand Discovery 1 linkage and fitted that.  Now I have MUCH better off traction
Second, a check of the engine number revealed that it is fitted with a 4.6L engine not the expected 4.0L one - a pleasant surprise.
 
I decided to tackle the "chuffing" exhaust manifolds and found that each manifold to downpipe flange had a missing/broken stud and on one side there was no gasket, either.  A simple fix and whilst at it I did an ugly but sound repair to the cracked downpipe flange on the left hand side. All quiet on the Eastern front now


 
Whilst under there I found that both engine mounts were broken so genuine Landrover ones were fitted.  I have to ay that both the exhaust and mount jobs were much easier than expected, the benefit of having plenty of space, I guess.  Old one on the left, new o the right.

 
A rear door ladder has been added - to aid access to the (yet to be fitted) roof bar extensions

 
A small suspension lift was added by fitting spacers under the spring seats - this was to restore the ground clearance lost when I fitted the side steps.  The steps were genuine Landrover ones that I was given - over £500 worth at new prices.


 
Britpart steering guard.  Huge, strong and rather heavy.  This has now been partly removed to allow the winch to be fitted.

Another job was fitting a front winch.  I didn't want to fit a heavy (and expensive) metal "winch" bumper, so went for a winch plate under the bumper.  It's a "rugged Ridge 8,500lb winch which I picked up at an attractive price from Icon 4x in Dubai.  Fitting was fairly straightforward:  the mounting plate needed a little "adjustment" with an angle grinder in order to get it to fit around the steering guard brackets but it fits nicely below the main bumper bar and in front of the radiator and aircon condensor.  A little bumper trimming was required, not a problem as the bottom of the bumper was already broken, and it now looks neater anyway.  The steering guard plate has been removed because it clashes with the winch mount - it will need to be trimmed to fit.
 
the control box is mounted on a bracket in front of the aircon cooling fan - but the box is mostly in front of the fan motor body and should not significantly reduce the airflow.   The remote control plugs in on the front of the box and the plug is accessed through the slats in the grille.

Another job was fitting a front winch.  I didn't want to fit a heavy (and expensive) metal "winch" bumper, so went for a winch plate under the bumper.  It's a "rugged Ridge 8,500lb winch which I picked up at an attractive price from Icon 4x in Dubai.  Fitting was fairly straightforward:  the mounting plate needed a little "adjustment" with an angle grinder in order to get it to fit around the steering guard brackets but it fits nicely below the main bumper bar and in front of the radiator and aircon condensor.  A little bumper trimming was required, not a problem as the bottom of the bumper was already broken, and it now looks neater anyway.  The steering guard plate has been removed because it clashes with the winch mount - it will need to be trimmed to fit.
 
the control box is mounted on a bracket in front of the aircon cooling fan - but the box is mostly in front of the fan motor body and should not significantly reduce the airflow.   The remote control plugs in on the front of the box and the plug is accessed through the slats in the grille.

Long overdue for an update - that will be along shortly