Project Land Rover resto - new project and Sandy p25

[richardthestag]

write up on Southpaw 

spent an age cleaning gloop off the drivers side inner wing, sticky oil, sand and mud. Used a screw driver and wire brush to loosen stuff and an air blow gun to shift it.

Then I used some eastwood spray paint prep that the owner of the car had already bought. very effective but some nasty chemicals!

The paint which is 121 chassis paint from rust.co.uk and applied with a 2mm paint gun running at 75-80psi ish. very tough but quite orange peely. exactly what the customer wanted! And I think it looks good too

Autosparks couldn't help with changing the lhd loom to rhd, shame. Gave up wasting any more time and bought a complete loom* from a 1993 200tdi Range Rover. Alas it arrived without engine/gearbox and door looms. Those were extras..... double alas they had sold the engine and gearbox looms but I managed to snaffle the door looms for an additional £50.

Repair panels for the inner wing were sourced from YRMIT.Co.uk, dirt cheap but accurate cut. Wish I had gone this way with the drivers side. Just cut the lot out and weld new in, no chasing holes

Tag welded it in as it is on the original spot weld lines and is also not structural...

prep and paint finished it off nicely 

installed the bulkhead loom into place, the old body (front - back) looms are hanging off the rear view mirror

dropping the headlining one side at the time gave me the space to route the body loom through to the back end of the car

indicator units were spliced into the new loom using crimped bullets and quality sleevies

for the rear light units, I cut the prep 1991 connectors  off the original body loom and then spliced them onto the new loom. This allowed me to locate the splice inside the car rather than with the elements

2nd hand but working boge unit finally arrived. had to remove top and bottom ball joints, fit the refurbed top joint and then get it in the car

and that's it ! rear suspension complete. Just need to finish the brakes and get the propshaft on and I can drop the back end back onto the ground

Today, no pics sorry.

Fitted up the rear brake lines and pads

bled the brakes throughout.

Fitted the rear prop

then removed the old engine and gearbox loom and scratched me head for a while

Oh and found that the fuel line and return are protected where they cross 2cm above the exhaust by tin foil!

 

[robinmasters]

On 10/26/2019 at 4:45 PM, richardthestag said:

thanks mon brave

Re yootoob money and I demonetised due to lack of followers and profanity. Couldn't care less about that anyway as the adverts just get in the way

Yes I am pulling together a HGF video and currently uploading episode 5 of Project Southpaw which what you have read above is the spoiler.

It's criminal that you're not benefiting in a fiduciary sense from these videos.  As well as learning a lot from them, I still laugh every time you say seal then make the 'ow-ow' noise.  See also 'fnarr fnarr' after anything vaguely rude-sounding.

[tapir]

@richardthestag the videos are great, thanks for taking the time to film and edit them -  as you say "the sort of film a bloke watches naked eating steak"!

[richardthestag]

Been a while sorry

Episode 2-5 of the HGF are on yootoob, it is working now

Piccy update is as follows

all this is to replace the 3 core/freeze plugs down each side of the engine block


On the drivers side, the starter motor and engine mount need to be removed. Engine mount was tired


The heat shield that protects the starter from exhaust heat was broken. Fix was easy and dare I say elegant*

for something that is hidden from view


Next is the passenger side, again engine mount needs to be removed, again it was tired


5 of the 6 core plugs were very tired, this is one of the better ones


heads were skimmed <5thou, responded well. Engine will be reassembled with composite gaskets which are more forgiving and thicker than OE tin gaskets. So compression ratio should be ok. :geek:


assembled valves after re grinding the seats. Of course valve, spring, collets all went back into the hole from where they came from


assembled exhaust manifolds because I thought it would make life easier. It didn't on the passenger side head but did on the drivers side. so all square on that then


camshaft was next to go in, along with timing gear. did this before heads went on as dead easy to see top dead centre


once chain fitted, the heads went on and were torqued down... except for the outer row of bolts on each head


More coming

[richardthestag]

part deux on the HGF fix

old engine mounts were temporarily fitted so I could get the heads on, then they had to be removed for replacement with a new OE product that is almost certainly made from butter


timing cover was cleaned and oil pump built up with new parts. Original water pump was fitted with new gasket and quite a bit of instant gasket, the water pump was leaking before. Making sure it doesnt again


all goes together easily but is very time consuming


once the oil pump is primed, the distributor can be installed and the engine can be started. Bit of a faff because rotor was one tooth out. Got there in the end. Then a small misfire which turned out to be a dodgy injector connector on #1 injector


ignition timing set, then installed cooling fan and cowl. Next is to bed the new cam in. 2k rpm for 20 mins


It did use a little coolant, pressure tester found two leaks, bottom hose and hose to the LPG vaporiser


temporary snow fun


Original LPG fault that blew the plenum inlet pipe apart was due to one dodgy wire on this connector. pulled the crimp connector out, soldered a wire to it and then connected it back together.


Victory 400 mile drive found performance to be improved. torque is impressive again (not that it wasn't before) economy is no different at all, even though I was <2.5k rpm for the 400 mile test.

Bottom hose is leaking slightly at the radiator and the heads need retorquing. Else that is it!

[richardthestag]

youtoob vids 2-5 are all online for those who like that sort of thing

https://www.youtube.com/user/richardthestag/videos

[richardthestag]

with that ^^^ distraction, not a huge amount of time has been on Southpaw. Mrs is glad that I am back on it and that money is coming in again

diagnosed the 5 connectors that go to the engine and gearbox. Identified which I need and made up a loom specifically for the 200tdi LT77 setup this car has. Just need to connect it into the main loom


Finished off installing rear light electrics


head light bowls fitted, which were then fitted with the original lights but new bezels. not without it's challenges! cheapo nasty fucking shite headlight units

Engine fan has gert big lumps taken out of it. I need to do a timing belt replacement on this engine. Aiming to sort the fan at the same time


Fuel filter was removed from drivers side location, it may go back to passenger side which I have the backet for. jury is out


front prop went on, captive bolts at the transfer box end were UNF but I think had metric nuts hammered onto them because they were a cunt ( and I do NOT use that word lightly) to do. By the time I realised I had 3 done up, one to go... which was a weapons grade little feller I can tell you


bumper and spoiler are now bolted in place, repro bumper looks nice, would be even nicer if they had welded the bolts in the right fucking place


dash top was installed over the heater and connectors were being connected up


......

[richardthestag]

bringing us up to date on Southpaw

finally got myself organised and arranged a bulkhead blank plate, was then able to install loom and bracket for fuel filter... which might be too close to the exhaust


then the heater came back out again the owner mentioned that he thought the matrix was leaking. The tester suggested that it was


however it was some gloop/glue/shit on the bottom pipe that was not allowing the flexi to seat properly. still while it was apart I was able to peer into the unit and found buckets of mould foam remains and sand. cleaned it all out

replaced the rear wiper motor which was seized solid and burned out


heater unit was reassembled with new foams fitted and tested fine


installed, along with the dash top and then the steering column and controls. Had to splice old and new connectors for the front wiper motor and the ignition switch.


tomorrow electrics test I think

[bezzabsa]

Lovely to see some REAL Range Rovers...you doing the LHD up as a 'modern' or classic..also the 3.9 goes to show how understressed these engines are..

owned 2 2 doors, one was a P plate, the other a K reg (1972??)  also owned a softdash 300Tdi with uprated intercooler,injectors and pump - and by god did it fly!!! great feeling hitting 50 and feeling it 'squat' down by 50mm

[Noel Tidybeard]

i did lol a bit when i realised you'd got Eric Morecambe to test drive the fixed EFi ?

[richardthestag]

another busy week doing shit that I really hadn't planned for.

Started this time last week, left Devon for home at 3ish, just after 3:45 and 12miles into my journey the ungrateful fucker shat a core plug. Luckily I was 300 yards from a layby and not on a motorway.

Called Fathathestag to give me a tow home but we decided that was not a sensible option, weather was shit etc etc. called RAC and Fatha gave me a ride back to his house. 2h 45mins later and RAC van rocked up, nice chap tried to wedge the core plug back in that I took with me as a joke when driving back to site. Ended up connecting me to a pole and towing me 11 miles back. bit hairy but ok. Lucky that RR has an electric pump for brake booster, unlucky that it has mechanical power steering.

Buggered off home next morning to make sure I could make oldest thestag's 21st B'day celebs.All of the lads were home.

Monday, battery was too low to start! Plus all electrics under bonnet soaked with antifreeze from plug that shat

after charging and drying stuff out car started and sounded fine for relocation into barn

next morning, removed starter motor and refitted core plug

then retorqued all head bolts because 500miles since replacement

all back up and running, sounds peachy! BUT every time I drive through a puddle my nose picks up a whiff of OAT... I guess because the underside of the car is coated with it

 

 

[richardthestag]

in Southpaw (1990 2 door RR RHD conversion) news, the horizon has been slightly brighter.

Battery was refitted, alas not being the correct type (I didn't supply it) the +ive and -ive terminals were the wrong way round

initial electric tests were fine but then got progressively more and more weird. Things that were working stopped working etc etc etc. turned out to be be earth related. Much diagnosis and consultation with wiring diagrams helped me to the solution

front wipers were next in line to hack the fuck out of my normally mild mannered temperament!
No wipers at all turned out to be; conumn control that wont work in Hi speed and Wiper motor that would only work in Hi Speed!!!! Once I figured that the next wiper motor wouldn't work self park, finally managed to get it resolved and signed off but honestly 2 hours !! car is haunted

wipers working and rack fixed to the bulkhead, the whole area was prepped with Dynax s50

odds and sods were prepped for a rattle can treatment to freshen them up and protect again rustage

Electric window loom was made up from a 4 door loom and tested just fine. Window switches will end up on the lower dash somewhere. customer doesn't want a centre console unit

excess wiring destined for under seat and centre console area was trimmed out

RH indicator tell tale wasn't working - or so I though.. brain wasn't working LHD speedo was in KM/H hence second hand unit in MPH but 1988 speedo head unit had separate LH and RH tell tales for the indicators. 1989 had one tell tale for both but it was in the same place as LH tell tale. quick fiddle had the correct template installed and MPH speedo head

this is the correct bit

and there's more....

[richardthestag]

...

next key step is fuel line. For the VM installation the fuel supply is up the passenger side chassis rail, for the TDI it is drivers side rail. had to remove both feed and return lines, hence quite a bit of small fuel spillage

This feller is the fuel sedimenter, attaches to the shock mount on the rear axle. it allows water and diesel to separate and only diesel to head to the filter in the engine bay. It was caked in sand and mud. After a clean up it was mounted to the drivers side rail. fuel lines were shifted across and extended. Only one part of thee feed had an issue that was cut out and replaced with fuel friendly hose and clamps

new accelerator cable was fitted, which snapped as soon as I pressed the throttle pedal... For Fucks Actual Sake

As LH and RH cables are exactly the same length but with different part numbers for some inexplicable fucking reason I reused the OE LHD cable that the car came with.

Cranked engine with a view to bleeding fuel through to new filter and it fired first click, let it idle for 60 seconds and fuel was coming through the bleed screw on the filter. Piece of piss, honestly

Air filter was replaced, old unit weighs 5 times new unit. manly Spanish sand and dust

cleaned up rear end of chassis so I could install rear bumper. Managed to liberate over a kilo of sand and mud but also found a couple of holes in the rear cross member. Will patch it but ultimately it will need replacing in the next year

tidied the loom and installed the middle and lower dash sections

installed the deck panel

and trimmed out the passenger door.

Next week I am hoping to get MoT done!

[fastblatt]

Coming together nicely 

[Cooper1]

Taken me two days to watch all the vids and read through your thread,  ?

 

Great work on the Projects.. 

 

Your RRC is probably one of the last classics that are being used for their intended purpose, most are sat in garages not being used.  ?

 

 

[richardthestag]

Happy New Year folks, lets bring this up to date, 

Youtube channel has been changed to reflect my business name but the content and scope are exactly the same 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuPaTTqVo_Tw0_4ypXxY0lQ

My 1993 Vogue daily driver has been behaving itself and despite it's thirst for unleaded has been performing well. Costing me about £15 more for pez rather than LPG on the 200 mile trip to Devon so I suspect despite enjoying the smooth and lusty acceleration it will be back on LPG again soon, jury is out because it is soooo nice on pez but I am limiting it to below 2.5k rpm else it would empty the tank even quicker

This has given me time this year to get Southpaw the ex-LHD Spanish RR finished. Which is good news as I need to finish the S3 109 van before another customer 1979 RR arrives in Feb for mechanical and electrical overhaul

Sweary videos are up on my youtube channel - always interested in feedback as to how they might be improved

Anyway enough bollocks here is Southpaw just before Christmas

Removed the d-post covers and despite loads of dust and sand there is no rust


cleaned it all and once dry dynax s50'd it before fitting better condition d-post covers

passenger side in a similar state

found this body? number on a plate near the n/s top vent, never seen one before, but then I have not had many d-post covers off 90s cars

Heater control bezel has tiny bulbs in fragile holders on the back of it, these can be a balls acre to fit. Watch the vid for top tip on cutting plastic etc to make life easier*

Battery clamp is usual, threaded rod and angle bar affair. not failed me yet

Screen was quite badly scratched, right across the drivers side. I used one of those cheapo ebay screen polishing kits and it got it good enough to pass an MoT. Expect that driving towards a low setting sun will make life miserable though until a new screen is fitted

rear seat was removed, owner wants this car to be 2 seat and stripped right out

instrument dimmer packed up which made all the instrument lights go off. caused me some bother until I realised root cause. unit originally fitted allowed lights to be dim. this unit was working until recently, i suspect that dimming 60w headlight bulbs overloaded it somewhat anyway stripping both units allowed me to get one unit to work correctly

dash did come together quite nicely in the end

More to come ....

[richardthestag]

....

first test drive, promising but no indicator cancel

engine fan caused irritation. Car originally had 2.5VM Diesel fitted. At some point this was changed to a 200TDi. Fan and viscous however are from VM, they fit but the fan was in a state. Because all new viscous units are a. shit and b. made from cheese I ordered a VM fan to fit to the OE used VM viscous unit. Parts manuals are very helpful when it comes to this. Dealers and LR parts counter want reg number, spanish was no use to them and they kept trying to spec the wrong fan or a viscous made from cheese

similar issues with the fan shroud, this is needed to force air over the intercooler which sits to the right of the radiator. Made up my own mounts and had to adapt the 200tdi shroud

Then found that 1990 LHD range rover had wiper and washer on the rear t'other way around, ffs. Need a new wiper arm or an hour to switch them over.

And then MoT 12 mile drive to the station was noisy, very noisy, like 100dB noisy. but the car rides and handles beautifully

disappointment that it failed, panhard rod bush was loose on front axle and fuel feed pipe was now leaking

Fuel line was a 10 second fix, panhard rod was slightly more complicated. Polybush blue. The inner stainless tube is the correct width, the shoulders on the bush are too narrow by about 1.2mm. This allowed the halfs of the bush to walk outwards and give the play. I cut a 14mm hole through a 1mm washer, fit it over the inner tube and it pressed against the shoulder of the poly bush holding it in place. Will be onto Polybush.co.uk next week re this tiny issue

ready for retest and the fucking drivers side seatbelt will not secure in the catch! Turned out to be a lump of plastic dropped into the top by some mischievous Pixie

and there's more ......

[richardthestag]

....

Retest was amusing. Because of Spanish reg the test was done against the VIN number. Which the tester manager to get wrong by one digit. He then had to do the entire test again. But these things happen. It passed which is the good news

Now onto cutting noise inside by at least 10bD, made up a card template for the gearbox cover

transferred it to 2mm thick steel sheet

fitted to the car, screws tighten it to the trans cover

test drive found that under extreme torque the transfer lever (nearest the heater controls) was kissing the cover.

After adjusting it I fitted gaiters that I bought from carbuildersolutions

Last job before whizzing home to see Mrs and lads was to "trial" fit flexi fuel filler pipe in place of heater hose. again from carbuilder solutions

Fin

for now, UK reg is next key step

[Mr_Bo11ox]

 

Very kind of you to let Vic Reeves take it for a spin

[richardthestag]

On 1/14/2020 at 11:40 AM, Mr_Bo11ox said:

 

Very kind of you to let Vic Reeves take it for a spin

Vic is better looking and funnier than me but I do like his humour

[richardthestag]

ok, bit of man flu last week but lots of projects on the go and 2 new customer commissions coming in. Business is starting to work out for me. Fucking love my job 

Daily driver plods on, no coolant leak issues at all, now that I have decent core plugs fitted. Still running on petrol rather than LPG and must admit to rather enjoying the little bit of extra urge. which could well be from the new cam and followers.

Southpaw (the 1990 spanish registered RHD conversion) is also enjoying a little more performance. Here I was checking the fuel pump timing which is pretty easy to set. It was a couple of degrees out. Also had the front tracking set which was a little too "toe in". Performance is still leisurely compared to V8 and the gearbox does need to be stirred quite a lot but at least it pulls well from 1500rpm now. Lack of use and year old diesel fuel are also probably not helping.

Other tinsy issue on Southpaw was that the window lift channel rotted out and dropped off. These things are unobtainium so I had to fashion a 4door front window channel to fit instead, here is rusty against donor.

Might seem dramatic but glass flame is only held in by 3 bolts and 3 screws. Here is the cut n'shut window channel fitted. note that the bottom rail of the quarter light has also rotted out.

used the little bit of the window channel left over to fix it! That is all bolted up now and secure again.

Refitted the frame and glass to the door and adjusted it for fit. Door glass now slips up and down more nicely. It could do with new channel felts but they work well enough

Nipped into town and took a pic of the now finished* Southpaw in South Molton (phase 2 works to take place later this year maybe)

A quick distraction from a not entirely uncommon bodged old Land Rover, fix the rattling brake pads on my daily. For some reason new pads, even to OE standards knock back and forth in the calliper, this is fucking annoying.

the fix is to get anti squeal tape from BiggRed and stick it onto the back of each brake pad. This gives the calliper pistons something to bite into on the back of the pad and does hold them steadier in the calliper. 400 mile round trip this weekend will tell whether it is fixed. The pads do have anti squeal backing but it is shiny and slippery

Youtube vids are online for Southpaw

 

[Cooper1]

Great progress. 

 

Did you refit a stock lift cam? 

 

I've been considering putting a Cam in my P38, in 2 minds whether to go "stock" or High lift.. 

 

 

C

[richardthestag]

2 hours ago, Cooper1 said:

Great progress. 

 

Did you refit a stock lift cam? 

 

I've been considering putting a Cam in my P38, in 2 minds whether to go "stock" or High lift.. 

 

 

C

yes, stock cam and composite head gaskets to get the comp ratio back to standardish.

This chappy http://www.v8tuner.co.uk/index.php is very good at explaining pros and cons 

Other specialists just seemed to scoff at my desire for torque over "gearbox and driveshaft wrecking" BHP increases

 

[tapir]

Hi @richardthestag just seen your core plug video, 

Not sure if you subscribe to Britannica Restorations Ltd (in Canada) - reminded me he's mentioned issues with Bripart parts previously (there's a few videos)

 

[Asimo]

This thread is brill. It has completely and permanently removed any desire to own* a real** Range Rover.  But it is really interesting and I still like real** Range Rovers.

 

*Own: "be completely responsible for" as well as "posess, enjoy, control and benefit from".

** Two-door V8 on Strombergs, four speed manual, squadron blue.

[Cooper1]

I personally try not to go blue box/bag unless i have to, bought a rad of them for my P38 and it lasted a week before shitting itself. 

 

[Cooper1]

On 5/12/2018 at 9:29 PM, richardthestag said:

yesterday was supplier finding mission.

 

Main objective was to see Nationwide trim, famous in Range Rover circles

 

After lots of Devon lanes we are on the A361

 

Which can haz be close because of nasty accident but more nice Exmoor Devon / Somerset border roads

 

Rover P4 Guild "we haz us a convoy"

 

Redditch and nationwide trim with lots of interesting neighbours. 

 

Including 20 10 engineering - where I want to be at

 

M5 Grockle traffic jamz

 

A361 still closed - arse

 

Pub to celebrate getting home. 325 mile round trip. average 10.3mpg on LPG ouch

 

This pint is well worth it

That P38 looks familiar  

The twin to mine  

Thats what you need next

[richardthestag]

On 2/6/2020 at 12:21 AM, Cooper1 said:

That P38 looks familiar  

The twin to mine  

Thats what you need next

keep looking at P38, especially the dirt cheap examples, It must be petrol and still have air suspension. Mrs said NOOOOOOOOOOO

[richardthestag]

in other news I am merging my Land Rover and Range Rover threads.

I do not intend to update the Sandy thread,  

 so....

On Sandy the Landy, lined up the new footwell and a-post, ready to weld in

had to make up some repair sections to the inner - transmission tunnel area

butt welded in good enough for a skim of filler and a brush of paint

lifted the whole assembly back onto the car and confirmed that it still fit

before welding it all into place. Here I had also unpicked the vent panel outer skin, what remained isn't worth writing about. outer skins are just in place for alignment checks

remains of passenger side footwell and a-post were quite easy to remove

this is the top of the passenger a-post, or what was left under the filler

all cut out and ready to start the rebuild

fucking thing! had this been for a customer then £1600 +delivery and VAT would have been a no brainer

the horses are off to pastures new this weekend. New owner will be the blind landlord up at the Exmoor pub that I might frequent from time to time

 

[richardthestag]

Here is the passenger side footwell, a-post and trans tunnel repairs all done

open fronted barn is not the best but I do acclimatise to the shit weather

brakes next, this is the off/drivers side, stripped it down ages ago, opted for a complete Britpart rebuild kit, lets see how good it is

parts look noice enough, naturally I made up all the brake lines from scratch

amused to find an m10 metric bleed nipple supplied in a sealed bag with an imperial threaded slave

and the shoe springs are more than 5mm shorter which makes fitting them a cunt, and I do not use that word lightly in this case

but it did all go together, I did not opt to fit the show adjusters supplied as mine were free moving and in great shape

passenger side next, the hub seal had failed and shat axle grease all over the place which is why it is not fitted here.

brief distraction to look at the daily, the steering has been a little heavy recently but suddenly was reluctant to self centre. This UJ on the intermediate steering shaft was seized solid on one plane

had another on the shelf and rude health was restored