Volvo C202 Laplander and lesser members of the Warninglight fleet

[Asimo]

On 26/11/2020 at 22:23, warninglight said:

Where in the country is that? It looks as rough as mine, and has likely had an axle swap 

It was near Hereford. Had a walk past, Volvo has now gone and the yard  has these two to keep the welder busy. 

As seen on street view - 

[warninglight]

Thanks for swinging by! I wonder if it's being rebuilt - I don't think I've come across it online. 

[Minimad5]

What a lovely old beast, and will be interesting with a D5252t engine in.

Electronic wise, they're pretty simple but if you're not going down the fully mechanical pump route, then you'll need the Accelerator pedal too.

Good luck & keep the updates coming.

[warninglight]

Thanks, I assumed I'd need the pedal and possibly the clocks too.

Some more progress with the stripdown. The wiring on these is a nightmare, every core is either blue or yellow (very Swedish) with aluminium tags on each end. Of course the tags are now mostly white powder, and with the changes I'm making anyway, it's getting ripped out and done from scratch.

The rear body is now liftable, just waiting a reshuffle (and this spare Amazon to be sold) so I have room to move stuff around.

Of course nothing can ever be lifted without forgetting something. This time it was a load bearing handbrake cable which might now be knackered, probably already was though!

The chassis still seems solid for the most part, which is encouraging.

[warninglight]

It's been a busy few weeks, but been chipping away most evenings.

 

Rear body is now gone, and the chassis is pleasantly solid underneath, no nasty surprises, and just a bit of rust on the rear crossmember to deal with. I'll get the chassis blasted in the next few weeks all being well.

The cab is stripped now, including the sound deadening stuff on the inside and a fair bit of the paint on the outside. Need to dig the doors out of storage to strip those too. The cab is almost ready to lift - just need to remove the handbrake and gearstick and it'll lift straight off. Waiting on doing some work on my new daily before taking up more shed space by splitting them. Once the cab is off and the chassis is being blasted, I'll make a start on the axles - I have 2 sets, they're all Salisbury which if they were for a series Landy would be a very good thing, but may prove tricky to get some parts for. Won't really know til they're stripped down. I am hoping to change the 6.17 ratio diffs to something more suitable to diesel torque, like the 5.38 from earlier Laplanders, or maybe even 4.7s if LR Salisbury gears will fit. It'll never be fast though - I'm told they get pretty scary above 60mph!

 

[Zelandeth]

3 hours ago, warninglight said:

It's been a busy few weeks, but been chipping away most evenings.

 

Rear body is now gone, and the chassis is pleasantly solid underneath, no nasty surprises, and just a bit of rust on the rear crossmember to deal with. I'll get the chassis blasted in the next few weeks all being well.

The cab is stripped now, including the sound deadening stuff on the inside and a fair bit of the paint on the outside. Need to dig the doors out of storage to strip those too. The cab is almost ready to lift - just need to remove the handbrake and gearstick and it'll lift straight off. Waiting on doing some work on my new daily before taking up more shed space by splitting them. Once the cab is off and the chassis is being blasted, I'll make a start on the axles - I have 2 sets, they're all Salisbury which if they were for a series Landy would be a very good thing, but may prove tricky to get some parts for. Won't really know til they're stripped down. I am hoping to change the 6.17 ratio diffs to something more suitable to diesel torque, like the 5.38 from earlier Laplanders, or maybe even 4.7s if LR Salisbury gears will fit. It'll never be fast though - I'm told they get pretty scary above 60mph!

 

ANYTHING with tyres like that on is terrifying anywhere above 50-60.  Especially if you're not carrying significant additional ballast.  Oh...and let's not forget that on wet tarmac it will be like driving on black ice.

A friend back up north has something that was at some point in its life an ex military airdrop Land Rover.  It's been significantly modified over the years and goes like hell.  Among other things that have changed, it wears massive balloon tyres, think the wheels are something like 12".  Fantastic for bombing around off road without destroying your back, on the road however I discovered them to be... somewhat sub optimal.

I made the mistake of going above 50 in it one day, this was immediately regretted as it started bouncing...which rapidly escalated to the point where I'm pretty certain I was physically leaving the tarmac several times a second.  To this day I do not know how I kept it pointing in the right direction, but I never made that mistake twice!

[warninglight]

I have a few ideas for reducing the scare factor - well as much as I can given my arse will be on top of the front wheelarch and in road use it's RWD...

The tyres on it are older than me, made in Romania by 'Danubiana' - I googled this brand and found out that even when new they were dangerous.

There was never any chance of them staying on anyway! There are a few tyre options around the right size, including the BF Goodrich A/T which I've used on a  couple of old Discos in the last few years, albeit in a smaller size, and they've behaved pretty well. No point going for noisy Mud Terrains or anything - I've never got stuck on ATs with good tread.

The other thing to soften the ride somewhat is to look at removing some leaf springs, and fitting some supplementary air springs - it can self-level then and hopefully provide a nicer ride. Handy if the eventual camper plans come off too, as it can level the body up very easily.

Some people have suggested PAS helps a lot - so in time I may look at the Corsa electric PAS system, but initially it'll just be a new steering damper and everything properly adjusted.

[spike60]

As an ex Volvo 144 244 245 164 owner I like the older Volvos and spotted this at the 'ring at the 2010 N24 along with some other Overlanders.

[warninglight]

I had a few weeks of little to no progress, as I've been working through my new to me daily XC90 when I've had a chance. I did manage to separate the cab from the chassis, and decided it was worth getting a local fabricator to sort the rusty rear crossmember and few other bits for me, to speed things up. The portable gantry crane made easy work of this job! I'm weighing up whether to get the chassis galvanised at this stage. It's not without its risks, it could warp the chassis. I'll take advice from the fabricator on that, as I may regret not doing it.

 

 

[warninglight]

One year on and I've made some progress, even though life got in the way a bit!

 

There was quite a lot of rot in the chassis, I realised it would take me ages to sort it myself, so I dropped it to my friendly local welder/fabricator, who replaced fairly large sections of chassis rail, made a new rear crossmember, and also modified a pair of late Series 3 Landy axles to fit my leaf springs, as the Volvo axles are incredibly hard to get parts for, and had the wrong gearing for what I wanted.

 

The reason I wanted some longer gearing was because I had also pickup up this 2003 Octavia TDI donor car, to get its engine. It's an ASV, so a 110bhp with the Bosch pump. I originally wanted the VW 5 pot that Volvo used in the 850/V70, but didn't really want or need the extra bulk of it. The 4 pot should be simpler to setup too. My current plan is to stick with the ECU as a fly by wire throttle would be handy in this, and a manual setup is never quite perfect.

Whilst I've been getting the engine ready (flywheel and adaptor plate from Sweden, removing ancillaries that I don't need) I've also been cutting the extensive rot out of the cab. There's a lot! Most of it is now out, so I need to get good at fabricating new footwells etc. before it can go back together with new body mounts.

I've also managed to get an original back panel for the cab, from the owner of a pickup in the Netherlands, who was enlarging his cab and making his own new panel, so that's a big help!

[doug]

Spotted this and thought you might like it.

https://silodrome.com/volvo-c303-4x4-camper/

Sent from my SM-A127F using Tapatalk

[warninglight]

Amazing! Thanks for the thought.

I really must post an update soon, however small it will be.

Currently looking for a new workshop where I can work on this, somewhere around Lockerbie/Dumfries.

[warninglight]

Another few months on and not much progress made. Haven't been able to do much this year as I moved away from where my workshop is, but 2023 is looking better in that regard.

 

I now have the Skoda's engine mated to the original 4 speed gearbox and transfer box. I need to have a couple of parts machined to make the clutch work with this setup but it's mounted on the chassis at least.

The cab is really pretty rotten but I'm getting there. Probably halfway to making it solid. I've just moved house over the border into Scotland, so can now work away at the cab at home this winter which should help speed things up.

The chassis is now solid and sits on a pair of late series 3 109" Land Rover axles, still on drum brakes and not too wide for what I want. More modern axles might have been nice but I reckon these will be the best all round option. 

 

Next year I'll get the body back on the chassis and get it running. I'm keeping the ECU from the Skoda so it will have some sensors but I'll be waterproofing them where I can. It sits pretty high in the chassis anyway so I'm not too worried about drowning it in water.

[warninglight]

5 years into Laplander ownership, and it feels like driving it could be another 5 years off. Let's hope not! I keep finding other things to distract myself. In the last 18 months...

3 house moves (including North of the border, owning all these Volvos it was inevitable)

Full shed move including 4 post lift, gantry crane, dead Austin 1100, driving Amazon etc.

Gained a puppy, a kitten, a new job and a new business venture.

Luckily between jobs, whilst in a short term let, I had some time to work on the cab, so it went from this with just 2 new horizontal brace pieces holding the cab in shape:

To this, with floors and body mounts on, and the tunnel and 'face' made up. Floor/step panels are now the only thing between me and the cab being the right way up again. 

Also whilst on a trip to the Midlands, I bagged these wheels to go on my Land Rover series 3 axles - I'd quite like some modern replica 1 ton wheels, but these Wolfs are a close second, and a fraction of the price. They'll do for now at least!

[Matty]

Seriously impressed that progress is being made even with all that other stuff on 👏

[warninglight]

Since then I've moved house again, and for the first time I have my workshop next to the house, and I don't work on Fridays. In theory, perfect to get this done, in practice I keep finding other projects, another Volvo Amazon, exhuming a barn find Lotus, including now a VW Crafter camper conversion.

Back at the start of the year I took a bit of time off and got the cab floors, front panel and structure all done.

The engine is now turning over on an Audi 80 starter (took a few attempts to find a starter that would fit, with the right tooth count) and I've got a spacer made up for the clutch release bearing so it can reach the pressure plate.

I'm really pleased with the track width of the series Landy axles on Wolf wheels, they're bang on for the cab. I will be fitting taller tyres, these 235/85/16s look right on a Defender, but the Laplander needs a bit more sidewall really, and it can only help the gearing.

I had a couple of days on it last week getting through some of the jobs I've been putting off for ages. I always seem to procrastinate with metalwork, but once I get into it I enjoy it.

When I scrapped off the rotten rear body, I lost 6 out of the original 8 body mounting points. The 2 remaining under the cab floors were rotten, so I had to redo them anyway. I wanted to keep the original brackets on the chassis, so have built these rear mounts, which I'll be bracing a bit more - but for now I'm happy! I've braced them to the cab structure for strength and they'll all sit on rubber mounts.
 

Then I sorted the rot on the bottom of the passenger door - this was the better of the two so made sense to start with this. I'll clean the welds up properly when it comes time for paint, but for now just a coat of weld thru to protect it. It's handy that the doors are just on basic gate hinges, so the doors lift off in seconds. Fully expect to use it without doors in summer!
 

 

 

Then it was on to the driver's door, the worse one! Ideally I'd have sourced a good replacement, but there are a few issues with that. These C202s were all built in Hungary using poor quality steel, whatever was available to the Soviets, and they only built around 2000 of these, so finding a good replacement or two will be impossible. The earlier Laplanders in the 50s and 60s were built in Sweden and are much more rust resistant, and were produced in higher numbers. The doors on these were a totally different pressing - the frames would probably fit but the C202 has those angular bulges on the doors and B pillars, which the earlier ones didn't. If I could find some better C202 doors, I'd be paying for a pallet from somewhere in Europe, and still have some repairs to do.

So with nothing to lose I started cutting rot out of the driver's door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that's up to date! When I'm back over there I'm going to finish the driver's door, then there is a day or two's work in finishing off the cab welding, it'll be back off the chassis and upside down for some of that. I have a machined spacer on the clutch release bearing now too, so the engine and gearbox will soon be mounted on the chassis more permanently. Not far off the point of starting to build it up - mostly from scratch as with the engine swap and not much of the interior kept, it'll be a fair task.

Anyone want to buy an Amazon, or two?

[2316cc]

Always a delight when this thread pops up again. And some pretty serious progress since the last update. Good work! 

Those Amazons, though... The last thing I need in my life right now is an Amazon, but that estate. Gnaaah! Where's the emoji for going crosseyed with misplaced impossible desire? 

[warninglight]

Thought it might be time for another update on this...

I remember my thought process before starting to chop the rot out of those old doors. They only made 2000 of these worldwide, the steel they used was rubbish, and most stayed in Northern Europe. My chances of finding a solid pair of doors are approximately nil.

Less than a week later this pile of panels came up for sale, in Lancashire, from an aborted project to put a C202 double cab body on a Toyota Dyna chassis.

With no chassis, engine, or running gear, it was never going to be a viable project so I grapped the recip saw and hitched the trailer on.

Whilst the body was far from rust free, the doors, cab and roof were all many times more solid than what I started with. If I'd had that body 3 or 4 years ago it would be driving by now!

Trial fit of the 'new' doors worked well. I wasn't sure that they'd fit that easily. These were a fairly low volume production in an old bus factory in Hungary, so I half expected everything to be a bit bespoke. It's not like they were churning out 10,000 of these a month.

At that point progress ground to a halt for a few weeks. We are converting a van, so focussed on getting that partially useable for the summer.

Then in mid May I left my job, and ended up with a break before my new one started a couple of weeks ago. Time to make some progress!

Started off by finishing the welding on the cab - starting with this rusty bit on the rear of the roof.

I then flipped it upside down again to finish off some metalwork, adding a bit of clearance for chassis legs etc., then priming and giving it all 2 coats of POR-15, which doesn't photograph very well.

When I've been lifting the cab it's been a bit sketchy trying to avoid damaging the gutters or kinking the roof skin. I already knew that I wanted a roof rack on the cab, so decided it was time to build one. I made this out of an old galv rack from a Sprinter, shortened and narrowed. It now doubles as a handy lifting beam for moving the cab around.

Next was time to finish off some welding on the chassis and axles, and get the chassis painted, so the build-up could start.

LR axles off, and upside down:

Once painted, it didn't take long to get the axles bolted on, and the engine and gearboxes mounted permanently. I have a better set of leaf springs which I'll strip and rebuild to fit on here at a later date.

Almost time to set the cab back in place, but the rusty dashboard was annoying me. I might have made do with it, but that solid front panel I had bought with the doors had a really sound dashboard with it.

Might as well chop out the rusty one and weld in the solid one, then.

Getting closer to time to paint the body. The original orange colour code is a bit of a mystery. As a 70s Volvo, I decided that a 70s Volvo Orange code would be worth a try, so settled for this, which was used on 140s and P1800ES.

I decided to do the roof, then fit the roofrack/lifting beam, and get it back on the chassis, where the rest of the panels are a better height for spraying.

It's not the most subtle of colours!

Once it was on the chassis, I trial fitted a few parts to make sure I had all the holes drilled that I would need. Finally looks like it's coming together!

We headed away for a week so I tucked all the toys into the shed. The Amazon gives an idea of the height of the C202, and why I wasn't going to paint the roof with the cab mounted.

When we got back I had plans to get the cab painted in the week or so that I had before starting the new job. Unfortunately the compressor, and our van had other ideas, and I spent most of the week fixing them, so that's about where it's got to. The TDI engine is mostly plumbed in, and I've made sense of most of the ECU wiring, but haven't got to the point of getting it running just yet.

I'll probably do another update around Christmas, as usual!

 

 

 

 

[320touring]

Wow top progress! Didn't realise this was getting an ALH(?) in it?

Will it be getting turned all the way up?

 

Those panels were a right score - great to have even if just for spares.

[warninglight]

It's slightly more complex than the ALH, but similar lines! It's an ASV out of a 2003 Octavia. 

I'm keeping the ECU and electronic throttle, but minimising the wiring needed as much as I can. 

It's the 110bhp variant, and I'll keep it standard at least initially. I don't think the gearing will make me think I'm lacking in power!

[somewhatfoolish]

Strathclyde Passenger Transport orange!

[warninglight]

15 hours ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Strathclyde Passenger Transport orange!

Hopefully not quite! My grandfather repainted his Bedford CA taxi bus using 'surplus' paint from the local Ulsterbus yard. He had to repaint it when they found out there was a small bus running around in their colours. 

[somewhatfoolish]

  

On 19/09/2024 at 18:14, Dyslexic Viking said:

1964 Volvo 4x4  2798 pounds

https://www.finn.no/car/used/ad.html?finnkode=371385349

 

[warninglight]

Those wheels are, errr, quite something!

Haven't come across a double cab pickup in the older shape Laplander before. I wonder if it was a home conversion.

You can tell its the original type, pre C202 by the doors not having the bulge on them, and the wipers integral to the windscreen frame, a much better idea than having them on the front panel on the C202, which makes it awkward to open the windscreen.

[Dyslexic Viking]

4 minutes ago, warninglight said:

I wonder if it was a home conversion.

I think it is. Think it's one of the many ex Norway's army ones. 

[warninglight]

It's that time of year where progress starts to happen, after having to MOT 3/4 of our cars in the last 2 weeks, post getting stuck in France in our van last month. 

I now have the cab painted (doors and rear panel not done yet), bolted down to the chassis, I've added receiver hitches to the front and back, fitted some brand new custom made propshafts, and I'm now on with building up the cab. The driving lamps were one of those purchases that seems 'right'. Made in Sweden, Bosch Rallye 225s, fitted to many Volvos there, often in threes.

Over the coming weeks I want it steering, braking, and a good start on the electrics. At that point it won't be too far off driving out of the shed under its own power - the first time it'll do that since 1995, and the very first time with diesel power. 

The master cylinders are made from unobtainium oxide, so they're off to Past Parts to hopefully work their magic, then the pedal box can go in. In the meantime I've been adding sound deadening and made a start on the dashboard. 

 

[warninglight]

Well it's house moving time - having to leave the farm we are on, moving 15 mins away to another place which thankfully has a shed. 

I pushed the Laplander out into the sunshine for the first time since it went into that shed as a rolling chassis, over 2 years ago - so thought it time for an update.

It's been an expensive few months, with Past Parts refurbishing the master cylinders, the original radiator off for a recore, a new dual-circuit servo and a pair of brand new custom made propshafts. 

This pic should show why I couldn't adapt anything off the shelf to suit the pedal box! VW electronic throttle pedal mounted next to the original brake and clutch, and a plunger brake light switch added to the pedal as I'm not keen on the quality of pressure switches available today.

It now has a working dual circuit braking system, using kunifer lines and Land Rover flexis, working steering, and heated seats modified from a mk2 MX-5.

Next big steps are wiring from scratch (procrastinating on this one!) and cooling hoses, fuel lines/filters etc. to get the TDI running. Still need to finish plumbing in the clutch (new slave from a Volvo 740) and hopefully will find out my modified release bearing arrangement works!

I've loosely assembled the body with doors, rear panel, windscreen etc. to keep it vaguely weatherproof as it's off to storage for a few weeks whilst we move everything. Need a big push to paint those bits too!

Parked next to our Crafter that stranded us in France last year, you get an idea of size. Not even on the same scale as the UNIMOGs I'm currently trying to buy.

But load it up behind an XC70 as is tradition, and it looks massive.

This was the original, 7 years ago. My XC70 was a much younger one in those days.

[Dan302]

6 hours ago, warninglight said:

Well it's house moving time - having to leave the farm we are on, moving 15 mins away to another place which thankfully has a shed. 

I pushed the Laplander out into the sunshine for the first time since it went into that shed as a rolling chassis, over 2 years ago - so thought it time for an update.

It's been an expensive few months, with Past Parts refurbishing the master cylinders, the original radiator off for a recore, a new dual-circuit servo and a pair of brand new custom made propshafts. 

This pic should show why I couldn't adapt anything off the shelf to suit the pedal box! VW electronic throttle pedal mounted next to the original brake and clutch, and a plunger brake light switch added to the pedal as I'm not keen on the quality of pressure switches available today.

It now has a working dual circuit braking system, using kunifer lines and Land Rover flexis, working steering, and heated seats modified from a mk2 MX-5.

Next big steps are wiring from scratch (procrastinating on this one!) and cooling hoses, fuel lines/filters etc. to get the TDI running. Still need to finish plumbing in the clutch (new slave from a Volvo 740) and hopefully will find out my modified release bearing arrangement works!

I've loosely assembled the body with doors, rear panel, windscreen etc. to keep it vaguely weatherproof as it's off to storage for a few weeks whilst we move everything. Need a big push to paint those bits too!

Parked next to our Crafter that stranded us in France last year, you get an idea of size. Not even on the same scale as the UNIMOGs I'm currently trying to buy.

But load it up behind an XC70 as is tradition, and it looks massive.

This was the original, 7 years ago. My XC70 was a much younger one in those days.

Laplanders are cool as f*ck as are Unimogs, I'm jealous! I've fallen down an overland campers rabbit hole on YouTube 🙂

[Matty]

Agreed. It's a right pleasing looking truck. One of my favourite things on here.

[warninglight]

Been meaning to broaden this thread to cover general fleet stuff for a while, I'm on a ferry for the next 3 hours so worth a try now! 

It's been a tumultuous year so I've made absolutely zero progress on the Laplander since moving house in the summer. 

The year started with our landlord telling us he needed us out. Much house hunting ensued, and I sold the Amazon saloon to both free up some cash and reduce the amount of rammel I'd need to move, and find a home for. Was sad to see it go after nearly 10 years! In the end time and other factors were against us for buying locally, so we are renting again, luckily once again we have a useable shed!

My faithful XC70 did 90% of the house move with Ifor box trailer (now tentatively for sale, PM me if interested), and on the last run from the old house her XC60 snapped its alternator belt, luckily not taking the cambelt with it, as those Volvo D5s are known to do on occasion. Straight into the shed with that and it turned out that some previous owner or fuckwit garage had changed the cambelt on time at 108k miles, and then slipped the original alternator belt back on, before adding the belt sticker and noting it in the service history. First job in new shed was a full set of belts and tensioners.

The Crafter (unfinished but useable) camper did the last big move - taking my 4 post lift the few miles of backroads to the new place. Last time I moved it 100 miles so flat packed it on the trailer but that was a huge amount of work. Removing the motor/pump assembly and some clever strapping was good enough for a late evening local move. Used the van as it's nearly as wide as the lift, and sent my dad off ahead so I knew the road was clear.

Once I had the XC60 back on the road it was time to catch up with a few months of XC70 issues - no handbrake, a chuffing injector and a full service needed at 205k miles. All that sorted and it was time to make some more progress with the Crafter. 

Some of you may recall my plea in October 2024, when, on our first big trip in it, one of the gear selector cables seized solid on us about an hour south of Lyon after a night on wet grass. @juular and @MrsJuular saved the day there with a used set of the correct RHD cables when nothing new was available in Europe. First job was therefore to fit a brand new set of those, and a new balljoint for the gearstick. Then a full service, new brakes and balljoints and a bit of de-rusting. Luckily in the new shed I have the length and the height to JUST get a MWB Crafter on the lift.

From there I focused on the interior, more electrics, insulating and starting to clad the rear doors, more storage etc., and finally spent a day refurbishing the wheels in satin black and fitted a new set of All Season tyres, as the van spec tyres it had were embarrassing even on dry grass. With all of that done we set off for a week in Normandy, in the grips of Storm Amy, which was fun.

Whilst all this was ongoing, shortly after we moved, my work announced the start of a redundancy process. I have a Ltd Co for some sideline design work, and previous forays towards contract work so started trying to grow that on the side. The process is rumbling along slowly and I may still go for it.

At that time a colleague mentioned his beloved Yeti had died on him and he immediately replaced it with a Karoq, so I took a chance and bought that to sort. Turned out to be just an injector clamping bolt had snapped. Luckily the remains extracted from the head very easily, and some injector seat cutting and new seals had it right as rain. Took ages to sell, but went a few weeks ago, with the proceeds going straight into a trailer upgrade.

I've had my car transporter since it was 2 years old and like new. It's a great thing, 2700kg max gross weight but fairly light empty, tows nicely etc. I was keen to increase what I can shift with the trailer, so sold off the XC70 (sad day!) and after a year of searching for something that seemed right, and could tow 3500kg, settled on this 2013 ML350, mainly because it has brown seats.

I agreed to deliver the Yeti to Cumbria as part of the deal, and I'd been discussing with a friend near Kendal about buying his trailer. It's a bit of a brute at 18 foot against my existing 14 foot. My ideal would probably be a 16 foot, so I held off. Then someone drove into his trailer in traffic, bending an axle. He got paid out and bought it back from insurance so we did a deal, and now I have a monster of a project. At least one axle required, more or less a full rewire, new hitch head and brakes and wheel refurb needed before it goes anywhere. In the meantime my 'old' car trailer is also tentatively for sale!

The ML is my first Merc after years of Volvos and LR Discovery 2/3/4. I set out to find something that's as nice a car as a big Volvo, and can tow as much as a Discovery without, in theory at least, being as needy on the maintenance front. Been there, done that, etc.

So of course the day after the ML arrived I also bought the 2016 Disco 4 which @Talbot had been advertising on here for some time. He very generously brought it up for me whilst travelling to collect his C6 from @Schaefft.

That was another vehicle to polish some more value into, and be a test bed for some design work too. In fact it's still here, but hopefully will be advertised properly for sale in mid January. I've serviced it, replaced the belts, spent an evening with the needle gun and dinitrol to smarten the chassis up, I'm currently replacing a noisy front wheel bearing which is proving tricky with very seized drive splines and balljoint tapers, so upright and driveshaft from a breaker are going on. I also found the first day I drove it that the driver's heated seat isn't working. Got the wiring diagrams and couldn't find what I needed with the multimeter. Did some googling and found that they use a Volvo module under the seat to do the heating. Couldn't even find that. 

A quick look under the passenger seat showed a very obvious module and a load of extra wires. It seems that the drivers seat isn't only not working, it doesn't have any of the bits! I've heard of similar in Range Rovers, so it's quite possible that it left the factory that way.

I have a grubby manual, heated seat to fit, but will need to swap the covers over too, then it'll be ready to move on.

The main thing I've been working away with over many iterations are these grille mounted driving lights. Proper E marked OSRAM light bars recessed into the original grille, in a similar manner to the £OMGHOWMUCH Lazerlamps kits you can buy. I'm planning to design these kits to work with most 4x4s, pickups and vans out there as a new business venture, so it's been handy having a whole vehicle to test this on. I now have a collection of Disco 3 and 4 grilles!

So as you can see I've not been sitting on my hands, but I need to make some Laplander shaped progress in 2026. 

Once the Disco is out of the shed then I'll be servicing the ML, sorting a silly tyre pressure sensor issue on the XC60, sorting the new big trailer out, and then (hopefully) getting a chance to focus on the Laplander. Next steps for that are putting enough electrics and plumbing into it to get that TDI fired up. I have steering, brakes and hopefully a clutch if my spacers I designed are all the right sizes. If I can drive it round the yard I'll be enthused about painting the remaining parts and building a flatbed for the back of it. Then it should just be finishing off the rest of the wiring and inevitable snags to get it MOT worthy. We will see!

In amongst all that I still have my 1964 Austin 1100, languishing under a tarp in a farm shed which I'm giving up at the end of January, so that will need to come home and see how bad it is before deciding next steps. I picked up a good rear subframe for it last year but it'll need more than just that!

Happy New Year all!