The oldest Land-Rover Series 3 around - new boots arrived

[mat_the_cat]

Eventually I got all 4 wheels clear of rust, and painted with galv primer. It made sense to get the tyres fitted at that stage, before the top coat in case of damage. 

No in-progress photos I'm afraid, but I painted them in 2-pack ivory colour, LRC354. My first time with 2k and I was worried about the paint setting in the can so gave rather a heavy couple of coats. So there are a few runs, but looks so much better!

[mat_the_cat]

It's been ages since I updated this, but the reality is that nothing really has needed to be done on it. Only thing I can think of is the rear crossmember, replaced before I bought it, had started to rust already - actually looking worse than the original chassis. It also had hinge points for a tailgate, which are not required. So I lopped them off, and de-rusted the crossmember.

A quick couple of coats of paint later, and looking a bit tidier.

It was quite a nice evening tonight (at least not raining *continuously*) so I took a photo in its natural habitat.

Before stopping for a takeaway by a lake...there are worse places to enjoy a pizza!

[mat_the_cat]

I've done a few minor jobs on this over the past few months, to solve some little annoyances. The push on wiper blades seem to have a very short ife before the plastic clip fractures, the blade disappears, and the arm is left scratching the screen. I've had several go this way, so I bought some stainless ones from a LR specialist, thinking they'd be an improvement. Oh.

Absolutely fucking useless! They were so curved that they only cleared a tiny portion of the screen, but unfortunately I'd lost the purchase details so couldn't return them.

I assumed it was tired springs in my original arms, but struggled to find just the springs on their own. So splashed out on a pair of new arms from Emberton Imperial (who have got a reputation for not selling shite), which also came with new blades. I fitted my new arms but kept the curved blades, to find that they were better but still not perfect.

Then it struck me - the new Emberton blades were dead simple and just a straight edge - but hence ideal for a totally flat screen! Problem solved. Apart from the washer pump, which failed again; now onto the 4th replacement in just over 4 years. I'm pretty sure the Lucas branded one I put on last was either a fake, or just crap, so I searched for a NOS pump.

Time will tell...

Lastly I found some seats with head restraints, so popped those in for a touch of (almost) luxury!