1984 110 station wagon build

The weather is reall poor at the minute and I'm banished indoors so thought I'd give a write up on the 110 I bought back in November.

It's a 1984 110 county station wagon with retrofitted 200tdi. Sat behind a local bus company for 6 years left to rot. Used to pull 7 tonne buses that had broken down close to the yard. So was worked rather hard bought it for a steal at £550 and towed it back with my series 2 109.

The day I bought it:




And custom defender seats in bus trim



The first thing I wanted to do was see if it would run. Being left for 6 years with 6 year old diesel in it I was skeptical, I did a full oil and filter change then dribbled some oil down the bores, new fuel filter and air filter and new battery. Turned the key and she fired straight up as if I started it a few hours earlier. It had no working clutch so got a new master and slave cylinder with fresh fluid although the problem was the clutch pivot had completely seized rock solid.

The front calipers had burst there seals so completely rebuilt them with fresh pads.

Then I tried to see if it would move under its own power which it did although on a very juddery clutch which I put down to rust.

Next job was the manky rear cross member.



And a new one


Out came all the floor


And the tank now for what ever reason this tank didn't have a drain plug and the fuel gauge wasn't working so I thought I'd just remove it with a little bit of fuel in it. Removed the rubber filler pipe and fuel gushed out the tank was full to the brim. So the quickest I've ever moved I grabbed the largest bucket I could find.

On the way out the tank developed a leak on the seam. Luckily I picked a brand new tank up off eBay for £10.50

With the new crossmember on and new tank in the most important thing was getting it water tight. New door seals all round and vent seals saw it pretty water tight for a Land Rover.

Brand bew gas shocks were fitted all round and even the self levelling rear suspension appears to be working.

How it sat when it came out the barn.



New bumper, clear indicators, new bulbs in the halogen head lights.

A big and rather tedious job were the electrics. Nothing worked and this took a pain staking amount of time. Fortunately we are all there now.

So whilst the exterior was in a position of being water tight and needing some paint I moved to the interior.

First job was to give it a bloody good clean. The second was fitting seat belts to the rear as the previous owner had upgraded them to...... Bus seats



They are a huge improvement over the stock ones.

Then I moved to the doors now these were a big problem as the fronts are like series doors but aluminium door tops the second row doors also split in half with aluminium door tops. The studs holder them in had snapped and the previous owner had held the tops on with rivets and sheet metal.



There is also a door card missing which are like rocking horse mess to find. Ive put one piece doors on for the minute with lift up handles and the mechanism until I figure out what to do with the rear doors. But at least this will get it on the road.



Most recently I have been attacking every piece of rust with a wire brush or angle grinder and then lots of paint.

But not far away from an mot certificate hopefully. Just waiting for my new number plates.

109inches said:

First job was to give it a bloody good clean. The second was fitting seat belts to the rear as the previous owner had upgraded them to...... Bus seats



They are a huge improvement over the stock ones.

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I guess when you're at a bus garage, every problem starts to look like a bus
Looks as though they fit well enough, and since the front seats match I'd keep them as part of the vehicle's history and character

Yeah I like keeping the vehicles history if I sell it and people don't like the seats I'll just put seat covers on.
But the good thing is that if it needed anything it got it done immediately regardless of cost. It was owned by the boss of the bus company so not only did he have access to the whole garage and specialist equipment. As well as just being able to give it to a mechanic if needs be. I don't think it's been out of a 20 miles radius since it left Solihull. In 84.

Looks well! You've put some time and money into her and it's paying off

Pity you can only hit the like button once
Yeah keep the seats.
Looks like they had you over a barrel with that price

Thanks for the replies so far. The chassis is remarkably in good nick and the guy let me have it for the price because it had several layers of paint on the chassis that had gone crusty and started peeling off and this made the chassis look like it was good for only scrap. Fortunately on the rear cross member needed doing and the chassis number is still on the dumb iron with no rust at all so that was good.
Thing I forgot to mention was that the bulkhead needed extensive work. Effectively a whole new half on the drivers side. Most would've just replaced the bulkhead but it helped perfect my mig welding skills. Took me about 2 weeks of two and half hours every evening after work.

I've got some pictures currently uploading to photo bucket of other stuff I have done that and other really good parts of the vehicle. Hopefully have a write up within the next hour.

look forward to seeing them. good job.

So here's the new cross member with stainless bolts. Brand new lights front and back.



Got all the lights working no fog or reverse on here though.




The light surrounds may cause some arguments but currently experimenting. As I do quite like gloss black 110's with the silver surrounds.




Another shot of the rear seats


Have you ever seen such shiny balls?


The load levelling suspension apparently the same as on range rovers and amazing works.



Then not the 110 but something I got free with the 110 were some seats in really good nick so threw them in the 109 to replace the poor seats.



Took a quick pic of the 109 too she is a work horse so not concourse




That's it for tonight more updates to come hopefully.

109 is very nice, not into the silver surrounds on the 110 though.

For me they look too new with them. if it's a 1984 model, i'd leave it looking like a 1984

AJC said:

109 is very nice, not into the silver surrounds on the 110 though.

For me they look too new with them. if it's a 1984 model, i'd leave it looking like a 1984

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I hear what you're saying and I'd like feed back on the exterior because unfortunately I have to sell this one. I've got a defender a 109 and this and having 2 of the long wheel base versions is too much. Unless I can convince my mother that it can be a practical everyday driver.
And as much as I'd like to keep it more original it's been taken so far from that that I'm not sure someone looking for a more classic 90/110 will be interested but too old looking for someone else.

The light surrounds are easy enough to get back to black which is why I was experimenting with them. But I want to get the colour right because it's beautifully straight for a Land Rover of any age but the colour could make or break its saleability and as its being properly sprayed I won't have the funds to get it sprayed twice if the colour is wrong. So I've been trying to look at what is selling well on eBay.

Looks great. Those rear two part doors are very rare now - well worth saving if possible. Interesting vents in the nearside bonnet - I guess the engine was working hard when towing a bus!

zeaphod said:

Looks great. Those rear two part doors are very rare now - well worth saving if possible. Interesting vents in the nearside bonnet - I guess the engine was working hard when towing a bus!

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I've heard they're rare I'd sell them to somehow who had a completely original 110 and just needed the doors but mine is so far from original that it would be better having the doors go to a completely original vehicle then stuck on a modified 110.

The vents in the bonnet are because there are no intakes in the wing as the the air filter would have sat where the intercooler sits on a Tdi. It used to be a 2.5na and the air would've come from the front of the vehicle.

When the Tdi was fitted he cut the holes in the bonnet to allow a bit more air in.
I may replace the bonnet or could get some mesh stuck behind it. But more important stuff to do before those little jobs.

Anyone got any ideas how to fix this in the headlining.
It's right at the back I'm guessing mice were living in it which is a shame because the rest is immaculate



Don't think I've posted an engine bay shot. But only needs a tidy up and the heater hose sorted. Probably end up giving a polish to the aluminium components in the engine bay like turbo housing and rocker cover to make it more presentable.




I do need a new transfer case as this one is welded solid in 4 wheel drive. However I can do all my testing with the front prop off.

But officially all the welding is done which is nice. The only exterior stuff is paint and aesthetics really.
One big challenge is getting the sun visors back on as every single bolt snapped when I removed them and they won't even budge with mole grips. Which is odd how stuck they are considering it's an area that stays very dry. If it comes to it I'll grind it flat drill and re tap it.

Fortunately I think I've only spent a grand or just over including purchasing the vehicle. Which is credit to how well it has stood up towing buses then left to rot for 6 years.

I think you're right regarding originality. Normally I'm a big fan of keeping these early pre-defenders standard but to revert yours back would cost a fair bit and arguably take away from the vehicle's history. It's always been a working vehicle by the sounds of it so it wouldn't be 'right' to make it immaculate. The silver surrounds on black do look good as well IMO, although I'd stick with orange indicator lenses personally.

The genuine defender tdi always looks much neater than most disco conversions I've seen. Which it should as it was made to fit the space!

Number plates arrived today no pictures but a good time to tell a story behind the plates. The registration of the plates were on the first bus the previous owner ever bought as boss of the bus company. His grandparents started the bus company in the 1920's or 30's and it's been handed down since then.

I think this is one of those occasions of turning a vehicle to how it left the factory is less original then keeping the modifications made. It would be like removing scars or tattoos from a person when those things have a lot of significance of that persons life and it's similar to this vehicle.
Restoring to factory would be quite a crime and although these station wagons of this age are quite rare, the life this vehicle has had is even rarer as no other has the history this one does. However the metallic brown/beige it was painted before has to go, the pictures don't show what a dull awful colour it is.

109inches said:

Number plates arrived today no pictures but a good time to tell a story behind the plates. The registration of the plates were on the first bus the previous owner ever bought as boss of the bus company. His grandparents started the bus company in the 1920's or 30's and it's been handed down since then.

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Have you had the plates valued? It may be that they are worth more than the vehicle.

Jam1 said:

Have you had the plates valued? It may be that they are worth more than the vehicle.

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Haven't had them valued but they were just randomly assigned to a bus that had sentimental value to the previous owner. Nothing special that immediately springs to mind. He did mention that he'd like the plates back if possible which is fair enough my dad still has the number plates from his first car. But if the plate was worth money it would be nice to keep it with the vehicle. I could get more money selling it individually but I'm not driven by wanting loads of money I'd rather do a good job a sell an honest reliable truck with some interesting history.

On a separate not I managed to get the sun visors and headlining back in today. Took 3 hours as I thought about the best way to get the snapped Bolts out but finally managed it the roof under the headlining looks brand new non faded shiny limestone paint on a completely dent free roof.

Unfortunately not got a great deal done recently family has been down so I have to socialise which doesn't include hiding away under a Land Rover. The only land rovering I did was on my series 2 just fine tuning the Tdi even though it's been 6 months since it was first converted by me and been used very regularly since I had a few things that needed sorting such as a leaky lift pump and fiddling with my home made cable throttle linkage using the original throttle and linkages. Turns out I had about a centimetre worth of movement at the pump when the throttle pedal was fully down so I've managed to unlock a bit more top speed.

Little jobs I've managed on the 110 are rubbed down and painted the custom rock sliders unfortunately they were welded on so a bit of a struggle.
Got the rear floor fully riveted back down. It's chequer plate but it's useful and functional as a floor.
Gave the interior a clean as it's pretty much finished.

I need to do the valve clearances they don't sound too bad but worth a look. I need to get my exhaust on its only got a down pipe at the minute and although I do like the noise and turbo whistle I think at speed I would grow tired of it. So I might delete the centre exhausr and leave the little rear exhaust.

A few little bits and pieces and it will be close to MOT day. I still need to sort the transfer box out but I don't know what the rules say about a propshaft removed. Because I could get it MOTed if I could take it with the centre diff locked and front prop removed however id imagine this is unacceptable.

109inches said:

I need to do the valve clearances they don't sound too bad but worth a look. I need to get my exhaust on its only got a down pipe at the minute and although I do like the noise and turbo whistle I think at speed I would grow tired of it. So I might delete the centre exhausr and leave the little rear exhaust.

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I had the exhaust off my 19J at one point and it sounded excellent The little rear box is just a resonator- there's a pipe inside that passes straight through, with lots of small holes into the outer section. So just cancels out the objectionable sound frequencies without really getting in the way. The front box is more of a silencer and might be a source of restriction. So removing that and leaving the rear box sounds like the way to go. Top end power won't be increased due to the wastegate on the turbo, but it may give some improvement at lower rpm.

Well today I did some interior enhancements. I'd done similar on my series 2 with great effect and I'm pretty pleased with the result in the 110 especially for the price and a couple of hours work.

As the sound proof matting is rather expensive I went for the poor mans option. I bought a 6 pack of 10mm thick closed cell self adhesive foam. It's designed as a very mouldable sound proofing foam at about £20 per pack which is more than enough to do a whole seat box with off cuts to spare.

I tried it in my series 2 in an effort to reduce the road noise and Tdi noise. It did a good job (also had dynamat under the foam which I didn't do in the 110 as it's much quieter than the series) the end product is greater insulation, less noise and I personally think I fairly smart interior which is very cheap compared to the £200 odd for the moulded kits.





Obviously not as neat as the proper kits but is pretty durable stuff, easy to clean and waterproof. Also unlike gluing carpet to the seat box if it needs peeling off it doesn't leave an awful residue.

Also view of the new plates



Also fitted a spare wheel carrier to the rear door. I don't think any 110 station wagon looks 'proper' without a wheel on the rear door.

Think that's it for today. Nothing exciting unfortunately. Just general tidying up.

109inches said:

Well today I did some interior enhancements. I'd done similar on my series 2 with great effect and I'm pretty pleased with the result in the 110 especially for the price and a couple of hours work.

As the sound proof matting is rather expensive I went for the poor mans option. I bought a 6 pack of 10mm thick closed cell self adhesive foam. It's designed as a very mouldable sound proofing foam at about £20 per pack which is more than enough to do a whole seat box with off cuts to spare.

I tried it in my series 2 in an effort to reduce the road noise and Tdi noise. It did a good job (also had dynamat under the foam which I didn't do in the 110 as it's much quieter than the series) the end product is greater insulation, less noise and I personally think I fairly smart interior which is very cheap compared to the £200 odd for the moulded kits.





Obviously not as neat as the proper kits but is pretty durable stuff, easy to clean and waterproof. Also unlike gluing carpet to the seat box if it needs peeling off it doesn't leave an awful residue.

Also view of the new plates



Also fitted a spare wheel carrier to the rear door. I don't think any 110 station wagon looks 'proper' without a wheel on the rear door.

Think that's it for today. Nothing exciting unfortunately. Just general tidying up.

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No doubt about it................. that silver is WRONG, WRONG WRONG! Looks like one of those cheapo ghetto blasters from the '80s made in Taiwan................................. other than that - good job