1996 V8 discovery 1 (big blue)

I brought this disco a few weeks ago now as a non runner.

I found it for sale on here in the classified section, it's been stood for 1-2years so brakes arent in great shape
Inside is ok needs a good clean and is missing the passenger front seat and rear side facing seats, a few window issues.
Rust is minimal, it's had some repairs and a boot panel replacement, it needs cleaning up underneath and painting tho.


Got it running when I got it home and took it for a drive down the road (private road of course ) it drove ok all things considering, but pulled into the drive and the engine was knocking, my first thought was it sounded like a big end knock but after abit of investigating it was steaming abit out of the exhaust and blowing coolant out of the expansion bottle so I think the liner is loose.

Fast forward to the next weekend...... I went shopping


Found a local chap selling a 3.9 block from an auto D1, claimed to have covered 80,000miles it does look to be in good shape, no cam wear etc

Some oven cleaner and a jet wash later it came up nice and clean

Ready for the many parts I've brought for it. I'll get the underneath of the body/chassis tidied up before building the engine up so it's in the shed for now.

I've since stripped the interior out, only started out to find a water leak (windscreen seal) but got carried away and pulled the whole lot out, some surface rust around the poorly painted boot floor replacement and again surface rust on the driver's floor from the screen leak


Big blue has had a lodger at some point



Big blue is resting in my garage waiting for me to build some motivation to start cleaning up the arches etc

Excuse the mess it's since been tidied


Some of the products I'll be using for the body/chassis from Buzzwelds


That's it for now

Made a start on the o/s alpine window
Wasn't too bad, it did leak along the bottom tho

Finished for the day, got it all welded up


Tried the glass in, fits ok.

Glass back out and a lick of paint.

Starting on the wheel arch tomorrow, then turn the old girl around and repeat on that side.

Very nice. Is the daily a forester Sti?

resto_d1 said:

Very nice. Is the daily a forester Sti?

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Yes a 2004 sti, I had an Impreza a few years previously but this is so much more practical and always puts a smile on my face.
I do like Subaru's lol

Good for camping until the disco is finished

Two jdm sti’s! Your showing off!

I had a bp5 wr Ltd. Waited 8 odd months for it to arrive but sold it to buy first house. Thing was an animal and probably one of best motors I’ve ever had. Always fancied a forester sti

The white sf5 is a local chaps having some work done. The black UK and the blue sti are mine, the sti is One of my favourite cars I've owned and I've had quite a few cars lol.

Jackstar said:

The white sf5 is a local chaps having some work done. The black UK and the blue sti are mine, the sti is One of my favourite cars I've owned and I've had quite a few cars lol.

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The foresters are 2.5 aren’t they? Mine was a 2.0 twin scroll. Had it remapped up to 307 I think. Best pre modern gearbox I’ve ever had. You ran out of bollocks before that car ran out of grip too lol

The black one and the white one are both 2.0 and the blue is a 2.5 all 3 are single scroll, the black one is 245bhp the white one is 235bhp and my blue one is 360bhp

Back to rusty and unreliable 4x4s though - alpine repair looks tidy as! Hopefully you don’t get surprised by too much rust

Little bits here and there, just got to tidy up a previous repair on the rear arches for the mot.
Most of that hole was filled with body filler

Didn't get a finished pic but that's a plate I cut for it.


Not sure how to fix the ally part of the outer panel, maybe cut it out and rivet a ally plate over? Not very pretty but covers a hole

So... I went to get some seats and a few interior parts from a d1 that I found local but I ended up buying the whole lot lol

It's still a 3.9 V8 but an auto and it's got 2 sunroofs
It's alot more intact inside everything works apart from one rear window doesn't open.

It needs a little welding for the mot, front body mount behind the o/s headlight and o/s/r body mount, also has an abs light on every now and again.

Looks good. A bit of TLC and it’ll be a nice disco!

Had the interior out and check for water leaks, found one from the wiring loom grommet on the passenger footwell and the top of the windscreen, sealed both with body sealant and we are leak-less at the moment, even the sunroofs are dry, although they are sealed up and has gaffer tape over the top .

I trial fitted a winch bumper I had, it needs alittle trimming to fit, I like it without a bumper atall lol



I got my priorities alittle off and sorted the rear subwoofer in the back door, should have been sorting the welding

Old subs were old to say the least lol

Replaced with a cheapy from Amazon for now, had to remount the amp as the original fixing wouldn't work with an aftermarket sub.

Big blue went today aswell so I got some more spending tokens to spend on 'boo'

Used the old girl for some gardening last weekend, dragging the shingle across, any excuse to use the disco




She's waiting for me to start working on her new car!

Too many 'air holes' in the o/s/f arch




Things got serious, the door and wing came off for better access and to find any hidden rust

Got a solid front corner/arch again



Got to repair the bottom of the 'a' pillar then it can go back together again.

Nice job, tidy fabbing and welding

Looking good!

Got the OSF sorted now and the repair on the bottom of the a pillar.







Also got the wing and door back on, got to finish putting the engine bay back together then start on the rear cross member.

When I did mine I fixed the front vertical panel, the one with the hole for the brake pipe, with close spaced 6mm nuts and boltsinstead of welding it, so it could be removed easily. This converted the job of changing the steering box from very very difficult to just difficult.
It has now been through three French MOTs like that so does not seem to be a problem, and it is just as strong a repair..

Sheffield said:

When I did mine I fixed the front vertical panel, the one with the hole for the brake pipe, with close spaced 6mm nuts and boltsinstead of welding it, so it could be removed easily. This converted the job of changing the steering box from very very difficult to just difficult.
It has now been through three French MOTs like that so does not seem to be a problem, and it is just as strong a repair..

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That's not a bad idea, I didn't have to weld that panel, if I need to replace the steering box I'll consider cutting it out and replacing it like you said