79 109 hartop camper build .

not sure what up with the camera but snapped a few pics that turned out crap.. some didnt even load from the card to the laptop.. ??

got the coir mat delivered today so rolled out the back piece and cut the front mats from the remains .. the back pics haven't loaded and it looks pretty cool , the floor mats loaded fine and the pics look crap lol.. Its actually pretty smart though .. Not much cope for wading rivers but as a fun functional daily and sometimes day van ( before I work out the roof flip) its will be fine .. and a bit of a "cheery up" to drive around , when its up and driving with most of the gremlins chased out .. cant fix them all though, got to keep some land rover character ...

Just noticed the rood cap pics are missing as well , no idea what up, I hate tech.. I dont even own a mobile phone , might get one for the use of the camera function... looks like my camera has seen better days ..

Try and ignore the column shroud hanging down and the blue glue overspray.. That will all be gone soon .. finding the long screws for the shroud is proving difficult ..
Got the rear glass seals, coir matt, points, condenser, cap, springy clip things for the choke cable to the carb, and various other stuff delivered .. Broke my most recent list down made 3 lists out of the one not so intimidating and more focused on relevant jobs ..

better add painting the seat runners to the list .. funny the things you see in pictures that you totally miss when handling the stuff every day .

The matting looks really neat and practical. Those seats look nice and comfy too. Are they Landrover?

I bought the seats years ago for another project and they didnt get used , same old story , Im pretty sure they came from a Jaguar XJS from the late 70s early 80s , so the correct era for the landrover They are pretty comfy . a wee bit worn but not burst , the mice had a wee nibble but not to much damage thankfully. They will need more of a clean and a feed but other than that thy are pretty decent.

I shifted them over toward the middle of the set base but a few inches to get the driving position a wee bit more normalised . You dont have to drive pressed up against the B post Its almost civilised now LOL.

Picked up some paint and a couple of rolls of masking tape .. and a weekend looming .. If It turns out to be good weather and I get my finger out I can get the final body coats on and get the roof off again for prep and paint ..

Took delivery of the insulation for the roof cap today , seat belt anchors fitted, last of the brake lines secured ( was waiting on P clips ) prop bolts tightened , Rotor arm arrived , no cap or points yet but they should be here next week , Got to clean out the original filter , and fit the battery box and filter mount .. Got a used rad overflow delivered , washer T piece and a couple of metres of rubber washer hose .. Sitting here thonking what still needs to be done and its really all down to getting the final painting complete so I can get the lights in , electrics hooked up, and catches and seals fitted and upper door glass installed .. Its pretty close .. Probably less work than my X trail needs for its pending MOT..

Spent ages masking the old beater ready for paint.. and got it painted todat got a great day for it .. Come out fine, had a wee bit of dust and a little water through the gun, but were not talking show quality here , its a big old motor to paint in a double garage ..

Any hoo, its painted , so after a few hours it was hard enough to remove the masking , that done, filled the holes with lights and stuff, and started to fit the new door seals . BUGGER, with the drivers door seals fitted the doors don't close ..LOL one step forward as they say ..

So going to have to work out what the issue is with the seals . the holes in the seals were pretty accurate and the contours on the seals were all good and they fitted up a treat , but just a shame the doors dont close against them now .. Moved onto the door glass, the kit to fit the glass doesnt include seals for the fixed pane , so ages ago I bought some sticky back 1mm neoprene strip, 30mm wide, so applied a strip to the door channel on 3 sides and added a strip to the glass, like a piece of U section, so the glass is held and sealed in the door top , so just a few retaining screw holes to drill in the trims and its done .. Onve these seal and door issues are sorted its basically just the roof cap to come off for refurb and paint .. get that done and its pretty much there .. not sure I will make it for the 19th when the MOT expires on my daily ..but aiming for that date . well see how it goes ..

So , spent the entire afternoon trimming the door seals , thinning them out then drilling the rivits out pulling the seals off and throwing them in the bin .. It should be illegal to retail this ****e .. basically its nothing short of offloading rubbish. It seems most suppliers know its crap as well .. Any hoo. If your thinking of replacing the door seals DO NOT BUY ANYTHING THATS OFFERED AS OEM , its junk .. It looks good fitted up untill you try and close the doors.. waste of time and money..

So, now thats off my chest, fitted the door glass and toiled to fit the nuts that come with the galvanised upper door parts. Turns out that they must use the old landrover fittings as the thread on the end of the pin was slightly mushroomed, restricting the nut , Had to pull it off, and file the ends of the pins to allow the nuts to fit .. Thats after spending an hour looking for nuts that nearly fitted ( over the mushroom) Once it was filed down the nuts that were supplied fitted fine .. That was another hour and a half ..

Left it for tea, will fit the door handle and catches later tonight but that's all minus any door seals .. The general consensus is that defender seals are the hot ticket , but my guess would be if they are reproduction they will be crap as well .. so is there any tried and tested alternative?

The back door seals were close to £100, but to be honest they look and feel like the crap ones they sell for the doors ..

Got the door glass in though .. My advice if your replacing the upper door parts is get them glazed and save yourself the grief , its easy enough to do but like everything else, the parts are a poor fit needing additions to close gaps and seal things properly. I used the sticky backed 1mm neoprene stuff to create a seal between the fixed glass and the frame and the metal filler parts and the slider seals .. probably took around 2 hours to fit the glass in one side .. finding tiddly screws and a tiny drill bit and a screwdriver that didn't bugger up the screw heads .. good to get them done , its another step forward ..

Just read your alignment and door fit up woes. I’ve still got that joy to come.
My intention is to fit the 5 doors on mine using defender seals. I believe they are much better than the original versions. I think you can actually buy them as pre-made and shaped or ‘off the roll’.

I was looking at some seals on Car builder solutions web site , they have stuff there that might do the trick but think I will e mail them for a few samples first to make sure they fit the edge and seal against the door .. Kind of look like the defender seal but off the roll , from memory I think it works out at £5 per metre..

When I had an order going in to Paddocks recently I got a metre of the off the roll seal to try it. Doesn't even fill the gap. The doors would shut ok but it would never seal. Also it's push on so you have to grind off all the rounded bits on the door frame that retain the original type seals. I'm already having nightmares about door seals.

Having said that i'm probably doing something wrong. That's the most likely problem.

I think the problem is the grade of rubber . The replacements are fairly hard and thick compared with the originals which are almost a cross between rubber and neoprene in there flexibility they have a fair bit of give as the door is closed over them . The replacements are hard and resist the door . I trimmed the rubber on the A post so that the edge of the seal was paralell with the retainer edge on the seal channel on the A post, probably took around 3 to 4 mm off the width of the seal from top to bottom. That action allowed the door to close a bit further but still not fully. so I took the A post seal off altogether and tried to close the door again. Still no joy, the door closed to within 20mm of being flush with the B post. The B post rubber was also to deep or to deep and to thick / hard to allow the seal to roll with the door closing , It rolled as far as it could but then stopped .. as the rubber was now solid and more or less pulling on the rivits to roll any further .. So I trimmed an edge off that seal too,. That helped but the door was still 5 mm from flush with the B post and needed a good push to get it to sit flush .. Basically no use , add the A post seal was just compounding the problem.. so drilled all the rivets out and removed both seals leaving the lower edge seal just to see if that was any good .. Turns out that its so hard it touches in some places and not in others so binned that as well ..

Basically in my brief experience with the seals I cant see how these can be fitted with good results . so save your money . Its a shame because the seals fit the body well enough its just that they don't allow the doors to close . If they changed the compound of the rubber and revised the moulds a wee bit they would be workable .. but as they are now they are just landfill. The hot rod parts supply world is just the same , crap parts extortionate prices..

Have you seen this chap.
Good stuff and he came to the same conclusion.

this one says it all



He says they are expensive but they aint expensive when they work and your not just throwing money in the bin

auld duffer said:

this one says it all



He says they are expensive but they aint expensive when they work and your not just throwing money in the bin

Click to expand...

that blokes tiresome

I like his racoon though. A benefit of living in Canada maybe.

Havent looked back on the post to see where I left off but the Landy is painted and the main event pretty much buttoned up. Pulled the manky roof off , chucked all the daft additional lights in the bin removed a few obsolete nuts n bolts from it that must have done something at sometime , even it was to leak water. Then welded up all the holes and patched in the holes cut for the additional lights .. Took a few hours to sand it to bare metal ready for prep and paint .. added the insulation material to the inside Hope to get the body work completed on the roof and get it in paint asap

Got the door glass in installed , door catches in, pretty much all buttoned up called Autosparks re wire loom and they dont have any in stock and its a 14 week turnaround for the engine look and chassis loom.. Was just gonna buy them for ease .but looks like a return to plan A and make my own .. .. Jumping around between this and a couple of other things at the minute but were getting there .. Might just shoot for 1st April, the fool I am, Got a Stag rebuild for a buddy after this and moving onto my 28 Ford roadster build as well .. Fingers Xd the landy will drive OK and I will use it for a bit as my daily hack. Seems like folk are loving it though, 3 neighbours into landrovers are asking about it and pushing for a price and builders on the house across from me have also started expressing an interest .. Might not have it long enough to do the camper conversion..!!! Time will tell

Im still here , putting all the hours available into the land rover , was aiming for 19th March as that was the date the MOT expired on the X tral daily .. Had a look over that since the deadline wasnt going to materialise .. Hmm More welding required on the X trail than first thought, add to that anything else that might be found and I swifty decided that it was destined for the scrappy . I therfoer put the efort into the Landrover .

Got the roof off and prepped and painted , got the partial rewire complete with all the required items worig as they should . some took a bit of thought but all problems resolved .. Tip dont buy a wiper switch advertised for a landrover , they are uber expensive , look for one for a hillman hunter .. and piggy back the wire to power the washer switch .. save your self £40..

Got 2 speeds on the heater and it will blow your socks off , well it would if the vents opened to the floor but it will demist pretty good

Exhaust is on, brakes will be bled this afternoon, all lights and lamps working as they should , everything double earthed to chassis and body, a bit of overkill but earthing seems to be a problem with these old lucas electrics .. Turned it over with some juice down the carb and it fired first turn ..

Missisng some daft stuff the garage gremlins must have borrowed .. one bolt for the timing cover , one clip for the carburettor ball link, and one throttle link rod from the throttle bar to the carb and one pin for the fresh air vent flap. Also seem to have lost the new bolts for the rear door hinges ..

So other than anti freeze, water, and a hand full of hose clips its about ready to rock.. I need to get it fired up and outside to refit the roof cap and with the clocks going forward this weekend the lighter night will be good for working out doors .. New date for being ready is 1st april all going well..

Plus points: will be able to cash in the tax on the x trail should get around £220 back plus £90 from the scrappy and a good battery
Insurance for the hot rod , the VW camper and the Landrover on the same policy £ 220 agreed values .. so that leaves £80 for fuel LOL

Using the Hot rod as my daily driver just now .. just heading off for my COVID jab shortly so trying to keep clean lol.. having the day off and catching up..

auld duffer said:

Im still here , putting all the hours available into the land rover , was aiming for 19th March as that was the date the MOT expired on the X tral daily .. Had a look over that since the deadline wasnt going to materialise .. Hmm More welding required on the X trail than first thought, add to that anything else that might be found and I swifty decided that it was destined for the scrappy . I therfoer put the efort into the Landrover .

Got the roof off and prepped and painted , got the partial rewire complete with all the required items worig as they should . some took a bit of thought but all problems resolved .. Tip dont buy a wiper switch advertised for a landrover , they are uber expensive , look for one for a hillman hunter .. and piggy back the wire to power the washer switch .. save your self £40..

Got 2 speeds on the heater and it will blow your socks off , well it would if the vents opened to the floor but it will demist pretty good

Exhaust is on, brakes will be bled this afternoon, all lights and lamps working as they should , everything double earthed to chassis and body, a bit of overkill but earthing seems to be a problem with these old lucas electrics .. Turned it over with some juice down the carb and it fired first turn ..

Missisng some daft stuff the garage gremlins must have borrowed .. one bolt for the timing cover , one clip for the carburettor ball link, and one throttle link rod from the throttle bar to the carb and one pin for the fresh air vent flap. Also seem to have lost the new bolts for the rear door hinges ..

So other than anti freeze, water, and a hand full of hose clips its about ready to rock.. I need to get it fired up and outside to refit the roof cap and with the clocks going forward this weekend the lighter night will be good for working out doors .. New date for being ready is 1st april all going well..

Plus points: will be able to cash in the tax on the x trail should get around £220 back plus £90 from the scrappy and a good battery
Insurance for the hot rod , the VW camper and the Landrover on the same policy £ 220 agreed values .. so that leaves £80 for fuel LOL

Using the Hot rod as my daily driver just now .. just heading off for my COVID jab shortly so trying to keep clean lol.. having the day off and catching up..

Click to expand...

Sounds like you are nearly there. Fantastic work! I have those Gremlins too, except mine hide the parts I need until I give up, buy more and then they give me them back

Bled the brakes today and drove the beast out the garage . runs a bit rough but waiting on a couple of carb linkages and a rad drain and fan belt before I can add coolant and run the engine to temp and tune it up.. Just dropped some new points in and gapped by eye , so a few things need setting up and adjusting . Carb was a mess but fitted a rebuild kit. It runs on the rebuilt carb now and it does rev but the mixture screw does nothing so its probably going to need another going through , probably a vacuum leak . bearing in mind I fitted a servo which I have hooked up so could be some leaks there .. so between the un set points and timing and the rebuilt carb and servo there might be a couple or remedial issues to address.. Its starts up straight away so its nothing major

Brake pedal needed a pump to firm up the pedal so readjusted the brakes , all pretty much one click off being locked, but pedal still takes a pump to firm up. Servo works as pedal gets worse LOL

Possibly needs another bleed , although not really spongy, so thinking that there might be some adjustment needed on the servo to pedal rod , just teething problems that will hopefully be easy fixed ( meaning not costing any doe )

Just had my seat belts delivered , but having shifted the seat position to suit me better the standard upper brackets I bought last week set the shoulder belt to far forward, so I will fabricate my own to suit the new position..

Was expecting the wiper switch today but it didnt arrive , checked over the motor and it runs a treat basically it looks like I will be swerving the park facility as the new repro park switch is crap and part of the problem between the switch and the motor ..

So thats where we are today . Just going out to go through the ignition system tune up and have a poke around for a vacuum leak .

If its a decent day on Saturday Im planning to park the landy in the drive and fit the roof cap . It will have to live outdoors after that as its to tall to get in the shed with the roof on ..

Door seals: Since im scrapping the X trail I thought it might be worth a look at the door seals to see if I could salvage them for the landy .
The seals are orientated much the same as Defender style ones , turns out they will fit so might run with those untill I can save for a set of proper factory defender ones ..