79 109 hartop camper build .

got the brake pipes to the rear and across the back axle made up and rustled up some P clips to secure same, Toyed with doing a dual circuit system but got lazy and ordered a single system master for the servo, Keeping it simple .

Ordered up the fuel tank and sender, front wheel cylinders and flexis. so the next stage is to drain the diffs , pull the hubs and check the bearings , have the back plates and brake drums blasted and paint them , fit the new brakes all round and do the final plumbing firming up on the pipe bends and pipe security. then fit the chassis to bulkhead supports for the bulkhead , make repairs to the bulkhead as required , and get the steering back in . Gonna call the fella with the engine and box I was offered and see where he is on the deal. If hes not got it ready to go im just going to stick with the petrol and get in back in the chassis and move on.. Should start to look like a land roved again in a couple of weeks ..

A few wee jobs to do to button things up like the spring clamps to close up and a wee bit of painting.. The bulkhead support outriggers need to be welded across the top at the chassis so will take care of that and give them a repaint , also got the spacers and crush tubes to weld to the bulkhead outriggers as well so will paint then when those jobs are done . I wanted to spray the rear X member so left that deliberately untill I have some paint in the gun.. Will probably do it when I put the fuel tank in and button up the rear for fitting the rear tub

Looking great! Your build is inspiring me to think about another Defender project, for the future.

Thanks.. Im keeping it as simple and as cost effective as possible. Its not a restoration but a refurbishment, really just taking care of the wear and tear items and making the end result good and safe, but doing it with an eye on originality, so trying not to end up with lots of visible welds and repairs, and making the chassis repair parts to save money and spending that money on things I cant make or at least time wise wouldn't be cost effective .. The outriggers are a good example . For decent outriggers I would have been in the region of £40 each. By making them from 2mm material I had as scrap cut offs I saved enough to buy the fuel tank and a pair of rear shox.

I repaired the passenger foot well on Tuesday, and dropped the bulkhead back on the chassis. I contacted the fella who is selling me the 200 tdi but he hasnt had time to remove the engine yet, so I have decided that I will drop the original engine and box back in with a fairley overdrive and free wheeling hubs and use it as it would have been to get some idea what they actually drove like and if I can live with it I might shelve the diesel idea . I dont do high mileage or long distances so the Petrol might just suit me fine for the time being.. Im still having the diesel , but cant delay progress, It will be cool to use it with the petrol engine and do gradual swaps to diesel and 5 speed and experience the differences first hand.. It would be a cheap enough project vehicle to mess around with and evolve..

I was unfortunately a bit outspoken on another post regarding converting a land rover to electric .. my bad , as its none of my business what someone wants to do with there project, good for them if they can meet there goal . I think I must have been a bit of lockdown red mist, been spending to much time on the internet and not enough time in the garage oops

auld duffer said:

Thanks.. Im keeping it as simple and as cost effective as possible. Its not a restoration but a refurbishment, really just taking care of the wear and tear items and making the end result good and safe, but doing it with an eye on originality, so trying not to end up with lots of visible welds and repairs, and making the chassis repair parts to save money and spending that money on things I cant make or at least time wise wouldn't be cost effective .. The outriggers are a good example . For decent outriggers I would have been in the region of £40 each. By making them from 2mm material I had as scrap cut offs I saved enough to buy the fuel tank and a pair of rear shox.

I repaired the passenger foot well on Tuesday, and dropped the bulkhead back on the chassis. I contacted the fella who is selling me the 200 tdi but he hasnt had time to remove the engine yet, so I have decided that I will drop the original engine and box back in with a fairley overdrive and free wheeling hubs and use it as it would have been to get some idea what they actually drove like and if I can live with it I might shelve the diesel idea . I dont do high mileage or long distances so the Petrol might just suit me fine for the time being.. Im still having the diesel , but cant delay progress, It will be cool to use it with the petrol engine and do gradual swaps to diesel and 5 speed and experience the differences first hand.. It would be a cheap enough project vehicle to mess around with and evolve..

I was unfortunately a bit outspoken on another post regarding converting a land rover to electric .. my bad , as its none of my business what someone wants to do with there project, good for them if they can meet there goal . I think I must have been a bit of lockdown red mist, been spending to much time on the internet and not enough time in the garage oops

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Its looking great. Never mind electric, he just wants idiots to crowd fund his ideas.
Ive not been doing much recently what with other stuff and the fact I dont find the dark and cold good fun

LOL I do kinda like to challenge some of the electric stuff, heels are dug right in, but I also think were stuffed as there isnt any resistance the battle is already lost to most of these folk. but hey.. life goes on.. I resume with my eyes wide open into the abys LOL.. I think a bottle of patio gas in place of the middle seat might be an option

Will have to update some pics, but transfer box back in, new clutch fitted, ancillaries removed so block can be painted ( cosmetic effect) Paint ordered for the engine and body and collect that on Friday. Will pick up some under body shutz perhaps RAPTOR for the seat box inner and outer and some easy clean protection for the rear tub and underside of the the wings etc..

Have 10 litres of Waxoil to pump into the chassis . I didn't realise it has rust converters in it as well as the wax, I used it on my VW Camper resto despite it being a shiny thing on the underside as well as the top side , it wasn't a showboat, so lathered on the waxoil , fairly heavily in vulnerable areas .. Over time the solvent in it has evaporated and left a good solid wax coating .. Will do the same around the vulnerable areas on the external faces of the chassis and give the fuel tank a good lathering as well as the springs and other components.. might need another gallon !!!

Was planning to get the engine back in by Saturday but will have to carry that over until next week now , other commitments dictate ..

Waiting on the front wheel cylinders and flexis to arrive ,

Dropped in a servo and pedal assembly, a couple of things were thrown up. The one I have appears to be a wee bit to tall, in that its close to the drip rail for the rear edge of the bonnet, and the pedal is longer than the existing non servo pedal, so consideration being given to either lengthening the existing clutch pedal ( preferred) or shortening the overlong brake pedal ( reducing pedal ratio ) Maybe I just picked up the wrong donor servo assembly ?

Dropped the bulkhead at the blaster along with a couple of other parts im to lazy to clean up,,

Got the bed back in the garage and coated the entire underside with bed liner tinted with body colour . Going to remove the fuel tank and coat that for some additional protection ,

Striped the seat box for a couple of minor repairs to the tool box. and remove the last of the original under seal so the box can be coated inside and out with tinted raptor for maximum durability .

will try to push for the body to be back on before the end of the year .

currently waiting on rebuild kit for the carb, fitted new fuel pump and painted the engine for some cosmetic effect and fitted new plugs .. just picking out the bones and making steady progress

Got the fuel tank coated, along with the rear X member and pedal boxes .. Didn't get any indication from the blaster when the bulkhead and other bits will be ready but hopefully he will get them done this week .. Got the last of the old underseal off the underside of the seat box.. so plan to get the repairs done on that come Tuesday and get the entire thing coated and if I get my finger out get the underside of the front wings done too . So by the end of the week all going well, tank will be back in and plumbed, bed will be on along with the refurbished seat box and the call to collect the bulkhead received... If that works out , I should get the bulkhead coated on the inside and engine bay area and fitted back on the chassis and get the doors fitted and lined up before the bulkhead is fully secured .. Mind you thats providing the bulkhead comes back as good as it went in. There might be a couple of minor repairs to do that will set plans back a day or so..

So, a couple of backup pics from earlier today . Its not easy to put a rear tub on by yourself .. Took a wee bit of thought and it pretty much fell on Made a start to cleaning up the inside of the front wings, with the old military blunder seal removed the wing must be about half the weight it was .. Gonna do these on the underside with raptor bed liner in body colour . It just looks a lot tidier and much easier to hose down and clean.. Will get the DA sander out on Wednesday and flash off the bed sides and sand down the front wings for some minor welding repairs to several wee splits and random holes .. should look reasonably tidy when its all back together .. going to shoot for the end of the month to have it back to looking like a land rover ..

Next big job is a rewire , Going to start from scratch, the landrover stuff is a mess. they must have wired these after a night on the **** ..

Carb rebuild kit arrived from BURLEN , quite comprehensive , includes new jets, butterfly, spindle diaphragm and gaskets.. I wouldn't say it was cheap at £60 but it does look like its decent quality. Will get the carb soaking in solvent before getting it sonic cleaned. Fingers crossed the rebuild will work out well .

Got the front wings de undersealed and sanded all the old paint off both . they are now ready for a bit of tidying before applying the raptor to the underside . The outer wings need a sanding and a few splits and spare rivit holes welded up , might do that tonight .. Also sanded the body side in the above pics as it had a few scratches and chips , also massaged a few dents and scores out of the ali .. as I dont intend spending time with filler .. Its not a show boat , just a good sound refurbishment ,, No word from the blaster yet but if I get the bulkhead back this week I will be a wee bit ahead of the game ..

Looking for the seals that go between the bed and upper bed sides and the uopper bed sides and the roof . any ideas who might sel these ? Come to think of it will be replacing al the seals so any GO TO one stop shops for every weather seal on the body?

No word on the bulkhead yet so I'm guessing next week stripped the outer wings to bare metal, there seemed to be a lot of filler on them for no reason? looked like they had defender type arches on them at some point .. Welded up a couple of splits and welded up the holes .. All good and wont need a mass of bodywork ..

Revisited the dash and had another look at the wiring .. It looks as though there had been feed taken from the back of the dash to an auxiliary panel that was probably military stuff.. so picked through the wires removing what shouldn't be there and re routing the ones that should to tidy things up,, Cleaned the loom and re taped it .. Its all looking less like a rats nest and more suited to tracing wires and working properly . All looks like its there , I run through he circuits with the help of a Haynes wire diagram and its all looking present and correct with the addition of a couple of spare toggles that are now currently redundant..

I bought one of those Chinese heaters ages ago to fit in the VW camper but never got around to it , So having read Bobsicles post re his installation I raked mine out and trial fitted it in the under seat tool box. Perfect fit so looks like that will be fitted to the landy .. Planning to sell the van next year so It wont need it

Plan to repair a corner on the tool box on Friday and get that and the inner sides of the front wings and transmission covers all coated in body colour .. and kee my fingers Xd I get a call from the blaster ..

For goodness sake PM me if you need to know how I wasted days making mistakes on how they run (and don’t run). They ain’t complicated but as you can see ‘some’ people seem to have had needless issues.

Sounds like it’s coming on in leaps and bounds. One day we will all have to get together and uncontrollably laugh at each other’s heaps

auld duffer said:

Got the front wings de undersealed and sanded all the old paint off both . they are now ready for a bit of tidying before applying the raptor to the underside . The outer wings need a sanding and a few splits and spare rivit holes welded up , might do that tonight .. Also sanded the body side in the above pics as it had a few scratches and chips , also massaged a few dents and scores out of the ali .. as I dont intend spending time with filler .. Its not a show boat , just a good sound refurbishment ,, No word from the blaster yet but if I get the bulkhead back this week I will be a wee bit ahead of the game ..

Looking for the seals that go between the bed and upper bed sides and the uopper bed sides and the roof . any ideas who might sel these ? Come to think of it will be replacing al the seals so any GO TO one stop shops for every weather seal on the body?

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I didn’t bother with made up seals. I approximated gaps and bought rolls of neoprene self adhesive strip in appropriate sizes. The side to tub was a bigun and simply squeezed in the recess on the sides with five or six mill stuck out of the bottom to compress on the tub caps.
It’s worked perfectly for six years.

Welded up all the various splits and holes that wont be required , Its always murder welding up old ali . the contaminants in the aluminum surface and the weld is pretty messy, but if you persevere they weld up fine and just need more cleanup.. All good .. Seat box also repaired and coated inside and out with Marine blue raptor coating, like wise the front wings underside and engine bay area. Also cleaned up the front panel , gearbox cover panel and sill panels , so they just need a wee tickle with the hammer and dolly to tidy them up and there good for coating . Really hoping I get the bulkhead back next week so I can get things assembled and aligned .. Its getting there .. Got a head start on the wiring with the dash loom being savable . Looks like it will only be headlight and indicator wiring to the front and run the loom to the rear. Should be a lot quicker just doing those areas and save a bit of cash on cost of the wire ..

With the Diesel converson on hold, ive secured a Fairly ( if thats the spelling) overdrive . Just liked the idea of using the old fella as it might have been to get a good idea of what they were like back in the day . If I like it , i might shelve the diesel conversion..

Although its not finished yet, I've quite enjoyed the build . Its been straight forward and really pretty reasonable cost wise .. It hasnt run away with funds, unlike the hot rod projects .. Ive found myself looking at short wheel base series 2s ... but determined not to bite lol.. There's still a long way to go with the series 3 yet

Planning ahead today, so looked out the diesel heater, and messed around seeing where it coud be mounted without taking up any useable space . .
With the seat box bolted loosely to the tub and mulling over locations I decided that there was enough space between the back of the seat box and the outrigger that locates the front of the tub .. So placed the unit there for a look and it fits like a glove . It will need a small bit of bracketry made up that will be an easy bolt in and probably a cover to keep the worst of the road dirt collecting on it but it looks like a goer and doesnt use any space needed for anything else . Run the wire loom from the mount point , run the controler and the feed wires up toward the dash and run the pump wire across to the tool box where the pump and a 3 litre plastic fuel tank will go . Plan is to make a splitter to distribute heat from the burner to the screen and footwell. Havent gave it to much though yet but will be in the form of a small heat exchanger with a couple of suitable take off pipes.. running either side of the trans tunnel .. Still in the planning stage though .. Might cop out and retain the matrix and fan for a backup ..

While planning it I did wonder if eliminating the matrix and the fan box would provide enough space to mount the entire diesel heater assembly . I think it might fit there if required . With a wee tube welded to the original land rover exhaust you could connect in the diesel heater exhaust, and route the fresh air intake under the front wing . Likewise the fan intake could be drawn through the inner wing .. Kinda sorry I havent waited till I got my bulkhead back now to be honest

Some pics, we all love pics
Starting with the front wings . Some crap ali welding to fill some needless holes and a couple of awkward cracks .. Old manky aluminum doesn't take to well to fresh weld so you have to kinda chase the weld in there and do a bit of clean up.. still better than filling over the cracks

After doing 20 of so holes and cracks I moved on to bumping out some wee dings on the front wings . its easier and quicker than filling and ultimately cheaper too..

Its kind of hard to photograph these but basicaly there were deep dents , bumped out and lightly body filed . All they will need is a bit of high build primer and a coat of paint

Then coated the seat box nd inner wings :