Classic LSE Not So Rolling Resto and Discovery 300Tdi Daily

Not got a lot done recently as we've been in isolation thanks to Kirsty catching COVID at work. You'd think that would mean I'd get loads done but actually it hasn't changed the amount of time I've been at home and, although I haven't really had any symptoms, I've not had any energy for being outside in the cold and the wet. I've been playing with circuit board designs instead, which may make it onto this thread in the future if they progress into anything.

Back on it this afternoon though and I actually remembered to take some photos!

My hinge pins for the tailgate had been sent as part of an order of P38 parts to my mother's address, but today I had a parcel from her arrive with them in it. This meant I could put the tailgate back on again, hopefully for the last time. Spent a little time fiddling with getting it gapped so that I was happy and plugging the number plate lights back in and then it was time to turn the car back around so I have proper access to the near side again.

It wouldn't start. Fuel pump wasn't running. Thought it would be the connector behind the N/S wheel arch which had been off when I was painting, but actually it turned out to be a dodgy earth at the tank. Need to remove the spade connector there and sort something better for reliability before it goes on the road.

Once it was finally turned around I set about the next section of rot which is the N/S/R cill end and body mount. After a little work with the strip wheel and removing the body mount bolt, it looked like this.




After a lot of poking and a little measuring I decided to chop the body mount out so I could see where I was going and how it was all put together. Now it looks like this...



The back end of the inner cill returns along the back edge of the body mount bracket, with the closing panel at the front of the wheel arch sandwiching it. Not how I would have guessed it went. My new body mount bracket is from GDI Products on eBay and is a different design, presumably so that it is ambidextrous but I think it will all go together fine. I'm going to make the new section of inner cill first, then get that and the body mount welded back in before I cut out the remainder. After the inner cill and body mount are sorted they shouldn't be able to move at all while I sort the wheel arch closing panel, the outer cill and the bottom of the outer wheel arch.

I also need to sort this at the other end of the body mount outrigger while I have access. The back face facing into the wheel arch is worse so I'll have to fold a section to come up the back and around onto the top. Since it's pretty thick stuff that could be fun!



More soon.

Rich

Bit more progress made.

First I made up a new section of inner cill with the body mount on it. I wasn't entirely happy with the replacement body mount - they seem to have been designed to be ambidextrous, which makes sense, but means that the horizontal plate which the chassis attaches to is a separate piece welded to the wings. It's also only welded on two sides.



I decided that by cutting a slot through the back and through the inner cill piece I made, I could tie the three sections together with one seam of weld. Obviously I've also plug welded it to both the side and end of the cill.




Next made up a patch to replace the front most section of the wheel arch that joins to the cill. Thinking on doing this next was that by doing things one section at a time before chopping the next out I could be confident nothing was moving around. I thought this part was going to be a real pain to make but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought and I'm really chuffed with how it fitted in.





Next I did the section at the front of the outer wheel arch. Don't have a photo of this welded in though so that will have to wait for the next update.



Now that all those are in and seem to fit nicely without any signs of things having moved, I felt confident to chop the outer cill off and make a patch up for that section. On both the inner and outer cills I chose to stagger the cut through the top and the bottom in the hope that would increase the length of weld and make the joint stronger. Not sure if that will make any difference in reality but it worked in my head. I noticed once I had cut the outer cill off that I could have welded the inner cill a little hotter, so I've rewelded it from the outside now with the welder turned right up. I've made up a patch for the outer cill now that fits nicely, so next stop is to get the inside of the cill and of the patch painted and then weld it all on.



More soon.

Rich

You really are making a great job of this. Great to see the progress. Keep going.

Thanks for that. Making a few mistakes along the way and really looking forward to being able to actually drive it rather than just annoy the neighbours cutting it up but I’m trying to do the best job I can. Really appreciate the likes, messages and inspiration on other threads on here.

Rich

Little more progress over the past week. I spent a few evenings painting the underside of the floor sections that were out of the car and the inside of the repair section that I made for the cill. On Saturday I was able to clean up the inside of the cill and get a little paint in there, and seeing as I mixed up a little more than I needed I roughly ground down a few of the welds in the area and used the rest of the paint up on the cill end and the wheel arch. Still more work to do to make them all look a little tidier, and still quite a bit of welding to do in the area so much of this will probably get burned off but it seemed better than letting the paint go off in the pot.



Once this was done and the paint in the cill had gone touch dry I decided to start getting the cill repair section on. Got it lined up and plug welded in place yesterday but it was really cold and snowing so I ran out of patience by this time and decided to leave the seam for today. Now today I have been able to get back out there and do the seam so that's that fully on which is a motivation boost. Conditions for welding haven't been that much better today than yesterday but I think it's all gone on well enough. No noisy work on Sundays so I'll have to wait until in the week to be sure that I'm happy with the welds.




More soon.

Rich

Proper update to come sometime soon as I have been making progress, but I feel as if a public shout to Makita Customer Services is needed.

A few years ago, before I bought the Range Rover and not long after moving to my current house and having my own garage for the first time, I found myself wanting a new angle grinder. I already had two at the time, but you can never have enough tools can you? One of the two I had was an Aldi one which was ok, was variable speed which was handy sometimes, but was really bulky, cheap feeling and had a trigger rather than a switch. The other was a Bosch that is at least 20 years old and I suspect will go on forever, but has no lock button which makes changing discs a pain.

So I was making a divider to keep the dogs separate in the boot of the P38 and only one of my ginders was actually in Bristol. I find working with only one grinder a right pain as I much prefer to have different discs on a different machine to stop having to change them all the time. Off to Screwfix to get myself a new one I popped then. Makita selected as I've never had a problem with any Makita tool and they have a good reputation. I selected the cheapest 240V basic version they made as all I wanted was something that would be reliable and go on for ever.

The other week, all the smoke escaped from it. Bugger. Still, had to be worth a try to see if it was in warranty?

I phoned makita customer services. Answered in moments with no time on hold by a nice chap in Milton Keynes. Told them i bought it nearly 3 years ago and never registered for the extended warranty. Despite the fact it was out of warranty, they said they would sent a courier and at least inspect it free of charge. If it needed repairs I might have to pay. Less than a week later I got it back today all fixed free of charge! In between they have replaced the missing safety labels, safety guards and safety handles and even the fuse holder I lost under a shelf when I borrowed the fuse for a tool I didn’t trust with a torx bit when I couldn't find a spare 13Amp. I genuinely had to check the serial number before I believed it was the same one they sent back as they've even managed to remove all the dirt, dust, grease and overspray that I'd covered it in.

I suspect that I might not be the only one with a collection of tools so while I wouldn't want to tell people what to buy, I thought I'd give them a shout on here to say thanks. I'm sure you can all guess what colour my next power tool will be!

Rich

Fair play making that sill finisher/arch part. It’s notoriously tricky hence froggats supplying them. If you can make that panel you can make any other on this build!

resto_d1 said:

Fair play making that sill finisher/arch part. It’s notoriously tricky hence froggats supplying them. If you can make that panel you can make any other on this build!

Click to expand...

I think in fairness that I dodged the tricky bit to make. The corner where the two different curves come together looked like it would be a pain to replicate and was salvageable so I left it where it was and just replaced the rotten section which didn’t have any compound curves. I imagine I’m going to have a less fun time the other side of the car one day as I think the rust has progressed further there but the existing patches are adequate at the moment.

Planning to update with some major progress later this week...

Rich

Great progress.

I do have a softspot for the LSE it was the best iteration of the RRC in my opinion especially with the hard dash..

Is yours still on air?

Henry_b said:

Great progress.

I do have a softspot for the LSE it was the best iteration of the RRC in my opinion especially with the hard dash..

Is yours still on air?

Click to expand...

I might be biased but I think I agree. The EAS is a big part of why I wanted an LSE. I’d have considered a Vogue TDI or SE instead but only with EAS.

This car didn’t have it all present when I bought it but the plumbing, wiring, valve block, pump and tank were all still present which was part of my deciding it was worth looking at. I’ve rebuilt the valve block and pump and fitted bags and height sensors so it should all be good to go now.

Rich

RAW111111 said:

I might be biased but I think I agree. The EAS is a big part of why I wanted an LSE. I’d have considered a Vogue TDI or SE instead but only with EAS.

This car didn’t have it all present when I bought it but the plumbing, wiring, valve block, pump and tank were all still present which was part of my deciding it was worth looking at. I’ve rebuilt the valve block and pump and fitted bags and height sensors so it should all be good to go now.

Rich

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That's great Rich

Luckily you ended up with the best of the bunch that being the 4.2

Where did you find the airbags?

H

Henry_b said:

That's great Rich

Luckily you ended up with the best of the bunch that being the 4.2

Where did you find the airbags?

H

Click to expand...

Is the wink because I've already mentioned that the 4.2 has gone walkies somewhere? This one only has a 3.9 these days but if there is ever a problem with it it will be replaced with either a 4.6 and an electronic version of the 4hp gearbox that's there, or perhaps a TDV8. 3.9 seems fairly sweet but obviously I haven't driven it far to know!

I got the airbags from Charles at CN4x4s in wales on eBay. Used him a few times now for this and the P38 and always had a good experience.

Rich

Update Time! Slightly delayed as my laptop needed a new battery after 9 years.

Floor in... Near disaster at this point as I managed to melt some pipes while welding without thinking about it. Fortunately I only got the EAS ones rather than the fuel ones right next to them! Joined back together with push fittings - these will annoy me forever I'm sure but they won't actually be an issue I suppose.



Lots of grinding of welds and paint stripping/keying where it was sound...



Tidied the last weld in the boot floor as well...



Paint...



Since had seam sealer and more paint on the inside, seam sealer and stone chip on the underside and now the body is back on the chassis and I can actually lock the car with the remote without the alarm going off when next door's cats climb in through the floor!

Next stop - clear the garage by putting some of the boot area back together and then storing some bits in there. Then the dashboard can come out and the N/S wing and I can set to on the passenger's footwell and inner wing.

Rich

I'll just leave this here...



Rich

Hi All,

Left this too long as usual. Last time I updated properly I had just finished painting the rear floor and body mount on the passenger side cill after getting them in. Well I've made a little progress since then sorting out the passenger's side footwell and front wheel arch.

First up was to have a proper tidy up and make some space in the garage. This meant reassembling some of the interior and doing some spring cleaning. The boot has been filled since this was taken obviously - it's a flat dry space!



Next was to strip the dash and engine bay out.





As you can see the wheel arch and front panels were a little worse for wear. I already had YRM kits for both wheel arches in the garage, but hadn't ordered the headlight box or body mount as I hadn't realised how far gone they also were. While waiting for those to be delivered (YRM were out of stock of one of the panels), I got on with the footwell.

In the first of those last three photos the white hatched area was the bit I expected to replace, but every time I went to mark a cut line I noticed another bit that was just a little too rusty. Before I knew It I was making this repair panel. This was probably actually the hardest repair patch I've made on the whole car.



I also had a couple of other bits to make on the side of the footwell. Fortunately these were all much simpler!




With the big patch finally a shape I was happy with I decided I needed to paint it before I fitted it as it sits over the chassis and would be difficult to paint once installed. Seemed silly to paint it on it's own so I decided to paint all the wheel arch panels for this side at the same time. To do that I first had to repair the ones that were being reused and modify some of the others. The headlight panel needed a few holes moving, the panel in front of the spring seat needed reshaping to fit around the EAS shock mount, some of the flanges needed cuts welding up where there were curves on the original panels and all the mounting and access holes needed to be drilled in the correct places and have captive nuts welded on. That little lot took me a few weeks and this week I finally got them all in primer.




The last shot shows that the floor patch got primed and stone chipped at the same time, so tonight I have been able to get back to the job that I was distracted from several weeks ago and actually get the floor welded up!



Next I guess I have to do my favourite bit - grinding and paint prep . Perhaps I'll go back to the distraction instead and test fit the front end.

I've been thinking about a few things while I've been working on the front end. While I was modifying the panels I moved a load of things around just in case I wanted to fit a second battery and split charge system in the future. I have a few thoughts I wonder if any of you might be able to help me with...

While I was working out where to move things about I was wondering about the airbox as well. What options are there from a snorkel perspective on the RRC? I like the Disco 1 Safari Snorkel much better than the RRC ones I have seen which run through the scuttle panel, but I don't know how well it would match the shape of the bonnet and whether it would be possible to make it work. Modifying the bonnet wouldn't be an issue as it's in the garage awaiting paint prep anyway, but the Safari snorkel is an expensive kit if I was to find that it can't be made to work.

Also, I'm thinking I'll make the centre section of the slam panel bolt in for ease of maintenance in the future - has anyone done this before on a Disco 1 or RRC and if so do you think it was worth it?

More soon.

Rich

Hi All,

Feels like it's been a while again.

Got the quarter panel on with Clecos first...





Mostly fitted ok but there were a couple of bits that needed tweaking. Removed the brake lines to allow the missing section to fit and put a step in the flange on the rail so it would fit right against the A pillar.



That seemed to work ok so I welded up the step I had put into the flange, ground it back and started actually welding things on. I put just enough plug welds in to hold all the panels in place and then test fitted everything to make sure it all seemed to line up right.






I didn't test fit the bonnet as I'd already started fixing this (photo staged afterwards as I didn't take one before cutting the rotten bit out. There was a hole in the off-side corner which I fixed first before moving on to replace the whole flange across the front of the outer skin where it is spot welded to the frame. Best as I can tell there is no real way to get paint in behind the frame, or for water to get out so that will need a thorough waxing once the bonnet has been painted! I've also had to weld up a few cracks in the frame here and there - perhaps more reliable cars are less prone to cracked bonnets than range rovers?







Back to the quarter panel (and back in time a little actually as I've been working inside on the bonnet or outside on the quarter panel depending on the weather and my mood). Took all the parts back off, ground out a few welds to move one of the panels a little and then welded all the plug welds up for good.




That's not going anywhere then. On to the next one! Brake pump out reveals a few bits of extra ventilation. There are actually three more holes at the back that are out of sight in this shot and the two mounts for the brake pump which I managed to remove didn't actually unbolt from the panel, the nuts just came through.



So this week I have taken three days off to make some progress. I now have a bit of a deadline as we're moving house this summer. I need to get the car in a state where it can go for the engine bay and the bonnet to be painted before we move, so that I can then collect it from paint straight to the new place ready for reassembly.

New toy arrived today so I've been trying to get to the pain in the arse bolts on the back of the bell housing all evening! Anyone know if the four bolts between the bell housing and the engine block which are bigger than a 13mm and don't seem to fit a 14mm very well are in fact 1/2" AF on a 3.9/4.2 era Rover V8? This might explain why I've been struggling to get them to move!



More soon - maybe I'll try to post daily this week?

Rich

Awesome work there Rich, really tidy. I haven’t touched mine for probably a year

resto_d1 said:

Awesome work there Rich, really tidy. I haven’t touched mine for probably a year

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'm pretty pleased with the patch in the bonnet. It might be good enough to get away with just a bit of high build primer but I'm expecting that the practiced eye of the painter will probably say it needs a little filler. I'm still pretty chuffed. Isn't yours on the road?

Bit more progress today. First things first a little which was actually from yesterday but I forgot to take any photos. First a couple of the next two sections that have gone into the bonnet and then one of the what I have to deal with tomorrow.




This morning I got on with the engine removal after having given up on those bell housing bolts yesterday. Turns out they are 9/16" AF so I borrowed some spanners from a mate down the road and had them out in no time. Not sure if it was being less tired or having a spanner that fitted which made the difference but it worked. After spilling steering fluid all over the drive and damaging a body mount and some wires removing the last of the earth straps with an angle grinder, this happened...



Then I had to spend quite a while reorganising the garage to make somewhere to put the engine where I could actually get the crane to it. I had spent some time making a space yesterday for it, but when I came to actually put the engine in the garage I realised there wasn't a hope of making enough space to get the crane all the way through!

Next I had to make a fixture for retaining the torque converter in the gearbox while the car is away being painted. I'm sure the painter would not be keen on it pouring ATF all over his floor. After all that, a celebratory cuppa, and taking the taking the dog out for a walk, I got on with achieving the second of my targets for this week - removing the O/S inner wing. I think I found where the water has been getting into the driver's footwell.



Finally this evening I've done a little more welding on the N/S inner wing fixing things I got wrong or forgot to modify before I fitted it. Not all that clear in the photos but I've extended the tabs that the grille hooks behind and welded up a few unnecessary holes and a couple of plug welds that I missed. The only welding I think I need to do on this side now is to add some captive nuts for the slam panel to bolt to as I want to make it removable. Last I gave the front section of the chassis and the bulkhead a first pass with some degreaser. It's not like it's clean now but it's cleaner than it was before. You can see my torque converter retaining fixture in these - It might look like a few random bits of wood bolted to the bell housing but I assure you that's a very technical fixture made specially for the job.



More tomorrow hopefully. I'm planning on finishing off the bonnet and maybe making a start on patching the driver's footwell. Paul the painter is going to pop over as well hopefully to have a chat about where I'm up to and decide what state I'm going to get it to before it goes to his workshop.

Thanks for the likes and comments.

Rich

Well my third day off didn't result in quite as much progress as hoped. Power cut and a load of wedding planning put paid to that. I did get the rest of the leading edge of the bonnet finished off though which turned out to need a repair three layers thick! Who knew that the bonnet frame had that many layers hiding away with no way to get paint into them all.






I haven't managed to get any photos which really show it very well but I'm fairly pleased with how little distortion there is on the top side of the outer skin. There are a couple of points I have noticed where a little more work with the hammer and dolly might tidy the line of the leading edge up but it looks fairly good to me. Hopefully the painter should be popping in sometime this week which will tell me properly I suppose!

I made a start on making the repairs to the O/S inner wing this evening. Stripped the panels which I need to salvage form the old one out ready to repair them and started reshaping the panel which goes in front of the spring to go around the shock tower. I tried to do this using a bending stick as shown by Bad Obsession Motorsport in one of the Project Binky episodes (basically a length of bar with a slit in the end the depth of the return you want to use it to bend up. I didn't have any bar stock so used a length of M14 all thread. It sort of worked but the slit from my 1mm slitting disc was a very tight fit on the panel. I think a bit more clearance would make it easier to use. No photos to show but I'll get some next time I'm out there.

Cheers all.

Rich

Bit more progress has been being squeezed in between final planning for wedding this weekend and to move house over the next few weeks.

I patched up the O/S battery tray. Good enough to reuse.




Finished making all the replacement panels from YRM as close to the originals as I could be bothered. Close to original is not entirely right actually. I've been moving the holes in them around from how YRM make the panels to be where I want them to be, but I haven't actually been putting all the same holes as Land Rover did as a lot of them seem to have been present to allow the panel to be used on LHD or RHD cars and therefore are not actually required. As with the N/S I've welded on captive nuts for a lot of the things that are mounted on the inner arches and a bracket under the battery tray for a relay box. The relay boxes I've got are from PSA cars where they are used for the electric fans, but I'm planning to use them for the headlights.








Next job was to fit the panels up with clamps and check how it all lined up. I've bought some more clamps for this side so hopefully the seams will be a bit tighter when welded. While it was fit up I found that the upright at the body mount was leaning forward and the wing was sitting a bit too far out. Once I camped the slam panel on it fixed it so I welded in the captive M8 nuts for that to be attached with on both sides and drilled the new panels for clecos so that I can put it back together in the same place when I come to weld it. I'm happy that the alignment is actually going to be better on this side than on the N/S with a few lessons learned from doing that one first.




Lastly over the past few days after having taken it back apart again I've prepped all the panels finally and then sprayed the zinc rich primer on them finishing tonight.




Don't think I'll get anything done till next week now but hopefully I should have it all welded on next weekend which would be a nice birthday present to myself!

Cheers,

Rich