Freelander 1 Freelander EV

Jayridium said:

I don't care where he was born, or lives, he started it, so I finished it. There was absolutely no need for him to go off on that tangent saying we were all lazy layabouts living on benefits watching TV all day, even were it true, say I were tapping away on this forum in the queue for methadone hoping they'd hurry up so I wouldn't miss my job centre sign on time all the while ticked off that I would be missing [daytime tv show], A that is none of his business, and B we were laying him a path to be able to properly advertise his vehicles, so why take a pop at us, biting the hand that was trying to feed him.

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I agree with you, although I wasn't quite so vocal myself. Hopefully that's the last we'll see of him.

Jayridium said:

John! - do you realise what you've just done? Andy's likely to buy that one too...

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Indeed, and Andy doesn't have a 50th Anniversary Edition in his collection, and it's likely the FL1 which will become a future classic.

Oh heck, just had a proper look! Very shiny

andyfreelandy said:

Oh heck, just had a proper look! Very shiny

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Indeed it is. If I was in the market and had some long term storage facilities, it would be one to squirrel away.

andyfreelandy said:

Oh heck, just had a proper look! Very shiny

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@Nodge68 - you SEE! I told you!

Nodge68 said:

Indeed it is. If I was in the market and had some long term storage facilities, it would be one to squirrel away.

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I did very briefly roll the dice I use for manmaths sums for vehicular stuff based on the same logic, but remembered I am trying to reduce the number of vehicles, not increase it. Just like weight reduction tuning on a car, my collection appears to have a critical mass that to get below that level will incur lots of pain.

Watched the latest video video Ali. It looks like the sheet you're using is galvanised (there's zinc oxide around the welds), which doesn't weld well, and is also very toxic.
It's best to remove the zinc coating where you want the weld beads to be.

So I had a few hours on Saturday making a new battery tray for the 12V battery.
The old plastic one is too big and the wrong shape and I figured I'd get away with the Nissan Leaf battery which is smaller then the Freelander one since it will not need to crank a heavy diesel engine.
So I Did a bit of cutting and welding and managed to fit the battery in pretty much it's old position.


The tray is bolted down to the frame so it's all pretty solid but I wasn't sure about the angle iron as battery retainer. Can anyone comment if this is OK?

Then it occurred I should check the headlight still fits with the battery there and happily the battery and tray are not in the way at all.
The new battery cover I spent hours fabricating last week tho......
So on Sunday I sorted the problem by hacking away the right hand edge of the new cover and rebuilding and the frame under it so it is just about above the battery module that sits there and just below the bottom of the headlight.




It was at this point I asked myself why I had built the top shelf so high but couldn't bring myself to start hacking everything for the sake of 25mm. In theory I may have been able to fit in another two large modules but I don't fancy building another battery box at this stage. If I were doing this again I would certainly change many things and could probably do a better job but changes like that can wait, I have higher priorities for now.

The welding ain't pretty as the steel is so thin it blows through instantly requiring many small tack welds. I'll grind away some of the worst later this week.
Needless to say there will be a lot of seam sealer and Tiger Seal used when this goes in the car for real.

Nodge68 said:

Watched the latest video video Ali. It looks like the sheet you're using is galvanised (there's zinc oxide around the welds), which doesn't weld well, and is also very toxic.
It's best to remove the zinc coating where you want the weld beads to be.

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I know Nodge, It isn't nice to work with and I thought I had most of the zinc removed but maybe a little was still there. I had lots of ventilation while welding.

Alibro said:

The tray is bolted down to the frame so it's all pretty solid but I wasn't sure about the angle iron as battery retainer. Can anyone comment if this is OK?

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Cut the vertical web back sat 25mm, and then at an angle, like this:

then fit it with wing nuts and it will look purdy...

Alibro said:

Then it occurred I should check the headlight still fits with the battery there and happily the battery and tray are not in the way at all.
The new battery cover I spent hours fabricating last week tho......
So on Sunday I sorted the problem by hacking away the right hand edge of the new cover and rebuilding and the frame under it so it is just about above the battery module that sits there and just below the bottom of the headlight.

View attachment 272524
View attachment 272526

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Are you going to be able to run a nut down thost studs?

Alibro said:

It was at this point I asked myself why I had built the top shelf so high but couldn't bring myself to start hacking everything for the sake of 25mm. In theory I may have been able to fit in another two large modules but I don't fancy building another battery box at this stage. If I were doing this again I would certainly change many things and could probably do a better job but changes like that can wait, I have higher priorities for now.

The welding ain't pretty as the steel is so thin it blows through instantly requiring many small tack welds. I'll grind away some of the worst later this week.
Needless to say there will be a lot of seam sealer and Tiger Seal used when this goes in the car for real.
View attachment 272527

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Just tickle it with flap discs and it should be fine, if it's exposed and you want to make it pretty, skim it with filler and sand it down, will be fine.

Alibro said:

The old plastic one is too big and the wrong shape and I figured I'd get away with the Nissan Leaf battery which is smaller then the Freelander one since it will not need to crank a heavy diesel engine.

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You could likely get away with a 12V LifePO4 for the 12V battery Ali. These are smaller and have a higher energy density than lead Acid, although it's cheaper to use what you have to keep costs down.

Jayridium said:

Cut the vertical web back sat 25mm, and then at an angle, like this:
View attachment 272528
then fit it with wing nuts and it will look purdy...

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Perfeck mate. great suggestion.

Jayridium said:

Are you going to be able to run a nut down thost studs?

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Yes, just, I ground away the flange from some M10 flange nuts and they fit a treat.

Jayridium said:

Just tickle it with flap discs and it should be fine, if it's exposed and you want to make it pretty, skim it with filler and sand it down, will be fine.

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I can assure you there will be no filler on my battery boxes.
As if I haven't given myself enough unnecessary work already.

Nodge68 said:

You could likely get away with a 12V LifePO4 for the 12V battery Ali. These are smaller and have a higher energy density than lead Acid, although it's cheaper to use what you have to keep costs down.

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I could mate but as you say using wot I got is cheaper.

Alibro said:

I know Nodge, It isn't nice to work with and I thought I had most of the zinc removed but maybe a little was still there. I had lots of ventilation while welding.

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I've had quite a lot of experience welding zinc plated repair box sections of classic cars. It's decidedly unpleasant to weld, and the resulting oxide smoke contaminates the weld puddle, making the weld brittle.

Making sure you've plenty of fresh air blowing about is a good plan.

There's an old wives tale that goes about engineering circles to drink mily when working with galvy metal, don't know the validity of it, or the science behind it, but it could worth doing as a belt and braces kind of control.

Jayridium said:

There's an old wives tale that goes about engineering circles to drink mily when working with galvy metal, don't know the validity of it, or the science behind it, but it could worth doing as a belt and braces kind of control.

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Mily?????
Where I come from Milly's are young ladies with low morals.

Alibro said:

Mily?????
Where I come from Milly's are young ladies with low morals.

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I've been at sea a few weeks now, Millys sound awesome, tell me where I can I find them, then you can go back to drinking your galvy welder's ration of MILK...

Jayridium said:

I've been at sea a few weeks now, Millys sound awesome, tell me where I can I find them, then you can go back to drinking your galvy welder's ration of MILK...

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Sorry mate, I don't know any young ladies with morals low enough for your needs.

Latest vid.

New box to go under the boot floor


Welded a flange onto the top edge. The current plan is to put a thick bead of silicone on the flange so that when it is bolted under the boot floor it seals to the underside of the car. I can then install the modules through the fish tank opening.


This is it being test fitted.

I originally built it to take more modules but using it this way just makes it a lot heavier and pushes the centre of gravity even further back.



Since it makes little difference to the box going in the boot I decided to reduce the number of modules in it to 6 large which will be much easier to install and connect.

You've forgotten the drain hole