Ian's 90 300tdi rebuild

Thank you all .
Yes did think the d1 unit looked a bit big , also looked at the puma ones , have also looked at the electric element route but have read in a few threads that they draw a hell of a lot of power . Now thinking of reworking the defender heater box , rerouting the ducting to make it more efficient upgrading the blower to a 3 speed fan and fitting a bypass valve but it’s all ideas at the minute. I have read the thread on the cheap chinky diesel heater but have read a lot have issues with them and you can sometimes pick up a used eberspacher of eBay for cheap money , need to start and sort the wiring out .

Ian Maycock said:

Thank you all .
Yes did think the d1 unit looked a bit big , also looked at the puma ones , have also looked at the electric element route but have read in a few threads that they draw a hell of a lot of power . Now thinking of reworking the defender heater box , rerouting the ducting to make it more efficient upgrading the blower to a 3 speed fan and fitting a bypass valve but it’s all ideas at the minute. I have read the thread on the cheap chinky diesel heater but have read a lot have issues with them and you can sometimes pick up a used eberspacher of eBay for cheap money , need to start and sort the wiring out .

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The Webasto airtop and thermotop heaters come on ebay very regularly and can often be found in the scrap yards too.

I liked the thermotop as it is a coolant heater which will help the engine in the colder weather, I also like the airtop heaters as they will be a direct in cab air heater that will heat and dry the interior.

I agree that reworking the original heaterbox will yield you good results as the vast majority are out of adjustment and the foam seals and gaskets long ago perished.

Top job Ian and a good write up.

Thank you.

Excellent work there. Makes me want to start my rebuild

Thank you , so today decided to finish off the welding on the door frames but first up welded the fixing tab back on to one of the seats ,

Next up the driver's side door ,



and a few new shiny bits ,

so cut out the top rusty bits ,

and welded in the shiny new bits ,



next cut out the bottom rail and fitted the new bit ,



complete with new strengthening strip ,


Next up the passenger door which was worse in places ,



then welded in the new bits ,



I'm off next thurs , fri so hopefully will get them stripped in the week after work and then sprayed thurs . Will primer the frames and the new skins separately then bond them together and then spray the top coat and laquer , will also try and get the seats stripped and the frames painted which will mean a few other jobs off the list . Need to order some bits and will hopefully get them fitted as well .
cheers Ian

Ian Maycock said:

Thank you , so today decided to finish off the welding on the door frames but first up welded the fixing tab back on to one of the seats ,
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Next up the driver's side door ,
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and a few new shiny bits ,
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so cut out the top rusty bits ,
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and welded in the shiny new bits ,
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next cut out the bottom rail and fitted the new bit ,
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complete with new strengthening strip ,
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Next up the passenger door which was worse in places ,
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then welded in the new bits ,
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I'm off next thurs , fri so hopefully will get them stripped in the week after work and then sprayed thurs . Will primer the frames and the new skins separately then bond them together and then spray the top coat and laquer , will also try and get the seats stripped and the frames painted which will mean a few other jobs off the list . Need to order some bits and will hopefully get them fitted as well .
cheers Ian

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Excellent welding, Ian. Did you teach yourself?
I borrowed an old, tiny welder when I was doing mine. I had to refurbish the bloody welder first! Anyway, couldn't get it right and just kept blowing holes in. Didn't take long for me to give up and decide to buy new doors. It was before I realised you could buy galvanised ones. Or, that everyone galvanised everything that could be dipped So, I took the skins off and had the frames plastic coated, the stuff they put on kids swings down the park etc. Then filled the insides with dinitrol. Wish I'd got them galvanised though as they are starting to go already. I can't believe it After all of your hard work, I'd be getting them galved.

Thank you , I am a fabricator/welder by trade but my dad taught me to weld about 30 years ago in the garden shed , I’d lost my job and he came home one day with a bucket of scrap and said if you can learn to weld in 2 weeks there’s a job at our place going and I’ve been doing it ever since . Those welds are all cleaned up welding old steel is never pretty and those welds looked rough when I did them and I blew through many times you need to sot it rather than trying to weld it . I’ve just changed jobs and previously had access to a galv plant , but I’m not having these galved as I can’t be sure that there’s no paint on the inside and galv won’t stick to paint and was told were I worked by someone in the galv plant that the acid they dip the steel in prior to galvanising won’t remove paint , so can’t see the point in having them done.

Ian Maycock said:

Thank you , I am a fabricator/welder by trade but my dad taught me to weld about 30 years ago in the garden shed , I’d lost my job and he came home one day with a bucket of scrap and said if you can learn to weld in 2 weeks there’s a job at our place going and I’ve been doing it ever since . Those welds are all cleaned up welding old steel is never pretty and those welds looked rough when I did them and I blew through many times you need to sot it rather than trying to weld it . I’ve just changed jobs and previously had access to a galv plant , but I’m not having these galved as I can’t be sure that there’s no paint on the inside and galv won’t stick to paint and was told were I worked by someone in the galv plant that the acid they dip the steel in prior to galvanising won’t remove paint , so can’t see the point in having them done.

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That's a bugger. With being new, mine wouldn't have had that problem. I just keep spraying more dinitrol in mine and down inside where the skin folds over the frame.

When I repaired the chassis on this I took that to work and had it done , I had had it blasted before repairing and the chap on the plant said they had had to rub it over with sanding blocks in places as there was still specks of paint on it . I was going to have the bulkhead galved but when I did the repairs and removed the foot wells all the insides of the a pillars were painted so didn’t see any point in having it done after what I’d been told .

So a bit further forward , didn't get as much done as I would have liked over the last 4 days but enjoyed the break from work , so a package of shiny new silicone hoses arrived ,

and picked up a bargain off ebay of a brand new set of Dewalt extreme cobalt drill bits for £45 , these are the best drills I've used with a battery drill only other set on ebay was £107 so was well pleased .

Next up got the floor plates and gearbox tunnel fitted ,

then a trip to Pirtek to get the auto gearbox oil cooler pipes shortened by 200mm they did a good job , finding time to get these done has been holding me up finishing off the front end but now alls good ,


this also mean't I finished fitting the aux belt and a few other jobs on the engine that I wasn't fussed about doing as I was waiting for the pipes , next came the test fit .

I then had to strip it all back off to drill a couple of mounting holes in the wing and make couple of spacer plates which I painted and was waiting for them to dry , also got the inner wings painted .

These took me over a day to clean off and didn't do my chest any good but there done now , and a pic with the front all bolted up and the top IC hose fitted .

So if I feel like it I'll hopefully get the oil cooler fitted in the week and some more of the hoses fitted and possibly a few other jobs if not then next weekend will be a bit busier .

It's been a while since my last post family parties and the need for a rest also working Saturdays have got in the way and once you start to enjoy relaxing it's hard to get your get up and go working again , still need to take some pics of the finished oil cooler forgot about that its been that long have ordered quite a bit of stuff as well , so first up fitted the fuel filler pipes which turned into a right chore should have fitted the breather before I fitted the tank

Then after finishing off a few other jobs I cracked on with the brake lines , change of plan here though after some thought I decided to go with stainless steel braided lines I fitted them to the 110 and have had no problems , so measured up and ordered a set from here https://furoreproducts.co.uk/custom-brake-hose and they came all shiny , I like shiny things

I kept the standard short hard lines on the front calipers and the short flexis front and rear from chassis to axle

and fitted











still got a bit of tidying up to do underneath but need to remove the floor and some brackets to keep the lines tidy from the servo to the bias valve but other than that I'm quite happy . Will try and make up the new battery cables and engine loom in the week and also the new headlight and front light loom .

This is looking really well built mate, good effort I wouldn’t want to get it muddy

Thank you , it’s going to be more of a daily driver but you just have to get them muddy don’t you .

Hi all , haven't updated this for a while lost interest in it but lots has been done and a load due to lockdown so I'll be updating over the next week or so , so here goes . First up was finished off putting the engine bits on ,


got the auto gearbox oil cooler pipework sorted and all fitted ,

heated windscreen was fitted next by a company not me ,

then on to a spot of wiring , battery cables ,

rear lights chassis loom

front lights wiring upgrade running them straight from the battery via relays of course ,

and engine hareness ,


chassis hareness fitted and into a maypole caravan junction box , pinched the idea ,

makes it nice and neat at the rear , then fitted the front lights loom ,

and the svx grill and lights ,



so that's it for now , but lots more to catch up . The windscreen wiper mod I was doing is finished and working and I'm up to the custom dash so a lot more fab work for those interested .

Stunning, Ian! Stunning

Brilliant thread, unbelievable amount of very skilled work and attention to detail, fantastic!

I know it's all too easy to loose motivation or interest, but please don't! This is one of the best builds I've seen!

Thank you all very much , I shall definitely finish it so no worry there I tend to get very involved and forget about other things in life , but the irony is it’s all I can do at the minute because of the lockdown hahahahaha .

Fab work...lol...keep the pics coming...

So a bit more catching up today , doors up next . Earlier you saw how I repaired them so now to paint and new skins , first job primer the skin side of the frames and the vents ,

then the new skins ,

mastic supplied by SP landrovers where I had the skins from was smeared all over the frame then the frame dropped onto the skin and centralised , then the lip bent over and flattened with a hammer , block of wood and a block of steel . They were then spayed up in the Rioja red pearl paint ,




next sound proofing was applied the bonnet ,

then the rear door was assembled ,

with high up break light ,

I ordered a new galv bumper and marked it up to fit some fog/spot lights ( still not got round to it )

next assemble the vents with new seals ,

and the brackets to keep them closed

and fitted ,


now no ones read this yet as I'm still writing it but I can already here people saying why's he done that , well if you've read it all you can remember me saying a few pages back about using a disco 1 wiper mechanism in the defender and getting rid of the wayward spiral wire jobbie , well to get that to work I had to remove the vent mechanisms as it fouled the rods . I never used the anyway and thought they where water traps so it was no loss to loose them but I still wanted to keep the look , I did look at welding them but it was tight in there and I wouldn't have been able to get in there to clean the welds so came up with this idea and yes I have managed to do it and get it to work , the idea came watching project binky so blame them and I have a video of them working , but you'll have to wait for a while as that's quite away ahead as I only finished it last week and there's a lot more to catch up on .
cheers Ian