S3 109 Safari project......

I dug out the Kurust and painted the whole dash with it. After it dried, I gave it two coats of primer and two further coats of satin black. I didn’t see the need to paint it the original russet brown as it’s going to get covered anyway

Next job is to tackle cleaning up the vent flaps and rod, paint it, fit new foam to the flaps and install them. The top plate needs cleaning and painting then reinstalling. Once that’s done, it’s onto reinstalling the vinyl cover, gluing the edges down and dying the vinyl to match the top dash.

After cleaning the surface rust off the vent flaps, I gave it a coat of Kurust, two coats of primer and two coats of gloss black. Once dried I cut some foam to size for the flap seals, then glued them on with Evo-stik.

I moved onto the next job which was to reattach the vinyl dash cover. I cleaned it down inside and out to make sure that it went on without a hitch. I also heated it up with a hairdryer to make the vinyl more pliable as it was bitterly cold! Again, I glued round the edges where the vinyl was stuck down originally, fitted the retainer clips and give it all a heat again to get it all sitting neatly. After this I took off the dymo labels from the front of the dash which were applied by the previous owner, gave it a thorough clean with degreaser and cleaner. I then cut and applied some seals for the heater inlet, fitted the vent flaps which thankfully fitted correctly and gave the dash 2 coats of vinyl dye.

Fitted the new heater vent cable, reassembled the top cover on the dash panel and fitted the dash…..
It wasn’t that straightforward to be honest . One of the bolts that holds the upper side of the dash, the rivnut came loose and spun with the bolt . Back off with the dash….. The other one was okay. Replaced the rivnut… put the dash back on, bolted on the side with the new rivnut which went on okay, the the other one then fell out . At that point I had to walk away… so that’s a job for next time!

I've been watching your dash progress as I have the same to do myself soon. I retrieved my dash from the attic today. I knew it was bad but I had forgotten just how bad. It's as bad as yours and I'm properly intimidated. If I make half as good a job as you I'll be happy.

Many thanks! I’m sure you will manage just fine. I was a bit intimidated by the sheer amount of rot, but if you break the repairs down into manageable chunks, it’s not so bad. Using templates helped me make some of the difficult shapes. I think I would try to get a better one if I did it again but they seem to be a bit thin on the ground .
Hope you share some pics of the repair when you get going on it.

I think any existing ones out there have either already been repaired or are just as bad. One question though, the steel is very thin so did you use the same thickness to make repair sections or something a bit thicker?

LincolnSteve said:

I think any existing ones out there have either already been repaired or are just as bad. One question though, the steel is very thin so did you use the same thickness to make repair sections or something a bit thicker?

Click to expand...

I used the same thickness of steel for the majority of the repairs, but for the corner piece at the drivers side I used slightly thicker steel because I cut and welded it to create the curved shape which meant grinding it a bit more to get the welds flat. This would potentially weaken thinner steel and would have been more difficult to weld if it were thinner. Other than that piece, it was all the same thickness.

After removing the lower dash again, I drilled a new hole for an m6 rivnut to replace the previous one that spun and fell out. Following this, I refitted it again, installed the new bolt into the rivnut and fitted the new rubber duct collars. Following that I cleaned and installed the lower dash trim, which seems to be a pretty hard thing to find. I managed to find one in my friends landrover spares stash. I think that’s me done with the dash for now, although I have the dash tray to fit. I can do that after sorting out the dash wiring.

For some reason I couldn’t post the pic in the post above

Looks great. Nice one.

Hi Folks, I’ve been a bit busy fixing my other Landrover (Freelander) so the Series 3 has been a bit neglected! Made a bit of progress today though. Finished the brake pipes at the front and up to the PWDA valve. Just got the master cylinder to the PWDA valve, but I need the inner wing on to get the right shape, so that will be a job for later. Also fitted the front bumper, which needed a fair bit of fettling as it’s seen some action in its past! . I didn’t want to put a brand new bumper on it as it’s part of the history of the vehicle, even though it’s not perfect. I’ve done this in other areas as I don’t really wanting it to look as if it’s just rolled off a production line.
I thought I would clean up the second row seat brackets and catches, treated it with Kurust, primered and a good coat of Landrover mid grey. To be honest it just looks like glossy primer, but apparently it’s the correct colour.


Made some progress anyway, albeit slowly

I thought I would tackle a job that I’ve been putting off for a while - the seat box rebuild….
I had a look at the general condition and to be honest it was pretty awful! I started by stripping off the rotten battery box and the seat rails.

Once stripped, it looked a bit better, as at least I could see what was left!
I took the passengers side panel off first by drilling out the spot welds using a 3/16” drill. I also build up the battery box, again using the YRM supplied 3/16” rivets and some sealant/adhesive from Toolstation.

To be honest, that side went together pretty well so I thought I would try the drivers side. It was a bit more challenging on the trial fit, as my 109 never had the drivers storage box under the seat. Again, after drilling off the side panel, I could see what had to be done. The centre section support fouled the new box, so I took the decision to trim the folded area off, which worked fine.

I followed the same process of drilling out all the rivet holes, disassembling, deburring and assembling using screw pins, applying adhesive then finally riveting. It certainly is a lot more ridgid with the boxes installed. It’s also a lot more useful as I can store tools etc in there. I thought I would buy the centre tray so I have maximised the available space to the max. I still have a bit to go before it can be painted, but that’s for another day!

Managed to get some more jobs done this week. I ordered some new steering shaft universal joints. Gave the 110 shaft a wire brush and some paint to smarten it up a bit. Also fitted the 110 steering wheel temporarily. Also I fitted two new old stock drag link ends to the drag link. One is for a disco 1 to suit the steering box and the other is for a series 3 to suit the axle. Both fit the disco drag link as they have the same threads.

I also tried fitting the fuel filter from the discovery, however, as usual the rivnuts were spinning in the bulkhead, so I had to order some new m10 ones from Kayfast. After fitting the rivnuts I cleaned up the fuel filter head and fitted it with new bolts and washers. To top it off I screwed on a nos fuel filter.

As I was on a roll, I fitted the heater motor and the ‘a’ pillar special nuts for the hinges. It’s great to be fitting bits that have been lying around for ages