The project has landed!

New Carb & Timing

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Sat, February 14, 2015 17:06:21

It has been a hell of a week so far one of my daughters got most unwell and ended up in hospital so my place was of course by her side as I watched with a dawning horror the barrage of tests they put the poor kid through and my God a couple of them were invasive. She was strong and handled it all well now hopefully she is on the mend as all of the nasty things they thought she may have have been ruled out which is a relief but there is nothing worse than looking at your own child lying sick in a hospital bed wishing it was you instead. I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of the staff at Kettering General Hospital who treated her in such a great way honestly folks you would not have got better treatment if you had paid for it privately and to all those who knock our NHS in my opinion you are wrong because they have been superb!

So with all of that over a few sleepless days and then a training day away with work it has been an exhausting week so this morning as I lay there in bed proving to myself yet again that the days of lie ins are far behind me the fact that the new carb had arrived for the Landy and needed fitting. I snuck out of bed got dressed and took my first cup of tea outside with me to have a look at what lay ahead...



Air was being sucked in somewhere so out with the old for a complete replacement. Much to my surprise it all come off easily from detaching the choke cable and throttle linkage to removing the two nuts that held the carb in place. As I stood there in amazement that I had only had a sip of my tea and it was still hot showing how quickly the old carb had come of I dug the new carb out of it's packaging and set to fixing it into place...



Again everything slipped back into place easily and I set up the carb roughly by turning the mixture screw all the way in first until it stopped then turned it anticlockwise 1 1/2 to 2 turns out. Then I primed the carb up by pumping the fuel pump a few times and gingerly turned the ignition key thinking there was no way it would be that easy...it was! The engine fired straight up so with a smirk I let it warm through and run up to temperature.

As I stood next to the engine I could hear air being sucked in somewhere on the carb but it still ran far better than the old carb did. So I looked around and saw that the air pipe on my Landy fitted below the carb on the manifold rather than on the carb itself like it should do and a quick look at the old carb showed that the air inlet had been welded up on it so I turned off the engine and set to getting some old fuel pipe attached to the new carb air inlet which I folded over on itself creating a seal that can easily be removed if needed...



With that sorted and teh engine ticking over again I set to giving it a few tweaks to set the carb right but do you know when you have been trying fix something for so long you start hearing extra noises and it never sounds quite right...well I got there so I did the only sensible thing I could I turned it off and walked away from it for a while. I have a friend coming over next week to have a listen and drive just to have an extra set of ears on it because I think it is probably fine but sometimes you just need someone to tell you you are a pratt and confirm it.

Another point to make here is that I have decided I want a Discovery as my next project. Now I am on no rush for it but I will be looking and I may just may put Mator up for sale if and when I am ready to get a Disco. My reasoning behind thie is two fold. Firstly I have loved the rebuild it has been great fun and I want to go around again for another go and secondly we are going to be moving into Derbyshire next year and there will be times when riding the motorbike to work just wont cut it in snow and ice so a Disco would be better to use than Mator seeing as he would cost a small fortune to do the 40 -50 mile daily commute with the petrol engine as well as reliability issues.

Before you all start shouting "Keep them both" I cannot afford to run two of them and before you now shout "stick a 200tdi in" I wont do that it is more or less military 24v standard and if someone wanted to put it back they would just need to change the wheels seats and chuck the radio gear back in place. That and these old Military Series 3's are getting harder to find.

SO a good mornings work and the next job on the list will be seeing if I can (don't laugh) stop the slight leak from the gearbox providing no one ends up in hospital work don't send me miles away and the rain holds off.

Just turned 40.

Oil and Radio's

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Sun, February 15, 2015 17:50:51

Off we went to the first 4x4 show of our season this morning at Donington and it was nice to be out and about staring at other folks motors and all of the bits and bobs that you can bolt on to your pride and joy but it is not a big show hence its held indoors which was nice on a foggy cold morning it doesn't take long to wander around it.

Now as you know I ahve been thinking of what to do with my now more or less rebuilt Land Rover as times will be changing in a year or so and today was a good opportunity to have a look at what can be done with Discoveries from the subtle to the outrageous! Well Wifey does like a Discovery it turns out and I have been told in no uncertain terms by her that I am NOT to sell Mator on but keep him and maybe return him back to military standard not in a full FFR set up way but just not to mess him about. Then what we will do is buy a Discovery make it off road ready and we will both play with it and it will be there for winter driving if I need it instead of the bike!

Anyone else think my Wife is a keeper!

So I will be looking soon enough for a Disco project to add to the collection which is superb and I am looking forward to the challenge of playing with a new project getting just how I want it. After a quick drive into Derbyshire for some lunch we got home and I set back to sorting the gearbox oil out on Mator. When I ran him out a couple of weeks back he was pretty noisy and upon further investigation he needed quite a bit of oil in the gearbox after I checked with a couple of groups I was taking the right plug out and not heading toward an oil shower. As I was underneath I checked the transfer box oil level and it turned out there was next to nothing in there so I am glad I looked before driving any sort of distance. How I overlooked doing this on the rebuild baffles me but at least it is done now!

I did manage to pick up some of the correct electrical connectors at the Donington show to wire in the CB. This only took a couple of minutes and it was nice to see my Christmas present crackle to life for the first time but it appeared there was no one local who wanted to play Smokey and the Bandit with me which spoilt my fun just a bit.

Right then I am off to trawl the tinterweb looking for a cheap Disco see you on the other side!

www.justturned40.co.uk

Quiet...shhh

Musings
Posted by min200 Thu, February 19, 2015 21:48:32

OK then folks firstly I must say sorry I know I know I have been quiet of late but there is more upcoming for "MY CV" and there will be Landy updates over the weekend.

Life has been getting in the way with interviews lined up, more on that to follow very soon, as well as the normal dull everyday stuff involving kids Wives cars and holidays that will be here soon enough So stay tuned don't disappear on me normal service will be resumed shortly

Fuel lines & Fine tuning.

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Fri, February 20, 2015 15:42:52

Today has been a good day it started well enough with Wifey bringing me a brew in bed so I sat there enjoying a relaxing start to the day planning ahead the things I had to do. It started with taking the cheap inline fuel filter out of the Landy...



Now this filter has been the cause of some concern seeing as it never seemed to fill up with fuel and as the new carb I fitted seemed to struggle with a bit of fuel starvation from time to time I decided for the few minutes it would take to remove the filter and fit a pipe in its place it was worth doing to see what effect it would have...



With that done I had to hop onto the motorbike because it has been running pretty roughly this past week or so and as it is my daily runner I couldn't ignore its ever increasing complaints about running badly. Turned out the previous owner had put over a litre too much oil in it as well as the spark plugs being as old as the hills and cheap crap to boot. So an oil change new plugs fitted then a good all round clean up of connections along with liberal amounts of WD40 around the place I expected a nice purr to the engine.

It wouldn't even turn over! I sat there scratching my head wondering what I had done wrong?? After a bit of bad language and wiggling of connections it fired up sounding better than it ever has done. A ride around the block confirmed the fact that it now ran like it should along with more power than before so that job was struck off of the list.

I looked at the Landy with a sinking feeling in my stomach because I had to take it for a drive to warm it through properly to make sure the carb was set up right but after our last drive with it running like a bag of spanners I wasn't looking forward to finding out I had done it wrong or not enjoying driving it again. So with apprehension I got into the drivers seat fired the old boy up then pulled out onto the dual carriage way.


The ride was smooth the engine pulled smoothly with no spluttering hiccuping coughing or stalling. The gear changes were smoother than before probably due to having the right amount of oil in the box now and I found myself relaxing into the ride. Gearbox along with engine noise was well down on my last outing then I came to a steep hill realising this was going to be the next test. Foot pushing down on the accelerator the two and a quarter engine responded well as it should pulling me steadily up the hill still gaining speed. Next was the down hill stretch testing for backfires spluttering popping and of course the brakes again all was well with no overrun just a nice smooth deceleration.

By now I was really starting to relax into it and despite my earlier worries and apprehensions I was enjoying myself. Mator was driving like a different motor almost like a newer motor certainly the best I had ever felt him go so far and my confidence in him build up quite nicely. So after a few miles I ended up home then with a quick tweak on the tickover of the carb he was parked up on the driveway and I have the confidence in starting to use him regularly to see what new ways he can breakdown.

Just turned 40.

The picture should be sideways lol I didn't fit the filter upside down

Steering Wheels & Carbs

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Sat, February 28, 2015 17:32:52

I have been a bit quiet of late I know but I do have a good excuse and a letter from my Mum so if you have the time I will tell you why.

You know how you get bored with work think the grass is greener on the other side and wish you could be there. That feeling that life is passing you by and how the hell did you end up doing what you are doing for a living even though the money is good well thats where I have been for a few months now but I have enough about me to know which side my bread is buttered so I started to look around seriously for another job when out of the blue an advert went up at work looking for another Driver trainer to be added to their team so I jumped at it and applied. Whether or not I would make an arse of myself I didn't know but I was invited much to my surprise to interview that would include a ten minute presentation by me about anything I wanted as long as it was within the transport industry remit.

Well this had opened a can of worms hadn't it I mean the last time I had looked at Powerpoint was donkeys years back and now I had to make one up from scratch with "updated" software that I had no idea what most of it did but I got stuck in and after two long weekend days had a presentation put together which left me to practice it making sure I sounded like I knew what I was on about without tripping over my tongue letting my lisp and stutter return like a steam train crashing through the end of the tracks.

"Sod it" I thought I will test it out on the family so the poor buggers had to endure me babbling spitting lisping and stuttering my way through my creation...twice...then twice more until I had it down pat. A couple of showers later for them to rinse away the spittle and I thought "I might be ok at this" I put it to bed until the interview the next day.

The interview went well there were only a couple of folk grilling me and it was soon time to get my presentation going and it was at this point the main interviewer went off and got the head honcho of the contract to sit in and watch. I mean talk about sending your nerves up through all of the notches no pressure eh!! Somehow I got through it sounding bloody stupid on the inside of my head but portraying a calm confident figure to all present who all gave me good feedback. I made it through the first hurdle to the second a few days later much to my surprise which was an extended driving assessment which included a talking drive from me saying all I could see and was doing...me doing that whilst nervous trying to control my Artic trying not to lisp stutter or give the assessor a shower in my spit...well it went ok despite my nerves and I even managed to answer the questions he threw at me when I didn't need to be talking correctly! Turns out we were down to three candidates and they will be seeing the final one next week so we will all be informed by Friday who has got the job.

The reason I really wanted it was because it's a good sideways move with extensive training paid for by the company that you get to keep of course it's a direction I had been considering but put on the back burner due to the costs involved so an opportunity like this doesn't come up very often. Hell I have given it my best shot so what will be will be eh

Anyways folks you don't want to hear anymore on that you want to know what I have done to the Landy and I have managed to have a couple of nice days on different bits and bobs which has been relaxing and bloody enjoyable to boot I do like to have a tinker!

Wednesday night was meeting at the pub night with Notts Landy Club also the first time I had the chance to show Mator off to them so I rushed home from work dumped the bike jumped in the Landy and shot straight up there. Folk liked him with oohhs and ahhs but they would wouldn't they after all they are all Land Rover nuts but I did notice the steering was a bit tight not just heavy then with a bit of a realisation I realised I had not checked any of the steering fluid in both the boxes so that was the first job to do on Friday afternoon as well as trying to figure out why the dashboard lights didn't work as well.

It rained hard on the way home though and in about fifteen seconds in true landy fashion I could not see bugger all out of the windows for steam so that coupled with the spare wheel cover I had fitted to the wheel on the bonnet opening like a parachute I drove home using the power of the force more than any of my own senses.

Friday afternoon arrived I checked the steering fluid which was all good the stiffness wasn't that bad and has loosened up since so it was probably more in my mind than anything else after a long day driving a truck but the dash lights were next...



Front off again and time to trace spaghetti which I promptly lost somewhere behind the dashboard but found the other end behind the convoy light switch where it was supposed to be but it has at some point been cut off and taped up. I put the dash back together thought "sod it" and left it be for now. I will put it on the list for a summer dry day job I am not pulling the whole dash out looking for some squaddies bodge in the cold and wet!

This morning I got to take the longest drive in the old boy yet and I have to admit after hating it before the old boy is now growing on me partly to the fact he runs right now has not over heated spat his dummy out in a big way or caught fire. We went to collect a set of series wheels because after getting rid of the ones that came with it I decided that was a mistake and I want a set for back up in case I buy the Discovery I have been threatening to do which I would use Mators wheels on and fit some 7.50 16s back onto him like he should have.

The wheels were not bad...



But a quick coat of NATO green put them back where they needed to be...



No rush to find the tyres they will come along when they are ready at the right money.
Now what to do it was only lunchtime so I decided to see if I could mess up the Zenith carb rebuild I had planned to create me a spare.

I grabbed the carb the rebuild kit thought "how hard can it be?" and set to. I surprised myself if you havn't rebuilt a carb because yo thought it might be too hard I strongly suggest you give it a bash because in under two hours I had mine stripped cleaned out and rebuilt. It's nice to have a spare as back up incase my cheapy copy gives up the ghost!













That's it folks we are up to date next job will be sorting out the rear interior after I have been off road next Saturday for the first time in him next week. That should be a good update!

www.justturned40.co.uk

Cycling & BBQ

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Sat, March 07, 2015 17:26:26

You all know I don't sleep a great deal but my limits have been pushed even for me. Complain I cant really because the cause of my lack of sleep has been a trip to New York that I wont bore you Landy nuts about on this post but there's a bit about it on my site www.justturned40.co.uk but part of the return trip was the "Red Eye" overnight back so I ended up staying awake for the best part of two days.

This had a bit of a strange knock on effect in the fact that I finally got to bed last night then slept for ten hours straight which is unusual to say the least but buggered me up meeting up with Nottingham Land Rover Club for the day off roading because I got up so late. I jumped out of bed text a friend in the club saying I would be a couple of hours then ten minutes later I felt like I had been hit by a train. Exhausted rough tired groggy and generally feeling like a sack of **** I soon realised I was not going to be spending the day playing off road.

So another text later saying I wouldn't be going then a couple back calling me a poof (quite rightly but hell it's been a busy week) the day was open to new suggestions. I forced some breakfast down my throat rehydrated as best I could when my youngest daughter suggested a drive out in Mator to the woods where we could do some gentle cycling to get the blood pumping again...make or break time for a body reset.

The bikes were thrown into the Landy along with lots of water for me and Mator took off on his longest drive to date and he performed flawlessly all the way there...



There was a strange clicking noise to start as we got up to speed but this soon passed away and I havn't heard it again since I guess like all good old motors it is freeing up some parts that have not moved at speed in quite some time.

We had a nice six mile cycle around the woods at a very steady pace...



and I found my grogginess dissipating as my heart rate increased so much so I built up an appetite so maybe it was time for a cheeky lunch out treat with my daughter.

The first few places I tried had full car parks and seeing as the Landy has a turning circle the size of a boat and the fact I am not that used to him yet we carried on racking up some rather enjoyable miles through the Nottinghamshire countryside. The typical soup bowl gearbox is challenging to say the least but I seem to be developing a knack for actually getting the gears I want and the ride is either settling down by loosening up it springs after years of resting or I am just loosing the feeling in my body from the constant bouncing around in it either way its becoming a more pleasant experience.

50 mph seems to be the high speed it wants to sit at once out of the city where the steering still works without too much drift keeping me in a relatively straight line. Not too shabby for a four geared 2.25 petrol that sat around outside doing nothing for more than a decade. The temp gauges both oil and water sit just above the N on the gauges at speed and don't jump up when you come to a stop and there are not any major leaks to be seen.

We found a nice pub for some lunch the BBQ burgers were "to die for" I have been reliably informed by my daughter and just about every bloke that walked past the Landy stopped for a quick look at it and I know this because we sat in a window seat to keep an eye on it...ok I am lying I just wanted to look at it parked up somewhere else other than my driveway!

All in all not a bad day in the end considering I felt so rough at the start of it and after looking forward to going off roading for weeks then not making it. Mator will now be used a bit more often to keep his wheels turning and finally I am using him for the reasons I built him spending time with my family doing outdoorsy activities..oh and bloody off roading I will get him out for some off roading!

Saw this at bp in daybrook yesterday I think, looks well,

Yep that was me! It does seem to want to stop at most petrol stations it passes lol Feel free to say hello next time and thanks for the compliment!

Next bit to be done is the rear interior.

Gearbox Bangs

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Mon, March 09, 2015 13:02:18

Seeing as its the last day of my annual leave and there were chores to be run I decided what better way to do it than in the Landy. Driving it has been growing on me as of late after a bumpy start so using it often seems to be the best idea to keep it running right well at least it does in my head.

After various dull chores were completed I had to drive to the local timber reclaim yard about five miles away I got there no problem loaded up a couple of huge sacks of sawdust for the chickens coop knowing a bit bit of mess in Mator doesn't come with the same backlash as getting Wifeys car dusty I jumped back in pulled off in first to find my way blocked by a forklift truck taking a pallet off of a truck. "No worries" I thought as I watched the job being done with first gear still selected and the clutch pedal pushed in...

Now I best point out here the gearbox has not been the best since I got Mator on the road with difficult gear changes most of the time but I had just put this down to being the typical soup bowl gearbox effect of a series land rover and got used to it.

A couple of minutes later the forklift driver was done so I started to pull forward then went to change gear...nope that was not going to happen the gear stick was stuck fast in first and did not want to play or move so I quickly dipped the clutch braked to a stop and tried again thinking this feels like a master or slave cylinder issue when there was an almighty bang as I was putting gentle pressure on the gear stick and it popped out of first.

"Well that's buggered it" I figured wondering if I had the RAC card in my wallet but to my amazement I could select gears no problem at all. In fact I could now select gears easier and better than before as in ever before they all seemed to be in the right position on the end of the gear stick the Landy drove lovely all the way home.

Now I wonder whether I have actually broken something big inside the gearbox or whether it has freed something off properly that has not been right for the last fifty miles or so since it has been running again? Who knows but any suggestions are welcome but I suppose I will just have to "let it develop" again and not keep it in gear when waiting to move.

Land Rovers eh! Gotta love em!

Just turned 40.

It does go off road...

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Sun, March 15, 2015 12:15:56

I sat staring at Mator this morning and thought bugger it I am off to the local car boot just so I can have a drive in him. He does seem to take an age to warm up engine wise I have noticed and runs a little on the rough side until he does but he is an old man.

Here's a picture to prove he is slowly starting to venture off of the beaten track...



Just turned 40.

Transfer box seals & Oil slicks

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Sun, March 22, 2015 07:43:18

I have been quite lucky with Mator my old Series 3 Landy where oil leaks are concerned most people who own Land Rovers constantly joke about them "marking" their spots on driveways with oil leaks but mine has been great apart from just one leak from the front of the transfer box so I decided it was about time I tackled it because as leaks go it was quite a big one.

Up at the crack of dawn as is my norm these days I grabbed a brew got the baby grow on grabbed my toolbox and slid underneath the Landy to start taking it apart again. First things to come off where the four prop shaft bolts the first three came off with no problems at all but the fourth in good Land Rover tradition rounded off as soon as I put some pressure on it so out came the grinder...



I should point out I had drained the oil out of the transfer box as well before I started taking bits off of it even I am not that daft! With the bolts off I moved the prop shaft to one side and was faced with a nut with a split pin through it...




The split pin came out easy enough but that bolt decided we were in a fight for our lives and it seriously thought it was going to win...it nearly did. You have to use a pry bar or something similar to stop the whole thing from turning whilst simultaneously trying to undo the bolt that has been in place for years and years and years. I swore at it scrapped my knuckles threw things across the driveway used limbs of my body in better ways than I have ever done in a game of Twister but it would not move.

I walked away and made a brew muttering to myself what sort of idiot buys an old Land Rover anyway and came to the conclusion I must be some sort of masochist.

Ten minutes on and my blood pressure approaching something back to normal I assumed the Twister position underneath the Landy and had another stab at it. It undid as if it was only finger tight...bloody Land Rovers but I shook my head smiled to myself and carried on dismantling it all when a river of oil came flooding out of the front of the box all down my arm soaking the baby grow and the clothes I had on underneath. The angle of the driveway must have caused it to sit in there well away from the drainage plug just waiting for me to do something stupid like remove the shaft and seal and give it a way out!

At this point I just had to laugh out loud wipe myself down and keep digging until I got to the seal which looked like it was in good condition but I after getting all the way into it I changed it anyway. The rebuild went smoothly with it all going back together easily and I replaced the nuts and bolts on the drive shafts with new filled up the transfer box with oil started it up and rove it up and down the driveway a bit to then see it leaking from exactly the same place as before...I was not in the least bit surprised. I have come to terms that this will be my leak and it is quite a good one but this is to make up for the fact it doesn't leak much from anywhere else.

The second job of the day was to take it for a spin and set up the carb properly as last time I was out it seemed to be underpowered. My mechanic friend who had turned up after the messy oil and seal incident good timing on his part eagerly jumped into the passenger seat for a ride out in "something old school" his words but he is right and off we went. After a few miles it had warmed up and was running way too lean so after a few stops here and there the mixture was tweaked up the tick over turned down and he difference is astounding.

You may have noticed I have been having a bit of a love hate relationship with Mator of late. I have loved building him and I love working on him but I don't really relish the idea of driving him too far let alone off roading in him but having said that I wouldn't want to sell him either so I have solved the problem...I have just bought myself a Discovery to play off road in and use in the wintertime because I am getting fed up of sliding around on my motorbike on the way to work and back then.
Because I have bought another toy I will change a couple of bits on Mator like the wheels and seats giving him more of the Military sense he had before tipping his hat at the service he provided in his last life.

BUT this means I have a new project again so watch this space for the next build it isn't going to be long...

Just turned 40.

as ever min, a great read...
will look forewards to your disco thread now....cheers.

Cheers Easye1 love the new avatar chap lol

min200 said:

Cheers Easye1 love the new avatar chap lol

Click to expand...

lol....
me trying a new web cam some time ago..
its frightning to see yourself at times


my welcome page is even more frightning, me with the striped flightjacket and hair.....
yes, the mk1 ragtop was painted by me, red with white direction arrow.......
I was just 17 though....

Times are a changing.

Land Rover Rebuild
Posted by min200 Wed, March 25, 2015 18:05:52

Things seem to be changing at the moment and quite drastically to boot! I have started my new job which will hopefully send me off in a new career direction with new challenges then there are the plans to move to a new home in Derbyshire next summer and it is this that has us really thinking.

We rent at the moment and the plan was to continue renting up in Derbyshire because we did not think we would A) get a mortgage or B) want one anyway as our plans were to buy a little old wreck in Northern Spain to retire to. The problem now is we have found out we can get a mortgage so perhaps we should buy a house next summer in Derbyshire instead of renting then if we want to move out and retire to Spain in our later years we sell up and do so or maybe we will be happy in our little home in the countryside...

So after much thought we have decided to buy a house and act like we are proper grown ups...pfft who wants to be a grown up anyway?? Joking aside it makes sense as we would get a mortgage that would be about the cost of rent then we get to sell up at the end of it and spend any inheritance the kids think they will be getting and post it all online just to rub their noses in it a it lol.

Can you see where I am heading with this yet? No? then I will enlighten you The only problem initially with buying a house is that you need a deposit and we will save hard for this over the next year but there will be a chunk left missing and if I am honest there is only one thing we have of value and I thought I was going to put him away for a few more years while he raises in value but needs must.

I am going to have to sell Mator.

Now I could drive him for a year then stick a Fresh MOT on him and sell him then but I have bought the Discovery to play in and Mator will not be getting much use anyway so after I have swapped his wheels over this weekend he will be going up for sale on the market as teh fresh new rebuild he is.
It is with a heavy heart I do this but I know it is the right thing to do because I don't want to leave him sitting around wasting away again after all of the hard work and effort I have put into restoring him and any potential buyer is in a unique position of seeing exactly what I have done to him over the course of the rebuild online someone should really get the some pleasure out of him.

Yes I am sad as he helped me keep off of the cigarettes kept me writing and made me a few friends along the way but the future calls I am getting older and the idea of eventually paying no rent appeals to me for my winter years.
So keep an eye out tell your friends that something good is coming up and once the pictures have been taken and the adverts written I will let you all know but whoever buys him don't look back when you drive him away I don't want you to see me crying...

Just turned 40.

Noooo, enjoyed driving past this on the ring road in varying stages

I sold my 200tdi defender to by a td5 110 and I still regret it

Needs must I am afraid but I will still have the Disco Who knows I may even end up with another series at some point but this house business must take priority...grown up stuff sucks.

Hmm. It's up to you of course, but the sort of size deposit you're apt to need these days means that the sale of the series isn't likely to get you very far towards it. A quick look at house prices in Derbyshire and military style 'character' Series 3s on Ebay should make the point. You'll lose the Land Rover and not get very far toward the other objective.