vils 110csw rebuild

Well I did do a little bit over the weekend. I finally fitted some 3" tubular side steps ive had in the garage for 6 months.
Cut a hole in the 2nd row floor for my vehicle safe to go in.... only to find that I had miss judged its size and there is no way its fitting in there!!! DDOOHHHH!!! so now I have a huge gaping hole to repair. Bugger.

I welded up the 2nd row smart seats completely so they are in now. Its all spaced out with box section etc so a bit heavy. Bit its given me the dimensions to make up some custom tubular frames so I will get round to that later to improve things However the seats slide backward and forward to give more or less space which is really handy. Also they still tilt forward if I need to use all the available space.

I painted the rear crossmember after getting it nice and clean with the angle grinder and a knotted wire brush. Damn those things can flick rust at you at high velocity cant they (note to self, wear a thick jacket when using that!). Its in better nick that I thought and only needs a bit of welding on the inside of it. 7

I also used the same wire brush to check out the damage on the bulkhead l/h corner which I thought was minimal, turns out I wish I hadn't looked as the previous bodger has filled up the corner with car body filler. now exposed to the elements. Its quite a bit of welding to do.

on the engine side, I installed a nice silicon air intake to get the inlet in front of the alternator to make life easier to rig up a more decent inlet. Theres not much space with these disco engines in the 110 is there! I am tempted to get a twin alternator bracket (or make one) in order to move the alternator up to the r/h side of the engine and really tidy up in the inlet / improve access to the turbo.

Ive got some pics but I had to buy a new laptop as I killed my old one, and windows 8 is doing my frickin tree in so I cant be bothered to try and upload anything.

Front bumper looks better with a rub down and a lick o paint

Picked up some new tools last night

eastwood tig welder with all the accesories and a big ass bottle of argon, loads of different rods, tips etc
2 new bench grinders, one for tig stuff only and one for sharpening tungsten carbide bits n bobs (came with a special grinding wheel for it)
pipe notcher thing, ive been after one of these for a while.

Well chuffed!

Slept in the car last night though (tramp) as it was a good way down south to get it, sleeping next to the bottle of argon wondering if it was leaking... would i wake up in the morning.


Im alive anyhoo so obviously it doesnt leak.

Just got to learn how to tig aluminium now! I really want to try welding copper as well. Seen some fantastic stuff done with copper.

Argon is inert so other than suffocating you by taking the place of the air (fat chance in a defender) not much of a risk

I know, it was the suffocation I was worried about

Well ive just welded in some plates to repair the bulkhead on the side between the 2 hinges. 2 rather large holes. Now that they are structurally repaired I have got some Fibreglass filler (expensive stuff not cheapo) and plastered it on to the vague shape of the bulkhead, ill sand it back to the correct shape. I cant believe how good this stuff was, started going off after 5 minutes and within 10 minutes it was rock hard (and HOT!!!) Absolutely git to get off my fingers as well.

If anybody is after good filler I can recommend this stuff.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281503697758?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT


I also finished fitting the wide arches on the front, after straightening the wings out with a plenisher. Well chuffed that I managed to rescue the wings I used tek screws rather than the cheap crap screws that came with the archs.

Ive been busy with the ultrasonic cleaner today n'orl

I bought a set of 4 injectors and an injector pump last week and it finally got here today. The injectors were filthy and heavy deposits of carbon were on the tips. Ive stripped em down and had them in the cleaning bath and wow... they look mint!

Took 9 changes of the cleaning solution until stuff stopped gunking it all up but they now look great. I cant wait to fit them!

I'm going to strip and refurb the injector pump too. I have never done one but I'm keen to learn and it will be nice to have a shiney "new" one fitted that will mean many more thousands of miles trouble free motoring.

Well i am trying to sort out the lack of power on the 200tdi.

I removed the banjo bolt on the back of the pump which has a wee filter in it, it did seem a bit blocked so i swapped it out with a clean one from a spare pump ive just bought. No difference.

So next im going to swap over the pumps, and see if that sorts it. I think I need to change my filter set up on my fuel as at present i think there are ALOT of 1-5 micron particles in it which are possible causing me issues. Im going to change to a 1 micron filter set up and see if that helps (once this issue is sorted)

Ive got a fuel temperature sensor with a thermocouple to tell me what temp the fuel is (i run alot of wvo) but im unsure on how to mount and where to mount this for it to be optimal. Should i fashion a small block of aluminium with this mounted inside which the fuel runs through? (insulated to outside elements)

first of the 2nd row doors rebuilt.

This area of the door didn't exist as it was so rotten. Just the skin was there. I'm very pleased with the result. I painted the inside with hammerite (smooth) as it was a lot easier than doing loads of fancy prep. I also removed all the rust on various other areas of the door and painted that too. Should hold off the rust for a couple of years!



second one to be repaired is in much better condition and should be a lot easier to get done.

Popped some windows in the back to get rid of the God awful sheets of Ali' that had been bodged over there. Ran out if the right sized rivit so finishing it off has to wait.

Will tint them so when I go down south nothing get nicked

Well I cracked on today and completed the installation of the csw windows in that back. I treated me'sen to a hydraulic - pneumatic rivet fun. OMG its amazing. So much faster!

Getting the trim strip on afterward was a harder job, seemed to take forever! but got there in the end.

Sorted the hole in the front bulkhead, in the passenger footwell that I hadn't spotted previously as it was deep down underneath some rubber matting. Should stop the cold getting in!

Also finally got around to start fitting the QT front and rear arms I have had in the garage for 6 months. Did the first rear one no problem, then went to do the second one and.....

Sodding bush spacer is seized sold on the bolt. ARSE. A simple job just became much harder. I was putting off replacing the rear axle for the disc brake one, so this has spurred me on. Seems easier to swap the axle than dick about trying to get the arm out of the old un. So that's tomorrows plan.....

On with the job. ...

its on!

Just short some brake fluid (i only had a wee bit left in the tub) and a trailing arm bolt (the one that was seized in the sodding old axle)

Well pleased though, this was one of the biggest outstanding jobs to get done on the list of many things.

Looks like you've taken full advantage of the nice weather, looking good.

its been gorgeous this past week! i see the following week looks miserable though.

Time for stuff inside of it methinks!

Well the brakes are all bled and sheesh what a difference! its brilliant now. (the discs cleaned up immediately)

however....

after 20 miles the rear axle locked up solid at 50 mph at 11pm with the kids and wife onboard. Left some pretty good skidmarks I can tell you. After reversing it a few cm to undo the blockage I managed to limp the 8 miles home with it graunching and grinding away.

Diff is utterly destroyed. DOH!!! Luckily ive got my old axle so I'm going to rob the internals out of it and repair this one. Maybe treat it to a locking diff whilst I'm at it?

On a side note though, the cranked QT arms have definitely taken the stress off the back, it feels more flexible and supple. Well pleased. They look great too!

Should be able to put the old axle back on (a pain I know but easier than fiddling with the inside of a Salisbury diff in my opinion) and then swap all the end station bits for those off the disc brake axle. Should all bolt straight on.

I don't know I kind of like the idea of rebuilding the Salisbury. Ive never worked on an axle and I just want to learn I guess Plus the rear of the axle is really tidy and my old one is looking worn...

I know I need a case spreader. Where the hell can I get one lol

Well I've managed to free off the salisbury and it's working. Albeit whining...

So I'll rebuild it.

However in the meantime I've been getting on with other bits. Repairing the bulkhead and fitting even better led headlights. These un's are head and tails above the other ones I had in. !