vils new 3dr

Here's my new 3dr.

Ripped the roof off a few weeks ago and picked the soft top up just this weekend.

Love driving it with the roof off



Had a wheel bearing go the other night, in a big way. Bum clenching moments aplenty for 70 miles!
So thats on the list to sort, and its suddenly lost power - lift pump

The wolf canopy is considerably longer than the "normal" one that it came with, and it seems to use different fixings around the door frame too. (dang after i just ordered all the bits to get them working properly too! another £20 wasted lol) I will temporarily get some pipe cladding and wrap that around the support frame in order to get the straps functioning properly but need to fabricate a "wolf" rear frame to get it all working properly.

Since buying it, I have removed the bloody awful "heavy duty" suspension from the rear and fitted light load +2" springs which are much better! also cleared out the variety of knives and shotgun cartridges that i found behind the seats....

Just replaced the air intake pipe between the airbox and turbo as it had gone soft and split. An original style one was £40!!!! so i bought a silicon one for £60 instead lol. Fitted a treat.

Need to get the heater sorted as the blower doesnt work at all, and sort out the floor plates as they only have a few screws holding them in.

The handling also needs sorting. There seems to be 2 areas of play as you can feel a notable difference in the steering wheel. First couple of degrees is one thing, then another 30 degrees is something else. Steering is very heavy. Ive fitted a return to centre damper to try and help but its not done anything really.

The plan is to get this one all sorted and painted up but keep it very simple and basic. No fancy stuff!

Found the steering wobble to be caused by a wobbly steering drop arm so have ordered a new un

Trying to sort the wobbly wobbly steering tonight.

Panhard rob bushes are gone and the steering drop arm ball joint is knackered too. So that adds up to lots of play! !

The steering drop arm was loose the other day as the previous owner hadn't tightened it properly. I tightened it as a temporary measure now I can't get the sodding arm off!

Have ordered the ball joint tool.

Sodding defenders

well i fixed the panhard rod today so its back to just being half as bad, need to do the steering drop arm balljoint first, bought the extraction tool to sort it.
replaced the wolf top with the original canvas as it fits better (despite being damaged), fitted the little plastic hooks that fit in the door surround pieces that tension the canvas top. Much better now.

Also replaced the lift pump and its got some of its power back

Well the roofs and sides are back on.

I pulled off what I could of the horrible window tinting film that was on them, and cleaned out the back. I had to use a claw hammer to scrape all the concrete and ****e from the load bed. About 20kg came out judging by how much weight there was in a box of it afterward!

I stopped the windows rattling by cutting the end bits off a 4mm wide cable tie and sliding them underneath the window glass. Hey presto, no more rattles

Also changed the steering drop arm ball joint. I was going to do the whole arm but chuff me I cant get the sodding thing off. Using the special tool it was surprisingly easy, a job I had been putting off that wasn't hard at all. 30 mins had it done and the difference with the steering is significant! Not all over the whole road now!

Smart car seat is in for a bit more comfort and I am going to remove the bulkhead so I can get it further back.

Also fitted extra spacers to the door catches as the doors would only go onto first click.... now sorted.

Its nice to get lots of little jobs done on it, its starting to be a much nicer vehicle to drive. Desperately need to sort the front suspension out though. P.O has fitted heavy duty springs and its frickin awful, no give at all and it just crashes over bumps.

Also fitted a curry hook to the dash for holding takeaways, and will be fitting our flexible door handles for a bit more room.

Replaced the god awful rear numberplate which had a welse dragon on it too

Re attached the closed cell foam that had been put on the roof with some contact adhesive spray. Busy day!

Reet, so I picked up 1000kg of coal with the van today and its shown how shagged the rear a frame ball joint is. DOH! This might explain the weird handling a bit too?

Also I blew down the fuel line with compressed air and replaced a bit of it with clear reinforced tubing so I can see whats going on in the fuel line to try and solve its lack of power. This one is suffering with the same issue as my other 200tdi. Made no difference at all. Damn

Fixed a huge hole the size of my fist on the underside of the dash which had rotted through and was allowing exhaust gases up into the cabin so its mildly less cancerous in there now. Need to repair the outside of the bulkhead now.

Replaced some of the turbo hoses with some 50mm reinforced silicone hose I had kicking about in the vain hope of finding that one of them was delaminating..... unfortunately not.

Also tried to sort the heater out as the blower doesn't work. After testing it seems its the fan motor, so a bigger job than I was hoping. Not sorting that today. However need to get it sorted within the next month as its getting colder and getting condensation on the inside of the windscreen which needs to be removed!

Have ordered a spare wheel carrier for the back as at present I don't have one and I cant stand having a spare floating around in the back loose.

Also hoping that a bit of weight on the back will improve the ride comfort a bit

Well the spare wheel carrier i ordered just arrived, next day delivery from paddocks. Great service

Also arrived in a hugely oversized box which will be dead handy for the truck cab back piece I have to post to Italy!

Spare wheel carrier is on and I fitted a new 35" bfg as one of them was completely shagged for some reason.

So much better over the bumps with a bit of weight on the back!

However I also found that its not just the A frame ball joint but one of the bushes is gone too... DOH!!!

So I haven't been on for a week or so and you get another Land Rover?!

No ive had this one for a while

Good 3 months or so i think now?

Ive removed the soft top ready for winter, and fitted the spare wheel carrier etc. Going to get it painted, replace the crossmember, twin tank it, got some more smart car seats coming for the front (as i only had 1 left in the shed)

will make a bulkhead removal bar, and fitting panoramic glass (as i like the look of them and it means less to paint!)

Suspension to sort as the rear a frame bush is gone and the front is just bastid hard, its horrid! Ive bought a set of double damper turrets so i can move the dampers closer to the pivot which will make them a teeny bit softer. Will also mean changing springs later will be a doddle

Then i might rob the big intercooler out of the csw for this and fit the 300tdi i have kicking about into the csw....

oh i picked up some cills the other day to replace the god awful piece of pipe that been bodged onto the drivers side (wtf was that about!)

Well its looking like the injector pump is the problem with the 2 200tdis I'm running.
I suspect its the fuel ive been running them on.

I whipped off the diaphragm and basically allowed the fuel pin to come all the way out and it was chucking out black smoke again like it should have done.
I ran a concentration of cleaner through the injection system yesterday and gradually my speed increased from a lousy 60mph on the flat to 80mph (officer) over the course of about an hour so it is getting better! but still not like it used to be. Still low on torque and it would do 95 beforehand.

Still its a start!

also I managed to remove the god awful tubular tree slider thing from the r/h side. Took hours!!!!! sodding thing. I got so wound up trying to cut it off with the plasma cutter and grinder that in the end I just tore the mounting brackets off the chassis!!! (Ive got a hole to repair now....)

A good 30 kg of metal was removed though. What a complete piece of crap that thing was.

Also found that the tub mounting brackets where not bolted to the chassis, (no bolts at all?!!) so ive bolted that in place, and fitted a new exhaust from the middle back.

Fitted LED headlights in this one too.

And picked up some more smart seats for the front (I only had a drivers one before) from a bloke up near Glasgow. Bargain for 60 quid. Ive got a new design of mounting bracket in my head that I'm going to try out that will mean they will just bolt in without any messing about. Hopefully....

I think I have a set of standard front springs somewhere, if that's any use? Yours for nowt if so and if I can dig them out.

Came off my 1993 110.

oh that would be perfick

Happy to cross your palm with buckfast

where abouts are you?

Those sliders looked quite flush, were they rotten or just not in keeping with the vision?

Dumfriesshire as well so probably not too far away. Sent you a pm.

doriz said:

Those sliders looked quite flush, were they rotten or just not in keeping with the vision?

Click to expand...

There was only 1 slider, fitted to the drivers side for some weird reason. It was made of 100mm 5mm thick tube and then with 100mm RSC back to the chassis. Bloody mad.

It looked gash and you couldn't stand on it, it was pointless, besides, I dont do the whole "mud plugging" thing so bit of a waste of time having them. Rather save the weight and have normal looking cills.

Right this coming weekend the plan is to replace the a frame brackets / bushes as the bushes have collapsed and are allowing the rear axle to wander around. (slightly horrible to drive)

How hard is it to get out those chunky A frame to chassis bolts..... ?

Need to get the heater working. Id bought one off ebay then the seller told me his dad had already sold it to someone else.. GGrrrrr
So ill strip that out and see if the motors rescueable

After that its get these other smart car seats in.

I fitted a pair of bench sits this last weekend so theres somewhere for passengers to sit. (also seems to have reduced a bit of road noise? though that might be in my head) Managed to adjust the doors with another shim on the latch so they close properly now and stay closed!!!

I've found it easier to take the A frame brackets off the chassis as they're only 10mm bolts so can be undone (or snapped) with an ordinary socket set. Then you can get the big fat pivot bolts out at your leisure when you're the right way up rather than lying on your back under the car. They're a very fine thread and tend to get rusty so they're pretty stiff to undo. I worked mine back and forth with the Milwaukee impact wrench at full power a few times before the nuts would actually come off the bolts.

Love all the livestock wandering around in your photos - reminds me of my youth.