JC’s Discovery 300TDi Restoration

Just under a year ago, my partner and I picked up a tidy D1 V8 with 126k on the clock. We’ve put 10k on the clock and it’s been largely pretty reliable. It was also a darn sight more comfortable than the usual series that we would pick up each October to get us through the winter. A year on and we’re still enjoying Discovery ownership. We had contemplated getting a D2 to replace our D1, but by chance we noticed another D1 advertised locally with just 71k on the clock. We went to have a look at it and the underneath seemed pretty solid. Unfortunately, the Alpine windows are pretty rotten and it had a dent in practically every panel. None the less, it seemed like a really nice base to end up with a really tidy D1. Unfortunately its not a V8, but both Nicola and I agreed it deserved to be saved. So… we handed over some beer tokens and brought it home!
The plan is ultimately to combine the best bits of the V8 with the best bits of the TDi to end up with a really, really nice Discovery D1 that we can enjoy for the next 100k miles without fear of it rotting away

This is what we bought. All be it with the awful stainless side steps removed!




The first job was obviously to get the interior stripped out to see if we had actually bought a solid car or not. So far things seem pretty positive?

Boot floor looked pretty good...








But I managed to make a small hole in the O/S wheel arch.



...and the inside of this little box section turned into a 2" square hole into the wheel arch....



Passenger side arch is a lot better, though! Just a bit of surface grot.



The sills were all in reasonable condition too with only a little surface issue... I'm sure there's more to find inside but a good dose of Fertan inside should see them get through a good few MOT's yet...







Unfortunately the alpine windows are well and truly shot, so some major work required here....




That brings us up to the end of the first weekend in September. Although we also cleaned all the trim that we had removed with a mild detergent soloution which took quite a while! No point posting pictures of that though!

I realise this build thread isn't going to be quite up to the same standard as a lot on here, but I hope you'll bear with me all the same. Last one to fall asleep can turn the light out, lol!

This weekend things have got a little more serious.

Near side passenger door, front door and front wing have all been removed along with the back bumper for ease of access.
The plan is to remove all traces of rust from the shell and send it to the local body shop in 4 weeks time to be painted using the best panels from our two Discos.

With the bumper off, the back panel looks surprisingly rot free...








I've put the doors back on to keep it water tight - unfortunately I'm doing this all outside but I've done some prep work to the sills and front wing area.
I've ground all the surface rot off with a wire brush mounted in a drill, treated the metal with kurust and primed.
So far I've only managed to make a tiny hole in the inner wheel arch. Everything else just needed cleaning up. Horrible dirty job but hopefully it'll be worth it in the end???









Next job will be to tackle the inner arch and headlight box... hopefully it won't be *too* bad in there - I've already made a little hole on the front section. But everything feels solid at the end of a blunt screwdriver?







So that's about where we're up to...

Last is just a small selection of shots of both the 300TDi and the V8. As you can see the TDi has already managed to acquire one of the back doors from the V8 already.

Thanks for reading, folks!

Looking good. Good luck, and have fun!!!

blackhadder said:

Looking good. Good luck, and have fun!!!

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Cheers for the support!



This weeks progress has been, slow, steady and mainly centred around getting the rear n/s wing off to inspect the structure.
So far it all looks quite positive. No new holes made so just a simple case of knocking back the rust with a wire wheel brush and stabilising any rusty metal.
I'm using a new product (to me) called "fertan" - apparently it's supposed to be good stuff. Certainly seems to get mentioned quite a lot on here and I'm pretty impressed with it so far.
With the rust treated it was just a case of using red oxide primer, followed by etch primer and then some top coat when I get around to it.










I've managed to get some etch primer and top coat on the sills, A posts and inner wings. It's starting to look like a car again instead of a rusty wreck.
I've also spent some time trial fitting the new doors and front wing. There's not an awful lot to do on this side of the car. Just got to wire brush the front and rear inner wheel arch, treat any rust and underseal it. Then I get to do the whole lot again on the other side.
Still, at least I know that it's not rotten underneath now!










It's booked in to the body shop on the 30th so the pressure is on to get it done. 2 weeks to finish the near side and do the same to the drivers side and some how work out how to get the rear windows, alpine windows and sunroofs out. I'm running out of time and talent so we'll have to see what happens...

Hi im hoping to do the same as you. I have got two disco 300tdi's and hoping to make one good one, will be watching for some tips . Gonna be a slow one for me tho may rust away before i get anywhere lol

lugo

lugo35 said:

Hi im hoping to do the same as you. I have got two disco 300tdi's and hoping to make one good one, will be watching for some tips . Gonna be a slow one for me tho may rust away before i get anywhere lol

lugo

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Best advice I can offer is lable everything. You might initially think "yeah I know where that'll fit" but a couple of weeks later you'll look at it and think "well where the **** are you supposed to go?"!

Get stuck in though - it's great fun. REALLY dirty job, but a lot of fun all the same!

not afraid of getting stuck in lol. just not a lot of free time wiv 7month old daughter to teach landrover

lugo35 said:

not afraid of getting stuck in lol. just not a lot of free time wiv 7month old daughter to teach landrover

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Give it some time - she'll be fixing it with you any day!

Well, firstly it's very nice to see a black d1, and one with some shine to it at that.

A fairly rare colour IMO but she looks belting.

It's also VERY nice to see the original shape of the inner body panels, most have completely disappeared. I have never seen such a complete rear inner quarter.

You should be very proud of that one!

Been a while since the last update!

The truck went to the body shop on the first of this month.
Just been back to see it today.
I've had the roof, rear wings, rear quarters and tailgate painted and it looks pretty good.
Hopefully getting it back some point between Saturday and Wednesday. The only issue being that i'll need to get all the glass and the sunroofs back in before the weather turns - unfortunately the truck is too wide to get past my house and into the garage.

With the exception of the paint on the front doors I'm now happy with the structural condition of the truck from the bulkhead backwards. The intention is to get it built back up, run it through winter and then next year look at getting the front sheel metal off, sort out any little bits of bull**** in the engine bay that need attention and then get the doors front wings and bonnet resprayed. I would have liked to do it all in one go but I need to be realistic about my own abilities - I didn't want it to end up as another "project for sale" in the back of the small ads. At least this way I can keep up the enthusiasm!

So here's what it looked like the day we took it to the body shop...

Wow, thats in stunning condition! What a great find! This will be another thread I'll be watching closely Keep up the good work!

Thankyou for the kind comments!
Unfortunately, the finish of the roof / rear wings / tailgate that I saw today is showing up the condition of the paintwork on the doors front wings and bonnet so I'll have to save up and have that taken care of next summer.

It'll get there slowly, though!

Splendid work!

Looks fantastic - well done! Wish I could do half of that to my 300tdi.

MGBGTV8 said:

Thankyou for the kind comments!
Unfortunately, the finish of the roof / rear wings / tailgate that I saw today is showing up the condition of the paintwork on the doors front wings and bonnet so I'll have to save up and have that taken care of next summer.

It'll get there slowly, though!

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Just a thought, it'd be cheaper to get the paintwork 'corrected' by a professional than have it resprayed. By that I mean cut, polished and waxed professionally. I did this to an old car of mine and it looked like it had been repainted - an amazing transformation.



Only use a Pro though, black is a very demanding colour, if you get it wrong the scratches/swirls will stand out a mile. Have a look at Detailingworld Detailing World - A world for detailers by detailers. - most of the refinishing Pros are on there, along with a lot of very good info.

HTH

You can get excellent results yourself once you understand the principles, orbital machines give the ultimate finish to blacks but rotary polishers are very affordable and with the right products have been great for me.

I have an orbital machine but it very rarely gets used as it doesn't cut, most vehicles need the heavy cut a rotary can give you.

Before putting the couple hundred into the orbital I actually started out using a pneumatic DA sander slowed right down, worked great!

This is what I bought Kestral DAS-6 Dual Action Car Polisher - Buy online from i4detailing.co.uk - but its half the price I paid now! :doh:

You'll need to read up on different grade mops, compounds and ideally practice on a scrap bonnet or similar. Rule No1 is let the machine do the work - don't push it into the panel!

One of the advantages of having one of these, is that you can also polish up faded/scratched plastic lamps

I've got a box of tricks in the garage I'll go through to get the best out of what's there, but I'll definitely be having the rest of the car painted at some point - for example it's got the usual little annoying bubbles at the top of the doors where the ally meets the steel and there's a section in the corner of the bonnet where the paint has cracked from a minor impact the previous owner of the V8 had. The front wings also have a little bit of damage on the leading edge where the bumper bolts on so they'll be renewed with new panels. Although I've done some remedial work to make them last a little longer.

Does anyone happen to know who still supplies the "Discovery" Decal that's down the side of the doors? I'm sure I found a company that still had them in stock @ around £125 a set. I'm buggered if I can remember who it was, though!
It's something i'd like to renew when the panels get painted as I think it makes it stand out from the crowd a bit.

You could probably get the decals custom made if nothing else at similar cost

I can see that happening actually Sam!

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***EDIT*** 06/11/2013

I've since discovered the part number for the side decal kit is STC8085. Currently Devon 4x4 and Britcarparts are the only ones showing it as in stock for around about the £130 mark.
I've ordered one - fingers crossed they've still got it!



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Spent today sorting out the sunroofs. One of the mechanisms was knackered so I bought a new complete sunroof on ebay a couple of months back.
Got the new one all cleaned up and ready to go on the truck, then I got the original rear all cleaned up. Put them side by side - glass is totally different. Bugger!

Old sunroof retrieved from the skip, glass removed, cleaned up and installed on the new frame. I just packed up having re-sealed the plastic overflow boxes into the inner frame.

I'm determined this lot won't leak. Plan is to silkaflex the frames to the roof, silkaflex the inner frame to the inner roof and run a bead of vaselene all around the glass to frame seal. Fingers crossed that'll solve the issue.
If it does, I'll have the inlaws D2 front sunroof to re-seal another day!



Really hoping we get a dry day next week - the truck is too big to get past the house so it's gotta come back from the bodyshop and get the glass, sunroofs and roof bars fitted up otherwise it's going to get wet inside!

Keep 'em crossed for me for a dry couple of days lads!