Wiring Through Chassis

Just a small update, as the wiring is now through to the rear. Purchased 9 feet of 5/8" (inner diameter) flexible conduit, threaded the loom into it leaving a space at the end, drilled a hole through which a wire was tied and used to pull the conduit/wiring through from the front to the rear. After that, the last few inches of the conduit was cut off and the wiring itself was pulled the rest of the way out.

This should prevent chaffing of the wire loom on any sharp galvanizing edges inside the chassis, if any. I also drilled holes through the conduit every foot or so, before introducing the wiring, so that moisture in the tubing can drain or dry out. I've left the rear end of the conduit protruding from the chassis hole, so that it can be pulled out again if necessary. The front end is lying flat inside the chassis, just under the loom entry hole there, so that moisture, if there's enough, can run out, seeing as that end is 'downhill'.

My only worry was that the tape measure, being flat, could have passed under the bolts that hold the shaft for the hand brake relay lever to the chassis, preventing the conduit from moving through the chassis, but this wasn't the case.

In this view, the conduit containing the loom has been pulled through.

The end result. I've since drilled a small hole through the conduit and used a tie-wrap to fasten the end of the conduit to the end of the grey panel brace, to make sure it doesn't slide back in.

More Small Things

Still waiting for a few more small items to arrive, namely the new colour-coded braided wire from Autosparks for the turn-signal, the Stabilant 22 for the connections overall, a new green indicator warning light cover for the flasher panel, and new lightbulbs for the wing lights. The actual connectors have arrived, plus the boots for the battery cable ends. Once all's here, the wiring should be quick to finish up.

The inner wings are temporarily on as the locations of the wire harness clips are determined, and measurements for the new mudguard brackets are made (one mudguard is lying on the tire). Side lights have been cleaned and are waiting for their new bulbs; turn-signal lights are on the radiator waiting their turn. Glass light lenses are elsewhere so they don't get dropped. Cable hanging over the windscreen is the one that goes rearwards through the frame to power the rear lights. That can go in once some flex tubing is purchased in which to house it within the chassis, as others have reported that galvanized chassis can leave small sharp edges inside the frame which can wear through the wire fairly quickly.

Also a good time to test fit the apron panel, as the rub strips have to be installed. The thing that looks like a hat with a green band on the bumper is the inlet flange that attaches at the front of the right wing, which has been de-rusted and will be cut down to the green tape. The ducting that goes back to the Kodiak heater attaches to this.

Thanks to the good folks at the Series 2 Club in the UK, knowing how to thread the wiring loom through the chassis was easy: use a metal tape measure, threaded from the rear, which is then hooked out at the front opening. Then it's just a matter of attaching a soft wire or string and pullling it back through, and then the wiring will just be pulled through the chassis. Easy to do, even with the tub on.

Kodiak Mk.II Heater

3 Bros.sent some work-in-progress photos of the Kodiak heater tonight. It looks just amazing.

Original heater core, hoses and fittings, not shown below, have been refurbished and are fully useable.

Inlet before:

Inlet after (new), before primer and paint. I'm willing to bet it's better made than the original unit.

Blower and heater core box, in primer:

Vent control box and windscreen vents in their final paint, with the refurbished blower motor and fan behind (looking like new):

'Before' again, to give a fuller view of what they had to work with:

Update Oct.28: photo from Peter of all parts, ready for shipping. Looks like new!

And the blower box assembled:

Panel Wiring

Today's after work project was to wire the panel. Quite straight forward, except for the ignition switch having 5 contact points and all the diagrams just showing 4. Still trying to find info here.

Will have to wait for the remaining wires, connectors, grommets and a replacement light bulb before the turn-signal/flasher panel can be wired up, and the panel in general completed, plus wiper motors connected.

Wiring (so far)

The Autosparks loom has been a pleasure to work with. Some wires appear to be longer than needed here, but only by a little, and may well be due to the particularities of this vehicle, but I'm happy as  I'd rather have wires too long then too short!

This Land Rover had flashing turn signals, the panel switch for which is not accounted for in the loom, and the necessary wires (braided) have now been ordered. A thorough examination of the loom shows that I'll be needing another 17 single (two-way) and 3 dual (4-way) connectors, plus four of the loop connectors are too small for the bolts on the attach points here (eg. dynamo and oil pressure connections) and will need to be replaced. The fork connectors for the headlight dimmer switch are not the right type for the unit installed, and so three spade connectors will need to replace them.

First challenge was to get the panel wires through the bulkhead. However, by taking the grommets off the loom, inserting them into the holes in the bulkhead, and then pushing the individual wires through, it went quickly, only taking about 10 minutes. Everything else starts from there.

The silver unit lying down in the gauge compartment is the flasher regulator. Oil pressure and water temp gauge is now hooked up. Flasher panel is just installed while waiting for new wires. Will have to be careful to take into account the need to pass the heater tubes through there.

A look from the other side. Just about everything here is done, just a couple of grounds and a replacement wire from distributor to coil are needed, and have to tidy some things up. Haven't connected the wires yet that extend to the back of the vehicle. The Kodiak heater will have it's own setup.

Just some connectors salvaged from the original loom. Appear to be in good shape with hardly any corrosion, but will be cleaning them throughly anyway.

Main panel underway. Key switch and panel lights are to the right. Very happy I took lots and lots of photos before taking everything apart.

Rear Lights; Wiring Start

There was a choice of rear lights to install, and I wanted to be as authentic as possible to this Land Rover. Photos of the rear of the Land Rover as it was when it arrived didn't give many clues, as it had different lights everywhere. In the end, the flashers for the overseas "America Dollar Area" were chosen, as this was an export model (and they look nice), and as for the red stop lights, at first it was going to be those that match the flashers, as they are listed in the parts catalogue as also being on the export vehicles, but then I realised that they do not have reflectors built in, in which case there would have been holes in the rear surface of the tub for the seperate reflectors. The more-or-less standard stop lights DO have the reflectors - and so I went with those, as this is what the Land Rover would have to have had.

Had to drill some new holes in the capping for the rear lights in any case, as it proved the best way.

At right, the aftermarket plastic license plate illuminator. The plastic cover is held on to the light body by a drive screw only, and the bracket inside is itself quite soft: very easy to strip the drive screw hole by tightening the screw too firmly. The original light is presently being restored, and will take back it's original spot at some point.

Finally a Land Rover again!

What was there before. I believe the left stop light was the only original light left.

Have also made a start on the wiring. First step: Understand what Autosparks had sent, as, like most aftermarket parts, there are no instructions/illustrations to help. You end up with a number of smaller wiring subsets, and no idea what goes where.

At first, I went to the excellent diagram here, very kindly provided by the Series 2 Club. This is helpful for the colours and how the parts connect, but is still visually very different from what you see when first unwrapping the Autosparks loom. However, using the illustration from the parts catalogue soon showed how Autosparks had laid things out, and from there, combined with the above diagram, it's relatively easy.

Noted that some extra connectors will be needed, but will catalogue those once everything else is in place.

Below: looks chaotic, but just laying the looms out loosely, and then labelling all the ends, soon provided order out of the confusion (so far!).

The diagram from the parts catalogue. Depending on your vehicle, it won't look exactly like this (for example, ths illustration does not include flashers and has only one wiper motor, plus LHD has some differences), but the essential layout of the individual loom sections is like this.

Riveting

Installed the rear vertical cappings today. Thanks to Matt in Victoria, BC, who gave some excellent tips, and some past aircraft experience, doing the riveting was easy. You can see some photos of Matt's beautifully done project here.

Due to the damage to the rear corners, a few of the rivet holes in the tub were sub-standard, some being stretched, some enlarged, some would not line up flush with the capping surface, etc., and so some creativity was required when actually doing the riveting. A couple of shanks had to be deliberately made to bend a little sideways while making sure the heads stayed flush, and some longer ones were used so the extra material would fill the holes better as they were hammered down (this is not an aircraft!). A slower than normal hammer rate was used also on the awkward rivets, as I found it gave better control. All in all everything came out well.

Incidentally, a test of the rear lights showed that their attachment screws don't align with the holes in the capping. Modifications will have to be made, preferably to the light bases as I don't want to drill any new holes in the capping.

Also installed the front mud flaps. While the quality of these is good (from Rovers North, a Christmas gift from the lovely T), modifications still had to be made to get them to fit: the holes on the chassis end had to be enlarged to 5/16", and the bracket bend on the sill end had to be adjusted so that it would align with the holes.

In case you notice the water on the floor, on the left of the photo, it's because we are having some exceptionally heavy rain today, and when that happens the garage floods (but not too badly!). : )

Pastel Green Complete

After a small marathon yesterday, finally all the parts that need to be are now Pastel Green.

All went well, except for one of the plastic outer wings. Before painting, I had picked up one of our cats, which must have left fur on my shirt. As the paint went on the wing it appeared to generate static electricity, perhaps because of the plastic, and to my horror the fur on my shirt began migrating from me to the panel. I could actually see it lift off of the shirt and float over to the wet paint on the panel. And then, while trying to pick some of it out before the paint surface set (there is only about two minutes for this), I knocked the panel off of its support and it fell on the floor.... and made a long gouge through the fresh paint. Will now have to wait for it to cure completely and then sand it and start again. A small setback, but easy to fix once the existing paint has fully cured.

Painting done for now, it will be back to doing things like the wiring, riveting the rear corner cappings, etc..

Tailgate now painted:

In the storage area, the inner and outer wings now wait.

Painting Before Winter

Been a bit of a frenzy, trying to get the last of the larger parts that will be Pastel Green painted before the temperatures in the garage become too cold for painting (Limestone-coloured top will probably have to wait intil next Spring). Looking at the two-week temperature trend and then extrapolating, this looks as if it may be the last week in which it will be possible to keep the temperatures around 20 C inside. An insulated garage would have been nice to have!

ABS outer wings have had their plastic adhesion primer coats and have now been done in normal primer; hood is painted; inner wings are ready for paint and should be done today at lunch. With luck, the outer wings will be painted this evening. Perhaps even the tailgate can be done.

One day this will look like a neat and tidy garage again (well, as much as it ever was). : )

Hood Underside Completed

Found a little time in the late afternoon to finish the underside painting. Tried to match the Pastel Green overspray with the original that's still on the aluminum, and as it was applied to the frame; hopefully it's close enough! Fold-around surfaces will be done when the top is done.

Did a little preparation work on the inner wings, and noticed this feature: the hood has actually worn a groove into the upper surface of the wing, including two circular bowls where the pop rivets are that attach the rear crossmember of the hood frame. If you look closely, these even include the centre holes in the rivets. I hope the hood will fit better now, although it can't be tested until the paint is dry. If not, it's just one of the many idiosyncracies of this particular Land Rover!

...And a little careful late night hood fit test, the paint being dry enough to handle. Good to have done, it revealed a few more areas on the hood that need filling and sanding before painting. The gold paint is an extraordinarily hard paint (which is probably why it has lasted as long as it has, without fading or chipping, with only surface oxidization), and makes a very good undercoat . The fitting also showed that the driver's side corner will continue to hit the top of the wing, although just lightly. And now, on to fnish all the wing and hood prep and get as much painted as possible over the next few days....

More Wings etc.

Finished adjusting the wing brackets, and now the wings are basically ready to be sanded, primed and painted. The front end is definitely looking like a Land Rover! It would be nice if the hood was fully painted, as that could be tried on as well.

Was hoping to prime the outer wings, as it's a three day weekend (Thanksgiving, here in Canada), plus it's relatively warm, but NAPA is shut until Tuesday and so I can't buy any primer for ABS plastic until then. The hood upper surfaces will probably be painted instead.

Below, the front end (note completed upper doors, too). Hood hinges are just in place so I know where they are. The inner wings have been straightened as much as possible, but, like the rest of the Land Rover, will have their little souvenir wrinkles and dents here and there. Nothing too noticeable, however. At least they fit properly now.

Hood frame has been through the primer stage and has now been painted a high-temp black. The forward cross-member of the frame plus the fastening bracket were painted in Pastel Green, in a sort of overspray method, and so will have to wait until at least Monday to try and copy that. Then the hood will be turned over and painted Pastel Green. The surface has already been sanded and prepped.

Wing Test Fit

As anything needing painting is on the fast track these days, and while the hood/bonnet frame dries in preparation for primer tomorrow, thought I'd do a test fit of the right wing, along with the ABS plastic outer wing. Didn't really fasten anything together, just enough to hold things in place. Had to do quite a bit of panel beating first on the inner wing, as it was more damaged that previously thought, but eventually it came together. Hope to do a test fit of the other wing tomorrow.

Aside from some small adjustments, it appears everything will fit together well. The plastic outer wing is a very good quality part.

Square hole on the inner wing near the headlight is the air intake for the Kodiak Mk.II heater.

Paint: Limestone; More Hood/Bonnet

Was at NAPA today, at lunch time, picking up some more Pastel Green paint, and asked about Limestone. It turns out it's already in the system, as an official Land Rover paint, which was a very nice thing to discover. The guys at NAPA very kindly mixed a sample for me to try out, and it is indeed an exact match for what's on the Land Rover.

Here's the computer entry and code (3307, but can also be found as 516 in the same system) that NAPA has on file. In case it's useful to those who don't have a NAPA at hand, the entire formula is here:

Worked further on the hood, finishing up the scraping, sanding and wire brushing. Where the old paint resisted well, it was left alone and sanded smooth, as I'm not going to argue with paint that has stuck well for 51 years. Then masked off the aluminum (including the rivets, as they would not have been painted originally when the frame was installed; however they were covered by the Pastel Green overspray) and then two coats of Eastwood's Rust Converter (which smells a lot like tea, incidentally, which may be the tannic acids used).

The Rust Converter needs 48 hours to dry completely, and then the frame will receive a primer coat, and, following that, some black high-temp paint. Then work will switch to the other side.

Here, the exposed steel and rust are turning black, which indicates that Rust Converter is doing its job...

Hood (or Bonnet)

In an effort to try and paint everything possible before it gets too cold to warm the garage effectively, I made a start on the hood yesterday and today. At this point, this involves just removing 51 years worth of dirt and oil. As ever on this Land Rover, it's been a pleasant surprise to find that corrosion has been relatively light - outside of the bulkhead and chassis.

Day 1: Cleaned some sample spots just to see what I was up against, and then did the central aluminum areas. Then, a light scraping of the steel frame to see how things were there, exposing some red oxide primer at the same time. Result: very minor corrosion on the aluminum, and just light surface rust on the frame. That was some very well baked on dirt and oil. Frame is painted black with red-oxide primer.

Day 2: Aluminum done, and most of the frame scraped and gone over with the wire wheel. Interesting to see the factory overspray of the Pastel Green, including what looks like a little test of the spray gun from whoever was painting that day. Hood hinges have been removed for stripping.

Vent Seals; Windscreen

The vent seals are proving to be a challenge all of their own. I purchased Land Rover-manufactured seals, and they are a very nicely made product, but unless I'm missing something I don't believe they work properly. There's no groove for the vent lids to settle into, and so the lids have to be jammed down in the hope they will eventually make their own groove through pressure. It requires a lot of pressure to press the lids down, and even then they don't go all the way.

A search on the web and Land Rover forums revealed a lot of frustration over vent seals, and no real answers. The seals themselves, like almost everything else on the aftermarket side of things, come with no instructions. The most common answer that I found was to keep the vent pressure on the seals by clamping or whatever, and after a few weeks or months the vents should be properly seated. This can't be right. When original Land Rover owners needed new seals, did they just have to endure rain and snow and blowing wind in the cabin for weeks until the vents sealed properly? I can't see a practical and experienced engineering company like Land Rover doing that.

It seems logical, at least to me, that the original and correct seals must have had grooves of some sort, and not have been as thick.

I tried cutting a slit in the seal for the lid edge by tracing around the vent lid, but that wasn't successful as the lid lip didn't always catch the slit.

Peter at 3 Bros. kindly sent photos of the aftermarket seals they sell, and they appeared to have the same flat-top profiles as the official current Land Rover ones. The only seals I could find on the web which appear to have some sort of shape that might be correct are part number MUC4299, as imaged on the L.R.Series website here. I'll have to look into this, preferably with Peter, even though they are apparently only for Series 3 and Defenders.

And so, I experimented with other seal types, and one which appears to work well, at least in the short term, is a self-adhering, water-proof, closed cell outdoor rubber weatherstripping available at Home Depot here. I bought a few sizes to try things out with, and this was best. For now, I think this will do.

(If you know of any other solution, leave a comment!)

Here, view of the weatherstripping. Pro's and con's: Pro: very inexpensive, easily available, and easy to remove/replace if necessary. Plus, the lid can be lowered/closed completely right away, with fair pressure on the seal. Likely good for keeping wind and light rain out, and heat in. Con: May not be good for heavy rain or trying to chip ice off of, and, don't know how long they'll last.

A view with the lid closed. (Incidentally, the weld blobs around the hinge welds, etc. are factory original, and so I sort of like them, which is why they're still there.)

On a different note, and no big deal other than it's really starting to feel like a Land Rover now, the windscreen went on today. (By the way, the high-quality Land Rover-manufactured bulkhead-to-windscreen seal, also appears to be too thick, as with with the vent seals. Even with considerable force the windscreen won't lay back at completely the correct angle. May just go back to the original 51 year old seal, as it was working just fine except for being slightly tattered at the ends.)