OVLR Birthday Party

A nice day of Land Rovering yesterday, near Maberly, Ontario, with friend Tony (who is restoring the 1962 88") and the Ottawa Valley Land Rover Club. First time I've driven my Land Rover 200+ km in a day, which it did noisily but without a problem, even at 95 km/h. Great time.

Even managed to hitch a ride for some off-roading with a great guy named Kurt and his Defender 130 (purchased sight-unseen from France) for some off-roading on some seldom used trails, which turned out to be a bit too rough (as ever, photos don't properly show what it was actually like, with vehicles getting stuck and chainsaws needed to clear fallen trees) to risk my semi-retired (and unscratched!) Landy on. :)

Stopping for coffee in Westport on the way.

Friend Tony waits for the other Land Rovers to show up.

Great looking Defender 110.

Our mount for the ride, still sporting its French front license plate.

Rocks, rocks and more rocks.

Some 17 Land Rovers of all types. More were at the National Park camp site and in the adjacent field. More Land Rovers than I've ever seen at one time. :)

Spring

Not too much to report, other than have been enjoying the Series in the warmer weather.

And, on other fronts, my friend Tony's 1962 is making progress. The picture below is actually out of date, being a few weeks old, when we test fitted the bulkhead. This weekend a group of us (optimistically called L-RoCK - Land Rover Club of Kingston) went over and helped install the leaf springs, get the axles in place, installed the bump stops, and get the differential drive shaft seal replacements started . A nice way to spend a few hours, and thanks for the beer and sandwiches!

Christmas Day

A perfect day of winter weather, and so took my wife and her father on a couple of separate drives along the snowy roads. Nothing quite as nice as a Series in 4-wheel drive in the snow. :)

Below, father-in-law looking pretty happy. A fan of the Series.

Perfect snow: un-plowed, powder over ice and compacted snow, deep in some places as when going through snow banks or drifts (engine compartment had a lot of ice in it at the end, from snow that had been gathered into the compartment, melted and then frozen again) and then snow-rutted roads like those pictured. Series didn't blink an eye.

Snow does like to accumulate on the rear surfaces, as seen on the later drive. Had to wipe the rear window clean.

New Seats

After using the more traditional low-backed seats for a few years now, and using faster roads more often, I thought it would probably be safer to have head-rests to lower the possibility of whiplash in the even of an accident. Not that a Series is a showcase of safety devices, but the low-backed seats always worried me slightly. And so, have now installed a set of Exmoor Trim Extreme Mk.II seats, plus an Exmoor Trim Series/Defender Cubby Box to take up the space of the middle seat. 

The seats took a couple of months to arrive from the UK. The seats are virtually the same colour as the previous reproduction 'elephant hide' seats, even if they look a little darker in the photos here.The new covering has a very nice texture, and altogether look and feel a little too luxurious for a Series, but they are very comfortable. And having cup holders is great. :)

Before:

After:

Like so many after-market items that don't seem completely thought through, the seats are nice but the bottom seat cushions come with nothing to attach them to the seat box.

The seat cushions have, on the underside, wooden slats that I think are supposed to stop the cushions sliding from side to side, but those slats are much too narrow for the space between the seat rails. New slats were cut and installed, and although the seats are just sitting on the seat rails, at least now they don't slide from side to side. Had to do this for the previous low-backed seats, too. 

At the rear, the old seat cushions managed to slide back and wedge themselves pretty solidly between the seat rail uprights, but the new seat cushions slide further back, plus the underside bends upwards at the rear for some reason, and so the cushion ends up sitting on the seat box flange. This further rear position is still acceptable as far as seating comfort goes, and in fact I prefer it, but I'll still look for something to perhaps brace the seats further forward just a little.

The seat backs are comfortable and easy to install, and the lumbar support is definitely there. I do wish plugs had been provided for the unused bolt holes provided for those with Light Weight Series and Defender attachment points.

The Cubby is a little better in terms of kit-provided installation, with four hard plastic feet and some bolts, but not much. The instructions would seem to indicate that the Defender is what they were aiming for. The provided feet didn't seem adequate to me, and so they weren't used.

The Cubby mount was made using a particle-board base with appropriate supports that sits firmly on the middle seat rails and does not move. The Cubby is bolted onto this base, using the pre-drilled holes.

To stop the Cubby sliding forward,  two 'hooks' were made and attached to the rear of the Cubby box, these then going behind the seat box flange to hold onto it from behind. At the forward end, it was nice to be able to use the original leather strap from the centre seat, that goes over the pin on the forward side of the seat box.

A conventient thing about this overall installation arrangement is that the center seat can be re-installed at any time. In fact, the entire low-backed seating arrangement can be quickly re-installed in minutes if desired.

Forward strap:

In the same vein, the leather strap from the top of the seat also makes a handy way to hold the Cubby lid open if needed. And incidentally, the material inside the Cubby is perfect for holding anything with Velcro.

Having only been around the block a few times with the new seats, will now have to do a few longer drives to see how things go. Happy to at last have head rests and cup holders.

Small Stuff

Tony's 1962 is coming along nicely, with the new galvanized chassis now painted, and the radiator panel back from welding as well as being the first part to be painted in what will be the vehicle's colour, Marine Blue:

And I've just been enjoying some nice Fall weather with lots of driving, while waiting for new headrest-equipped seats to arrive (safety feature).

Car Show

Took the Series to the 5th Annual Limestone City Car Classic here on Saturday. Not exactly a Land Rover type of event, but went to show the flag, plus the registration fee goes to a good cause. Nicely organized and very friendly crowd.  Only Land Rover there out of some 300 cars, although there was the occasional British vehicle, such as a Triumph or MG and others, scattered here and there. Hoods were requested to be opened if the vehicle was to be judged, but we didn't stay for the results. The judges put the Series in the "Special Interests" category. :)

Sump Cover

Following the installation of the Roamerdrive, it was also decided to install Global Roamer's sump cover for the transfer box. Given that the Series would now be driving at faster speeds with the possibility of greater heat in the gears, the sump cover's aluminum construction and cooling vanes will hopefully help keep temperatures down when necessary. Also, although the original steel sump cover was heavy duty and thick, it had been dented over the years and was impossible to make completely flat, which, along with differential heat expansion between aluminum and steel, presumably accounted for the oil drops always present on the underside and occasional big leak. Since installing the new sump cover, I haven't seen a single drop of oil. And no, I don't work for Global Roamer. ;)