On the Ground at Last

After just about a year of work, for a couple of hours almost every day, today the Land Rover stood on its own four wheels again for the first time. There was sufficient weight on the springs so that, when one corner of the vehicle was jacked up, the springs would compress enough to allow the shock absorber to be attached. Once they were all on, down she came for a landing.

This also enabled me to reposition the Land Rover to make working on the left side a little easier.

Once that was done, on went the iconic headlights and a few more items, including the 'bean can'.

Seat Box Test Fit

Today's task was to test fit the seat box and floorboards. No problems, except to discover the handbrake lever will need to be adjusted as it is presently too low and strikes the bottom of the seat box opening.

Fuel tank is out at BGM Metalworks to have the intake tubes moved rearwards as much as possible. The central outriggers on the new chassis appear to be too far forward (by about 3/4 inch) and the fuel tank can't be moved rearwards enough to install correctly within the tub openings. I had already elongated the tub holes forward in an attempt to let the tank intake tubes pass upwards, but it wasn't enough - it would have required modifying the seat box as well, which I'm not willing to do.

Seatbox and floorboards are in primer only. Steering wheel isn't all the way on, as it was just being used to center the steering arms and test movement along the system.

Pedals

Installed the pedal boxes this evening, and adjusted the pedal heights as per the manual. All fairly straight forward.

Here, shiny new bolts set off reflections of light similar to water. Original bolts are darker. Pedal return springs not yet installed. Not too happy with the quality of the rubber pedal pads on the brake and clutch pedals. I purchased a second set after a tab snapped off after being bent just a few degrees on the first set, and then tabs broke off on both the new ones! Plus, I can't say I really like the distortion that occurrs when a tab is sucessfully bent. Have installed them for now. Hopefully a better brand can be found.

'Breakfast', Radiator Installed

Starting to look like a Land Rover more and more. Today the 'breakfast' front panel and radiator were installed. Not too much to it. First placed the shroud over the fan and let it hang there, by itself, as there didn't appear to be too much room if it was included with the 'breakfast' and radiator assembly. Them bolted the 'breakfast' to the radiator, then lifted those units onto the frame and bolted them on. Then attached the shroud to the back of the radiator. Once in place, it was clear the radiator hoses would need to be trimmed to fit!

Prior to that, however, the steering box drop arm and rod ends were all adjusted and finished up, which is why the steering wheel is temporarily installed. This was used to find the center of run.

A few other pieces have been added here and there, too, such as the regulator and fuse boxes, and some of the throttle linkages.

Tailgate; Door Welds; Logos

Finished changing the Defender tailgate fittings to the sturdier ones of the Series 2, and everything has gone together very well (see previous post for what it looked like before). Had to drill one new hole for the center bolt on the hinges, and new holes for the capping rivets. The last thing to do will be the galvanised 'rub strips' that attach to the top surface (when gate is open). These should be riveted on, but as the Defender is double-walled, with a gap in between, as opposed to the Series 2 being just a single sheet, this will take some experimentation. Worse comes to worse they can be attached via screw - but rivets would be nice. Then it'll be time for some Pastel Green paint there, too.

Doors are back from welding at BGM Metalworks. They did a great job, and even voluntarily rebuilt the severely rusted part of the driver's side door frame. Nice service! Now it's on to refining the weld surfaces, treating the remaining surface rust, and then paint.

Last but not least, have re-painted the logos. There was enough of the original black paint to follow the original demarkation lines very closely. The black stops just short of the top surface, not right at the edge.

More Rear

One of the things being done has been refurbishing the original grab handles for the rear bumper, in all their hand-made not-quite-straight looking glory. These are now installed. Nice to have originals back there, even if the after-market black ones did look pretty good as well.

The Defender tailgate is very temporarily on, just to make sure there are no general problems with fit. This will be stripped of all Defender fittings, and have those of the orginal tailgate installed, in trying to keep things as orginal as possible (there are enough differences in the fittings to make this worthwhile). This will include top capping. Too bad the previous owner had backed into something with the original tailgate open. I've tried to repair it, but it's just too badly damaged, and original tailgates appear to be impossible to find.

 

And just a view from the front. Pedal boxes and related parts are on the front bumper, waiting for assembly. Fuel tank is still out, as the hose pass-through hole in the tub is still waiting for its small modification. Bulkhead is now fully painted.

More Painting

Have been doing a number of things, not the least being painting the 'breakfast' and apron. With this done, the radiator can now go back on.

Also started assembling the pedal boxes, but when putting the rubber pads on the pedals, one of the tabs on a pad just broke off after just a few degrees of bending. I tried attaching the pad anyway, but it looked bad and was potentially dangerous, and so have order another set for the clutch and brake pedals, just to be sure.

Doors are out having cracked joints in their frames welded.

The acrylic enamel aerosol paint is a pleasure to work with, and I think the not-overly-gloss finish is well suited to a Land Rover. As mentioned before, it matches exactly the finish of the original paint found on the vehicle. However, care has to be taken to make sure that whatever primer is under the paint is sanded very smooth, as the enamel really shows every tiny texture and surface marking underneath.