huffo
Tea Maker
Posts: 238
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Post by huffo on Jan 28, 2020 7:57:52 GMT 1
Good luck for the MoT Valhalla. Your write-up has been a riveting read from start to finish. Thanks for making the effort and taking the time and I hope you think it’s all been worthwhile!
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Post by valhalla on Jan 29, 2020 0:51:42 GMT 1
Well, I froze my overalls off this afternoon, standing in the field below my workshop, unbolting the spare & seized wiper assembly from my other Disco2 (the one I use for lugging wood around the place).
Having got it into the workshop, I managed to free both spindles within 30mins, and I believe that they are now both greased and serviced for a few years. The metalwork around the assembly all looks OK'ish, certainly better than the rusted mess that has come off the project D2, so I now need to loose-assemble the spare wiper rack to the car, and make sure it is all OK electrically. Which means....
....I have had to finish the inner wheelarch liner repairs & fabrication of new fixing brackets, plus all the associated mudguards and front apron finishers, as I cannot reconnect the battery beforehand, because....
...to work on the front wheelarches on the 4-poster, the front end has to be jacked-up under the chassis rails (allowing the front axle to hang down loose) which would upset the rear air suspension from the shifted centre-of-mass, and probably cause more grief than I want at this hour before the MoT.
I'm ready to put the battery back on tomorrow morning, then I can test, and hopefully fit, the spare wiper rack - after having waxed it to within an inch of its life, on BOTH sides of the metal plate, interior and exterior!!! Then the bonnet can go on, and I might just be able to take this car out for a quick test-drive with a week in-hand to fix whatever crops-up.
ABS is my main concern at this stage....
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Post by valhalla on Jan 29, 2020 23:37:43 GMT 1
And the best laid plans.....
The spare wiper mechanism was positioned loosely in-place this morning, and a (very stiff) brush of wax was applied undeneath it. All plugged-in, and battery reconnected to reveal.....
....yes, it's knackered!! The motor had stopped in a strange place when it was last used, and that should have been a clue. When I put the wiper control into "INT" on a 4second cycle, the motor rarely made it round between 3 separate places it stopped in the time it had. Meaning that the park-switch and/or the cam underneath it are U/S, and that's a problem - the motor is sealed-for-death with tiny rivets.
So....back to plan A, combined with a bit of plan B. Use the original motor (with its snapped-off set-screw on one location) and try to rebuild it onto the spare wiper rack (that isn't rusty). All this in the happy environment of no workshop heater (again) as some more dodgy fuel has gone back through it (again) and caused it to explode itself out of flame in the combustor case (again).
The fixing would not drill-out properly; it started fine, but then seemed to hit something more hard than the HSS drill-bits that I was using. So I have made a special stud, and set that into whatever rebate I have been able to make in the motor casing with long-setting JB Weld (for strength) and left it above the range in the kitchen (for fun) to set overnight.
The secondhand rack/motor is on its way up from Wales as I type this, but I'm becoming somewhat concerned that time is running short for finishing this car off; I need the 4-poster from this weekend for a big & serious paying-job on a sick Defender, so the end is nigh there. After I spoke with the nice lassie on the phone, I put the kettle on and drew a big breath..... Then the rain stopped, and I thought, "Right. Test-drive it is, without a bonnet or wipers, but also without the risk of the car filling with precipitation."
It was only a short test-drive, just 1/8th mile each way to the turning area at the end of the road, curtailed by every man and his sheep getting in the way. What it did prove was that a) the ABS light goes out, and stays out, up to 15mph, and b) the gearbox shifts up smoothly on cold oil as far as 2nd in "D". So I can be fairly certain that a longer drive, when I have wipers and a bonnet fitted, is likely to be fine, and there's no need to delay the MoT.
The engine bay is now completed with a freshly-painted battery clamp and all the covers clipped down, so besides the bonnet, a good interior valet, and an external scrub to take the barnacles off, she's finished....
.... other than all the repairs she still needs!!
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Post by rhyds on Jan 30, 2020 0:13:17 GMT 1
The end is in sight! That's one fine looking bit of kit there chief
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Post by valhalla on Jan 30, 2020 0:28:23 GMT 1
The end is in sight! That's one fine looking bit of kit there chief Looks can be deceptive!! She's very grubby outside, and the mizzle that was swirling around as I took the photo was hiding the grime quite well. The main issues are the green algae that have grown along the roofline above the gutter, and the same around the hind-quarters.
Interior-wise, I think that a good vacuum of the carpets will go a long way to fixing the offputting ambience, followed by a strong solution of Fabric&Seat cleaner over all the dashboard, glovebox, and door pulls (maybe even the fabric door-cards) to rid the whole lot of black mould that has grown since she was parked-up (and probably before that...). The seats are OK at the moment, just in good useable condition, but would probably benefit from a leather-clean and conditioner before presenting the car for resale.
There are a couple of minor things I want to attend-to before I get too comfortable on the next few journeys; the drivers seat switches are sticking since they went back in during the rebuild, but also there's a "tizz" on one of the front passenger door speakers when the volume is turned-up, and that latter item will annoy me when I have got Abba blasting out of the stereo at full-volume.
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Post by valhalla on Jan 31, 2020 0:23:59 GMT 1
Not much done on this today. I spent most of the time this morning going back through all the torque-setting sheets for front suspension, rear suspension, steering, and brakes. As per my procedure-sheets, I went down through every setting and re-checked the torque on each and every fixing. This is done after each car has gone out for a short drive, to ensure that everything has settled.
I removed the (broken) spare motor off the spare wiper-rack at lunchtime, and oddly, the same positioned screw that sheared-off on the original wiper moter also gave me a bit of trouble on the spare motor, but it didn't shear-off!
I'm going to give the replacement wiper assembly (on its way up from Wales) until lunchtime tomorrow to arrive, then I'll build-up and fit a mix-and-match of wiper bits to get this car out of the workshop for the weekend - it cannot wait any longer. I think I should be able to have a fairly brave attempt at making a working assembly, however the stud that is glueing into the original motor casing was not 100% satisfactory this morning, so I have left this the extra 24hours to be sure.
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Post by valhalla on Jan 31, 2020 20:50:46 GMT 1
Replacement wiper assembly didn't arrive today, so I risked the repair motor with its glued-in stud, and that seems to be holding. Having copiously waxed everything in the plenum area once again, I refitted the wiper assembly, tested the repaired unit as-one, then got the decker-panel at the base of the 'screen back onto the car.
The bonnet took a little while to get correct; it appears that the car has been running around with the front of the bonnet set too low on the catch, prior to the restoration. It is now much better, but not perfect, however I remember that some of these Disco2's need the bonnet slightly snugged-down to the locking platform to prevent them from oscillating about the catch at higher vehicle speeds, so I have left it a little tight to just touch the rubber buffers each side of the bonnet.
Other than a really good valet inside and out, the car is finished ready for the MoT, so I'm going to close the job-card for this. The doors still need a slight adjustment on the front apertures, but sadly these doors only adjust vertically, not in tilt fore/aft, so I've got a bit of work there to get a really good line on both front and back of the waistline. It's possible that a new hinge at the bottom either side of the car would alleviate some of the error, but I have carefully measure the deflection when jacked under each door, and it isn't the whole story. Right now, it looks like the body is very slightly distorted from the old chassis....
I'll post some photos once the cleaning has commenced!!!
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,974
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Post by remmington on Jan 31, 2020 21:34:22 GMT 1
Well done for seeing it to the end! (There are lot of lessor people with projects sitting about unfinished - even restorers who have taken deposits never finish the job).
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Post by Rhubarb on Feb 1, 2020 19:20:28 GMT 1
Well done. Thoroughly enjoyed reading all of this and look forward to seeing the photos
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Post by valhalla on Feb 3, 2020 0:57:45 GMT 1
The cleaning has commenced yesterday (first wash around the exterior) and today (vacuum of carpets, cleaning of all interior trim), and she already looks so much better. I am going to leave the headlining until later into the Spring, although it will let the car down as it is - mould spotting throughout except for a test-area at the rear loadspace. I need to see how the rest of the headlining will take the cleaning solution I'm using, and whether it will go to the "classic Landrover Bedouin tent" effect afterwards!! There's a fair way to go before she will look worth the money I have spent, but some of that work will need to wait whilst I catch-up now with the paying work.
Which is just as well. Excluding the purchase and fitting of the tyres to the four corners of the car (outside of my billing, done separately), running at the "mate's rates" that I have billed myself as "Trade", and with the VAT added to the bottom, the effective cost of this resto has been circa £6.5k. That isn't something that most customers of mine would stand, not for a Disco2 TD5 that still has one or two scratches and dents!!!
I might get some shots of her on Tuesday, if the weather improves in the afternoon.
I might take some pot-shots at her on Wednesday afternoon if she fails her MoT.......
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Post by rhyds on Feb 3, 2020 10:09:28 GMT 1
A restoration like this will never make financial sense, however its clear from your posts here that you've done this so your Discovery is your Discovery, set up how you want it, protected how you want it and to be used how you want to. I'm seriously envious of anyone will the skill and the drive to make something like that happen
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Post by valhalla on Feb 4, 2020 23:54:51 GMT 1
I cleaned all the glass this afternoon (inbetween working on the cars I should be concentrating on.... ) and had to do the whole lot, inside and out. It was all pretty dreadful, and I hate looking through filthy 'screens when I'm driving (I'm bad enough as it is.... ). The troubles stemmed from tree-sap after being parked-up, but also just a huge amount of wax residues from all the body-treatment.
This evening, after it had gone suitably dark, I gave her a proper run out on my "test-loop" around the North of this peninsular, about 7.5miles in total, and she passed with flying colours; In Landrover parlance, that is, i.e. she made it back home on her four wheels, without a tow-rope, suspension in the correct attitude, and without any MIL's glaring away in the instrument binnacle.
She feels "light" around the straightahead steering-position, and I may need to recheck the geometry to be sure that it is optimum. I have the tyres slightly over-inflated (31psi, rather than 28psi on the fronts) which is how I have always run later LR's, but in this case it might be necessary to go back down to 29psi, or even the 28psi (which seems incredibly soft to my mind).
I feel confident that she might just pass tomorrow....
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Post by voicey on Feb 5, 2020 10:29:00 GMT 1
Good luck for the MOT today.
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Post by valhalla on Feb 5, 2020 15:40:29 GMT 1
Good luck for the MOT today. She sailed through - it was clear a lot of work had been done.
One small fly in the ointment was that by the time I got to the MoT station (about 11miles indirectly) the ancilliary drive didn't sound too good. At least, we think it's the ancilliary drive; I went out to the car to listen to it whilst the paperwork was being prepared, and declared it "OK for the test as long as the engine keeps turning"......
The probable cause is the tensioner pulley bearing has gone dry with standing, and now it has gone round a few thousand times, it wants replacement. If it was a 300Tdi, I have 3 in-stock, but TD5.......I'm just checking the stock system now. The worst thing is, the fibre-cable people have got their revenge for all the invective that has banded-around these parts, and they have dug across the entrance of my premises - once again - and then left a load of cones. Having a Disco2 TD5 to cross the threshold is fine on the way out, but now there is wet tarmac in the hole, so I cannot get the Disco back in to have a look at it!!
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Post by rhyds on Feb 5, 2020 17:08:19 GMT 1
Much congratulations on having all the paperwork sorted!
As for the tensioner, of course it had to have a whinge at some point!
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