Thread: 1981 Poo brown two door restore.

Closing up the lower dash fascias after some effort sorting the brittle and broken original loom and mystery previous red/black bundle of wiring joy.

8418921F-AFD3-4532-9654-E3BA8B3C6C9A.jpg

Really pleased to get all the binnacle lights working bar the oil pressure switch ,which has a break in the wire somewhere behind the engine block.(deal with that one later during engine swap)

The choke on this model has the otter switch on the intake manifold.
Working normally,this will illuminate the choke when engine reaches operating temp and choke switch still out.
The engine would be running rich and rubbish at idle by this stage, so cannot really see the merit in this setup.
Someone recently posted a useful tip ,so followed that lead,have removed the otter switch wire and grounded it to the block.
This now acts to bring on the choke light when it has been pulled out,to remind you it’s in use,way more useful:)

For anyone having issues with indicators,they won’t function correctly unless the hazard light wire is connected and functioning correctly.
Well worthwhile if removing the lower drivers fascia is to clean up the terminals on the hazard switch,quite a lot going on in this wee beauty ,so worth a minute of time.
Bad contacts and minor corrosion here often reflect in irregular flashing,slow hazard flash,or none at all.

When removing the rats nest of surplus wiring around the engine bay,i noticed someone had wired up either fog or driving lights with aftermarket wires everywhere,relays,etc.

Preaching to the converted here, but have seen multiple top dashes butchered with fog light switches or similar drilled in and aftermarket wiring polluting the engine bay.

Two door range rovers come pre installed and wired to enable fog lamps to be added.
The blue/yellow wires are ready to go,terminated in front of the radiator and sharing the same loom branch as the purple horn wires.
These then work off the smaller lever arm on the left side of steering amd should also illuminate the eyebrow light under the binnacle,if you have a later year.
Always thought that was some good foresight on land rovers part.

E3B849A6-EF2C-4558-85E6-BC183E67577F.jpg

Rear wiper motor.
On a roll chasing Lucas electrical gremlins,the rear wiper motor had a mind of its own,switch off would run intermittently,and not park on most occasions.
Removed and cleaned up the park switch,the plug just clips on on this model and the small peg moves up and down to close open the park contact when it rides over this plastic cam on the drivewheel.
switch pic courtesy of Mgb stuff.
4BEE2FB0-7E56-48ED-BEAF-D3FC73C40014.jpeg

Took the backplate off and removed the shaft,then the wheel where you see the cam bridge that operates the park switch.
Interestingly are two sets of holes so can be swapped to other side.

D19CB7C2-7259-4BD1-A39B-5CA7C194325A.jpg
AC57622F-E258-4317-933A-5300226093CB.jpeg
8FAB49A7-70FC-4819-A7E0-B18A4EAE1274.jpeg

3E9D7EE9-23DD-4B92-AF96-E197969BCF4D.jpg

Lubed up and reinstalled,this sorted the park position function nicely.
Thought I was on a win here:) that is until some nasty grinding started with slowdown,followed by the Thor electrical lightning show.
pulled the plug..rinse repeat teardown,check free movement,shims and washers correct,x3.
Same result,so I’ve done something terminal,admit defeat,order a new one ..
In hindsight my lavish use of contact cleaner may well have got into the windings and fried something.
Left to dry out it may be salvageable,let you know.

When I rewired the engine bay in my POS I used the blue / yellow as switching wires to relays which had larger wire to the spots.

Spots are HID so probably not crucial, but relays should be used with halogen to get the most out of them.

All the front lights on mine are on relays.

The switch you're referring to is brilliant,,,,,,,,,,,,, spots go off automatically when you dip the headlights.

I had parking probs with the rear wiper and had everything to bits like you have.

The culprit was the shaft coming out under the roof lip lacking lube. Spent a couple of days on that. Wasn't obvious.

Thanks for the pics, DL

I’ll sit in the garage and concoct a list of jobs to do on the two door,inevitably the first one I choose takes up most of the day,as nothing is as simple with a few fish hooks thrown in along the way.
Much of this is down to previous attempts to fix something,while valiant,usually it has been done with the thought that no one else will see it so all manner of inventive Bodgery prevails

Rear seat belts.
This originally left hand drive model had a sole captive nut on the D pillar each side for the old school rigid strap belts.
I’ll likely have minions in the back so sought out an alternative to fit recoil belts.
Spied a slightly later model with the retractable mounted on a heavy bracket on the tailgate goalpost,that’ll do
This was sitting at my local parts wrecker so pulled out both sides to tidy up and custom fit onto mine.
(have seen these on two door euro models after a google search)

FDB82B0B-4DB4-4FE8-A739-7B147F028E0F.jpg

Normally to retrofit,a captive nut is added to the D pillar,if not present ,to accomodate the hook and retractable belt.
The beauty of these is no welding,merely drilling holes through rear goalpost and a sleeved bolt fits through to fasten.

62E431F9-E7CE-4A74-BA35-1A50F42C6836.jpg 82C75344-2FAF-4CFC-A916-3BA095E9E2D5.jpg
Will add a pic of how the belts look insitu shortly.

Sliding window:
Top seal was breaking apart,and had a new lower track so thought I’d give it a go to remove the sliding window.
No manual or much info to hand so guessed removing the nylon sliders allowed enough room to raise the window over the lower chrome track.
D26F1753-FBC5-48DD-B69F-D42AF3114D45.jpg

Knocked them out and sure enough ,worked easily.
Added new track seals ,a basic piece of thin rubber,and there’s a white foam strip underneath that assists the track to slide also.
New top seal in with some silicone grease,much better .
Reinstall the track by pushing top edge of window into top track and pry the lower track over onto the rail.
Gentle hammer the nylon sliders back into place reusing the non rusty spring clips.
I had new ones but they don’t sit right on the black slider.
46772DBD-0404-4A54-9EB2-7AD1DEDE4CBA.jpg 16B9A61C-2155-4CA7-A8AF-48FD88422A8E.jpg

Bit of a clean up of the divider seal vertical track too.No idea where to get new seals for this ,as suffix A/B are available but later ones not so much,any sources let me know ,ta.
879B35E3-628E-4E5C-A1D3-EFCC2C8988C7.jpg 8CF1F459-713E-4833-92F0-DF8E0492D2C2.jpg

Gear lever soup stirrer:

The gear stick is free to float around the compass currently so guessing it hopefully was only missing the neoprene washer under the gearlever plate?

Remove rubber covers to review the 3 bolt plate,mystery surprise ,no washer of any kind.
This serves to dampen and firm up gear selector free movement.

Rubber grease and push over the ball.

E2238E60-C751-4AFB-97D5-016E81E53746.jpg
Last time I did this I recall the bolts need to deform the round washer on fitment .
It gets squashed down anyway so likely doesn’t matter,but does make install easier to Dremel a groove into the washer to match the bolt holes.

B9BDA7FA-4D10-46A1-9981-78DEC82DFD0D.jpg

The foam sound deadening pad after 40 years has usually dropped through the transmission tunnel in pieces or really broken and brittle like mine,so some of the original carpet and underlay cut to fir helps to reduce a bit of tunnel noise.

901A3798-F06D-4DE8-93EF-37BFE5A092C3.jpg

All back together.I’d done the bolts up rather tight to the point I could hardly move the gear stick,so backing off the shouldered bolts off a bit resulted in a
solid and smooth shift through the gears and no vibration on a drive.
CC9372F6-C933-4F74-8896-D65A0D3B7E10.jpg

Looking great!

On my POS the rear retractable seatbelt reels sit on the wheel arches on brackets the same as your pic. Pretty sure it's original with the anchor point being the high captive nut on the rear pillars.

DL

Progress is very positive. Nothing quite like making 3 steps forward and being able to glance back and admire the view, before something comes along and knocks you on your arse again, leaving you bewildered and seriously questioning your own judgment....

"Why did I even contemplate this in the first place???? Am I barking mad?!?!???"

and " I can't believe I bought this POS!?!"

These questions are not linked to any specific individual case, but belong collectively to all owners of Landrover products.

Persevere.

I offer only encouragement, you'd be surprised how many people wouldn't even dare to do a tenth of what you've undertaken.

PS: I'm not a fan of LR's engine bay wiring or for that matter, any of LR's wiring. If in doubt, Rip it out.

After 20 minutes driving had that sinking feeling with the hip bones digging into the seat back hinges so time to address the drivers seat.
Heavy buggers and a bit of classic British design.
Handy to find this diagram to re assemble tho
3731FCA2-C790-40E4-BB2A-CF230C5C2176.jpg

Lots of heavy duty levers,springs to accomplish that pivot and slide action.
Missing a roller on one and years of grime in the seat track meant she no longer slid or pivoted very well.
Tear down is simple,and keeping the brown suede velour two tone covers,which has grown on me,the seat base cushion is removed by releasing multiple upholstery clips.
9269A01E-AC95-4E27-B7B2-165FC7841C81.jpg
The old one was flogged out as you can see,massive rip down the middle.
F439AF39-F351-4DBB-819A-2C72437ACEBB.jpg
Replace the rubber diaphragm which tensions onto seat base holes.
The drivers had old hessian style banding underneath someone had riveted into drilled out holes,not a bad effort but any support long gone.

DBF82561-A56B-4D0E-B503-EAE0FB5BB4A1.jpg

Added those plastic hinge fillets in palamino that straddle the seat back hinge bolt.
80761FE0-D874-4E4E-8926-65FC76A80360.jpg
Road test and much better,felt like it raised the seating position and with everything greased up back to slidy pivot without brute force.
As an aside,I sliced up part of the old seat base rear edge and placed it under the seat base cover for a poor mans lumber support,can’t tell to look,but can feel a bit extra there
6B6816D7-388B-4217-A6D6-E152964A6200.jpg

Headliner installed,close as I could get to to the right tone of fabric ,must be fairly heavy as looks like it’s weighing it down,but that’s a feature

Dome lights working.
Tried the led bulbs in them,but not a fan of the light caste,so back to old bulbs,looks better.

The headliner took some lining up..
top tip: when replacing the roof,take some time to ensure it’s sitting even front to back and left/right side before screwing it down.
Result is the headliner is slightly tight on one side and loose on the other due to this.
(Unless you redrill the holes for your dome lights to reset the center position)

B446594C-99D1-4EB3-B359-9F37305E2EC2.jpg

check out the retro 70’s square speakers off eBay uk,similar on the door cards.

A9E05B20-9BA8-41E7-9ABD-567DAB5F8309.jpg
A532B33B-0549-4BB6-927C-B47C7F50991A.jpg

717CA4CE-AFCE-493D-994D-2FDFFE9CB12A.jpeg
01DC2A42-66D5-4323-8738-8BB72FEE6445.jpg

Tool kit collected from bits near and far.
Decal on fuel filler shroud to come and an oilskin tool roll.

33EE2464-D2B8-4399-8412-7D9F0C1F5887.jpg

3F614D2D-2811-459F-B9E8-752D8B2D5C73.jpg

The plate on the car for the heater controls was in great condition,alas someone had used a white paint pen to highlight the functions.
Aftermarket decals are available,so tried one after cleaning up and spraying the edges black.
Not too bad for a sticker.
FD22E802-CF0B-47DA-85EA-BAEA43DA00F4.jpg

There isn’t another two door within 100km to get a template for the lettering,so reached out to Richard Hudson at Church house classics on you tube.
Church House Classics - YouTube

Richards Channel is a superb resource for detailed how to ,on anything and everything, for classics.He is a wealth of knowledge and happy to help out,accepts beer vouchers

He sent me a video for placement of the oval “By Land Rover” tail decal and a measurement template for the bonnet and tailgate letter spacing.

These letters are from Powerful UK Ltd,presence on eBay I believe.
(unfortunately I just checked and they are no longer listed on their site.May be worth an email..)

The stick on versus the pinned version,built in contour on the letters means they hug the panel and made from quality hard plastic.The letters themselves are moulded well with sharp defined edges,nice stuff.


95AC23E9-C787-4E6C-B3A6-9C71D5A532E0.jpg