Sheerluck's project D3

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Originally Posted by sheerluck

It's so close! But it's stupid little things that are taking the time. Like removing and repositioning 4 letters took 3 hours (heating them up to soften the glue, gently prising them up, removing all the sticky stuff, measuring and replacing). And there's a thin aluminium plate that goes between the bonnet catches (there's two on the D3) and the magnesium alloy front end carrier. One of the two plates was missing, so made a new one up (naturally there wasn't one in stock in the country, and I wasn't going to wait a week or so to get one from the UK). That was another half day gone.



And all the messing about with trying to find the defective connector was a right royal pain in the bum. You have to disconnect about 30 connectors to separate body from chassis. And it'll come as no surprise that it wasn't the first connector I tried.



All is improving here now, thanks. You hadn't even noticed I'd gone though! :p

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Yes there's a saying that the last 20% takes 80% of the effort ;) glad it is coming along great. As others have said you will now know the car inside out. And you should be very proud of returning life to a vehicle that was probably destined for parts & scrap.
Did you get the chassis alignment checked?

Oh ps have you got pics / more details of your touchscreen ?

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Originally Posted by Meken

Yes there's a saying that the last 20% takes 80% of the effort ;) glad it is coming along great. As others have said you will now know the car inside out. And you should be very proud of returning life to a vehicle that was probably destined for parts & scrap.
Did you get the chassis alignment checked?

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That's how it's feeling at the moment! I must admit that up until the body came off a few weeks ago, and I got that last bent body panel replaced, it had started feeling like a burden. But now I can see the end in sight, the enthusiasm has returned.

Yes we did a chassis check while the body was off. The specs are here Land Rover Workshop Manuals > LR3/Disco 3 > 501-26 Body Repairs- Vehicle Spec Info & Tolerance > Body And Frame > Page 3180

I guess that it has been confirmed as being all square by the way everything has bolted on without an issue.

My neighbour told me (after we'd finished) that he'd had a sleepless night the night before worrying about how everything would line up. I showed him that workshop manual with all the measurements, and he laughed and told me that was cheating!

Did you happen to check cross diagonal measurements were both equal? (Front right to back left & front left to back right)

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Originally Posted by Meken

Oh ps have you got pics / more details of your touchscreen ?

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Sure, what did you need to know? I did a writeup of the install somewhere on here.

I saw write up but I don't think it was finished - what brand touchscreen - how much - did you keep the oem unit connected but hidden somewhere?

Dave.
First time I have came across this thread on your rebuild.
WELL DONE.
Any chance on a ballpark figure for the total investment????
My Bro has suggested I look into D4 pranged units.He has plenty of mates in the panel industry/wreckers.He bought an XR6 Turbo write-off with 7000km on the clock from Pickles.Cost him $25000 on the road repaired,and due to some sort of overlook from Ford Australia its still under new car warranty:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
Andrew

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Originally Posted by Meken

Did you happen to check cross diagonal measurements were both equal? (Front right to back left & front left to back right)

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We got inventive with lengths of steel, spirit levels, a couple of plumb bobs, and performed all the measurements in that repair manual. I don't think corner to corner was one that was listed, only to the third body mount back. One measurement was 3mm out (front left to 3rd body mount on RH side). There was enough movement in the body mounting bolts to be able to live with that though.

It was tricky to get the measurements, but clearly worth it in the end. It would have been somewhat unexciting to get all the welding done and then find that it doesn't meet the chassis in the right places.

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Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Dave.
First time I have came across this thread on your rebuild.
WELL DONE.
Any chance on a ballpark figure for the total investment????
My Bro has suggested I look into D4 pranged units.He has plenty of mates in the panel industry/wreckers.He bought an XR6 Turbo write-off with 7000km on the clock from Pickles.Cost him $25000 on the road repaired,and due to some sort of overlook from Ford Australia its still under new car warranty:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
Andrew

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Thanks!

There's not that many that come up, but for me it's been worth it. Including the service parts and tyres (I replaced what I could while I had access) I have spent $14650 so far. There's maybe another $200 to spend.

Pretty good for a MY07 D3 as far as I'm concerned.

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Originally Posted by Meken

I saw write up but I don't think it was finished - what brand touchscreen - how much - did you keep the oem unit connected but hidden somewhere?

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I thought I'd finished it. Senility is a terrible thing.

It is a generic cheapo 7" tablet/GPS. Cost about $100. I didn't get the OEM unit fully connected, I had to give it up as too hard after trying for a few weeks to splice the wiring into the existing loom.

The tablet that's in there doesn't have the visibility I would like in direct sunlight, so will be doing something about that soon.