Thread: 130 Station Wagon with side fold pop top build

I was sick of seeing the car so nose down. When I bought it came with Terrafirma suspension TF018 front and TF019 rear springs which are supposed to be a matched set, giving a 50mm lift, but it only seemed to do this at the rear.

So I jacked it up and put in Disco 1 coil spring isolators on the front springs, realising that I had made a mistake and got the ANR2928, instead of the rubber shock tower securing ring RBC100111 both of which give a 10mm lift. But I'll have to do it again anyway as the front left spring just fell out once I'd lifted it with the high lift, with the shock still attached (TF116). I dont like that. I also dont like how the left hand side springs are 10mm shorter than the right. As with nearly 70kg of battery's under the passengers seat (Banner Running Bull 900CCA/92Ah AGM starting battery and a 120Ah Ritar AGM) the car has a lean anyway. I need another TF018 DS spring or probably put in two drivers side dobinsons c51-018 springs.

And then I took it for the first drive in a couple of months. Even if it was only around the block it was an awesome feeling to finally drive it again.

With continued rain I had to postpone the roof and started on the water Tank under the rear seat. Chris from Abber tanks did a great job again rv water tanks,Custom Made Holding Tanks for storage Marine, Boat, Holding, Yacht, Campervan, ,Caravan, RV, Motorhome - Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Queensland. Australia

So out with the seat box. Surprised to see that the side steps are mounted with m6 bolts to the rubber floor mat retaining strip! I sliced off the unneeded bolt ends off the inside of the seat box. I drilled the requied holes in the seat box and floor with a hole saw, then sealed around the perimeter of the floor plate with sikaflex then gave it the dynamat treatment. I have now gone through two dynamat bulk packs from bonnet, the firewall, front seat boxes etc to the back seat - adding 18kg to the car so far!

It also got a bit ridiculous here with rain, drizzle and wind making everything wet. Drying surfaces, then heating them with the heat gun to get the moisture off before sticking on the dynamat.

With the outlook of a fine day I got out the roof and plonked it on the car for a final measure up. I think it makes the car look a bit shorter. The roof is a bit squarer than I had initially planned, but this shape gives the maximum bed width and like everything is a comprise.

I wanted to say thank you to Daniela aka Mulgo.

I rang Daniel to have a quick chat about hinges and run a few ideas past him. We ended up chatting for over an hour about all things pop top, Land Rover, and overland travel. It was really nice of him to share his valuable time and talk to someone who he knew from the outset was not going to buy anything off him.

So he gets a free plug from me.

If you want a professional 130 station wagon look here - Land Rover Defender 130 Station Wagon | Mulgo Expedition Vehicles

or pop top conversion here - Mulgo Pop Top for Land Rover Defender | Mulgo Expedition Vehicles

Thanks Daniel, all the best mate,
Alan

With the roof on I measured the position for the gas struts. The back one's top mounting is constrained by the opening/gutter for the rear door, and the front by the windscreen wiper sweep. Ended up about the same at around 325mm in from the left edge of the fibreglass roof. I also marked door openings etc on the roof for when it is flipped over.

Then off with the roof. To attach the hinge I embedded a 25x3mm strip of Aluminium down the left side of the roof. Which meant I first had to slice off around 5mm strip down the length of it with the hacksaw to make it level again once it was glassed in.

Next up, was to work out where to put the support poles for the upturned roof. I had initially wanted to have poles from the roof coming back to be supported on the car. The ones on the Trayon had annoyed me as they shifted on sloping ground, sand etc, and with kids spinning around them when the bed was unweighted. It would have also saved putting in 2 ropes and pegs to keep the roof from blowing over. But in the end the negatives outweighed these advantages - the car would have leaned over needing support, the angled poles would have taken up alot of the shady room under the upturned roof etc etc. So I decided to put the poles near the outer edge of the fibreglass roof and have them going down to the ground to maximise this space.

I also needed to design a roof rack system. I wanted to be able to carry a canoe or kayak on the roof at times and not have to take them off when we folded the roof over for a quick overnight stop etc.

I eventually came up with these little pod things, which I can simply bolt my existing Rhino racks to. I used a hole saw to cut out 40mm diameter section of foam etc to the top layer of glass from these little pods. I then embedded a M8 nut in them with 403 structural filler. And they are glued to the roof with 403, with 3 layers of 330g glass over the top. There are 8 of them, so I can have the roof bars in a number of combinations depending on the length of the load.

The poles will be held by two 250mm long 80x40x4mm U-sections. So I layed down 4 layers of glass in large staggered patches to spread this load out.

The large roof panel was actually 3 sections joined together by the manufacturer, and despite the panel makers marketing, the test bits always broke at the join, so I put 2 layers of glass over the top and bottom of the joins too.

Top build!
Excellent work mate, look forward to seeing it finished!

I also had a visit from the guy who is doing the certification for the Qld Modification (Blue) Plate.

He was happy with the conversion, commenting that the roof structure was much stronger than the original roof. He liked the cross brace in the Aluminium roof frame behind the rear seats. He knew to look for the child restraint bar behind the rear seats and was happy with my DIY 50x25x3mm bar (thank you Simon "abaddonxi" http://www.aulro.com/afvb/good-oil/5...-creb-bar.html) and will add it to the Blue plate. He apparently does something similar with angle.

He mentioned that the front angled gussets could have been more rounded, but as these are a long way from the drivers head and will be partially covered by the bed base and possibly a parcel shelf he didn't see any problems.

His only real comment was about "flow through ventilation". I mentioned the numerous door seal and panel gaps that Land Rover builds into Defenders, and that the aircon only recirculates from the passengers feet, but he said that modern cars have flow through ventilation. Land Cruiser troop carriers have these vents (attached) on the rear which may suit, but a google around showed many threads on Cruiser owners blocking these vents up to stop water/dust entry. So I'm undecided, and will probably postpone this mod, as its not a show stopper.

Once the roof is functioning and there is an inside food preparation/seating area, I will end up with a Blue Plate with the following codes :
LH7 for the dual cab to wagon change
LH11 for the campervan / roof conversion
LK6 for the Child Restraint Anchors