Thread: Time for a Re-fit

A few weeks ago, thanks to a remark by a neighbour, I managed to find myself at a local scrap metal yard, where there was a mongrel old Landy lurking among piles of steel and car bodies, awaiting execution. As it had an organ donor card, I felt that the best thing was to lever as much material off it as I could before the unmentionable happened.

So, for the princely sum of $25 (the bloke originally asked for $20, but I felt guilty and managed to bargain upward, Gomez Adams-style) I got myself a tropical roof, a wiper motor, a handful of nuts and bolts of interest and a roof console.

It was a long wheelbase, so I'll be cutting and shutting the tropical roof panel. True Land Rover style, there's a join right at the right spot - I assume that they used to tack a bit extra on to make them for the long wheelbases.

By the way, when I said "mongrel", I was in no way being disparaging. It was a IIA with a Series III wagon body on it....

I am getting nearer to getting all the instrumentation and wiring finished on my vehicle (but, of course, not actually finished.... that's kind of lying ahead in the misted wastes of future time). I will attach some photos: the tropical roof panel, auxiliary gauge panel and the nifty little marine plug tucked away in the glovebox (craftily sited so that I can still put my long-serving enamel mug in its customary spot below it).

Cheers,

John

Continuing to inspire, John.

I'm still getting warmed up at the starting blocks for my project, so thanks again for sharing the journey.

And just to demonstrate how your inspiration has effected me...

oh, and, before

Originally Posted by garrywlh

Continuing to inspire, John.

I'm still getting warmed up at the starting blocks for my project, so thanks again for sharing the journey.

And just to demonstrate how your inspiration has effected me...

Thanks mate. It certainly helps me too, to read other folks' project threads and see how they're coming along. Your steering wheel is rather and improvement over its old self; I've seen how expensive they are to buy through UK suppliers as restored or exchange items, and a bit of elbow grease can give a pretty good result for much less outlay.

Keep at it!

John

One problem I am having is that from any five minutes to the next I seem to hop from doing brakes to bodywork to suspension to steering to electrics. I am starting to wonder about my attention span, but sometimes the hopping is necessary when I come up to a temporary dead end on one thing and jump to another. That's my story, anyway, and I'm sticking to it....

Today I decided that the auxiliary gauge panel (or AGP to those in need of more acronyms in their lives) needed another coat or two of Deep Bronze Green (DBG) before I fitted the gauges in their allocated positions (APs). It's not a perfect finish, but it looks nice now.

Then I did a little wiring. A crimp here and there, and I had the power to the marine plug sorted, then checked the ever-evolving wiring diagram (EEWD) and worked out from where I'm going to draw the power for the Watchdog engine alarm when it is fitted.

Scratched my head and looked at the vehicle. Brakes. First thing this morning, after the bacon and egss and two pots of tea, I had fitted the flexible line to the rear axle (previously I thought I didn't have the right part yet, but a few days ago I found it lurking in a bag of assorted things.... I have ordered so much from so many different suppliers over a few years that I am tending to forget what I actually have in the Land Rover's bedroom....). So, this afternoon I decided to bleed them. Finally.

It didn't start well. Immediate leak from the brand new wheel cylinder on the front right. Checked it out, and it appeared alright - possibly had just hyper-extended on one side when I first hit the pedal as it was not adjusted correctly and the other side may have been seized up. Cleaned things up, and got stuck into it.

Over the years, I have used a lot of different tricks in bleeding brakes. One that does seem to work for me is to clamp each wheel cylinder with a G-clamp while pumping fluid through (and, hopefully, any air in the lines) and once it appears clear I reassemble the shoes and springs. I did this for all four wheels.

I had considered buying one of those one way valves for bleeding (I also considered using an old fuel pump....) but in the end settled on a length of clear plastic flexible pipe and a used Chinese takeaway container. I punched a small hole in the container lid, then pumped fluid through to it, with the line from each wheel cylinder first arcing upward to carry bubbles of air up the line, whether under pressure or not. I didn't seem to get much air drawing back through the threads on the bleeder valves and at the end of it all I have a fairly good brake pedal.

I'll see if the pedal is still firm next time I get back to work on the Landy. The brakes have yet to be properly adjusted, so I am not too concerned that the pedal is not as hard as I'd want it yet. Stay tuned.

Righto, now it's time for pictures. After all this verbage, they should be pretty self-explanatory.

Cheers,

John

P.S. Oh yeah. Almost forgot. Whilst bleeding the front left brake, I started seeing chunks of dark rubbish coming through the line. "What the ****??" I said to myself, as the lines and the cylinders are all brand new. I wondered if it was something out of the second-hand (but very nice) master cylinder reservoir. It didn't look good. Then I looked closely. It was insects. One ant and what appeared to be a beetle. A few other bits of rubbish came out with them, then the line went nice and clear again. Possibly the ant and the beetle had started an illicit romance which could never be accepted by their respective communities and had run away to live in my brake lines together. Whatever happened, I ended it for them and they are together forever now in the attached photo. RIP.

Originally Posted by Johnno1969

A few weeks ago, thanks to a remark by a neighbour, I managed to find myself at a local scrap metal yard, where there was a mongrel old Landy lurking among piles of steel and car bodies, awaiting execution. As it had an organ donor card, I felt that the best thing was to lever as much material off it as I could before the unmentionable happened.

So, for the princely sum of $25 (the bloke originally asked for $20, but I felt guilty and managed to bargain upward, Gomez Adams-style) I got myself a tropical roof, a wiper motor, a handful of nuts and bolts of interest and a roof console.

It was a long wheelbase, so I'll be cutting and shutting the tropical roof panel. True Land Rover style, there's a join right at the right spot - I assume that they used to tack a bit extra on to make them for the long wheelbases.

By the way, when I said "mongrel", I was in no way being disparaging. It was a IIA with a Series III wagon body on it....

I am getting nearer to getting all the instrumentation and wiring finished on my vehicle (but, of course, not actually finished.... that's kind of lying ahead in the misted wastes of future time). I will attach some photos: the tropical roof panel, auxiliary gauge panel and the nifty little marine plug tucked away in the glovebox (craftily sited so that I can still put my long-serving enamel mug in its customary spot below it).

Cheers,

John

That tropical roof looks good. You did well removing it and getting it home on your own. Well done.

Whats the marine plug for ? 12V?

Originally Posted by Ozdunc

Whats the marine plug for ? 12V?

Yep.