Righto....finally got this false-floor thingy assembled. It's for storage of recovery gear and other such messy heavy items underneath the main cargo area.
It's a tad heavy 'cos of that thick ply, but at least it's strong.
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Righto....finally got this false-floor thingy assembled. It's for storage of recovery gear and other such messy heavy items underneath the main cargo area.
It's a tad heavy 'cos of that thick ply, but at least it's strong.
Here's how it looks in the Landy. Apologies....she's a little dusty and grubby at present....
It seems that I somehow got my measurements correct, as the false floor sits neatly just beneath the tie-down points. In time, I will sort out some over-centre clips to hold it firmly in place, but for the moment it's actually held pretty snugly by the pins of the tie-down points: it can't go far.
The rearmost bit of the top is hinged to allow for better access to the bits and pieces stored below.
Here's a little more.
The whole "Re-fit" thing has always been not just to give the Landy a thorough going-over, it has been to get it to being the sort of set-up which I would always have liked to it have been, in the respects of tidiness and practicality.
So all this latest stuff with the stowage arrangements fits into that. After making the box for spares, tools and other bits and pieces and the false floor under which the recovery gear will sit, the next bit has been to sort a proper tuckerbox. I have had a few others in the past - never quite what I wanted - and I was considering making one...
But then...! I found a cheap galvanised toolbox which was exactly the size I wanted. It just needs some sealing rubbers on the lid and two nice over-centre clips to replace the original, pretty rough, central fastener.
I have fitted it with some brackets which allow it to be affixed to the cargo rails and hooks with turnbuckles (I was originally planning for over-centre clips, but the turnbuckles are pretty good). This means it is held securely and neatly in place. It is not only clamped down to the false floor below it, it also clamps the false floor to the floor of the tub.
The space forward of the tuckerbox is for my water containers and various bits of sundry gear.
After years and years of having the back of the Landy the the domain of cheap plastic tote-boxes and crappy cardboard boxes of oil containers, this is all very pleasing.
Let's just pretend that it isn't over a year since I last posted on this thread.
It ain't over 'til it's over.
A week ago, the Landy got her new locks. When I say "new", I think they are the first ones she's ever had. Certainly the first ones since 1991, anyway...
It took a little fiddling to get the set I ordered from the UK to fit. The outer diameter of the barrels was greater than the aperture in the driver's side door handle mechanism - and the passenger's side mechanism didn't have any hole in it at all.
Now they combine with the lock on the tailgate top and two tailored lengths of dowel to hold the front windows shut to create a state of the art security system.
That is, of course, if your art is in a pretty antediluvian state. Stick figures, rhinos on rock faces, that sort of thing....
More to come.
John
P.S. Yeah yeah yeah... this thread really is nearly finished....
Hi John,
Getting the Landy ready for the 70th at Cooma I see - great work! [thumbsupbig]
Cheers Johnno
Still my favorite build, err... re-fit thread!
After all this time, do you think all that heat insulation/ sound deadening foam stuff was worthwhile?
Quote:
Originally Posted by grey_ghost
Now there's an idea......
Quote:
Originally Posted by OneOff
Thanks for that! Truth to tell, whenever I pop up again just when everybody must think this thread is dead and buried, I wonder if people just want the agony to end.
Yes, the insulation has been absolutely worth it. In the sticky heat of this week in SEQ, today I hammered along in the mid-afternoon from the Sunshine Coast through Kilcoy and up through Somerset and Mt Glorious. I was able to put my bare foot against the firewall quite comfortably. Yeah, it was warm, but not awfully hot. It definitely stops a lot of heat coming into the cabin. As for noise, much the same story: the only thing the sound insulation has not (yet) tamed to my satisfaction is the (you guessed it) Fairey overdrive (more on that particular overdrive later in another soonish-to-be-resurrected thread). There is still plenty of the usual IIA road noise, but, when the overdrive is not engaged, engine and driveline noise is quite acceptable. I'm really glad that I went to the effort - and I am not finished yet!
Other stuff has just prevented me playing with the Landy much in the last few years, so the stuff I am doing now is still part of the original "re-fit" plan. One day, I hope to write a thread which actually involves going places and doing things with the Landy....
On the subject of heat, as the old girl was pretty heavily loaded, I ended up in first going up some of the steepest pinches of the road*. The temp gauge climbed as expected (as did the Engine Watchdog) and I gave the fan which sucks hot air out of the engine bay near the exhaust a bit of a whirl (as well as the second radiator fan). Though still grinding upward in first in stinking heat, the temp did start to slowly drop. So, that was pleasing.
Righto, that's it for now.
John
P.S. G'day to whoever waved to me from a dark blue Defender near the Stanley River and the white Disco a little after that.
*Mind you, I probably would still have ended up in first loaded with one person, a small dog, a piece of toast and a silk handkerchief.
Now, just to prolong your suffering:
I have got all the recovery gear sorted out in its cosy home under the false floor. Hi-lift jack, hand-winch, cable, recovery straps, shackles, crowbar, entrenching tool, big ol' hammer. All sit nicely under the floor and out of the way. Nice little canvas webbing bags (none of that modern nonsense here) to stow things in, too.
Here are some pics....
I have also had a muck around with working out the setup for camping in wet weather. I'm using a cheap poly tarp at present as a template and working out exactly what I will be getting made in good ol' canvas when I've sorted my dimensions.
I know there's another area of the forum for that sort of stuff and I probably should put this post there....But, for the moment, to spare the Trailers, Vans and Campers part of the forum from a thread called "Look at how I stretched a tarpaulin behind a Land Rover using some sticks and old rope", I thought I might just mention it here.
As we have observed, this is not a build thread. It's a Re-fit. So, as I seem to be pretty well able to define "Re-fit" to be whatever the hell I want it to mean from one incoherent post to the next, we'll just run with this, eh...?