"Snowy" January 1993 Defender 110 Tray Back Ute

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

Meet "Snowy" my Defender 110, made in January 1993. I am Snowy's second owner. Snowy was bought new from a dealer in Biloela and then worked on a farm near Moura. I met the original owner and got to have a yarn while we packed Snowy up onto the car trailer, to be brought its new home. Powered by a 200 TDI diesel motor.

This is first Land Rover I have bought that drove, changed gears, stopped properly, and had all its seats! My previous Series Land Rover purchases were not so inclusive.

Known issues that were mentioned during Snowy's advertisement were: Leaking diesel injector pump and leaking power steering pump. Various lights not working. A cracked front windscreen. Oh, and door latches that did not work.

Apart from that, Snowy is a bit rough around the edges and seems to be a straight-up, salt-of-the-earth type. Yes, the seats are all there. The seats covering ... well, there is some room for improvement!

I just finished replacing head lights, front and rear indicators, brake/tail light and reverse lights. From this I soon learnt that I have to replace the brake and reverse lamp switches. I suppose they have been used a fair few times since 1993.

I took the leaking Bosch VE diesel injector pump off and sent it to the United Kingdom for an exchange unit. The unit arrived within three weeks. While the injector pump is off and the power steering pump needs replacing, I will take the opportunity to also replace the timing belt and associated parts. I will also remove the radiator and get it checked out at a radiator workshop. I have new door latches too. I am still waiting for the new water pump to arrive.

There will be no fancy paintwork applied to Snowy. The patina on the tray back sides will stay the same. Snowy's role will be as a work ute. I am still undecided about whether to replace Snowy's tray floor with hardwood boards - like original, or replace it with steel or alloy sheet.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

One of the jobs on the "To Do List" will be to make front and rear ladder racks. The mounting points are still in place from the previous owner. The racks must have be fitted to the farmer's new replacement vehicle.

I had to buy a new windscreen washer bottle and related parts. Snowy just came with an empty space where the bottle goes.

I will also be having a crack at making some aluminium-sheet headlight surrounds to replace the cracked and decaying black plastic ones. If the new ones work out okay, I will either paint them black or get them anodised.

Once I have done the timing belt and reinstalled the diesel injector pump, and power steering pump ... , I will take Snowy to a mechanic to see what else needs to be done for a Road Worthy or Safety Certificate.

Kind regards
Lionel

[LR V8]

Very nice. I've got a Snowy as well.... a great name

Pete

[Lionelgee]

Very nice. I've got a Snowy as well.... a great name

Pete

Hello Pete,

Thanks for the post. It's a bit funny how I have had a number of white cars over the years. None of them have been called Snowy. However, it just seems to fit the Defender.

Kind regards
Lionel

[windsock]

Nice old truck Lionel.

I like that you can leave the patina. Retains the honest character of years of work and allows you to continue the work with it. Looking forward to the work stories.

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

After having to do a "One Hour Work Task" in the morning and waiting for a 3/4 hour job interview in afternoon today, I thought, "Bugger this. I have to go and do something practical so I can at least say I achieved something hands-on today". So I armed myself with copious amounts of degreaser; a scraper and a wire brush and ventured towards Snowy.

Today; I found out a couple of things. Firstly due to my period of COVID-19 and otherwise influenced period of unemployment my previous proficiency at interpreting spreadsheet data and composing into a written brief has been somewhat dampened.

I also found out that there is meant to be a hollow space on the internal face of where it has "TDI" logo on the bottom of the mudguard. I am Snowy's second owner. Snowy was previously a farm vehicle bought new and taken to the farm as a workhorse. There is also meant to be space between the cross member and the side of the body panel. These meant to be voids were full of decades of bull-dust; and things of similar ilk.

There is also meant to be a space between the top of the chassis and the bottom of the tray's floor.

I also found a front "pumpkin" that previously disappeared at the end of a drive shaft.

I also learnt that alternator fans turn much easier without the build up of crud generated by the power steering pump leaking fluid and spraying it all over the alternator. Copious amounts of bull-dust, add power steering fluid - wonderful.

So if I can work out whether I can keep the bull-bar and side rails/step on I will take the mudguards off and gain proper access to the places that are meant to be voids - you know "empty spaces".

One mudguard has to come off anyway so I can gain rear access to a large stoved-in dent.

It will give me even more room for when I replace the timing belt and associated goodies like the diesel fuel injector pump, water pump... take the alternator off for a thorough clean... replace the leaking power steering pump....

At least with those hands-on lessons learnt about Snowy today, I can put my head on my pillow tonight, and be able to remember achieving something practical today.

Kind regards
Lionel


.

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

To celebrate the last calendar day of Summer here in Bundaberg, I did more work on Snowy. After finding the area where the rear of the mudguard is bolted to the firewall totally blocked with compacted bull-dust, I set about removing the driver's side inner and out mudguard. To achieve this, I had to remove some of the previous owner's conveyor belt mudflat that was fitted with an assortment of non-standard nuts and bolts. All of these nuts and bolts were in hard to reach places.

Earlier on this morning I had a voice in my ear that said to me, "you should put those black top vent screws into a zip-lock bag and label them". I figured that because they were in a plastic bulk bin they were contained well enough. The bulk bin was sitting on top of the mudguard I was taking off. Some minutes later - sure enough I bumped the bulk container with my elbow and the container went flying off the mudguard. The screws and washers were cast to the wind and landed amongst the grass. It took quite some time to find the screws and the washers. Should listen to those voices - hey! Could have saved myself a lot of time combing through the grass to find all the screws.

Since that event I bagged and tagged everything related to taking the mudguard off. When the mudguard was off I was able to scrape away all the bull-dust. I was very pleased to find that under the bull-dust the original white factory paint was glowing out at me. There was not a trace of rust in that section of the firewall at all! I suppose that is the benefit of having a vehicle that lived in-land most of its life.

I will brush off the area of the firewall and get some rust proofing paint and spray on a couple of coats tomorrow. This should boost the amount of protection for that area in the future. I was lucky once so I will do what I can to continue its rust-free status into the future.

Sometimes you can have a win! I will see what lurks under the passenger side mudguard and firewall later in the week.

Now it is time to clean and pack the tools up. It was well over thirty degrees Celsius here today; plus, with a lot of humidity. I reckon I have given it a good enough bash for the day. I am looking forward to April - by then the summer heat should be over here.

Kind regards
Lionel

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I had a couple of reasons to remove Snowy's driver's side mudguard - the original reason was to gain access to a creased dent. Apparently, Snowy got in the way of a broad-acre seeder's boom. The second reason was so I could clean out the bull-dust from between the mudguard, cross member and firewall.

I undid all the bolts that hold the side of the mudguard to the front headlight panel so I could lay the side panel flat on my metal work bench.

I then used an LPG blowtorch to anneal the aluminium all round the dent and its surrounds. This meant sacrificing the paint - it could not be helped.

A large ball pein hammer to rough the dent out. After that I used a number of dollies and panel hammers to fine things out a bit more. I have to get a slapper to be able finish the body lines out and smooth the remaining hammer marks out.

The crease ended in a tear and a hole which needs to be filled in. I have ordered some aluminum brazing rods and will use some large globs of it to fixthe area and then file brazing fill down smooth.

After that will be the etcher and primer and other tasks paint related. I will get a rattle can mixed up at one of the local auto parts places who can colour match.

Well that is all for the day. Tomorrow's task is to straighten out the bottom of the headlight panel.

Kind regards
Lionel

[travelrover]

Great job Lionel!

[Lionelgee]

Hello All,

I worked on the bent bottom section of the headlight face of the mudguard today. This was warped when a broad-acre seeder's boom made a glancing blow along the side of the mudguard. The deepest section of the resulting crease ended close to the face of the headlight panel - leaving a small hole.

I should be finished the job by now; however, I made a slight mistake. It is now pseudo-summer here. I have the metal workbench in the full sun. I had a steel dolly laying on top of the work bench and what ToolPRO call their "Light Dinging Spoon" which is black finished drop forged carbon steel. I picked them both up and ... ouchies! They were rather hot! So the two tools are now in the shade and they and I are cooling off for a while.

I used the LPG blow torch to anneal the headlight face before I took the major part of the dent out with a plastic faced mallet. The mallet has a nice rounded head so it did not leave any rounded ding marks while I persuaded the headlight face back into shape.

I will post up a couple of photos of the finished work when things have cooled down a bit more. The only blemishes left on the face are four dimples which are actually spot-welds. I found that burning the paint while annealing the aluminium provides a handy way to pick high and low spots when it is sanded down. Places where adjustments need to be made with the hammer and dolly are quite clearly highlighted. After a couple of more bumps the burnt paint gets sanded out and the area is finished.

I was going to separate the top face of the mudguard from the front - headlight face; then I noticed that it had a line of spot welds. Not having a TIG welder to be able to plug these spot welds, I erred with caution. The panels stayed together even thought it was pretty awkward to handle.

Kind regards
Lionel