Today I failed to fit a new exhaust - Twice !

Some time ago I bought a new 300TDi rear section for my 127 (it's the same as the 110) having got it I realised it had 2 hole flanges not 3 hole like the piece it needed to mate to. The system changes part way down - presumably because of an engine swap

So I went to Bearmach and got another, this one. The conversation went something like this

"I need a new rear exhaust section for my Ambulance which is outside" I say pointing at it

"What wheelbase?" says the man behind the counter

"127"

"That's not in our system"

"It will be the same as a 110, there is simply an extra section in the middle"

"OK. What engine?"

"300TDi, but that's not relevant, it was probably a V8 Petrol, but I'm not sure"

"What?" He's starting to think I am a wind up merchant

"It's not original, and the system changes part way down from a 2 hole flange to a three hole flange"

"So What do you want?"

"You to bring a selection out so I can go underneath and see what fits"

"Are you serious" He's starting to be P**d off

"Yes!"

So one of the team went and found some, and I went underneath and held it in place and it looked OK

However when I got to change it today, even though the pipe is the same, has the flared end section it is not flared out enough to go over the centre section joint.

I've still got them both and I'm thinking that I'll need to cut the end off both, transfer the 3 hole flange to the other with the bigger flare and get someone to weld it back on for me. It would be OK if I could weld - I can't find evening classes in Cardiff to learn.

Or it's buy a third and hope I've got it right that time

Sigh !

Waxolyling

This is going to be a long story. First of all you gather the tools and set off into the adventure with a great deal of optimism - I mean how hard can it be to wax a Land Rover ?

According to all the instructions available you warm up the Waxolyl in water before using it and if necessary thin it with white spirit (which is also good for cleaning things as you will see later)

Whilst that is warming up I popped around the front and tried reversing Katy up onto some ramps I'd borrowed - unfortunately I gunned it a little hard, shot backwards and with no-one to tell me how far to go I misjudged it and ended up going over the back or the ramps and jammed them under the chassis (oops!)

No problem I thought I've got a good jack so I'll just lift her up a little, free them off, and take them out.

However the jack wasn't tall enough so I got a log from the log shed, which worked perfectly as you can see below.

Well actually what you can't see is this is after I've removed the first of the 2 ramps and discovered that the combination of log + jack at minimum height is taller than the gap up to the chassis when not held up by a ramp. This combination is therefore well and truly stuck !
  

So this is where Log & Jack number 2 comes in useful - I had to get an old scissor jack out of the garage and use that to lift the chassis up just a little so I could get the bottle jack out. I( have to say that this was a good lesson in the different capabilities of the 2 jacks because the bottle jack lifted her easily and the scissor jack was hard work

Having learned from the first side I put the scissor jack in whilst the bottle jack was still under and then released that one first and just lowered down on the less capable scissor jack.

On with the job then and the first discovery is that all this warming the stuff up was a waste of time it's still like goo and sprays awfully. So I go indoors and do some more reading and people talk about thinning it down so I take a dollop out of the can, replace with white spirit and shake madly - this time the stuff sprays OK so I start on with it

Apart from the nozzle on the sprayer blocking quite a few times I managed to get the job pretty well done, well at least I thought I had until I took these pictures. You see it's really black under there now and I didn't want to take a torch under as I was a bit messy by then, as you can see later. So I'll need to go back and touch up some bits

All in all however I have about 12 litres of Waxoyl applied and I'm letting that coat go off before I try any more as it's too sticky under there just now

Also at this point Rhian had come home and I needed to spend about an hour cleaning myself  as you can tell by this picture that she took. The 2 kids cycling past the end of the drive just at this time almost fell of their bikes laughing at the state of me.



However even though I do have some more to do I am congratulating myself on another job of improvement well done and no worries about going out in the snow and rain this winter


Update... I had this message from a friend (John Perriment who is a superb photographer http://www.johnperrimentphotography.com/)

 Waxoyl? Didn't know you could still get that, what a blast from the past. I'm afraid I laughed at your predicament in overshooting the ramps and getting the jack stuck! Still, it's a job well done. At least Katy shouldn't rust anymore during the winter - and neither should you, judging by the state of that photo!

Thanks John!

Kindred Spirits

I have for a while thought it would be good to join a Land Rover club to meet like minded people and get some more sources of excellent advice

Recently I went to the Tredegar House Classic car show and I think I might have found some suitable nutters, I mean Kindred Spirits

Fancy using a classic car show to replace the chassis of your land rover ?

Well these guys did... and here's a view of the old chassis looking not too bad actually

And here's a picture of the new one looking all shiny and galvanised before all the rusty and oily bits go onto it

I suspect that these guys may well be worth having a beer or two with

It also reminds me that I need to get on with Waxolyling before the winter sets in

The Eyes Do Have It Now

After many hours of lying underneath looking at wires that end in knots with second rate scotch lock connectors and corroded wires I gave up

So off to HBH Land Rovers of Caerphilly she went for a short vacation and they have worked magic on her

All new lights were purchased as kit from Foundry 4x4 and despite quite a few comments about Britpart items I have to say that I'm a lot happier than the stuff that was there. With HBH help they are all in and they all work which is a lot more than I've achieved over the last few weeks

Here is a picture here of the nice tidy wiring !

Wedding Belles

Katy just took us to the wedding of the daughter of some close friends. Holly and Colin looked so happy which is just what you hope to see at such events. The location for the wedding was "The field behind the cotage" and camping was available at the venue so what better vehicle to go in than our own wedding coloured camper.

It was fabulous being able to camp at the venue and therefore not need to worry about drinking. Another great win was the ability to get some of the leftovers of the Hog Roast put away for us to have a fabulous dinner the next day

Holly looked fabulous in her wedding dress. Katy it has to be said, still looks a lot worse for wear with her paint peeling.

No troubles on route but she needs to go in to get those electrics sorted now, and its a bit beyond me, so it's off to the local Land Rover specialist to get me a few more steps along the way

A New Coat of Eyeshadow

Katy like all ladies like to look her best, but to be honest it's been a long time since she's looked perfect

Non the less as today's planned electrical work has  been postponed because I needed to find out some more information and get some advice on the best way to do things I though that we'd at least tackle some of the most obvious and worst looking areas

Katy does need a proper respray as the people who've painted her before have just put it on top of the old Nato Green and don't even seem to have sanded it down for a good keyed surface before they did so. They didn't even remove the light surrounds before doing it which is why you can see this large green area where they go

It was also really bad under the bull bar/front bumper area as you can see

So off came the plastic and that's had a rub down and a few coats of satin black - here they are in progress. by the time they were finished I got them quite a bit better

 
Next the old spotlights that don't work came off and we masked up - I was assisted by Steve (discogenic) from the Land Rover Scene forum who's missing not having a Landy at present and offered to pop round and help - THANKS Steve

And then on with loads of rubbing down. Acid etch primer and then a few layers of Halfords Leyland Arum White which isn't a perfect colour match, but was the best I could find for now and looks a lot better than all the peeling bits

This was just a temporary job so it was just the worst bits with the rest masked off, but at least we've stopped some water getting in to cause problems in peeling off more paint and I can take her out in public without feeling quite so embarrassed

There is an awful lot more to do yet. !

No picture of the completed job as it came on to rain just as I was finishing and I had to rush putting things away and pull her forwards onto the drive to get other cars put away

The Eyes have it (or not)

I'm working on improvements again

this time it's lighting which is a bit hit or miss ( a bit too miss to be honest!)

The passenger sidelight was faulty again !

So off with the lens and out with the bulb and yes once again it was a loose connection

So enough is enough and I need some new ones

Trouble is I've seen different kits available so I'm going to need to ask for help from those ever helpful Land Rover forums

So here are the pictures that I'll need to ask for help

This is a closeup of the passenger side light from the rear

This is the whole headlight area showing the original Army Green

And these do not look like any of the standard connections I've seen on lighting kits

And whilst I'm at it - these are the light switches most of which I still can't work out and get anything working when I operate them .. and what is that knob on the left ?

I hope to have some answers soon, and when I do I'll add them here