Thursday, 3 December 2009
Woo-Hoo!
Sunday, 29 November 2009
MOT TEST!
So - booked the Land Rover in for it's MOT test for Friday 27th November in a small garage recommended by the guys at Land Ranger Services in Middlewitch.
The drive from my house to the garage would be about fourteen miles, so it gave a good chance to get a feel for the drive of the newly restored Land Rover.
Over the drive, I noticed a couple of things that might need a bit of attention. once warmed up it seems to run a bit fast and when switched off the engine tends to run on a bit, this is symptomatic of pre-ignition and indicates that a bit more tuning of the timing and fuel air mix may be required.
Other than these minor issues, I got to the garage and dropped the Land Rover off about 9.30am.
They told me there was a couple of other cars in for a test before mine, so I went for a walk about town to wait.
11am, still no phone call, so I called back with them only to find out that the garage's power supply had failed and they had an electrician in trying to get the lights back on in the workshop!
Anyway - it turns out that they were unable to MOT her as expected, but I am assured that she will be done first thing on Monday morning. As for now my Land Rover is spending it's first couple of nights away from home since I got it - hope the neighbours don't think I've sold it!
So watch this space!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Pre MOT Round UP
It's been over a month since I've updated this blog, so I had better provide a round up of what I've been up to in the last few weeks.
After fitting the seat belts, next on the agenda was a tidy up of the electrical wiring using some p-clips.
The steering linkage, box and wheel have all been added and set up using the measurements from the Series 2 Club as a guide. (see here for the info!)
I had a bit of bother setting the steering correctly and at first ended up with different amounts of turns lock to lock, left to right. This turned out to be due to the steering drop arm not being on the correct splines of the steering box, so this was corrected.
Next was the final pipework required to make the brakes and clutch work, with these in place the two systems were bled and tested.
At this stage the vehicle effectively became drivable and I was able to give it a quick test around the block and back again.
From here most of my time has been concerned with small scale items including fitting the floor, adding the drivers wing and mudguard , setting the clutch up correctly, adding mirrors, bonnet catch, fitting the new seats and catches, a small repair to the seatbox and a myriad of other small tasks.
It's all been worth it though, as it's now ready for it's MOT test.
Here are some before and after pictures......
After fitting the seat belts, next on the agenda was a tidy up of the electrical wiring using some p-clips.
The steering linkage, box and wheel have all been added and set up using the measurements from the Series 2 Club as a guide. (see here for the info!)
I had a bit of bother setting the steering correctly and at first ended up with different amounts of turns lock to lock, left to right. This turned out to be due to the steering drop arm not being on the correct splines of the steering box, so this was corrected.
Next was the final pipework required to make the brakes and clutch work, with these in place the two systems were bled and tested.
At this stage the vehicle effectively became drivable and I was able to give it a quick test around the block and back again.
From here most of my time has been concerned with small scale items including fitting the floor, adding the drivers wing and mudguard , setting the clutch up correctly, adding mirrors, bonnet catch, fitting the new seats and catches, a small repair to the seatbox and a myriad of other small tasks.
It's all been worth it though, as it's now ready for it's MOT test.
Here are some before and after pictures......
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Seat Belts
My Land Rover was built in 1959 before it became mandatory to have front seat belts fitted.
Although it’s perfectly legal in the UK for it to remain without seatbelts, personally I wanted to fit them to protect me and my passenger in the event of a collision and more importantly prevent dents to my bulkhead!
I've decided to fit modern three point inertia belts as opposed to the more traditional static belts that were fitted as standard from the early 1960s.
If you’ve not come across them before, static belts are basically just seat belt straps with no recoiling reel and are unpopular as they don’t retract and end up getting caught in the doors.
Three point inertia belts are what you would get in a modern car, the three points refer to the fitting points, one at the bottom of your chair, one at the top of your shoulder and finally the bottom stalk at the other side.
The inertia part of the name refers to the fact that the slack of the belt is held in a reel and is sensitive to the inertia of the vehicle, i.e. if there is a sudden deceleration or the reel deviates from the normal right way up position the belt is locked.
The biggest difficulty in adding seatbelts to a soft top seems to be the top mounting of the belt. In theory this should be above the shoulder and when seatbelts are fitted in a truck can or hardtop there is a suitable bracket available to provide a good mounting point.
This changes when you have a canvas top. The canvas hood sticks are not suitable for any seatbelt fitting whatsoever and should never be used as they are nowhere near strong enough and if used may leave you worse off than no seatbelts in an accident!
What you need is some form of tough mounting point. The good news is there are at least a couple of off the shelf parts that can be used. If you’ve fitted a high quality roll bar, most have suitable mounting points; in fact the military roll bar is often touted as a suitable solution to the issue, but bear in mind that it doesn’t offer the best roll over protection when compared with a modern roll cage.
An other option is a raised seatbelt bar, it does the job, but is definitely not a roll bar. I’ve included a parts diagram just below showing the various components and part numbers. This was the option I chose to use and was able to purchase this from Huddersfield Land Rover Centre, though I do think this is a hard part to find now.
When it comes to fitting belts around the above bar, there is an inertia seatbelt kit available under part number RTC1939, again this may be hard to track down, but it is very well made and easy to fit.
This kit was designed to replace static seatbelts, so if your vehicle has never had belts in the first place you’ll need some additional parts, but I’ll cover that later.
So – what’s in the kit? Well you get two inertia seat belts and stalks, plus a load of brackets , anchor plates and associated fittings to allow you to fit the reels. The kit actually contained two types of square anchor plate, I believe one set is for normal use in a SWB (on the left) and the other (on the right) is for use in a LWB truck cab, but don’t quote me on that!
The brackets actually enclose the reels offering them protection from knocks and bumps.
As mentioned, I had to obtain additional parts such as the corner brackets for the bottom seat box points and the angle anchors for the stalks.
The seat box brackets are bolted through the sill channels and to the rear tub and provide a firm fixing point for the bottom of the seatbelts.
The angle brackets for the stalks are unique to the Series 2 as on more modern vehicles there are a couple of tabs on the chassis that allow an angle bracket to be fitted just below the lip of the tub, you’ll see this arrangement on the Series 3, but in my case, the stalks are fitted to the tub alone using these brackets.
It is important to note, however, that there is a spreader plate below the stalk mounts to strengthen the whole arrangement.
I've taken quite a few photos as I fitted the kit to my vehicle, you can see all at here.
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Canvas & Interior Progress
Despite all the weekends away, there has been some progression over the last few weeks.
Most importantly, the hood sticks and canvas tilt has been fitted so the land rover no longer requires a tarpaulin. If you've never done this before see here for a how to!
The seat box is bolted in, the sills are fitted and the lower seat belt brackets are all firmly attached.
On the windscreen, I've mounted the two restored Lucas wiper motors, and given them a functional test in the rain!
Most recently ,in the few hours between getting home from work and darkness, I've been fitting the guide rails for the front row of seats.
I've got an adjustable driver's seat but the runners were never able to clear the bolts that held the seat to the seatbox. This meant that the adjustable seat was permanently in the furthest back position.
When refitting I've used rounded head torx screws so that the runners can slide freely over the tops, meaning the seat can be moved right forward if required. Obviously this is good news for Susan!
Most importantly, the hood sticks and canvas tilt has been fitted so the land rover no longer requires a tarpaulin. If you've never done this before see here for a how to!
The seat box is bolted in, the sills are fitted and the lower seat belt brackets are all firmly attached.
On the windscreen, I've mounted the two restored Lucas wiper motors, and given them a functional test in the rain!
Most recently ,in the few hours between getting home from work and darkness, I've been fitting the guide rails for the front row of seats.
I've got an adjustable driver's seat but the runners were never able to clear the bolts that held the seat to the seatbox. This meant that the adjustable seat was permanently in the furthest back position.
When refitting I've used rounded head torx screws so that the runners can slide freely over the tops, meaning the seat can be moved right forward if required. Obviously this is good news for Susan!
Holidays & Time Off!
It's been about four weeks since there's been much done as every weekend there's been something on.... 
- August 21st saw Susan and I host our annual Bier Garten party, with the workshop recommissioned as a bar.
- August 28th we had a weekend holiday in Munich.
- September 5th was the Northern Ireland Airshow
- And finally this weekend we went to the LRO Show in Peterbourgh!
Sunday, 16 August 2009
My Big Back End!
I finally got round to moving the rear tub onto the chassis today, with the help of some lifing skills provided by Gregor Hogarth.
There are a few fit issues and the tub seems to be about 1cm shorter than it should be, but I'll work out how to accommodate this with a few shims or so! Unfortunately I added the seat box before noticing the fit issues, so it will need to come off again, but for now, it looks quite good!
There are a few fit issues and the tub seems to be about 1cm shorter than it should be, but I'll work out how to accommodate this with a few shims or so! Unfortunately I added the seat box before noticing the fit issues, so it will need to come off again, but for now, it looks quite good!
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