The Norwegian Bee

[finnarne]

Maybe it's about time to present my project.

I bought a rather standard looking 1990 Discovery with a 200tdi in 2009.

Here is a picture from the sales add

It was bought to have an extra veichle, to tow some sailing dingys and such.

And we did. But then the kids went from small dinghys to larger boats.

Then I got the taste for some offroading. We went to Poland to participate in the Pomerania resque Rally which is organized twice a year. We (me and my neighbour) has been there 4 times, each time in the spring.

First time in 2011

Small changes to the car each year.

Testing winch:

That was last year. When we got back I started on the rot in the footwell. Actually it was simple to remove the rot, it was enough to remove the carpent and the nois insulation

Finally done with most of the rot in the front, almost ready for MOT

There has been some rot in the back of the car as well (big surprise), but I've been putting that job on hold for "some years". I had seen the Cheviot4x4 Discovery pickup, and later the pickups from LongRanger, and was thinking of doing something similar. To get to keep the car as a daily driver, I wanted to have things done right, so that means apply, and get some approval for the authorities. But I needed to fix the footwells first. I didn't want to loose my license plates just because I had applied for an approval to modify my car. And we wanted to have the car ready for the Yearly trip to Poland. But in November I was done with the sills, and the footwells, Then I had to get my "new" Disco2 ready and approved.

In December, the Disco2, was approved, and I could concentrate on my toy again.

I sent the application just before Christmas last year. By the end of January, I roused the application.

Got the answer a few days later, and I got the modification preapproved. But I had to turn in the license plates, and then they would do a mid-build inspection, and when everything was finally approved, I would get the license plates back.

Then the question was, should I start with the modification right away, or should i wait until after our trip to poland this year. Then there is summer, and then ...

[finnarne]

We had some visitors from Denmark who came up to drive in the snow, and I had to put things a bit on hold, cause I wanted the have my car that weekend.

My front yard just before I started modifications:

The green closest to the camera, is for spare parts, I've taken the axels, sold both the gearboxes, and is going to use the 300tdi in my car.

Then the silver one is the one I sold in the beginning of January, this picture was taken in late february, and the new owner has not collected the car yet. I think it's still in the barn where I put it a few days after the picture was taken.

Then in the back, there is the family daily driver, a 2000 D2 Td5.

And in the front of the family car, my daily driver/toy car.

And a small wooden sailboat, and a trailer that is not visible.

[finnarne]

The rot in the rearfloor, just before removal.

Not that bad actually, it was kind of bad 6 years ago, and I had done nothing with the floor since...


The rear roof is gone, as well as the upper side panel, and the rear door (and bumper).

Building the rear of the roof, using rear corners from the spare part car, and parts of the roof that was cut away.



Using the rear roof as the back of the cabin, with the sunroof as the rear window


Building a case for batteries just in front of the rear wheels


The cab body almost done


Ready to cut


Testing of new rear X-member, and deciding how much to cut away.



That's how far I've made it by yesterday.

Now I have to decide on how to do the rear corners. I'm going to put some tail lights from bolt-on-bits back there, and hope it will klind of look like the red one from long langer
not sure if I will bent the corners in a sharp 90 degree edge, or if I should should bend it in 2x45degrees.

[Soren Frimodt]

Great story! Whenever I feel like my workspace for my hobby is poor, cold or wet, I always look at how you Norwegians do it! Makes me feel silly even thinking about complaining! Just get out there and get it done right?

Keep the updates coming for sure, I really like how you used the roof as the rear part of the cab, really clever and should keep the Hippies happy with lots of recycling

[finnarne]

I can't complain on the weather this winter. There was no snow until after both the cars had got their MOT. Then there was some snow, but by the time it was time for me to start cutting my roof, The snow was gone here at my home. There was some heavy raining the day I wanted to take the roof of. I had to postpone for one day. Then there was a rainy night a couple of days after the roof was off, but that day we went to visit some friend on a cabin (had to move the 1-2 meter snow from the roof of the cabin). I think there has been a couple of rainy days and nights. Maybe there has been one evening where I could not work due to rain. I've had a tarpaulin set up one night before, and I set one up today as well.

I do have a garage. but for this kind of work, it's to small. And it's easier just to throw in the tools when you're done with them, instead of putting everything back in place.

Using the grinder inside the garage, is kind of scary, when I go to sleep a couple of hours later just on the other side of the wall.

[dirtydiesel]

Great project! Hats off for working outside :-)

How much detail did you have to give them for the modification approval?

[finnarne]

I told them I wanted to modify the car for Trophy offroad use.

and specified:

- 2 inch lift using TUV-approved lift kit (TF216TUV)
- Change of wheel offset by using TUV-approved spacers

- Change of body and chassis by doing pickup and bobtail, to get better exit angle in the terrain

- and I wanted to build a rollcage according to FIA rules.

The I told them I wanted a dialog on how to do the build, and to the building according to their advice.

I sent them some pictures and some links. The pictures was from Mark Evans "100" Defender Build (I've bought the DVD and Build pictures CD), and told them I wanted to end up with something like Long ranger Red 200tdi

And I told them that all chassis modification would be done rear of the rear suspension.

I managed to get a short meeting with my contact person at the MOT/SVA-centre (MOT are actually done in private garages approved for such, and special build are approved by a centralized committee of some sort). He actually has a D2 TD5, and thinks it's misdesigned, with a front bumper that sits to low, and a rear overhang, that is to long. He told me that the only way ai could get a roll-cage approved, was to register the car as a rally veichle, and then I would only be allowed to drive to organized events. I want to be able to drive the car to work, boyscout meeetings, and in generally use the car as my daily driver. But if I only built a Pickup-bar (?), there would be no problems. And there is no way I would get 35inch tyres approved. Since I hav no TUV-approval on larger tyres, I have to find a set of 205-16 tires, with I think 20mm rim offset. Or just minor changes from that. I'll see what I find. I guess I have a set of 245/70-16 that could be used. or maybe 215/80-16.

I get a visit from my contact on Wednesday or Friday next week, for rear x-member inspection, and the car will then sit on 35" tires. I'm building the car to run on 35".

[finnarne]

Not the best weather to be building a car outside, these days, looks like we're going to have a small taste of the southern Norwegian winter again.

Lots of rain on Friday, so I as you see on the picture above, i had the tarpaulin up. It was still pouring down when I quite for the night, but no wind. So I left the tarpaulin hanging. Guess what, the next morning I woke up to wind gail force. The tarpaulin is gone..

Except for the wind in the morning, the weather was nice on Saturday. Fabricated the new winch mount, but the 5 inch grinder I bought last week, is already gone. I managed to do the work with the 9 inch grinder. Had to think a bit more on the x-member.

On Sunday, I woke up to snow. Not that much, but it was not so nice to work outside. So I brought my x-member inside the garage, where I boxed in the ends, and kind of made it look nice

In the evening, the weather was better, but still cold and kind of moisty. So even if it was sunday, and I try to keep a good relation with my neighbours, I mounted the x-member. The work included using jigsaw, reciprocating saw, grinder and a sledge hammer, and do make some noise. And of course, I used the welder.

The rear side panel still needs a bit shortening. The only problem I can see so far, is that a 35 inch spare tyre will not fit in the pickup trunk, if it's flat. in the trunk. If I pull it up onto the winch "cradle", it will fit nicely.

The weather this week, will be a bit shifting, with nice weateher tomorrow, and snow again on Thursday and Friday. So I called the SVA-guy to ask if we could have the inspection on Wednesday instead of Friday. Looks promising. Maybe I get the license plates back before Easter ?

[finnarne]

Some more parts just arrived

Going to mount this in the rear x-member. For recovery, and maybe for towing.

And these tubes

This evening we're going to bend a rollbar or two.

[finnarne]

Two guys from local SVA, or similiar here in Norway, showed up today. I knew they were coming, cause I called them and asked if they could come and have a look. They had not much to complain about, they wanted some reinforcement up in the back of the cab. There is already some profiles up there, but thay would be very please if there was a tube there as well.

Here is how it looks today, except there is a back wall there now.

Here is how the car was presented during their visit.

Everything to please the authorities, so we're going to bend a smaller tube tonight and mount up there, and take a picture of it.

When I think of it, maybe I want a tube lower down as well, to mount some 4 point harness onto.

[Lewis]

Looks good

I like the proportions of a discovery pick up

[daveturnbull]

Are you not putting a diagonal bar in that main rear hoop? They add a great deal of strength to the design in event of a roll.

Looks good by they way.

[finnarne]

The rollbar/cage is not welded to the car yet. We started on it yesterday, and worked on it until a quarter to midnight, I think.

Me and my codriver (and neighbour) was mostly watching a plumber who came to help me (us). The backstay's was welded to the main hoop. We have been thinking about some diagonal bar(s), but they will interfere with either the winch, or window, or both. We worked a bit more this evening, mostly grinding the welds, checking if we had to redo them. There was to much wind to tig weld yesterday, and had to do no-gas (mig) welding. It looks good.

Then we made the other bar, that the "SVA-guys" wanted us to put in.

Lastly, we started on making som kind of mock-up fuel tank. I hope the get ~50 litres out of the tank.

Not the best weather outside here today

Hope to get all the welds on the cab grinded out, then paint the car, before we permanently fit the roll bar.

[elbekko]

Definitely fit a diagonal, without that the rollbar has almost no strength. Looks like you could bring some tubes down from the upper corners next to the window? Something like the very rough attached mockup.

[finnarne]

Here is an image from when we was test.fitting the main hoop, with the diagonals I've decided to fit.

The reason I'm not doing a Cross or, like you suggested, elbekko, is that I will have the winch in the middle of the main hoop, on the top of the tube that the A-bar is connected to. As far as I can tell, the diagonals that I have choosen will be as good as a full diagonal. or the V in the middle.

What do you think ? I guess the "cage" will be fit some time next week, and then the diagonals afterwards.

Btw, normally I love the snow, also when it comes late in the season, but I'm not so sure this time

[elbekko]

Here is an image from when we was test.fitting the main hoop, with the diagonals I've decided to fit.

rollbar.jpg

The reason I'm not doing a Cross or, like you suggested, elbekko, is that I will have the winch in the middle of the main hoop, on the top of the tube that the A-bar is connected to. As far as I can tell, the diagonals that I have choosen will be as good as a full diagonal. or the V in the middle.

I guess that could work, if the connecting tube goes all the way down. I'm not an engineer though, so I could be wrong.

[Bowie69]

Still not particularly strong.

You can fit a full cross, and still get the inch at the bottom, it is tight though, granted, but worth mocking it up I would say.

[Soren Frimodt]

Or you could do the V as you'd like to and gusset every bend and joint, adds an incredible amount of strength. And remember, there's two kinds of cages. Those that save your life, and those that save your life when your flying off a 200 feet drop on a Rally stage at a 100mph. Which category do you fit in?

[finnarne]

I drive a 200tdi, on 35" tyres. So forget about 100mph.

I might adjust the turbo pressure, adjust high pressure pump and change intercooler some time, maybe before we try to enter Croatia Trophy or such.

The gusset is not a bad idea..

[finnarne]

But someone made a sketch that made me understand what was wrong with my design. The problem was that I was looking on one of the FIA-approved designs, Problem is that they have the cage mounted to the sills. And the diagonals mounted closer to the centre, were we normally have the chassis. So I could make a hole in my shining new battery case, and get the result I was seeking, but I guess I have to do something else. I just have to remember to have some triangles in there. And either 2 point triangles of the triangle should be connected to the chassis (or maybe the sill), or one point should be common for both sides. (like in a cross).

The phrase that made me understand, was that in my design, it, was kinda thick bars on each side, with one bar at the top. You need some triangles. I have a new plan, but need to do a quick 3D-sketch to explain it.

But I did something else yesterday:

I did the rear corner of the side.

And I moved "some" snow. I hope to be done before the next snow arrives. In November, hopefully.

[finnarne]

I've added some more hours on the build. Cleaning up in the back, grinding and sanding out the cab

And I'm almost done with my tank. Should be slightly under 50 litres

[finnarne]

Slowly getting there. I was kind to my neighbours, and didn't make that much noise during the holidays.

Now I can fit some more tubes on the main hoop. One horizontal, and one diagonal on each side up to the winch point on the top. Maybe also some from the backstays and up. Will have to use the grinder on the tank first.

Then there is the lights in the back, and the tailgate.

[finnarne]

We're slowly getting there.

But still some work to do, and now it's only 19 days unik we leave for Poland.

But some work is done

[Soren Frimodt]

looking really good! The paint helps alot compared to,the multiple colors while,you were building it

[Bowie69]

Yup, looking very good to me

How long now....?