Retroanaconda

Excellent stuff. The camping/airsoft trip wasn't by any chance the Ground Zero Weekender was it?

I could seal the drain, but I want a removable drain there for normal driving (if it rains etc) due to the ram design of the Safari. And it's not just the drain, the fact that the piece is in two parts, and that it relies on the seal to the wing each side, also makes it very susceptibleto leaks. As for a Southdown, I think they go through the top of the wing...which is fine if you want that but I liked the look of, and preferred the mounting method for, the Safari so went for that

Ok, so those of you who run 200Tdi Defenders off road, I would like to ask how you have waterproofed your intake system. As it stands I have a Safari snorkel on the outside, which is one-piece so waterproof. On the inside I have the standard Land Rover gubbins linking me to the airbox, which I have sealed up. So my snorkel is sealed and my airbox onwards is sealed, but the strange piece just inside the wing isn't. This piece is shaped in a special way because it has to clear the footwell and the heater. It also has a drain (which I want to either remove or alter to be able to be sealed when required, like my airbox drain is) and for some reason comes in two parts, the wing piece and a right-angle that the 3" intake hose goes onto. Quite why they decided to make it in two parts and introduce another potential leak point I will never really understand, but there we go. So, what has everyone else done to replace this bit? Obviously whatever solution is proposed needs to be roughly of the same shape in order to clear the footwell/heater, and single-piece so as to be waterproof. That's the question, now for my idea: My idea is to have made up some kind of shaped hosetail, which will attatch permanently (ie. sealed) to the inside face of my snorkel. The shape of it will allow fitting still as it can be hooked over and down through the hole in the wing. This hosetail will maintain a cross-sectional-area of just over 7 square inches (the same as a 3" tube) throughout it's shape, terminating in a 3" spigot for my standard intake hose to go onto. The lowest extreme of this piece will be drilled and tapped 1/2" BSP so I can insert or remove a plug as necessary for wading. I think this plan keeps everything standard as much as possible while also maintaining a waterproof system. What does everyone think?

I use a can of engine flush each time I do an oil change, other than that I tend to agree with Les' observation that most of these wonder products really don't do much at all

This is why I only use a credit card online and not a debit card, it gives you the protection so that if and when this happens you can claim the money back with relative ease

If I were to buy a new door I would not hang a huge spare on it at all, I'd get a spare wheel carrier. Otherwise the same thing is going to happen to your new door

Correct, but for just carrying people while off-roading I think decent inward-facing seats would be fine. On the point of the forward-facing ones, the fact that they have to swing out so far is part of the reason I prefer the side-facing ones. More efficient use of space.

I would send it back. You didn't order 'as good as genuine' you ordered 'genuine'. It is true that some parts are the same, come from the same factory, and simply end up in a blue/white box rather than a white/green box, but personally I'll take the proper genuine stuff, especially if I've paid specifically for it!

Yep, I'm in exactly the same situation (minus the missus/daughters of any kind) and I will be replacing my rear bench seats with some nice Exmoor Trim fold-up side facing jobbies with proper belts et all.

As promised, this is how my 14" Kenlowe is mounted. First I got some scrap aluminium sheet, a reasonably large gauge, and cut some strips. One top: And one bottom: The bottom mount slots into the brackets that the viscous fan's cowling slotted into. I beat adjusted these with a hammer ever so slightly to make it grip the ally slightly more and stop it rattling: Then the top mount lines up with the two studs, again once used by the old cowling: Those of you who are more eagle-eyed may have spotted that my design puts my fan about an inch from the radiator, well you'd be right: I have not found this to be a problem. The radiator cools very well on it's own (I'm no expert but I should think the 1" gap would help the ram-air cooling very slightly, due to a more free passage of air), and the fan never comes on except when bombing it on the motorway or when driving off-road. When it does come on it soon goes off again quickly, so it is still pulling air through the rad well despite the 1" gap. Hope that helps someone

Kenlowes mount like that by default, although I have just removed the through-rad mounts and made my own. I'll post up a pic or two and show my design. From the sound of it Rich has used a similar method.

I'll have one of those weekends off, and can swap them with enough notice, so I'm in

My Kenlowe's funny little thermostat thing will be replaced with an X-Fan switch when I have the time/funds. Suprisingly, the silly capillary tube thing hasn't actually leaked yet...but we shall see Oh, and my fan is mounted on the inside and pulls air through the rad. I made up a quick-remove mount for it, utilising the mounts for the viscous cowling. This means that when the rad is full of mud etc the fan can very quickly and easily be removed for cleaning.

If the damage is as minor as it sounds, then the very idea of scrapping it is just irresponsible. Unless the chassis is twisted etc then it's worth replacing the panels/rad and your Defender will be back good as new. Add it to your count of accidents partaken of and won This is why so many good cars, especially Land Rovers, get wasted. Stupid insurance companies

Well 200 bar is nearly 3,000 psi so you'd need a pretty hefty gauge....

I had slightly suspected it might be accessible through there, just couldn't bring myself to empty the rubbish that accumulates in one's cubby box Cheers

Mine has been horrendously spliced in just under the off-side wing. That said, it works and until it stops working I'm not bothered enough to fix it.

Check your wiring for damaged or loose connections and earths, especially where the a-bar lights have been spliced into the main beam feed.

Can I ask where the picture in the first post was taken from? Only I couldn't find the box end of my transfer and gearbox breathers when I looked, I assumed they must be above right up in the inaccessible space just under the floor, but it seems you've been able to get a camera or phone in there. If you can do that then I should be able to get my hand in to replace the old breather with a new one...

On my rear door the frame is cracked in it's entirety from top to bottom. The skin is all that's holding it together Eventually I will get a new rear door and a carrier to take the weight of the spare.

You can get that Butyl strip stuff from aquatics stores too, comes in a 2" wide strip rather than 8mm (which you can cut down), about £1.49 a metre, at least it is where I work anyway. It's used for joining pond liners, among other things. We call it 'Butyl Joining Tape'.

These chaps have covered the legal side, but I would recommend you take a step back before going ahead with any major mods etc. As you say it's your first Landy, I would be inclined to run it mainly standard (at least as far as the chassis is concerned) for at least a while, you'll be suprised how capable a standard vehicle is if you put some decent tyres on it. You don't need a traybacked vehicle with 42" Simex to have fun off road, and having a mostly standard vehicle will save a lot of hassle insuring it for the road, especially if you're young. That said, it is of course up to you and if you want to then go ahead and build your dream car and enjoy it. Just don't think you have to rush into anything major in order to have a good time

Mine is 16mm² cable with a 100-amp maxi-fuse right near the battery. The fusebox is rated for 100 amps so I figured that was a good bet. Each circuit is rated for 30 amps. It's worth noting that there are actually two positive inputs and one negative. This is so you can have two banks of six circuits from seperate feeds if need be, with a common earth.

I was thinking more that the MOT station might take a bit of responsibility and look into the history of a '1972 Range Rover' with all those characteristics.

I can vouch the the '12 way fuse block' that VWP sell, very good quality. Ref 5026B on their site. Expensive though, and may be a bit overkill for your application. Here it is in my truck: For what it's worth, when I put a Mudstuff centre console in, I intend to run a dedicated feed to power all my switches. For this I will take a fused spur off my battery to a bus-bar like this: That will give me a dedicated supply for the switches, and much easier than running a seperate fused supply for each switch, which there is no point doing. All it will be powering is the resultant relays, so the current draw will be minimal.