Rick in Aldershot

People often don't realise that the Defender's mirrors can be adjusted into a near-horizontal position, as well as the normal vertical position. Just loosen off the hex nut under the mirror and tilt outwards. With the standard, unmodified, ball joint the mirrors will tilt to just over 45°, but using a file to cut a groove into the female part of the joint, you can tilt to near 90° horizontal. Also, the mounting arm has two positions, fully out and about 45°, which people tend to forget (I know I do) because we don't move them that often. CAUTION - whichever way you choose to extend your rear view, please do be aware that there are laws about how far beyond the width of a vehicle its mirrors are allowed to extend. It's something I only found out about quite recently. It meant I couldn't legally fit the kind of (modified) caravan mirrors I was thinking of buying. --- Sorry, I can't remember the precise legal details. Rick

Hi Nick, Another trick is to apply surfactant to your glass. Sofactant is the world's greatest water repellent. It's the main constituent of those expensive anti-rain and anti-mist products like RainX, sold in Halfords and the like. IT'S ALSO THE MAIN CONSTITUENT OF FABRIC SOFTENERS that you put in your washing machine. CAUTION - Never apply RainX or other surfactant to the outside of the front windshield of a Defender! Because the windscreen is flat upright, as versus most of today's cars' sloped windscreens, the airflow will create problems with pooling the raindrops, rather than blowing them away. It'll also cause your wipers to shudder. DO, however, apply fabric conditioner to the inside of the windscreen, as well as to both the inside and outside of all other glass. This includes polishing the headlight glass and your mirrors. Sofactant will stop misting on the inside glass. Sofactant, because it repels water, will also help keep the outside glass clean(er) than it'd otherwise be, because the moisture in dirty road spray can't stick to the glass so easily. That means the dirty road spray will partly wash your headlamps rather than just dimming them. It'll also reduce the notorious build up of muck on the rear door glass -- retaining some rear view -- by up to 30%. (But, as I say, Do NOT apply to the front windshield.) You can also choose some very nice smelling fabric conditioners, as well as saving yourself a pretty penny. Have fun, Rick

REFITTING THE HEATER UNIT Actually, on the military version of the 1987 Defender, you can refit the heater without the assistance of a second pair of hands. My 1987 NINETY is ex-military. It has a dummy air intake on the side of the front wing, adjacent to the heater unit. I've often wondered why it is there (simply assuming that Land Rover couldn't be bothered to make a wing without the cutout). But maybe it does have a purpose? If yours doesn't have this cutout, then your Defender may have some other access, but if it does have the cutout it's a godsend. Basically, when you're ready to fit or refit the heater unit, you'll put it into place over that wedge-shaped foam rubber sealing gasket and want to very-firmly compress the foam rubber to get the bolts to protrude through into the cab footwell. That's difficult unless there's some way to apply leverage to compress the heater onto its foam gasket. IF YOU REMOVE THE DUMMY AIR INTAKE, YOU CAN PUT A CROWBAR OR SIMILAR THROUGH THE AIR INTAKE HOLE AND IT'S PERFECTLY LOCATED TO GIVE YOU LEVERAGE ON COMPRESSING THE HEATER AND GASKET ASSEMBLY WHILE YOU REACH AROUND INTO THE FOOTWELL TO POP THOSE RETAINING NUTS ONTO THE BOLT HEADS. I was "shown" this trick by my haunted ex-military NINETY's friendly "guardian". A long story of how 56KG67's guardian has helped me keep her running, but that story is for another day. Rick