Darren Roberts

The 12 Gauge garage is legendary, as is Mr Olsen. I love the way that a) it's used every day and b) the way that Jack can take something second hand and make it look better than if he had brought it off the shelf! And it's a lot more practical than many of the other garages on garagejournal.com that just seem to be a living room for the cars and beer fridge! Got to hand it to him.....cracking job.....

Looking good! Keep up the good work.....

Probably liners actually - but for your sake I hope not!

Dave, Worth using Google Streetmap to checkout the entrance to Bures as it's easy to miss. Been a while since I was there but I think it's under railway bridge, take a left, up the hill. Follow the road round to the right out into open farmland. Turn right at next left hand bend - down track and take a left - takes you into the pit area.... Have fund and try not to bend it too much! cheers D

My wife and I both run Japanese doe daily drivers (she Shogun Mk3 3 3.5, me XTrail 2.5). Previously she had Series 2 Discover V8 - £4.5K repairs in 18 months before head gaskets went south. It had 2 steering box replacements! The first replacement lasted about a week. The replacement for that was a Range Rover P38 Country 2.5 diesel - that had about £1100 of servicing and warranty work to get through th first annual service we had with it. The trouble is with them as daily drivers is that they were so damn unreliable, and in the case of the Land Rover main dealer in Cambridge, wanted £97.50 + VAT an hour to fix the vehicle, which they frequently struggled with and to add insult to injury, thought it unrealistic for the customer to expect that they could! I love my Classic bobtail to bits - I need to - otherwise it wouldn't still be with me....but there's no way I'd run one as a daily driver. My 1979 abused 2 door was far more reliable than the Series 2 Discovery or P38 Range Rover!

Buy and old oven and stick it in the garage and leave the good one for food?

Hi Dave, Welcome to the forum. I'm just inside the neighbouring border in Burwell on the outskirts of Cambridge. I believe that Suffolk land Rover Club have their own site on the outskirts of Ipswich, but not been there myself. I have been to Bures just outside Colchester but I guess that's a bit of a hack for you, and they don't have as may open days as a site like Yarwell, for example. Not been to Wildtracks at Newmarket since they demolished the old course and put a kart track there - personally I think the other bigger sites are better even if it's a longer journey to get there. cheers Darren

Technically it's a machine gun (GPMG) on the roof that is remotely controlled. Cannons fire explosive rounds and are generally a much larger calibre, hence the distinction between machine gun and cannon. Sorry.... mis-spent youth in Army Cadets....

Very nice mod and well documented.....

As per Reggie, I've used the epoxy paint from rust.co.uk after welding up the sills on my classic. Used grey and hen overpainted with black brushable enamel from the paint man, so I can see when the top coat gets broken through. I used two coats of epoxy mastic, the black brushable enamel then had underseal on top. We'll have to wit and see how well it works. Git some rust on the front inner wings so that's the next port of call!

I tried Galvafroid on the Bobtail's fuel tank. It wasn't shot blasted first but I did clean it down to bear metal with wire brush in a 4.5 angle grinder. I was disappointed how easily the paint was damage when trying to get the tank back in through a very small orifice....and like FridgeFreezer's paint the bloody heavy for a small tin - all the zinc in the paint.....

For underbody I've started using the epoxy kit from rust.co.uk. I then over paint that with brushable enamel followed by underseal. Only did it last winter so time will tell. I use grey epoxy overpainted in black enamel to make it easy to see if any comes off. I thinking of trying black epoxy for my axles etc. when I do it. I think it's quite flexible so resistant to damage......

Now with images......

Great article!

YRM also do a good selection of parts including body mounts........

Ok, first job was to fit a buzzer to tell me when the lights were on and ignition off. I also needed a light feed for the land meter on the dash, so I came up with this:- I butchered an old loom and a light dimmer switch, and came up with this "sandwich" loom, which provides a light feed for the land meter and feeds one half of the buzzer to tell me the lights are on. Using standard connectors from the old loom meant that I hadn't butchered the loom in the vehicle. Second job was to provide a new power feed for re-installing the existing aftermarket radio. I ran a live and a negative directly from the battery, through the bulkhead on the drivers side, under the steering column and into the centre console. This model of SE didn't have any power to the head unit as standard - it had a data cable linking it to the power amp in the rear. All of this had been butchered by a previous owner - all the wires had been cut - typical! When the new head unit was fitted they had also fitted 1 additional speaker in each of the front doors. So I've junked the crimped connectors on what was left of the ISO loom that came with the aftermarket head unit - replaced these with brass bullets and only connected up the 2 new front speakers. Still have to sort out the ariel lead.... The new power feed was also used to power the radio and the new Cobra CB radio. This as mounter on the side of the centre console using the fitting kit provided - I cut the pre-wired cigarette lighter socket off and used soldered brass bullets to connect to the new feed directly from the battery. The last job was to remove the cigarette lighter socket and I replace it with a twin USB - handy for plugging in the ipad which I use ViewRanger on when laning....

Hi Jocklandjohn, Most importantly best wishes to your family and I hope Melanie a speedy recovery..... This thread is one that I often look out for - it's a great project your building and I'm sure many others like me love the fact that it's down on the driveway and not in some super swanky workshop - I'm lucky to have a double garage t work in but even this time of year I think twice about working out in the cold - typical wimpy southerner I guess! All the best and look forward to some progress on the project when the family are back on the road to recovery..... Darren

Ouch.... Didn't realise they made it so complicated.....to be honest I can probably live without the electric mirrors but the windows are a pain. I will trace the wiring tomorrow and see if I have power at the door.... Thanks for the help so far....

Hi duncmc, It did have electric seats when I got it, but I replaced them with manual ones - lighter plus the seat switches were very unreliable. I'm not sure if the seat ecu is till there - is it in the seat box or on the bottom of the seat - if the later then I don't have it any more as seats have been sold! For the rear window I haven't tested the wiring for power but I will try that tomorrow....... Thanks for the link.

Guys, I've got a 1992 hard dash SE. Nearside rear window won't work and offside rear will only operate via the centre console switch. Front windows are both OK. I've tried a new replacement motor in the rear nearside door and also replaced the ECU in the bottom of the centre console. Also tried swapping round the yellow relays also in the centre console. Also can't get either of the electric mirrors to work - adjustment or heat...... The fuses in the fuse box in the centre console have been checked and are ok. Any ideas of what I should try next? cheers Darren

I've been un-sucessfull re-fitting the aftermarket head unit back into my bobtail (1992 ex-air sprung SE). This is mainly due to the wiring being botched rather than the previous owner being the correct ISO connector - I guess this is a fairly common theme - botched wiring.... Anyway, that got me into thinking, maybe buy a new head unit with USB connectivity and use the ipod directly, or not to bother, a fit different gizmos instead, such as a CB? Looking for something simple to install but still have some entertainment, as it's mainly used for greenlaning and pay and play, but the occasional commute. Not really bothered weather or not I used the existing amp in the boot. Interested to hear what other people have got fitted and if you've got pictures of your setup I'd love to see them cheers Darren

Nice work.....look forward to seeing the end result.......

Yeh, if you read the Comp 4x4 guys website they mention this as the major cause of shear fracture - you know what the Yanks are like for hanging 37" plus everything else. I went for the 1000lbs rating but they do a 2000lb which uses a similar hinge design to your picture above. Looking forward to seeing some more pics as you progress..... Perhaps weld the sleeve in a then put the spindle in and tack it at the bottom - that's what I did as per the Comp 4x4 fitting instructions.....

I used one of these as per Gary's link http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2c6370aa9c - very impressed with it. The separate sleeve means that the stub axle doesn't get heat treated (and therefore brittle) when you weld it in. The Comp 4x4 guys were really helpful - only the HMRC weren't with the import duty that added another £25 to the cost of bringing it in - mean't that the shipping and tax was almost as much as the product itself! I will try and dig some picture out when a I get a chance.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-2-5-diesel-manual-facelift-sport-conversion-leather-headlights-/271313042353?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item3f2b847bb1 what can I say?