Ed Poore

Fixed that for you

I got some of their festoon bulbs that were supposed to be compatible with the standard Defender interior lights and even though I've bent the tabs in quite a way (anymore and they're at the wrong angle to hold them) they don't make a decent connection. Haven't really persisted looking into them. The front one is much more reliable - I've given up on the rear one for the moment but even the front if you slam the doors then the bulb flickers.

Out of interest I've just had a phone call from Vince about something completely unrelated but I asked and he's definitely still shipping personal stuff to France. His comments were that basically Boris has said to UK customs to treat imports with a "soft-touch" so importing stuff into the UK is fairly straightforward but the foreign nations are picking up on every little thing when stuff is being exported which is where the hassle comes in with paperwork and associated costs. He's in the process of becoming an independent customs agent so will be able to handle paperwork for other couriers etc.

No personal experience but 4x4overlander do sell Nakatenanga stuff in the UK: https://www.4x4overlander.com/product/nakatanenga-defender-led-interior-light/

Depends on the weight of the machines I guess. A lab I do some consultancy for heard a noise outside (central London during the daytime) and saw some people of a certain persuasion trying to roll a real of cable into the back of a Luton van. If they'd managed it then they'd have made a killing even before the current scrap price hike. Four conductors solid copper about 6mm in diameter sheathed in lead about the same thickness, sheathed in Kapton tape, sheathed in cloth and finally wrapped in a 1mm thick stainless steel twisted strap as armouring. What they hadn't factored in was each reel weighed in at 12 tonnes...

Sorry already installed . Small bit of fab work and then plumbing and wiring and should be more or less good to go.

If you think it's got expensive then here's my list of the bigger items (admittedly most of these would have happened anyway so not really lockdown projects...): JCB 2CX Lexus LS400 donor vehicle (not particularly expensive but the knock-on costs of rebuilding the 110 to come...) 16.5m Cherry Picker 60 bays of pallet racking (admittedly a bit of a bargain but still) Mazda SL35Ti for Thunderbird 2 40mm thick 8x4ft ex-surface table (1.2t) 2011 4.4TDV8 L322 Silly quantities of steel for gateposts / gates 6.5m reach crane for back of Thunderbird 2 DJI Mavic Mini drone for inspecting the roof Plenty of other "little" bits and bobs

Please Don't Break

Xcessive Diff Edit - rather the Xcessive Build Spec.

I made the mistake of going through Castell Howells (whole saler equivalent to Bookers) the other day, 10kg bags of Haribo

I can see the wood as being an extremely useful forma for @miketomcat to make some custom (genuine) carbon fibre or glass fibre panels from

On my 300Tdi 110 station wagon (side facing seats) there was a 3 or 4mm steel plate as a spreader plate for the rear, this was then braced to the rear cross member by a ~1.5" tube. Inside the cab there was then a similar specced tube that tucked into the "hip" of the tub and then bolted to the C pillar. Although this was primarily for the seat belts the frame for the seats was also tied into it as well as the tub. However the steel frame for the seats was far flimsier. Thereby backing up the fact that it was for the seat belt restraint rather than the seat restraint.

Depends on how the seat belts are mounted - if you think about the front seats in a standard Defender then they're just bolted to a piece of aluminium with a piddly spreader plate. In the event of a crash then the belt is what's holding you in and that is tied into the chassis. If the seatbelts are integrated into the seat then they'd need some suitable anchorage. If I'm remembering correctly from when I looked into it when I built my rear seat framework then according to the SVA / MOT manuals suitable spreader plates behind suitable panels are OK for seatbelt mounts but don't quote me on that. Ideally yes they would be tied into something structural but given most vehicles don't have a chassis anymore...

Simple solution. Buy good old fashioned tools where everything comes in at at least half a tonne and requires a JCB to move. If they nick it in under a day then I might employ them to move things around for me.

Vince did do private. They are prioritising commercial but fairly sure he still did private.

I've sent car parts with Vince's Speedshift and fairly sure he's still shipping to France but it's painful, time consuming and massively variable on price. https://www.speedshift.co.uk/services/BREXIT-Requirements/

Not Land Rover spares but I did have my gun dealer phone me up and ask if he could "buy" back some shotgun cartridges off me as he had none of that type in stock and someone was after them. Guess he charged the new price for them since they'd more than doubled since I bought them but did replace like for like later on.

Come on - where's the picture with the bandsaw on it!? You've got the ingenuity / presumably an engine crane Was lucky enough my bandsaw was big enough it came ready made with castors and a stand - mind you half the stand is the coolant bucket. But for £100 even if it was in Essex I couldn't turn it down, single phase to boot.

Oh if I had the choice I'd probably get one of everything but if I'm honest between the 1/4" hex with adapters and the big 1/2" they do everything I ask of them at the moment. I like the idea of the ratchet one because if I can't get the 1/2" in then chances are the 1/4" isn't going to fit either. It's not so much for doing silly torque stuff, just difficult to access areas where the compactness of the ratchet head will be useful. I seem to recall Rich from Deboss Garage saying if he only got to keep one tool from Milwaukee's line up it would be that one because even if it can't crack off the nut you can use it as a normal ratchet and then wind it off with the motor afterwards.

I've had the high torque 1/2" impact for quite a few years now, between that and the little 1/4" driver I find they cover most eventualities. Kind of been tempted by the 3/8" version for something more compact but don't think it's small enough. Very tempted by the 3/8" extended reach ratchet though for those nuts that are a sod to reach and need lots of winding up and down.

What for a how to - just done one last night...

I know someone who buys it in 50 gallon drums...

Similar situation - recovery lorry a couple of weeks back broke down and needed recovering... He said it's not that uncommon - worst they had was out of a fleet of 150 they were almost to the point of half the vehicles being recovered by the other half...

Have you got a picture of the head gasket failure? One of my (been through a couple of crankshafts a few years back) 300Tdis had the fueling wound up a lot and never had any issues with it. Given the coolant wasn't hot I'm struggling to see how the boost pins etc., caused any issues. Did you do the extra 20° required for the 10 main bolts? Having said all that the last four head gaskets I've done were just torqued up and then "judged" based off bolt angle rather than anything more precise and not had an issue with head gaskets. It's not what you wanted to hear but based off the information to hand I think it's probably just bad luck with the gasket, the 300s are pretty resiliant engines unless you've overheated them which it doesn't sound like you've done. Assuming everything is flat like you say then I can't think of another reason. After the crank issues (failed crank pulley) my 300Tdi's run for 2 years with a 1.2 transfer box and wound up fueling with no issues and a fair chunk of that has been towing heavy loads across the country.

If the head gasket went between 3 and 4 into the coolant passage ways that would explain both your white smoke and water pouring out because not only would it be letting water into the pistons causing the white smoke but pressurising the coolant system causing your spewing of water that wasn't hot. As to why the gasket went in the first place the only reasons I can come up with so far are: Dodgy / damaged gasket Badly installed causing damage or the gasket to fail due to lack of clamping So can't really comment on those options but to me it sounds like your failure was the head gasket first for whatever reason and the other symptoms were caused by it. Unlike mine recently which was overheating but hasn't damaged the head gasket.