Station-MotorSport

Hi. Estimate on cost... thats a difficult one. If it was to the level I'm doing this one then I really honestly dont think it would be worth it, unless of course you have some particular reason to want to keep the Discovery in question, such as heavily modified, with loads of expensive goodies etc. At a guess I would think that you would be talking around the £4-£5000 mark for the strip down, repair work and rebuild. But that wouldnt include all the bodywork and respray. To do that would probably be another £2000 to do it properly - all seals, trims, rubbers etc removed, painting door shuts, engine bay etc.

Hi. Lol, if it wasnt for the fact the engine has had a new head and injection pump I really would have thrown it away. The engine starts and runs like a dream, no smoke / nasty noises or anything. Ive decided its going to end up a different colour now. Ive seen a few of the 3dr commercial disco's in white with black bumpers that look good and as I really like the combination (hence our 205GTi and Defender too!) it will be white all over, black door surrounds and black steel bumper conversion. Once the bodywork is sorted Im going to lift the shell clear of the chassis and give that a quick going over, basic sand blast and repaint along with all new brake lines etc, will run them along the chassis rather than under the floors, where ever a brake line clip goes through the floor it has rotten through which makes me think they drilled them after it was painted! Watch this space!

Hey again. Managed to grab a few hours on the Disco the other day. Basically spent the time with the plasma cutter, heres the results: Resulting in this: Going to spend a few hours with the angle grinder and clean it all up then start making the new metal.

Hi. Unfortunately not. Had a few customer jobs to get done and now dad has a skip lorry in the workshop with the gearbox out so I cant get anything in or out at the moment.

Managed to have today on the Disco as well. Slight change of plan! After spending the morning with the Plasma cutter taking away the rot, I wasnt left with much metal! I figured that whilst I was doing the rear arch I might as well cut out the boot floor and the other arch, but.... after removing both rear quarter panels (exterior) I realised that if I was to cut it all out there isnt anything actually holding the roof in place, so instead of cutting away more metal I measured all the critical measurements to ensure the sill is in the right place and promptly tacked (very large tacks) in place. So, my plan is to sort the front quarter out on the drivers side, only thing is theres a lot more to do than the passenger side: Found a few more genuine Land Rover bodges too: It seems instead of making sure that each panel is joined to the other, they get the close enough and then fill the gaps with putty, same as my earlier post about the windscreens! It also amazes me with the floors, they are made from 3 different panels overlapped on each side. I guess because the floorpan was original Range Rover they cut away the bits they didnt want and then just spot welded the new bits over the top! Oh, and there is only primer on the insides of the inner arches at the back, no closure panels etc and they just happily rust away hidden from view. How any manufacturer can deem this acceptable I dont know. Was chatting to a mate of mine who owns a windscreen replacement company and he has commented the Disco 3 is manufactured the same way too!

Hello All! Been ages since I've been on here, yet again! Finally managed to grab a couple of days work on the Disco after weeks of it being tucked away! Got the front inner wing all welded back together and looking right. The sill is ready to go on, but I decided to repair the rear wheel arch first so it goes where its meant to be! Pulled the rear quarter panel off and found a whole lot more rot and grot behind it. At least after I'm done I will no there is no rust on it anywhere!! Hopefully next week I can get the rear arch done and then the sill on!

My totally and utterly rotten disco1 is also non sunroof! You wont see it with the wing off mate, its behind the windscreen rubber. If you have the 4 part rubbers and bonded screen be seriously careful! I destroyed my rubbers getting them out and they are nearly £300 for the set The other way to spot it, is unfortunately with the dash out! I would be almost certain this is the fault you are describing as you could see water marks down the side of the A-post on mine. I have since removed all the corking, cut away the rusty rotten muck and welded in new metal and fully welded the hole shut, problem gone (I hope)! As Im giving mine a full resto all these little holes that they filled with cork are gradually going to be cleaned up, repaired and fully welded shut! Good luck!

Hi. After pulling my disco1 apart for a resto I found this hole that is factory made and full of corking gunk, obviously it had cracked and was leaking: its behind the dash at the top of the bulkhead / bottom of screen - same both sides, lol!

Hi. Managed a bit more work. We got all the bottoms of the A & B posts remanufactured, the outriggers, seat braces and end panels are ready to go on. Heres a few more photos of the 'so far' work. Hoping to get the sill on tomorrow and then we can get the floor and inner wing finished! Keep watching!

LOL. Now I'm a mechanic and on the odd occasion we get stumped by something that we havent seen before, so when all else fails we grab a H****s manual and then look at the description and diagrams, look at the car, then remark 'What the hell, that aint right?' Sometimes I really wonder why we bothered. Prime example is on the Jaguar XJ6 manual, its electronic timed ignition, but use a distributor to just distribute the spark, no timing etc envolved. The manual clearly states that after refitting the distributor the car must be return to the dealer for retiming of the distributor!!

I think the OP has realised its a faulty sensor, however I think he is trying to work out which fuse, if it blew, would cause the ABS to stop working.

Hello, Long time no post. Managed to get a fair bit more work done yesterday and today. Got the passenger side sill and floor cut away to nice clean non rotten metal. Ive decided to replace the sills with box section, gives it a bit more strength and works out so much cheaper. A pair of inner and outers LR design works out at over £240. The box section was £80 for a 7m length, I only need 1.4m per sill so it works out at £32 for the pair! The next step in the plan is to repair the bottoms of the A and B posts, tack the new box section to them and then fabricate some new outriggers and then get the floor and door seal lips sorted. Ive had to buy a new boot floor and a pair of rear wheel arches, so I think I have everything I need now to finish it! Ok, pictures below: (I cut a bit more metal out after this photo as I wasnt happy with it, prefer to take it back a bit further and be sure theres no rot in anything anywhere!!) Cheers Jonathan

Managed to get the inner wing welded in today. Sourced a pair of new battery trays from our local land rover agent. Bizarely, they are identical, but handed, the passenger side is £5 but the drivers was £45?? Never mind as I needed both it work out at £25 each so wont grumble! Hoping to get the side section of the inner wing sorted and then everything back together, then its on to the sills! I think I'm going to go down the box section route as a number of people do, I'm going to fabricate a steel winch bumper for it too.

Hey. If your going to be using it as an off-roader (etc) and its as badly rotten as mine then I would suggest building a new body! Managed to get a bit more work done on the Disco today. Ive made the new inner wing today and am hoping to get it welded in tomorrow.

Hi. Done a bit more work today. Got most of the passenger inner wing, footwell and windscreen scuttle area cut away in prep for welding. After spending a couple of minutes with a chisel I have come to realise that LR made a total cock up building these Discos' The inner wing, scuttle panel, bulkhead and A-posts do not actually meet each other completely, instead of welding/brazing it together at the gap they simply bodged it with putty!! Hence why mine is rotten as the putty has become old hard and cracked! (This hole is not rot, but is the genuine way its held together after the putty is removed!!) Then cutting out the rest of the rot: New piece to stitch into the Disco: New piece tacked into place: Update over! Think I can get the rest of tomorrow morning on the Disco, then its probably going to have to come out the shop again as weve got more customers vehicles to get on with

Hello again. Been ages since I lasted posted. I basically managed to find time to strip the Disco down as seen in the pictures above, but then had to get on with customers cars. Ive managed to reorganise my time to work on a long term customer project which has left me with a few free days this week. Here we begin with the actual proper work! Managed to get most of the inner wing cut out ready for new panels to be fabricated (pics below). Grabbed a sheet of 1.2mm steel and am gonna make a start fabbing up the new panels this week coming.

Hey, Yeah, I do car restorations, engine conversions, fabrication etc for a living so Im gonna make sure thats its done properly. Seriously though, this Disco cant rust any further than I can see as I have now got it totally stripped down and the shell trussed up and about ready to lift from the chassis for cutting sills, mounts etc.

Right. You say white smoke and overfuelling. If its white smoke its a lack of combustion, ie, not enough diesel, timing, injector spray patterns, injection pump, faulty diesel etc. If its black smoke then its a genuine overfuelling. Removing the intercooler pipe and running it will give black smoke, ie too much fuel, or not enough air. If its white smoke it is definately lack of combustion NOT overfuelling, ie; engine mechanicals / lack of diesel etc. We have had injection pumps and injectors tested before that come back 'ok' but the engine still has faults, where did you get your stuff tested / replacement parts? Are you 100% sure that these parts are known good.

Thanks for the comments. We shall have to work out how much it has cost us in parts, dread to think really. I can give a quote for doing the conversion/restoration work etc as I do this full time. I just wasnt sure how you valued the vehicle afterwards, but using te build cost is a good idea! The engine is out of an Iveco Turbo Daily van (Daily II). Custom bellhousing adapter (basically half of the OE Iveco bellhousing machined down and a 10mm thick aluminium plate TIG welded to it and then drilled and machined to bolt the OE Landy gearbox bellhousing to it. It uses standard Landy clutch and pressure plates with a slightly machined (and lightenned) Iveco flywheel. It required a fair bit of custom stuff to get it in, downpipe, sump, retrofitting the Iveco rad and intercooler, custom coolant and boost pipework etc. Well worth the change to be honest. We can quite happily drive around in 4th gear at 30-35mph and accelerate to 60mph quite quickly. It tops out around 85mph. Its got 108bhp and around 240lb/ft of torque, but we had a few issues with intake pipework collapsing whilst on the rollers. Thats why we fitted a snorkel on the driver side and a big intake pipe / enclosed filter. Weve got a T25 turbo to go on it soon and hopefully 2.0bar boost can be held without the turbo objecting.

Hi. I dont know if any of you guys would know, but we have recently been asked to have an agreed value insurance scheme by our insurance company for our 110 due to it being somewhat different to the run of the mill 110. Basic specs as follows: Engine and Gearbox: * Iveco 2800 TDi engine conversion. * Front mounted intercooler. * Uprated aluminium radiator. * Refabricated engine mounts. * Later LR Discovery gearbox. * Refabricated gearbox mounts. * Custom engine to vehicle wiring loom. * Engine fail safe (low oil pressure shut down). * Modified Iveco sump. Suspension and Brakes * Later Discovery disc brake axles. * Suspension lift kit. * Poly bushes all-round. * Modified spring platforms. * Uprated shockabsorbers. Exterior: * Heavy duty winch bumper & winch. * Custom radio controlled winch kit. * Discovery style alloy wheels with all terrains. * Fully restored * White and Black paintwork. * New Doors all round. * 12V compressor, tank and quick connecters fitted front and back. * Twin battery conversion. * Quick connect jump leads front and back. Interior: * Nene Valley seats, cubby box, carpets. * Aluminium dash panels. * Custom dog transport cage in the rear compartment (side facing bench seats removed). * Custom aluminium draw under cage. * Raptor dash with oil pressure, air pressure and boost pressure guages. * Touch screen head unit, component speakers, built in sat nav and bluetooth hands-free. Its obviously had lots more done to it than that, but I could spend ages listing it so I thought the best thing was to just list the basic important stuff. I've attached a few photos below so that you can see what it looks like now, and also a link to the restoration gallery. I await any comments as we have looked on autotrader and ebay and prices vary, £500-£2000 for 1989's (but scruffy) and upto £20,000 for TD5's etc, but ours doesnt sit in any of the normal categories!!! Thank you in advance. The restoration gallery: http://s85.photobucket.com/albums/k74/the_mighty_one/SM%20-%20SMS%20-%20Defender%20Restoration%20and%20Conversion/

Well it sounds like you have tried most things! I will just run through everything that I would check and then you can comment if you have tried it or if you havent (by the way this is just for disco 200/300 but a general diesel method)! Fuel Supply Checks: 1.) Have a visual check of pipes, pumps, injectors etc for leaks, cracks, bends, kinks, damage. 2.) Swap fuel filter. If still not correct run from a clean can of diesel - if this cures it suspect fuel lines, tank etc. 3.) Check lift pump, if lift pump is pumping correctly then suspected injection pump, if not swap with known good. 4.) With engine idling loosen the injector pipes and ensure that the fuel pump has a strong injection pulse if it doesnt the suspect injection pump. 5.) If you have access try a set of known good injectors in the vehicle. Exhaust System Checks: 1.) Loosen the exhaust system at downpipe and try again - if it runs now then the exhaust system is blocked (particulate filter if fitted, crushed pipework etc). 2.) Check that the turbo wastegate actuator is working - possible split diaphram, seized etc - test with an airline set to low PSI (12psi usually is enough). 3.) Check EGR system if fitted - this can cause smoke issues, usually black however. Intake System Checks: 1.) Run with air box disconnected to see if it revs. 2.) Fit a pressure gauge to the intake manifold to ensure the turbo is actually boosting. 3.) Next try running with the intercooler disconnected at the intake manifold - if the engine now revs, but black smokes suspect blocked intercooler. Other Diagnostic Checks: 1.) Compression test on each cylinder 2.) Sniff test on exhaust system at idle for coolant in exhaust system. 3.) Coolant test for exhaust gases in coolant system. More In-Depth Mechanical Checks: 1.) Check injection pump timing. 2.) Check camshaft timing. 3.) Check for loose sprockets etc on camshaft / injection pump / crackshaft - it has been known in my experience for woodruff keys to snap and for sprockets to randomly rotate when running. 4.) Check none of the fuel adjustment screws on the injection pump have had the lockwire removed, allowing them to vibrate loose and 'un-adjust' themselves. I think that covers most of the stuff I would check, I have probably missed something out! Oh and just to clarify the colour of smoke: Blue - oil burning - rings, stem seals etc Steamy White - Water in combustion cyle - head gasket, head cracked, block cracked Slightly Greyish White (and stinks of diesel) - non combustion - Injector spray patterns wrong, blocked fuel supply, exhaust system etc Sooty Black (and again stinks) - Far too much diesel injected - Adjustment screw been fiddled with, not enough boost etc

To be honest, it probably is a scrapper, but as I've started it I may as well finish it. I honestly dont know how it passed its previous MOT's either, it only failed this one on the sills, seat belt anchors and the inner wing at the front. I usually buy things to fix and sell on, but after I've used them for a while! It shouldnt take me more than a few weeks to get the welding sorted and then its just a case of a quick respray and upgrade. I dont know how much a fully restored (bodywise) Disco 300TDi is worth but hopefully more than I bought it for! On a seperate note, what parts are interchangable from the Disco 2's. Im hoping to fit the wheel arch trims, colour coded bumpers and the pre-facelift lights??

Hello, Newbie here I've just bought a Discovery 1 from a family friend that needed a 'bit' of welding. It failed its MOT on sills and seat belt anchor points. Im no stranger to welding and repairing (some of you may have seen our restored 110 defender with Iveco 2.8 conversion at various shows) so I thought 'no problem, lets get stuck in'. I was after a cheap 4x4 for the winter and gradually work my way through to building another 110 but converting to a crew cab pickup with some weird engine in it! Anyway, the bit of welding has turned into a full on restoration (nearly). I wouldnt have bothered with it, but mechanically its 100%, its had an engine rebuild at some point in its life so the engine is totally smoke free. Its had new shocks and springs on all 4 corners as well, and it really drives like new. The plan is to get it all sorted, respray it, update it somewhat with some of the disco 2 facelift bumpers, lights, arch trims etc then tweak it a bit (ride height, performance etc). I usually keep most vehicles for 6months to a year then move them on, I seem to have a very short attention span an something else always takes my fancy! Anyway, I've taken a load of pictures as Ive progressed with it, so far I am still a the stripping it down stage, the next week or so I will attack it with the plasma cutter and mig welder! Let me know what you guys think! Heres a selection of the photos, the rest are in my photobucket album if you want to browse, its set as public (http://s85.photobucket.com/albums/k74/the_mighty_one/SMS%20-%20Land%20Rover%20Discovery%201%20-%20300TDi/):