GW8IZR

When I bought mine they told me it was a standard chassis from GKN that they fitted mounts as required, then off to galv. The only thing they wouldn't do is move away from the TD5/new rear x with the adjustable body mount thingy... In the case of the 130 chassis being discussed now, I suspect they may have already done a few and want to sell those first.

That is a good strategy, just from a future corrosion point of view. It would be better to have the galvanising in good condition at the rear of the chassis and usually there is more oil sloshing around the front of the chassis where the engine mounts are.

FTW for the win, someone wrote it to me the other day and I had to look :-)

Deep Bronze Green FTW as the yoof say.. Actually I dont know if they still say FTW as it might be a bit old now innit...

I reckon it's worth painting a galv chassis anyway so any modifications could be protected, at least you know exactly what area is compromised and if your careful the damage to the galv is slight and outside where you can see it. Me, I'd prefer to fit a plastic tank on my 90 and would have chosen one in a heartbeat, but it's an under seat one and ( I don't believe ) anyone makes one. A tin of Galvafroid paint is handy to have around when you are doing the rebuilding anyway in case you catch it with tools etc but to a point galv scratches heal over.

Depends what was ordered, my 'tdci chassis' has all the brackets for a 1985 petrol 2286 .... Cos that's what I asked for The only thing you can't get is the original spec rear cross member as that's already glued on at gkn before Marslands get them.

Yep, I paid more than twice that for a rust free s/h one. ok it had history so I knew it wasnt a stolen ebay spesh ,, but made a dent in the rebuild budget.

I had an interesting thing happened with dinitrol cavity wax, the workshop was a bit damp and I noticed a bit of condensation on the mill table. I was in a rush so just wiped it and sprayed the first thing that came to hand, Dinitrol cavity wax. A day or so later I came to clean it properly and there were spots of water under the wax film. So I reckon the box or cavity needs to be bone dry before you spray it. I dont think thats the case with 3m stuff that I've used for years which seems to displace water. blah blah.. I know your not supposed to spray it on wet stuff and expect it to work :-)

:-) I think we are at cross purposes here.. You are 100% correct they are the same, what I'm saying is the price from LR as a genuine part is most likely going to be much higher than buying essentially the same thing from Marslands. Even then you would probably only get a current spec chassis from LR thus needing to modify the new chassis to your engine / transmission mount requirements and then send it for galvanising. Of course there have been variations on this, witness the glut of brand new bulkheads direct from LR that were ridiculously cheap and had all gone by the time I reacted to the deal :-) I have to say Marslands were spot on to deal with, I'm sure the other manufacturers are fine but I've no direct experience of them.

Those cheap edging joggler thingys work ok but by 'eck you end up with sore hands after a bit.

aye .. good luck getting one direct from LR at the same price as Marslands :-) Whilst they come off the same line at GKN before being fully bracketed they are not LR genuine parts

I'd suppose an original chassis direct from LR would be quite a price and it would then need galv. I used a Marsland and everything just fit as I'd expect.

Fred Dibnah drove his steam tractor round the top of the same mountain

I bought an r-tech P30 and its excellent. *if* I had my time again, I'd buy the slightly bigger P50 version, not because of the extra cutting capacity but the torch is a bit nicer and more robust.

I dont care how soon everyone forgets this last day / end of an era nonsense and we can all get back to discussing building fixing and modifying our Landrovers ... They will probably be round for another twenty years, or at least as long as normal people can afford diesel and in truth Landrovers last involvement in them was twenty or thirty years ago when they rolled off the line and they lost interest in them :-)

You have probably already thought this out but I wouldn't bring anything but control wires into the cab - put the isolator and fuses as close to the battery as practical and if you are using the isolator as an emergency stop ( I always include that function ) you can operate it with a Bowden cable from anywhere you need to reach it. Reading through the numerous forums I see far too many unprotected high current cables brought into the cab area of vehicles, often through unprotected holes in conducting panels, much like the trend of fitting un switched Anderson jump lead connectors on the seat box - frightening. HTH

If the MOV's failed dead short as normal it wouldnt be too bad but I had a few times where they almost fail, very unpredictable. I still use them to protect some crude switching but as you most likely know the industry has moved toward Silicon devices. Its a coincidence you mention testing the antennas, I cut the DAB whip on my Hilux using a VNA worth more than the car .... anyway before we drift further :-)

Of course *if* I need to measure a voltage on the bench I use a 4 wire HP meter that second hand cost me nearly 1K UKP ten years ago, now that would be overkill to sort out a brake light switch :-) TSD, I suspect the Fluke that was connected to HV by mistake more than likely could have been repaired quite cheaply, its likely that the volts was more than the MOV's could clamp without going SC, in that case they fail and the meter stays safe. When I was building big transmitter amps the RF would sometimes make them fail so I used to have a stock of the MOV's on the bench.

Well I look at these things as cost of ownership over the expected life of the item, and nowadays I factor in my own active life expectancy as well :-) In 1983 my Fluke 77 cost me 120 Quid including the extra rubber HD case / holster thingy. Its still as effective today as it was then, in fact its a damn site better on battery life than the more recent Flukes I own but thats another thing.... so in 30 odd years thats cost me less than four quid a year - ok I should factor some inflation but believe me when I was on the tools it earned its keep *every* day. Its been dropped, stood on, left hanging from its leads in a jcb engine bay for a day while the owner was clearing a site, its capable of measuring synthesiser steering line voltages to 3ph motor controllers. Unlike a draper it will still read accurately if you have a mobile phone near it etc.. Whilst a draper or silverline will almost certainly do the job today ......... to be fair most basic stuff on a car could be tested with a bulb and battery and a bit of common sense.

I have a bit of a collection of Flukes, about a dozen different types... yep sad I know. ...My collection also includes a T5-1000 - IMO Its probably good enough for most vehicle auto stuff but as you know its a bit limited - only reads to 1KR, resolution very limited etc If I'm working on a big motor or dis box in a ****ty place - yep - if I'm sorting out my LR at home I'd reach for something different.

That yellow one in my picture was one of the very first ones into the UK back in about '87 ( dont hold me to that exact year ) and the early ones were very hard. That one tore up on my RRC doing Monks Trod just before it was TRO'd

I have used genuine poly bushes pretty much since they were available on all manner of vehicles, they have never done anything other than what it says on the tin and they just work. However I have seen a bit of wear in the metals they attach to and for that reason I was a bit more selective on the last build. Shocks, and panhard rod I used genuine rubber and the rest I used poly They aren't indestructible

When I do this I attach a zip tie to the spindles, cut the ties leaving a flag maybe an inch long. I find tHis is an easier reference for when you stick it all together later HTH

your used to driving on both sides of the road so I suggest you leave it LHD and just use it here for a bit.. I've done it the other way in Norway and you just get used to it - although I'm sorry to say UK traffic and congestion will feel very different to what it was eight years ago. If you do decide to swap the wheel over I've got a RHD 300TDI which still has some bits on it that might help, just shout out. No steering box as I've used that and the trim is pretty **** but it might have some usable bits.

I agree your circumstances don't favour a cat and you have had plenty alternative solutions. I used to have a remote cat, it used to live in a barn / outhouse which was 120 miles away from my permanent residence. I saw her maybe twice a week and she was always about the place (cctv) and happy to see me when I got home. Less happy to see my dogs but... Well that's another story. That cat wasn't mine, I just inherited her when we bought the house and I wouldn't have a cat under those circumstances, but the cat decided to stay. She happily kept the mice down for me almost 13 years by which time she was 18 years old. Anyway at the end she went blind and took to sleeping in the middle of the road, it was inevitable that there was going to be a disaster. She had to have a one way trip to the vet and I was sad to have to do that.