ThreePointFive

Camouflage might go out the window the minute you switch it on.

I knew I would be firmly alone in my opinions so don't feel you have to hedge your views on my account! Even I don't agree with everything I say... Fact is, most of these things are disgustingly tacky. I think this is all just a result of a wider shift in society towards the surface appearance of "authenticity", simplicity and honesty without any tolerance for the downsides that come with that - everything has to look good on Instagram and practicality is secondary. I hadn't looked at the prices before I commented, so I'm filing this in the saw-them-coming pile of Defender upgrades. But if it was a choice of a dark stained top pad and gear knobs vs the baggy leather covered offerings seen on the fake special editions... Sign me up for some splinters. For the most part I think standard is better, I guess I am just so used to seeing terrible upgrades that I have a tolerance for the less-terrible end of that scale. Soon in my build thread, for the judgement of all.

That's a great idea Dicky, I was looking at them yesterday and the mounting wouldn't have been right with cable ties. I even have a pair of medium ones that will do the job perfectly, just need to buy the large ones. I've got some nylon webbing strap that I'm going to use to secure a disklok to the rear of the cubby, thanks for the inspiration Mr Snagger. I will still end up buying a seat organiser just for all the stuff I'll carry when using the car, but not at all for the purposes I originally started this thread.

I've got to say, as a replacement for cracking top dash pad, I can see a nicely finished (so not this), oiled/stained bit of wood as an interesting alternative. Maybe I have gone completely off the rails but I can see a wooden door handle being a lot nicer than the plastic offerings, too... On the other hand, I priced up a 90's worth of billet aluminum anodised hinges/handles/fuel caps a few days ago. I stopped when I hit £4k and I'm sure I left off a good few. Bearing in mind you can only wash them in the milk of a golden eagle while facing South and screaming the Bulgarian national anthem, lest the finish shall become dust, suddenly a bit of wood seems 'heavy duty'. I might have turned into a habitual Defender polisher without even knowing. I won't say what my new wheels are, then....😮

I'm not sure it came across but I really am very grateful for the offers of help. I'll not buy any parts for now and see what I find with the covers and valley gasket off.

I would have to agree but they seem quite keen to be thought of as proper west country around here so you'd be very unpopular for saying that! I am looking at moving back to the Shire though, potentially very close to you, in fact. Not that that was a motivation! I appreciate the offers, and I will bear that in mind but I think first and foremost I need to take it apart and see what it's doing mechanically. For the cost of new head bolts, head gasksets, a front crank seal, injector seals and a weekend, I think there is a minimum level of effort required of me before asking people to travel to help. If I discover a mangled mess then I suspect my chipperness will soon change. Ordering the parts this weekend so they'll be with me for next weekend. I'm just keen to avoid taking the engine out again as that'll mean stripping so much of the front end.

With the amount of beer I owe you, you'd be in a coma anyway...

I'm in Wiltshire, near to Chippenham. Your last point is one I'm really thinking about, particularly if the preload is wrong too. I'm still running in the cam, so that photo was at 3,000 rpm not idle! It definitely seems less MS-related and more mechanical now.

Fired it up again for the first time in months. I've made multiple little tweaks over that time to try to eliminate any reason for it running lean, mostly around air leaks and reinstating the original tune (thanks Nige). It seems that a couple of changes have resulted: It runs like a pile of carp and sounds terrible - it at least sounded nice last time Only one of the exhaust manifold pipes is now glowing The front crank seal is now p!ssing oil Just to prove I'm not exagerating just how red it gets: The desire to give up is unreal at the moment, when the rest of the car is pretty much done I cannot start disassembling everything yet again. I want to put it on a trailer and send it off to someone else to deal with at this point, but there's no one who would do that. Also having taken another look at the oil, I've come to a decision. I am going to take the heads off and have a look, something is not happy so I want to check my work. I think there are some potential issues causing the redness but as I'm now only getting one cylinder glowing, that does change things from before. I think the most likely culprit is something to do with fuel pressure/volume being supplied to the injector. It only got hot when going from 2,500 to 3,000+ RPM so I'm wondering if being the last cylinder on the rail means there just isn't enough fuel by the time it's gone round the rail at high demand. As I mentioned a good while back, I took that regulator thing off the return line (not the one that sits under the plenum that you take the vacuum feed off), so I wonder if the flow is too free back to the tank. My other guess is that there's an air leak on the injector seal as I haven't replaced those and it might be ruining the mixture. These are all just guesses by someone who doesn't know a huge amount about engines. Having looked at the oil, I need to take a look for damage as there are some very small shavings and they have to be caused by something. I've seen the bottom end when I did the conrod bolts, I think it's top end. I will use the opportunity to whip the timing cover off again and check the timing is correct and renew the crank seal. The oil leak is just bizarre, I must have caught the seal when I last fitted the crank pulley as it's never had a problem before. I'll also check the lifter preload as I am not confident I was as thorough with that as I could have been. I intend to strip it down to the block in the car, I think access is good enough and there's no reason to take it out of the car but if this is just laziness and going to make things difficult, I am hoping someone will pipe up. Long winded and boring post, but perhaps that's fitting for how I feel about this build.

My roof won't be painted until the second week of July or I would have been very much up for this. Drats.

The only way I can see to do it (on a later style door, anyway) would be to extend the six bolts through the door card from the spare wheel mounting, otherwise you're still reliant on those trim clips. I'm not doing that, so you've confirmed that as a no-go. I've had a look at it tonight and the best place is behind the cubby box on the bulkhead replacement bar.

Coupled with a desire for a low tailgate for access (compared to the taller rear cross member on a Defender) and a flat floor, I can see how they ended up in that configuration. I just don't understand why they couldn't design themselves out of that corner when you're starting with a blank sheet. It looks like an aftermarket add-on to me.

Exactly my concern.

All good ideas - is the tunnel metal or plastic in yours, Jeremy? Someone wanted extra leg room Mo, so the bulkhead and it's useful mountings is gone but I can use the bulkhead replacement bar to mount quick fists using some substantial cable ties. I can't fit it to the driver's side seatbox as the X-End pedal lock flips down, might be able to go into the passenger side but my monster battery cut off switch is likely going to get in the way - I'll take a look later. Passenger side tunnel sounds good but will need some hefty washers as it's plastic - albeit thick. Like me. What have people got for actually mounting it? As Mr. Landroversforever says, there's a vast array but not sure what to go for.

I know these things get a lot of love on here and I completely understand why. But that rear bumper structure is so low. 🤥

That's actually a good point, I don't have anything besides a basic tool roll planned for there so will have plenty of room. Even so, I can see benefit in tripling the available storage in a Defender with one of these rear covers, especially as I plan on using the car for camping.

I think you're right and I'll look at strapping it down another way (I have a 2kg powder extinguisher). I did want to mount it on the rear door so furthest away from any point of ignition but there's nowhere solid enough to secure it through the door card. Still interested in anyone has experience with any kind of seat organiser and if they are worth bothering with, though.

Good day All, I have a really noddy question but as I refuse to take part in some of the more.... aesthetically-focussed forums, hopefully people here have experience. I want a seat organiser, I am primarily looking at one for the passenger seat but if they come in pairs then I'm sure I'll find a use. My main reason is that I will have two or three things I will always be carrying; an X-Defend gearstick lock, a steering wheel lock and a fire extinguisher and I want to properly secure them in case of the worst happening. I am mostly trying to secure the X-Defend as it might not be realistic for a seat organiser to hold a disklock or a fire extinguisher and I can find alternatives (quick fists, load bay tie-downs) for those. I like the look of this one by Inka (who make genuine seat covers) and the pouches seem to be a good size for a X-Defend but they don't appear to have clasps (I assume magnetic closing) and I could do without the HUE logo but that's being fussy. I'm just not confident in placing a big, heavy bit of metal in these and there is no scope for any additional items. Available Here So with this elegant, classical look in mind, I've been searching for something a bit more secure. Unfortunately this results in something like this by Terrafirma: Available Here Or this: Available here These are relatively expensive for what they are, especially the latter as it comes with no pouches but because of that, do give a lot of flexibility in how you can configure them. However, as I am not looking to overthrow a democratically elected government any time soon, I don't need to strap down my AR15 in this (frankly irresponsible) way. MOLLE pouches are great if you need them but I would prefer something a bit more in keeping with the non-military look I'm going for. So, what is there in a similar theme but alternatives to the above? If MOLLE is the way to go then so be it, I just want to see what else is around.

It's not for me to tell you what to do with your new-found nightvision capabilities, but I'm just going to leave these here for... inspiration. + =

Is the pin meant to be lubricated? I'm at the opposite point to this - my hinges have been painted but I'm now wondering if applying some grease internally will help them stay new. I know they can be disassembled, so is it worth it?

Thanks both, I think I'll leave it alone in that case.

This is getting weird. I fitted wing top plates last week after a year of thinking about it, because I am not a fan of chequer plate either but I also think they're quite vulnerable and the wings are useful with the plates on. I was going to buy those exact ones too, but found some plain ones by Bearmach... I am not sold on the look so will probably still go with Mammoth. If, however, you think you can prevent me copying every element of your build by spending £250 on wheel boxes..... you are absolutely correct sir, well played.

I've just been checking my spark settings prior to starting back up. I found something odd, my Cranking advance Angle was set as -10, not 10 as below: What would be the effect of that? I assume nothing once the engine stops cranking and is running but it's weird that it was wrong and makes me question what else could be wrongly configured.

Yeah, unfortunately the first guy just registered so we could tell him his car was rare so he could ask more for it on another forum at the time.

That explains it, my first purchase from them was in March. There would have been many more as I move to the "shiny shiny" accessories part of the build, they had a lot of good stuff.