Defender 90 TD5 Tribute Build

[winton]

My 1999 Defender TD5 90 was beginning to look a little tired, it's been my runabout for over 5 years and after a lot of hard winters up north - it's definitely suffered. :oops:

With the Defender production coming to a halt soon, I've decided to create my own tribute to the Land Rover itself. To take the most iconic elements from previous Land Rover vehicles and combine them with the Defender to produce my own ideal Land Rover. I was a little underwhelmed by the Land Rover heritage special edition, so in effect, this is my interpretation of that concept. Any work carried out, the goal is to make it better than factory wherever possible.

I've been busy filming videos on the build too, you can watch how things have progressed so far:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhy-5DHZzPfkCpshOSByd7vQhEXkyfN6y

So, I found a small lock-up in early 2014, it had everything I needed (room for 2 Landy's, plus space for tools and body panels e.t.c).

I started stripping down the Defender in January of that year. Then, my parents had their car stolen from their drive, so the Land Rover was hastily rebuilt and loaned to them for several months.

After getting it back in one piece, I began removing panels (again) and assessing the general condition:

After painting the vehicle with Plastidip to use as a wedding car, I had to remove the film first.

Then began removing panels, when removing panels, you slowly reveal hidden corrosion and rust :S

In the meantime, I bought the wife let me purchase this 110 Puma, which has been a fantastic Land Rover!

Removing panels like the roof and wings is very quick and good for morale - progress is rapid at this stage. Most of the panels are in good condition, the roof will be replaced with a soft top so I'll lose my webasto sun roof But gain a canvas top. :thumbsup:

The sunroof was fitted at Land Rover Special vehicles - the 90 was originally owned by the National Grid who would drive up and down power grids with a hefty thermal imaging camera poking our the roof.

It was also used as a driver training vehicle, shown here at 2 Dales 4x4 training centre in Derbyshire. Apparently, as it had road tyres fitted, the instructors preferred this Land Rover over others available, it helped install off-road driving techniques.

The windscreen surround and hard top sides are gone! The whole lot will be stripped back so I can paint them later.I also spent time carefully drilling out rivets so I can get the capping galved. Upon refitting, I'm going to take measures prevent galvanic reactions from taking place ever again!

Then, the gearbox and engine needed to come out. The TD5 unit we have is low mileage and a really sound power plant. I love them! My plan is give this a good clean, perhaps a tasteful tune by Alive Tuning but that is all by way of modifications.

Then, the tub was removed, along with the bulkhead. The chassis was shifted to the side of the workshop to give me a little space.

I then began experimenting with electrolysis to remove rust. My experiment was working well, until the power supply exploded! Will come back to that at some point:

Underbody components were as expected for a 16 year old Landy - these are all at the shot blasters along with the bullhead as we speak.

Then, it's time to start rebuilding! A shiny new galv chassis came by way of Richards Chassis at Doncaster. I've been very impressed with the build quality and finish this chassis! Top notch product, should mean this Land Rover lasts a long time.

This was promptly sprayed black using a T-Wash solution, followed by etch primer and then an acrylic based top coat from Frost Autos! Looks very good now! I'm aiming for a factory finish so this extra work was worth the effort

And that brings you all up to press, with the chassis painted - I'm hoping to get the whole lot built by January 2016. I'm carrying out any work I can in the shop, including a paint job, so stay tuned!

[

[Arjan]

Well done !

Always good to see the rebuild of another one..

[Retroanaconda]

Nice project, watching with interest

[winton]

Thanks for the nice comments chaps:

Here's what I got up to yesterday:

Using a twisted wire cup, started removing the worse of the rust. Really impressed with the cups, they work pretty quickly! A friend removed the superpro bushes using threaded bar - as they are a one piece construction, you'd need an 8" vice and suitable drifts e.t.c.

Today, I'm hoping to go collect my bulkhead and axles: here's a sample from the video I shot whilst I was there on Monday

It's brought it up lovely! Much less welding needed than I thought, then off to galvanisers :shock:

[winton]

More progress made, a little gutted that my axles and bullhead won't be finished till next week - could slow me down a bit. I had help off my mate last night, but we didn't have tonnes to do.

The gearbox crossmember is in. These require a slight spreading of the chassis. I do not like farm jacks but it's all that was to hand, so packing it out with wood to protect the chassis and one man operating the jack whilst another hammers the gearbox in. The ends we're coated with grease to make the job a bit easier. Glad to be able to put the farm jack away again, no incidents :thumbsup:

I took delivery of this fantastic bit of kit from SIP Industrial products. It cut right through the CV shaft grease and means they are ready for rebuilding.

I've filled it with paraffin for now, am waiting on some proper parts washer fluid for items I want to paint afterwards.

The rear upper link arms still had metaplastic bushes fitted. These were totally shot, they were burned out:

Then it's a case of cleaning off all the cast parts, going from this:

Using a twisted wire cup

Was a late night for me. Here's how they looked afterwards. I'l treat them to some anti-rust agent then etch prime and paint them satin black to match. There'll be no blingy bits underneath.

Also, couldn't wait to start fitting new bits and bobs, so....

I'm going with a standard suspension set-up.

[winton]

Episode 05 is out here:

So, since the last update, the following has happened.

After giving the parts a thorough clean, using a combination of wire brushing, degreasing and the parts washer:

The items were then masked up:

Hung up for painting on an industrial clothing rail:

Or slotted into some holes we drilled in a palette for things like the arms:

And hit with some etch primer:

Then, all the fixings on the chassis added so far were treated with M1 Corrosion protector (like ACF50, but cheaper)

Fitted the bump stops:

And today I can go collect the bulkhead and axles!

[landroversforever]

Looking good, and nice to see someone with a similar mind set to me!

However yours seems to be happening a bit quicker

[winton]

Looking good, and nice to see someone with a similar mind set to me!

However yours seems to be happening a bit quicker

Thanks, currently going like mad on it - I also have a lot of help from friends so this helps greatly!

[Mo Murphy]

Looks good Winton, a thorough job being done. ?

Mo

[Scotts90]

Nice work, I really need to get myself a new project. Quite fancy a td5 too

[winton]

Righto, things happened yesterday :thumbsup:

Collected the bulkhead and axles form the shot blasters. The bulkhead has come up very nice! Not as much welding needed as I thought so well worth having it blasted.

That's not to say I got off welding completely, both pillars will need to be replaced. Then once it's cleaned up, a jig will be welded up and sent to the galvanisers.

Here, all the underbody parts that prepped are getting a top coat of satin black like the chassis. These have cured to a pleasing finish. The masking trick worked perfectly

Then once fully cured, the parts are packed up safely until I need them - I'm trying to prevent accidental damage

Finally, the axles had some final prep for painting - I'll hit those with etch primer e.t.c as before. I'll then clean the internals throughly and the final drive case - bolt the lot back together and paint it!

This is how the everything looks so far, great finish from the blasters - who've recommended that I hit everything with 60 - 80 grit paper. I'll see if it seems necessary.

[winton]

Ok, so Episode 06 is out now:

Here's what I've been up to over the last week. I sold my 110 for a start, which is partly why I've had no time to be posting :thumbsup:

Took the opportunity of perhaps the last bit of good weather to fit a weather sealing strip, should stop the dust blowing under the door in the hard winters we get. :mrgreen:

I then prepped the axles for painting, removing the shot blasting material from the inside of the axles - this would likely make an aggressive grinding paste if there were any left inside.

The shot used was an iron oxide of some sort, but was coated on in the intervals of the axle. To remove, I gave the whole lot a through wash with chassis detergent and a sponge.

Placing a scaffold pole through the axle tubes or even bolting some old stub axles on lets you easily rotate the axle on the stands.

The axles then needed drying completely, before using a solvent soaked rag to clean the internals and outside. The axles were then spotlessly clean, took an hour per axle though

There will be no contamination of the diff oil now!

The diff studs were refitted, ready for the final drive casing.

[winton]

The final drive casing mating surface after clean up to take RTV sealant.

RTV, adding the bits before cinching those down and torqueing up.

After everything is securely sealed up, I can clean the diff casing - preventing the crud falling into the axle or onto the diff.

Then, those were solvent cleaned, etch primed, left to cure and finally painted in satin black

Whilst they dried, I began popping bushes back in. You can fiddle around popping them in with a vice or similar. I found it easier to secure the arm in the vice, then use a large M12 bolt with some thick washers on to pull it through.

This would work really well if you had to do this at the roadside, a handy homemade 'tool'.

It can also be used to pull the inner race through :thumbsup:

[winton]

The axles are painted! And looking superb! Love the Frost Chassis paint :thumbsup:

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Also, purchased a printed TD5 Defender manual with the 300TDi and Electrical supplements, pricey but worth it for a job like this.

Picked up a new A frame Fulcrum bracket with the ball joint pressed in, saves me the hassle as I don't have a press and these aren't too pricey to buy pre-done.

That was all bolted together, using genuine bolts just to be safe.

I applied copper slip liberally - I don't want any trouble if I ever need to disassemble these parts.

I then bolted the brackets into place, the manual says to not torque everything down till it's in place

The A Frame was then lifted into place and nipped up, but not fully, I'll do that when the axle is in place.

Also bolted on the damper brackets, these ones are not handed, but the manual appears to show them as though they are.

I took the chance this week to set-up the shot blasting cabinet. This one came from Frost.co.uk, they are a good company to work with and have a lot of stuff that's of interest to vehicle restorers. I'm running the cabinet with recycled (crushed) glass - it's cheap at around £5 per 25kg.

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The cabinet has been completely indispensable. Rather than having to replace all those little brackets that quickly add-up the costs - I've been ablate last them, restoring them to as new condition. It's brilliant. I'm going to refurb the callipers using this cabinet :thumbsup:

Here's a before and after (needs a little more blasting, but this was about 1 minutes work)

[winton]

What have we been up to this week with our Tribute build?

First up, we set about finishing the swivels from last time. The pre-load had to be set using shims on the upper pin - a time consuming process to say the least.

You'll need a spring balance, which can be found cheaply online or at a fishing supplies shop.

We're looking for a constant pull between 1.2kg and 1.4kg. If you're reading over the number, you need more shims, if you're below, you need to remove some. Be careful not to crank it down with such a high pre-load that you buckle the bearing race.

Then the oil seal and retainer plate need fitting. These lock down with small bolts and are torqued to 11nm.

The steering stop lock bolt was added at both sides too, this will need adjusting later.

Once the swivels we're correctly pre-loaded, we slid the cv and half shaft into place, feeling for the splines on the final drive unit to match with the half shaft end before gently pushing it home.

Using a piece of plywood to prevent damage, the brass bushing on the back of the stub axle can be tapped into place. To fit the roller bearing, we used an old cv joint as a bearing setter. Worked very well!

The stub axles can then be bolted on using the correct tensile strength stub axle bolts, with thread lock.

The new discs are from EBC and look awesome! Hopefully they'll provide superior braking capability thanks to the drilled and slotted brake surface.

The hub bearings were then fitted as well as the oil seal and adjusted correctly, before flatting the lock washer around the two hub nuts.

Then we positioned the axle under the rear of the chassis and connected it to the trailing arms, as well as dropping in the a frame ball joint.

The a frame castellated nut needs tightening and then the split pin pushing through

The springs and dampers could then be fitted, along with some nice galvanised seats and retainer plates.

The wheels were then temporarily bolted on. These are not the final wheels we'll be using - those haven't been painted yet. These are just to allow us to shunt the chassis around the workshop.

Then the springs and shocks were offered up - working with standard, non-gas filled shocks is a bit of a treat as they don't want to rapidly expand!

Then the front boots can be chucked on. These will be up for sale once the build is finished as they are surplus to requirements.

It is now a rolling chassis! Here's proof as I move it further into the centre of the shop for more room!

The R380 gearbox was chucked on a palette and taken to a gearbox specialist for a recon and inspection. This one had done around 75k and was getting a little tired, however it's always been well looked after so that's good.

We added the steering arm to make moving the rolling chassis around a bit easier.

The clutch and Dual Mass Flywheel assembly was stripped from the engine, so we could fit it on an engine stand, this one is from <a href="http://www.sgs-engineering.com/garage-equipment/engine-stands/es1000-450kg-engine-stand">SGS Engineering</a>. It's a good value stand, but from my past experience with other SGS products, the are as good if not better than their competitors.

I drained the oil from the engine, before refitting the sump plug and setting about scrubbing it with gunk to get it clean.

Working in the 'Gunk' degreasing solution to shift those really stubborn stains.

Then fitted some new axle breathers to the axles. We picked up these M12 to 6mm pneumatic elbows from <a href="http://www.gwynlewis4x4.co.uk/product/land-rover-defender-90-110-td5-puma-axle-breather-fittings/">Gwynn Lewis 4x4</a> - I'm impressed with their service, they ship products very quickly! In the kit, you also get a tap. Then it's a case of removing the old brass bushing to reveal the 12mm hole and tapping that. The tap should be dipped into some grease to stop swarf entering the diff oil.

These ones are for TD5 / Puma axles. If you have 300tdi and older, you'll have a 1/8 hole, in which case you can pick up a 1/8 BSPT (British Standard Pipe Thread) fitting to 6mm pipe on eBay for next to nothing. You'll need a 1/8" tap too. The only difference is the elbow is smaller.

[discomikey]

Looking great,need to spend the time to read through properly though

[Scotts90]

Nice work

[Guest]

I have just read this for the first time and must say that the attention to detail is a credit to you. It would be my ultimate aim to do what you are doing but that's just not possible at the moment.

The only question / comment I have is that I am surprised that you kept the closed shock turrets at the front and didn't change them for open turrets?

Jason.

[winton]

I have just read this for the first time and must say that the attention to detail is a credit to you. It would be my ultimate aim to do what you are doing but that's just not possible at the moment.

The only question / comment I have is that I am surprised that you kept the closed shock turrets at the front and didn't change them for open turrets?

Jason.

I've thought about your comment and you're right! I had tubular turrets before and wasn't that impressed with them, they corroded rather quickly. However, I'm looking at fitting some of Gwynn Lewis' kit now - should mean that it can be power washed out and the salt will be kept at bay. Good suggestion thanks!

[Anderzander]

I'd recommend Gwyn's turrets too - they're excellent.

[western]

I've thought about your comment and you're right! I had tubular turrets before and wasn't that impressed with them, they corroded rather quickly. However, I'm looking at fitting some of Gwynn Lewis' kit now - should mean that it can be power washed out and the salt will be kept at bay. Good suggestion thanks!

I had non galv tubular turrets on my 110 for a few years, sold them recently after finding a pair of galvanised ones, no more rust for my 110.

[winton]

This week, we headed over to a local gearbox specialist to get our R380 stripped down and inspected.

Here it is after we dropped it off, looking a little sad. The plan is to have it inspected, have all bearings & seals replaced then the outer cases will be fully cleaned and painted before reassembly.

If you look in the R380 manual, it lists the tools need to remove this oil selector collar: LRT-37-009 and LRT-37-010

Glenn then removed the foam insulation that sits in the tunnel over the gear selector housing and gear knobs. He then went on to remove the extension housing upper bolts, the ones that go through the remote and gear change housing.

The high low and centre diff lock linkages were also removed as were the breather pipes that were still bundled with the gearbox.

Next Glenn removed the 4 bolts left on the remaining gearbox mounting bracket.

The remote housing was then free to remove.

The front cover is held on with 6 bolts. This can be tapped loose using a soft faced hammer.

The input shaft front taper bearing is in good condition

The bearing races themselves though have a little scoring, only light - but then this gearbox has covered 75 thousand miles.

The spool retainers also need removing, there's one in the gearcase and one in the extension housing.

Next out comes the inhibitor camshaft, then Glenn removed the bolts holding the extension housing to the centre plate and gearcase.

The outer Detent ball and spring need removing, these have a torx screw holding them in on this box. After a liberal spray of penetrating fluid and heating with a propane torch, this came out much easier. The detent ball and spring can be retrieved with a magnet. The gearcase and extension housing are then separated, before removing the selector quadrant and completely splitting the outer cases.

The oil filter was retrieved and appeared to be in good condition

And that's the internals removed.

The bank / synchro rings are also in decent condition, they haven't worn sharp.

The housings are then put into the parts washer and a hot wash tank for a thorough degrease before painting.

On the gearbox internals, glenn first removes the 5th gear nut - then the layshaft 5th gear

Before moving onto the mainshaft and removing the mainshaft 5th. The syncro here was in excellent condition. After removing the 5th gear, you need to remove the circlip that holds the Reverse/5th gear synchro hub and sleeve in place, then the hub itself.

Reverse gear comes off next.

The input shaft slides off now along with the 4th gear syncro ring.

Then reverse comes off.

When taking the center plate off, watch out for the lower detent spring and ball. The Selector fork and shaft can be removed next and that’s the gearbox done. It’ll then be cleaned, any worn parts replaced and painted - we should be able to pick that up in the next episode!

Back at FunRover HQ - we’re working on the steering box. We purchased a recon steering box as the old one would make quite a grumble as it was turned from lock to lock. This was supplied by LrParts.net. Once this is fitted, we can send the old one back, it’s a neat way of saving cash and recycling Land Rover parts. Empty as much steering fluid out the system as you can. Will need to be centred and bled and the torque will be rechecked after our shake down drive.

Adding the tie bar

This can be lifted into place and bolted up, it's much easier if there are 2 of you.

One shot grease was added to the swivel housings. It was necessary to remove the steering stop locks to turn the housing past the end of the swivel ball. This allows you to insert the grease bag filling tube right into the housing and get the grease in the right place, rather than it spewing back out all over.

Next, we moved onto the TD5 lump. This needs cleaning up, as we're going to paint and polish it. Unnecessary? Perhaps, but it would look out of place in the build if we had a dirty old engine.

First off, I started by removing all hoses.

Some of the pipes had quite an amount of corrosion in them.

Next, the fuel cooler was removed. It's helpful to put bolts back in their respective holes so you can remember where they came from later.

The Alternator and associated belt pulleys were next.

The turbo came off afterwards, revealing the all too common snapped exhaust manifold stud problem. Not one stud had snapped but two!

The answer is to get the manifold machined flat (as it has warped due to the exhaust gas temperatures) then have some of the casting removed to help it flex little. We'll also fit longer, more heavy duty studs with spacers and this should stop it ever happening again.

[Anderzander]

I'd consider the opportunity of replacing that awful swan neck for a discovery arm.

[winton]

This week, we've been mainly working on our engine, as well as inspecting the rear tub.

It's a good idea to get the tub sat on an body painting trestle. These can be found on eBay pretty reasonably. They give you really good access to the underside and as an added bonus, fold away when not needed.

The inside of the tub has accumulated a lot of grime from the workshop and so it needed a good clean out. We used a strong road and traffic film remover to strip away any oils that might have been on the surfaces of the tub.

After cleaning, the body mappings have revealed some rust, not to worry, these are going to be blasted and then galved.

There are a lot of holes left in the tub. We'll try alloy brazing to fill them in.

This seat belt mounting bracket is corroded, fortunately YRM metal solutions produces laser cut reproduction panels that we can simply rivet on. The part isn't too expensive either!

Use a TD5 / V8 Viscous fan set from FlatDog UK we removed the viscous fan in preparation for cleaning and painting the engine.

Using a 75mm air polisher and white diamond metal polish and sealer. Why are we polishing the rocker cover? Well, we're not refitting the acoustic cover on the engine, so we want it to look as good as the rest of the vehicle.

Here's a before and part way through, the White Diamond polish is great, it takes very little effort to get to the finish on the right. A few more passes and we'll have a chrome like finish that is protected from further oxidisation thanks to the sealer in the polishing compound.

Then we moved onto cleaning the engine, which had a lot of baked on oils, carbon deposits, mud and corrosion.

First, it was given a thorough scrub down with some small stainless steel wire brushes and a degreasing detergent.

Once dry, we could then tackle the corrosion. Here we're working the corroded areas with the brush more, before switching to a dremel with a wire cup.

Areas such as the end of the block were pretty corroded so it was knocked back with a red scotchbrite pad, polished and then sealed.

Still a little more corrosion that was removed with a flapper wheel on the dremel.]

[winton]

https://youtu.be/3ofuyHLnue0

Recon Gearboxes LTD completed our R380 and it's looking superb! We're having the brackets blasted and galved so hope to put that back in soon!

Following a suggestion from one of the forum posts we've been running for the build, we swapped our Britpart galvanised turrets for some heavy duty

Gwynn Lewis turrets

. These replacement turrets are stronger, galvanised, easier to clean / maintain and once fitted, will make shock replacement much faster! These have been designed for challenge trucks and are extremely well made. We're also fitting matching

Gwynn Lewis turret rings

. These have 10.9 tensile bolts welded into the ring and feature a chamfered edge to stop tyres rubbing at full articulation.

Fitting these turrets is a doddle. The easiest way is to undo the lower nut on the shock, then jack the chassis up to release the spring from it's seat about an inch or two.

Then, if you unbolt the access panel in the wheel arch, and carefully undo the four nuts on the ring, the whole assembly will lift out in one piece. You may have to use a propane torch on the nuts as these can shear quite easily on corroded parts.

Then the ring can be slipped into place, the turret offered up and bolted down to 24nm or 17.7lb ft.

One key benefit of the Gwynn Lewis shock is that you can fit a shock absorber without removing the turret or spring.

Engine Painting

The TD5 rocker cover has been polished up and cleaned, so now it's the blocks turn for some attention. First off, all holes are plugged and bolts are temporarily placed back into their holes.

Look how clean that head is! Took a lot of work, but the results are worth it! Now using a bottle of brake cleaner, the block was throughly scrubbed down and agitated with brushes.

This is why it's so important! Even after 3 wash downs already, there's still dirt and oil left behind!

I'm using POR 15 Engine Enamel from

Frost.co.uk

to paint the block, it is recommended that bare aluminium surfaces should be treated with metal prep first before painting.

Then blown down with the air gun to get rid of any final bits of debris and moisture that might effect our paint.

Almost ready to paint, I keyed off the surface with a 3M scrotchbrite pad, just for a little extra adhesion!

Finally! Painting time! I'm using a good quality brush and POR 15 Engine enamel from Frost. It's designed specifically to be used on engine blocks so will withstand higher temperatures and comes in a selection of colours. I've chosen Buick Green, which is as near as makes no difference to the final build colour, Pastel Green. This colour has become ever so popular recently, however, I bought mine about a year ago. Oh well, this is one Defender that isn't just following the crowd!

Looks good! Need to leave this 6 days to fully cure before starting the engine, but we can be on with putting it back in over the next week!

Engine Mounts

Engine mounts have been refitted, we've replaced the tired originals for some OEM replacements. These need to be torqued to 85NM. We also took the time to shot blast the original heat shield and paint that in a high temperature spray paint.

Fuel Tank and Guard

The old fuel tank guard looks a bit sorry for itself. On the TD5 90 this is all that holds the fuel tank in place - it also offers a little protection against terrain when off-roading. We could have replaced it with an original style guard, but these were actually more expensive than an aftermarket, heavy duty galvanised guard (bought from

http://paddockspares.com

). So we cleaned up the tank, and fitted up the replacement item

I used a trolley jack to line it up and hold the guard in place, it's quite cumbersome to do this on your back by yourself. Once bolted up, it looks great and is very tough! I can stand on the guard and it will take all 16 stone (100kg) of me no worries.

A great value replacement / upgrade!