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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324  
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Not specifically, although I did measure the voltage of the original wiring whilst fault finding and it was around 14 volts. This indicates that it wasn't suffering from voltage loss, which corresponds with the lack of any noticeable improvement in the dipped beam. I'm taking that as good news though, as it suggests that the light switches are currently in good condition and this mod should keep them that way. Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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19th Apr 2021 1:44pm |
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| excossack Member Since: 22 Feb 2012 Location: North West Posts: 5842 
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Cheers LRA. 1999 Defender TD5 110
Regards John M0VAZ Econet Station 48 no clock |
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19th Apr 2021 1:58pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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  Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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19th Apr 2021 8:50pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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After initially setting up my new spotlights, I decided that I needed some whiter bulbs as the ones that came with them were noticeably yellow compared to my uprated headlight bulbs. As the latter are from Philips, I decided to stick with them for the spots, too and bought a pair of these:
 Click image to enlarge The difference has proved tricky to photograph but in real life they're a good match and produce veritable searchlight beams beyond the throw of the standard main beam: Click image to enlarge Whilst fiddling around with all of this, I made a minor amendment to the brackets as when I came to adjust them I found the spots to be just a bit too close to the rear horizontal bar of each light guard. I solved this by adding a small, 12mm thick, spacer to each mounting point cut from a block of engineering nylon and drilled to suit: Click image to enlarge These moved the lights far enough forward to solve the problem: Click image to enlarge Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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26th Apr 2021 7:24pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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It's been a busy weekend! Some time ago I noticed that the four steel brackets that support the A/C condenser in its frame were in an awful condition, so I bought a set of stainless replacements from YRM. These come as complete kits with all of the necessary fixings:
Click image to enlarge Because they're bare stainless though, they'd stick out like a sore thumb behind the grill and so I prepped and painted them: Click image to enlarge Yesterday, I set about fitting them. I also wanted to tidy up the condenser frame but as I couldn't remove it without degassing the A/C system, it had to be done in-situ, in stages. It's impossible to do a thorough job like this, to be honest, but it's a necessary compromise. The first stage saw the top two brackets removed, which comprised two bolts and four rivets to be drilled out for each. Access is tight and the frame had to be levered out slightly to allow a spanner behind. With that done, the surrounding areas were masked up, the surface was sanded down and the top part of the frame was brush painted with two coats of Hammerite: Click image to enlarge I then went and mowed the lawn whilst it dried 
Some time later, I fitted the top two new brackets and removed the lower two to allow the bottom parts to be painted: Click image to enlarge To the new bottom brackets, I added two new brackets of my own as fixing points for the spotlight connectors described above. Despite my earlier plan to hide them away behind the frame, this time I've mounted them on the front, which makes life a whole lot easier. And of course, I painted them to match: Click image to enlarge It's also necessary to transfer the plastic mounting for the A/C fan connector over from the old bracket. These pictures shows the two lower brackets and the spotlight connectors in their new locations: Click image to enlarge My brackets are aluminium, as is the condenser, so all the touching parts of the new stainless brackets were separated from these pieces with some duct tape as a makeshift gasket. And finally a slightly rubbish picture of the finished installation: Click image to enlarge All of the hardware associated with the frame was replaced with stainless equivalents and another step in my ongoing mission to rid my Land Rover of rubbish, rusting brackets is completed! Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 27th Apr 2021 5:58am. Edited 1 time in total |
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26th Apr 2021 7:55pm |
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| Dinnu Member Since: 24 Dec 2019 Location: Lija Posts: 3410  
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Good job there
I have been wanting to do the same on mine, but has been putting it off as scared of drilling through the AC condenser. But your pictures help a lot to see what is behind the bracket that connects to the condenser. 1988 90 Hard Top, 19J Diesel Turbo, Shire Blue - Restoration ongoing 2012 90 CSW, 2.2TDCI, Santorini Black |
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26th Apr 2021 8:10pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Whilst I had the front apart and was waiting for paint to dry, I added a mesh chaff guard to the grill. Chaff guards were a relatively common and inexpensive genuine accessory, at one time. These days though, they're both less common and stupidly expensive. I therefore decided to make my own using some black coated, aluminium mesh bought from eBay.
Fitting was really straightforward - remove the grill from the surround and cut the mesh to fit inside the recess that runs around the perimeter of the opening. It's also necessary to form a couple of holes for the bottom fixing bolts to the grill. The mesh is easy to cut with tin snips or side cutters. Once it's in place, refit the grill, which traps the mesh between the two parts: Click image to enlarge Once everything is back together, the difference is subtle: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I also took the opportunity to replace all of the fixing bolts to both the main and lower grills with flanged, button head, stainless, black ones because, well why not? Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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26th Apr 2021 8:12pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Yeah, they're just alloy pads and there's nothing immediately behind when drilling out the rivets. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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26th Apr 2021 8:15pm |
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| L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10733 
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Great work as ever Darren, that mesh behind the grill should save the condenser from unwanted debris
1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up.
Keeper. Clayton. |
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26th Apr 2021 8:27pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Thanks Clayton, it can't hurt. Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia |
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27th Apr 2021 5:21am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Something a bit more mundane today: whilst faffing about with one of my roof bars (trying to design a hi-lift mount) I noticed that there was some bubbling paint on the edges of the gutters, so thought I'd have a go at tackling it.
With a detail sander, I carefully attacked the affected areas, taking them back to bare metal where necessary, and then masked the whole thing up ready for spraying: Click image to enlarge Spraying outside is always a bit of a challenge and so despite the very small areas to paint, I deliberately went for overkill with the masking: Click image to enlarge There was a slightly smaller patch on the other side too, but the approach was exactly the same. Each patch was given a couple of coats of etch primer, two more of regular primer, two of body colour and finally a coat of lacquer. Click image to enlarge I still have a bit of polishing to do to blend in the edges but if I'm honest, the rattle can of paint that I bought isn't an exact match. It's been ok for a few other discreet parts that I've painted but when it's directly next to original paint the new stuff is slightly darker. It'll do for now though, and is much better than bubbling paint and rust! If I can't blend the edges to an acceptable degree then I'll have to take it to be done professionally Darren
110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 3rd May 2021 6:18am. Edited 1 time in total |
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2nd May 2021 7:08pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Whilst waiting for paint to dry, I finally tackled a little finishing job from something that I built over eighteen months ago, which was the underside lining for my EXTENDED CUBBY BOX LID! It was always my intention to line the underside with a sheet of coloured Perspex to tidy up the edges of the upholstery and I bought the material almost immediately after building it. It's basically been out of sight, out of mind ever since, though. However, the arrival of a new toy in the shape of a small bandsaw and time between paint coats pushed me to finally get on with it.
After a bit of careful measuring, the bandsaw was put to good use and contact adhesive was used to fix it to the cubby lid: Click image to enlarge After allowing a bit of drying time, the protective film was removed to reveal the finished product: Click image to enlarge It's just a small detail, really. Darren 110 USW BUILD THREAD - EXPEDITION TRAILER - 200tdi 90 BUILD THREAD - SANKEY TRAILER - IG@landroveranorak "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - Princess Leia Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 10th Aug 2021 8:08am. Edited 1 time in total |
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2nd May 2021 7:25pm |
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| Procta Member Since: 03 Dec 2016 Location: Sunderland Posts: 5157
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i like the mesh grill look, i did this with my rover metros. Defender TD5 90 ---/--- Peugeot 306 HDI hatch back Success is 90% Inspiration and 4 minutes Preparation # you can make it! |
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4th May 2021 6:44pm |
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| L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10733
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You can never be to careful when paint is involved with masking up
Nice with the cubby lid finally sorted Darren 1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up.
Keeper. Clayton. |
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4th May 2021 8:41pm |
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