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| Grenadier Member Since: 23 Jul 2014 Location: The foot of Mont Blanc... Posts: 5878   
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LRA, do you have a link to where you bought the mesh. I like this idea. Lots of gravel and small stones/rocks in these parts.  Monsieur Le Grenadier
I've not been everywhere, but it's on my list..... 2011 Puma 110DC - Corris Grey |
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5th May 2021 5:19am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324 
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It came from eBay. Unfortunately, the one that I bought isn't listed anymore but there are plenty of listings for the exact same thing. Search for 'black grill mesh aluminium'. This is the very first one that came up:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313442939341?ha...Sw-Exe4uIy 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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5th May 2021 5:38am |
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| Grenadier Member Since: 23 Jul 2014 Location: The foot of Mont Blanc... Posts: 5878
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Too kind sir. Ta.
Monsieur Le Grenadier
I've not been everywhere, but it's on my list..... 2011 Puma 110DC - Corris Grey |
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5th May 2021 5:43am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Yesterdays task was to fit a set of wheel spacers, partly for the improved turning circle but also partly for the look, if I'm honest about it. I had a set of spacers on my previous TD5 110 a few years ago and despite having 265 tyres, it could out turn my wife's Discovery 2 at the time, which was very handy. There are lots of claims of these things improving handling too, but whilst that may be true for a low road car, I suspect that the gains for a Land Rover are marginal, at best.
Following recommendations on here, I planned to fit spacers from Rakeway. However, having failed to illicit any response by email or phone, I abandoned that idea  I then cast around for alternatives and found there to be lots of options that are all, on paper at least, identical. They all claim to be made from the same flavour of aluminium and all use the same 10.9 wheel studs. With very little else to go on, I chose a set from Terrafirma on the basis that it's a recognisable name, although I strongly suspect that they're all made in the same factory somewhere. Anyway, here they are, in a natty anodised black finish:
 Click image to enlarge These came from Maltings Off Road via eBay as they were the most economic. The exact same Terrafirma product is available from lots of different places but the prices vary wildly, up to 50% more expensive from some. Before fitting, I gave the back of each spacer a thin coat of copper grease to hopefully prevent it sticking to the steel hub: Click image to enlarge And the first one bolted in place: Click image to enlarge As always seems to be the case with this sort of stuff, there were no instructions so I chose to torque the supplied steel wheel nuts to 170Nm, which is the standard value for steel wheels. The nuts for the alloy wheels were then torqued to their standard of 133Nm. I umm'd and ahh'd about using thread lock on the spacers but decided against it as it really shouldn't be necessary if everything is torqued correctly. Time will tell if I'm right... With all four wheels back on, it was time for some photos. This one shows that with standard wheels and tyres, the difference isn't dramatic and the tyres are still comfortably under the arches: Click image to enlarge Whilst I'm not a fan of very wide wheels and tyres, I'm very pleased with the stance that these spacers provide: Click image to enlarge 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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6th Jun 2021 9:14am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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With the front off side wheel removed to fit a spacer, I also finally got around to fitting the axle retaining bracket to that side following the abortive attempt last August. As I'd already had the mounting nuts off then, it was all straightforward this time around:
Click image to enlarge 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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6th Jun 2021 9:25am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Another little recent job, that I've had done by somebody else this time, was replacing the flexible brake hoses with braided stainless versions from Goodrich. When it went in for its last service, I also had the brake fluid changed and it was the ideal time to have this little upgrade done, too.
Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Afterwards, there was no noticeable difference if I'm honest, which suggests that the original hoses were still in good condition. It's reassuring to know that they've been done, though. 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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6th Jun 2021 9:41am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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I had a bit of tinkering time yesterday so tackled a job that I meant to do when I had the front end in pieces a little while ago but ran out of time, namely attending to the droopy front wings. This is a common problem affecting vehicles with factory air con, whereby the combination of bracketry results in the spacing of the front wings being wider at the top than at the bottom, resulting in their characteristic droopy appearance. On mine the difference was only about 10mm but it was still enough to be noticeable. Fortunately, the fix is relatively easy.
With the front grill removed, the bolt securing the lower, inner face of each wing can be seen tucked away behind the bottom of the air con condenser frame (already removed in this picture). It's an 8mm bolt with a 10mm head on this end and a 13mm nut with captive washer, which is easily accessible by reaching up from beneath the bumper: Click image to enlarge With the bolt removed, the wing can be levered away from the chassis bracket with a long screwdriver. It's quite tight and does require a bit of force to open up the required gap. The object of the exercise is to introduce spacers between the wings and chassis to even up the distance between the wings with that at the top. In my case, that would have been 5mm but I couldn't open up the gap that wide without undoing more bolts so I settled for two 3mm spacers cut from plastic sheet. I drilled a 10mm hole towards one end of each to allow a bit of tolerance: Click image to enlarge Each spacer was wedged into the gap and the hole centralised by passing a screwdriver through and pulling it in and out until it matched the existing holes. The original bolts were then reinstalled and tightened up. Click image to enlarge When all back together, and even though the spacers weren't quite as thick as I'd have liked, they do make a subtle but noticeable difference: 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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11th Jul 2021 4:38pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Three years ago (almost to the day) I installed a pair of 18w LED work lights above the the rear door of my 110. They were very cheap eBay specials and worked really well. However, I recently noticed that they looked decidedly crusty as the coating was bubbling and flaking off:
Click image to enlarge For less than £16 for the pair they haven't done badly, and they still work perfectly, but it was time for something new. Inspired by db950's excellent pop-top camper build and the lights he'd fitted, I bought a pair of 20w scene lights from Wilderness Lighting. No where near as cheap but not exorbitant either, these are very nice and very compact units: Click image to enlarge With the old lights removed, I fitted the brackets for the new lights to the same holes: Click image to enlarge The mounting bolts for the old lights had a penny washer behind them but I'd still noted quite a lot of flex in the aluminium panel they were fixed to. Whilst the new lights are much smaller, so are their brackets and so I made some more substantial spreader plates from 3mm ali sheet: Click image to enlarge The holes are off-centre due to the proximity of the cable gland and it wasn't worth the effort of cutting around them: Click image to enlarge The lights come fitted with very smart Deutsch connectors, which I unfortunately had to cut off as they wouldn't fit through the cable gland
And all fitted, they're not as bulky as the old lights, which I really like: Click image to enlarge In terms of performance, they're no brighter than the old ones but these are scene lights rather than flood and so the spread and evenness of the light is much better: 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 Last edited by LandRoverAnorak on 12th Jul 2021 9:22am. Edited 3 times in total |
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11th Jul 2021 8:21pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Whilst I had all of the trim apart to replace the work lights, I also took the opportunity to replace the rear washer jet with this fine aluminium example from Design & Development Engineering:
Click image to enlarge Fitting is as straightforward as unbolting the old one and fitting the new to the same hole, although the nut sizes are different. I also took the opportunity to deburr the hole
Click image to enlarge I've got one for the front too, but fitting that is going to have to wait until I take the dash apart for another project! 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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11th Jul 2021 8:30pm |
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| db950 Member Since: 01 Feb 2012 Location: Lincoln Posts: 564 
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Thanks Darren appreciated.
The lights and the washer jet look great
The lights seem a good middle ground between the cheap ebay ones and the likes of Lazer, time will tell how they hold up I guess! 1997 Ex-MOD 110, Pop Top Camper, build thread https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic72352.html 2014 Discovery 4 SE Tech Instagram @the110camper |
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12th Jul 2021 8:09am |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Yeah, Lazer make some nice lights but it's hard to believe that being two or three times more expensive will make them two or three times better. 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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12th Jul 2021 8:12pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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Hit a minor milestone today and had to stop and take a picture, as you do. My daughter, who was with me at the time, was very restrained and didn't roll her eyes at me, which I'm taking as a win
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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20th Aug 2021 4:06pm |
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| MussEd Member Since: 20 Feb 2013 Location: East Lothian Posts: 354  
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Cool. Shows how much of an amateur I am, as recently I got back home to realise I’d just passed the 30k mark amd hadn’t noticed to stop and get a picture. (Which I definitely would have, had I twigged)
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20th Aug 2021 5:46pm |
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| LandRoverAnorak Member Since: 17 Jul 2011 Location: Surrey Posts: 11324
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I recently bought a galvanised fuel filter guard and spent a good amount of time prepping and painting it. When I came to fit it though, I discovered that the one on the vehicle was a slightly different design
I'd also bought a stainless replacement mounting screw from YRM but was pleasantly surprised to find that the original is some sort of non-ferrous alloy and was in perfect condition.
Click image to enlarge I decided to keep the original but as I already had it on the bench, I thought I'd clean it up before re-fitting. I sanded it down to remove the worst of the rust (which wasn't really that bad), treated what remained with Fertan and then applied various coats of etch primer, primer, satin black and clear lacquer in a bid to preserve it: Click image to enlarge Before re-fitting, I also cleaned up the mounting points and applied some Dinitrol to the mating surfaces. And very smart it looks too, especially for something that isn't generally seen
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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22nd Aug 2021 8:34pm |
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