 | Home > My Defender > 2002 110 DCPU Rebuild Project |
 
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| rallysteve Member Since: 10 Feb 2014 Location: Cumbria Posts: 2227   
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So it seems that the original chassis could no longer be strung along for any longer and was really starting to show its 19yrs of age. It was obvious that it was unlikely that it would not go through MOT this year and with the current situation it is unlikely to be needed too much in the near future (we are both mostly working from home and have a couple of other vehicles) so it was time for rebuild.
This being the fifth LR I have either jointly or solely built I have learned a few key lessons and tried to plan a bit more carefully in advance and pre-empt a lot of the minor parts we usually forget about and end up waiting for. I am also using a load of H/D resealable bags which allows me to easily store and label parts removed from each area. I had already gathered a large amount of the parts required but getting hold of a chassis has been a lot harder than I hoped and has somewhat delayed the project. The original plan was to obtain the chassis in October/November last year and have it prepped and painted before taking the vehicle off the road in Feb this year. That would have allowed me to have a bit more space in the workshop to do the painting and mean that the engine and gearbox could be taken straight out of the vehicle and go almost immediately into the new chassis. Sadly as a result of supply/delivery delays and now the weather I have a part dismantled vehicle and next to an unpainted galv chassis so plans have been a little disrupted. Also, rather predictably, after placing a few eye-watering order for parts from a number of suppliers, the 110 decided that it would just have one last go at my wallet before it came off the road. A routine check of the fluid level,s before the last long trip (pre-lockdown 3) required of it, revealed a sump full of diesel! I have done the injector seals many times on it so fortunately can do them fairly quickly but had in the back of my mind that it was probably the head this time. After changing the seals and doing an oil change at about 10pm on the drive, it initially seemed okay but after checking the oil level again when back home the next evening it was again full of diesel. Unfortunately my workshop is about 50miles away from home and didnt want to risk any further damage from diesel dilution I ended up having to fit a new head before driving it over to the workshop to strip down! New SMC head, replacement injections, seals, gaskets etc. all fitted without too much of a problem just before Christmas. This at least gave a couple of weeks to verify all was okay before it came off the road. The general plan is to replace the chassis and all four doors and respray the body along with a general refresh but am also trying to replace anything which is questionable and requires a lot of work to access once the vehicle is complete so the main parts/tasks are: 1. New Richards Galv Chassis, 2. OME Shocks all around with Gwyn Lewis pin/pin rear conversion, 3. 4x new Genuine Pressed Doors, 4. Bulkhead minor repairs and galvanising, 5. Rear Tub Floor/Second Row floor replacement, 6. New LOF SMF and Clutch, 7. V8 fifth gear, 8. Superpro Bushes all around wth all new suspension bolts, 9. Discovery Drop arm conversion with Sumo Bars from Gwyn Lewis, 10. Gwyn Lewis mud shields, 11. New swivel balls and seals. I will also refresh any service items whilst it is apart (e.g. discs and pads, all filters, brake pipes etc,). It had new Timken wheel bearings not too long ago and an Ashcroft rebuilt TB not long ago so hopefully wont be any issues with these. Plan on galvanising any steel parts where possible. Will start uploading some photos this evening, currently 3 days into the strip-down. 02' 110 TD5 Double Cab Rebuild Thread Last edited by rallysteve on 15th Feb 2021 6:09pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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15th Feb 2021 3:50pm |
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| hank Member Since: 12 Sep 2016 Location: South Wales Posts: 2300  
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Nice! Look forward to some pics along the way. Sounds expensive
Have you used any other galv chassis? Do you find Richards to be good/ "the best" ? > 110 XS Double Cab |
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15th Feb 2021 5:19pm |
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| rallysteve Member Since: 10 Feb 2014 Location: Cumbria Posts: 2227
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Cheers both, apologies for the format of the updates/photos but I am typing :the text on the laptop and uploading photos from my phone so it is a little fragmented.
Hank wrt chassis choice, my previous rebuilds consisted of two original chassis being repaired/reused, one NOS genuine chassis and one previous Richards one. I was going to use an XD HD this time but after some initially promising contact with the owner of XD and promise of one reserved/built for the first week of Jan, I never heard back from him after multiple emails/unanswered calls so gave up. Also spoke with CAS who had good stock of XD chassis bit were all already spoken for. Again promise to get back to me when they had an idea of lead time; also never heard back. There was no stock of Marsland chassis at the time and was out of my pricerange. Bearmach had a stock of Richards units so ended up ordering from them. Ironically it would have been 12weeks if i bought directly from Richards (less than 10miles from my house) but could get it within a week from South Wales  .
Day 0 (Pre-Stripdown) Work: I thought it would be prudent to do a little stripdown work at home before taking the vehicle over to the workshop for the main event. Focused on removing some of the fragile bits: 1. Front spotlights, 2. Roofrack mounted lightbars, 3. Side facing work lights on the back of the tub, 4. Radio and touchscreen, 5. Spare wheel and carrier in the rear tub, 6. Back Seats, Passenger Seat and Cubby Box, 7. C-pillar and rear-panel trim pieces 8. Howling moon Alu-Awn. All of these bits are better stored at home in the relatively dry and dust free shed rather than the cold, damp and dusty workshop. I would have liked to remove the roof tent but didn't really have any way of removing it at home on my own nor suitable indoor storage. Also got the other half to clear all of her detritus out of the dashboard, seat pockets and cubby and clean off all the muddy dog paw prints and splatter from the seats and headlining. I also finally got hold of the Nanocom I had rented in December to code the replacement injectors. It has been running very smooth since the new head was fitted but has been very sluggish which I assumed was the MAF which had been damaged when I removed it to do the head. However the Nanocom showed no faults and the injector coding restored the normal power levels. Annoyingly now the injectors are coded the cold tickover is as bad as it has ever been (uneven idle for the first 5miles or so) but it has pretty much always done this and I have now changed almost every component which could cause it (only the IAT and crank sensor remain) and I have no reason to suspect these are at fault. The vehicle in its well used/abused state at the end of last year  Click image to enlarge Prepared ready for stripdown (the earlier snow saw the end of the bonnet 'E'  :
Click image to enlarge A small YRM delivery en-route to the workshop 
Click image to enlarge New chassis delivered: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Cheers Steve 02' 110 TD5 Double Cab Rebuild Thread Last edited by rallysteve on 15th Feb 2021 6:57pm. Edited 2 times in total |
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15th Feb 2021 6:20pm |
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| rallysteve Member Since: 10 Feb 2014 Location: Cumbria Posts: 2227
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Day 1 (Stripdown) Progress:
An early start on a fairly chilly and windy day 1 in the Peak District and the long hill just before I got there ended up tripping an over-boost limp mode on the ECU which wasnt ideal. First job was to rig the chain hoist up to remove the roof rack and roof tent in one go. I removed the rear work-lights, reversing camera and released all the various clips and cable ties to free the wiring, The actual removal was fairly tricky on my own as the roof beam was a bit low once the chain hoist was suspended but managed to get the weight suspended to remove the rear ladders just as my helper arrived to drive the 110 out from beneath the rack. Next order of business was to get all of the oils drained whilst they were still warm from the drive over. Then it was pretty much just attack the front end bodywork and start working backwards in a logical order. Tasks completed: 1. Bonnet, acoustic engine cover and viscous fan removed, 2. A-Bar, Winch+Bumper removed, 3. Steering Guard off, 4. Front wheel-arch extensions removed, 5. Safari Snorkel disconnected and removed, 6. All lights removed, 7. Grill and front panel removed, 8. Coolant drained, 9. Slam panel, radiator and intercooler removed, 10. Front inner and outer arches removed, 11. Airbox, piping and coolant hoses removed, 12. Heater box removed, 13. Front floor panels, gear lever and tunnel removed, 14. Handbrake lever removed, 15. Drivers seat and steering wheel removed, 16. Dashboard removed, 17. Steering column disconnected and lower shaft removed, 18. Brake and clutch pedals removed 19. Accelerator Pedal removed, 20. Seatbox and bulkhead rubber matting removed, 21. Front doors removed, 22, Washer piping and wiper mechanism removed. Couldn't get the upper steering column out as I had forgotten that I would need to drill the shear bolts out of the ignition barrel/steering lock and haven't taken my drill up there with me. This is one of the major advantages of the workshop being so far from home: if I leave tools up there I havent got them to use at home but have to remember to take the tools I will need that day with me - hence why some planning is required! Good progress for the first day and no nasty surprises or particularly difficult bits as most of the fittings (excluding the wings) have been off in the 7 years we have owned it. Time spent: approx 10hrs Front bodywork removal: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Dashboard Removal/Bulkhead Stripping: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Engine Disconnected: Click image to enlarge Rear lights off: Click image to enlarge Already quite a pile of parts!: Click image to enlarge 02' 110 TD5 Double Cab Rebuild Thread Last edited by rallysteve on 15th Feb 2021 7:13pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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15th Feb 2021 6:27pm |
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| Nidge Member Since: 27 Jan 2008 Location: Kildare Ireland Posts: 818  
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All the best with the rebuild Rallysteve
If you haven't recently changed the steering box and in tank fuel pump you may consider replacing too while access is good..... And your heater box is likely to be rusted to feck once you remove it, can be difficult to get hold of a good one 2nd hand and new is an arm and a leg. |
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15th Feb 2021 6:32pm |
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| rallysteve Member Since: 10 Feb 2014 Location: Cumbria Posts: 2227
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Day 2 (Stripdown Progress):
Another early start for day 2 but the weather was at least fairly mild so the 29kW diesel heater wasn't needed for too long. I was also on my own for most of the day so concentrated on jobs which could easily be done on my own. The main aim for the day was to get all of the wiring disconnected, removed and labelled/stowed. There is quite a bit of wiring that I have added onto the vehicle in various stages but the main bulkhead loom which I rebuilt with most of my modifications integrated only got fitted a couple of years ago and was well labelled and I had planned it quite well so it could be plugged for removal in key areas. The trickiest bit of wiring was the removal of everything from the under-seat battery box which houses two big lead-acid batteries, two large solenoids (winch & split charge/self jump-start), main fuse for the auxiliary fusebox and relays for the winch e-stop system. The cold weather made the battery and winch cables very stiff and wrestling them out was quite challenging. All of the wiring to the mud-stuff roof console was also made modular so I could easily unplug the bank of Carling switches and remote receiver for the work lights so removal was fairly painless. The wiring for the reverse camera screen (in place of internal mirror) and the roof light bars was only a temporary arrangement and will need doing properly again before the headlining goes back in again. I could then remove the front and rear headlining, mudstuff console, sunvisors and A-pillar trims. Have never had the engine wiring loom off before but it was fairly simple to remove with easy access around the engine and gearbox, engine loom unsurprisingly is covered with oil from the last 19yrs or various oil leakage. The only wiring that was remaining was the chassis loom and towing socket loom which I will leave in place until the rear tub is removed. With the wiring which runs to my auxiliary fuse box and relays in the centre of the seatbox disconnected I removed the seat box from the vehicle. My Milwaukee cordless drill and left-handed drill bits made easy work of removing the steering lock shear bolts so I could get the upper column out of the way. Then I just started removing some of the easy bits from the rest of the vehicle for storage: 1. Rear canvas and hood-sticks removed, 2. Tailgate removed, 3. All four seatbelts removed, 4. NATO hitch removed (as i had already walked into it several times!) 5. Rear cab corner windows removed, 6. Removal of the numberplate lamp, fog/reverse plinths and other old hood fixings on the back. 7. Removed front shock turrets, 8. Clutch hose disconnected and solid pipe removed. Another fairly productive day although the visual difference isnt quite as obvious as the previous day! Time spent: approx 11hrs. Seatbox removed: Click image to enlarge Bulkhead stripped of wiring: Click image to enlarge Canvas, frame and corner glass removed: Click image to enlarge Tailgate and rear fittings removed: Click image to enlarge Looking quite bare now: Click image to enlarge Rear footwell area cleared ready for the next session: Click image to enlarge 02' 110 TD5 Double Cab Rebuild Thread |
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15th Feb 2021 6:33pm |
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| rallysteve Member Since: 10 Feb 2014 Location: Cumbria Posts: 2227
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Day 3 (Stripdown) Progress:
A slightly later start for day 3 as the temperature overnight was down to -5degC and did not get above -4deg all day so plenty of layers and the diesel heater put in a decent shift! The main aim of the day was originally to get the Sill/B-pillar/C-Pillar assemblies off so I could start the repairs with the YRM repair panels I had bought. I knew from previous inspection that the 45deg section of the C-pillars was a little sorry for themselves and there has always been filler in the bottom of the LHS B-pillar which has been developing into a rust blister over the last couple of years. So i had bought the 45deg section and B-pillar lower repair sections from YRM already. I want to get these side frame assemblies repaired before we remove the roof, rear tub and bulkhead so I still have the correct reference points to ensure the repairs are in the correct angle/position. Once we got the side frames off, it was clear that the sill rails were a bit scabbier than I initially thought, especially around the rear seat box areas. I decided that for the expense of £70/side I might as well order some new YRM ones so decided not to start attacking the old ones with the grinder until these new parts were here. Unfortunately after removing the 2nd row outer seatbelt mounts, the angled section at the front of the rear arches had succumbed to bi-metallic corrosion worse than I recalled and decided that i might as well also order the YRM panels for these as I am already replacing every other part of the rear tub floor/structure and 2nd row seatbox. A few other bits ticked off the list: 1. 2nd Row doors removed, 2. 2nd Row floor, checkstrap brackets and bench seat mounts removed, 3. 2nd Row seat-back latches removed (these were retrofitted in place of the fixed brackets normally on DCPUs so i could easily fold and remove the seats, the brackets for the back of the brackets was never fitted to the DCPU tub so these were already fairly loose). Ended up drilling out pretty much all fittings M6 and smaller rather than fighting with the hand tools, 4. Towbar receiver and braces removed, 5. Bumperettes removed, 6. MSS rear drawer removed along with chequerplate tub floor liner, 7. Mid and rear exhaust sections removed, 8. Front mudflaps removed, 9. Propshafts removed. As a lot of the fittings today were in the vicinity of the rear arches, quite a few of them were very resistant to being undone/removed so quite a few snapped off. A few observations though from the day: - After removing the front propshaft and inspecting the UJs I realised that the two joints were installed totally out-of phase at about 45deg to each other. Must have been like this the whole time we owned the vehicle, dont recall fully removing the prop when I did the transfer box and must have just never noticed when I rebuilt the front axle. I have definitely never taken the prop apart, this must have caused some horrible loading on the transmission and might have been part of the cause of the badly worn centre diff in the old transfer box. - The chassis replacement is definately the right decision as the old one is much worse than i realised. After some scraping and poking it seems that the RH bulkhead outrigger bottom structure mostly consisted of just the mudflap bracket. The rear legs in front of the plating for the 6yr old Blacksheep crossmember was thin and easily poked through. The LHS isnt far behind. - It seems the tub structure is also worse than i realised as the front support which spans the C-pillars was just full of mud and mostly missing in the left arch! Hopefully the extra YRM panels will arrive in time for next weekend so I can get the side frames repaired. My order of Jotun paints arrived (thanks to Shroppy for the excellent info and guidance) ready to get the chassis, suspension and axles painted. I have gone for a dark grey for the suspension arms and axles which is a little different but hopefully will be a lot more discreet than a brighter colour like the mid-blue we used on the 90. Painting the chassis will soon be the main priority and I think will necessitate a few days off work to get the number of coats on with suitable curing times. Time Spent: approx 9hrs Paint stash delivered: Click image to enlarge Side frames removed: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Sorry state of bulkhead outrigger under mudflap bracket: Click image to enlarge Sorry state of RH rear chassis leg: Click image to enlarge Sorry state of front tub support rail (galv body crossmember was fitted when i changed the rear xmember): Click image to enlarge Bi-metallic corrosion at the front of the rear arch adjacent to cpillar: Click image to enlarge 02' 110 TD5 Double Cab Rebuild Thread |
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15th Feb 2021 6:42pm |
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| rallysteve Member Since: 10 Feb 2014 Location: Cumbria Posts: 2227
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Cheers Nidge, both good points. The fuel pump is only a couple of years old as the old one was killed by horrible gunge i suspect largely caused by carbon leakage from multiple failed injector seals. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Did the heater matrix a few years ago and gave the heater box a bit of preventive treatment at the time which looks to have been well worth it as there is only a bit of light surface rust on it now.
Cheers Steve 02' 110 TD5 Double Cab Rebuild Thread |
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15th Feb 2021 6:46pm |
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| Badger110 Member Since: 06 Feb 2018 Location: South hams Posts: 1039 
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Top job so far and looking forward to more instalments
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15th Feb 2021 7:25pm |
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| Shroppy Member Since: 25 Feb 2016 Location: Shropshire Posts: 866 
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Some great progress Steve! Would be interested in some dimensions from your sills/b-posts if you can please as mine will have to be fabricated off the vehicle. Glad I could help with the Jotun paints, and don't worry, my chassis has been painted for 9 months but still hasn't got anything bolted to it.
1985 127 V8 Build Thread
Series 2 109" Series 1 80" |
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15th Feb 2021 8:39pm |
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| L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10756 
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Great thread you have got here Steve and as said, top job so far and with all the detail in the write ups, it's a great read and waiting / wanting more
1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up.
Keeper. Clayton. |
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15th Feb 2021 9:31pm |
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| rallysteve Member Since: 10 Feb 2014 Location: Cumbria Posts: 2227
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Thanks all
Glad my ramblings and pictures are of interest. I wasn't going to bother with a build thread as it isnt anything unusual or special but I will keep going with the updates! Next session should be this Saturday. Shroppy, no problems. My replacement sill pieces came from YRM yesterday (arrived quicker than the dispatch email did!) so this weekend I should be able to repair the side frames and will happily measure up some key dimensions for you. Cheers, Steve 02' 110 TD5 Double Cab Rebuild Thread |
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17th Feb 2021 9:50am |
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| kenzle8a Member Since: 12 Feb 2020 Location: None Posts: 1074 
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Following with interest as I will have to do similar on my 03 DCPU at some point. Have you got any more info on the paint? I do have a system in mind already (rust.co.uk expoy system) but always looking to learn and read about systems.
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17th Feb 2021 10:05am |
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| Grenadier Member Since: 23 Jul 2014 Location: The foot of Mont Blanc... Posts: 5816  
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When I do my summer mods on my DC, one thing I’m thinking of doing is removing the rear arches much like the Hi-Cap. I know the Hi-cap has a wider tub, but this photo confirms that I do like the bare-arched look.
Click image to enlarge The DC will also be lower by 1” as I’ll be using the Alive springs. Could look good. Monsieur Le Grenadier
I've not been everywhere, but it's on my list..... 2011 Puma 110DC - Corris Grey |
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17th Feb 2021 1:20pm |
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