In regular use again

Now Marmalade is back in regular use in his new configuration, and I’m getting used to the handling. For everything except tight manouevering, there’s not a lot of difference; getting into narrow spaces without much room to swing in is of course a bit harder, and the steering takes more effort, but the overall difference is less than I had expected.

I think I’m even changing up gears earlier than before; the extra momentum seems to suit the engine. (I’ve noticed this effect before, when carrying loads or lots of people.)

Last Saturday I helped a couple of more expert metalworkers than myself do some work on the new roofrack section (sorry, no picture yet) and on the front bumper, and on a frame for a 2-person bench seat that will be moveable to various positions, with the seatbelts (now required by my insurer) attached to the same frame, and so coming with it when it is moved. There’ll be a side-facing mounting on either side between the rear 3-person benches and the forward-facing second row seats; possibly a rear-facing position behind the second row; at least one forward-facing position on the roofrack (good for picnicking when stationary, or perhaps for filming when moving), and one on the winch cover that will slot into the front bumper, for someone to check the depth with a stick when the vehicle is wading, without having to wade themselves.

The side steps / sliders are still to be done, along with a grab rail for getting into the second row from the side steps, that will also double as a drying rail as the middle of it will be above a small oil-filled storage heater (made for Swedish taxis, apparently).

It’s good to be back on the road with Marmalade! I’ve driven the Xantia one day since then, but it didn’t really feel like proper driving in comparison.

MOT and relicencing!

Yesterday morning, I completed preparation for the MOT test (UK compulsory annual vehicle test), fitted the new rear roofrack that had arrived, and set out for the MOT garage. Handling as a six-wheeler was easier than I had expected; I was anticipating him handling more like a large ocean-going vessel (which reminds me that I haven’t yet fitted the red (port) and green (starboard) marker lights I fitted for use when wading). To my delight, he passed (with no advisories)!

The test was completed just too late to go to the Post Office to get the tax disc, so I did that online, and then was annoyed to find I can’t drive the vehice until the paper tax disc actually arrives and is on the vehicle; even though the vehicle is taxed and the DVLA database could confirm this if I was stopped and questioned about it, “failure to display” is an offence in its own right. Very annoying, as it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, and I could have been having fun driving around.

No new photos yet, as my computer and camera currently aren’t talking to each other. But little has changed on the outside, apart from the fitting of the new rear roofrack, since the most recent picture I put up.

This isn’t the completion of the project; there are plenty of bits still to do, but none of them are required by law for the vehicle to be road-going. The central wiring hub is still a big mess, so I’ll soon be getting an aluminium frame made up to hold neat rows of connectors, and a cover plate with a neat grid of holes to take LED mounts, so I can have debugging built in. (I like to make things myself, but I concede that making an exactly lined-up grid of holes is best done by someone with the right equipment, experience, and aptitude.) The new wiring hub will get a blog post of its own once it’s ready; my wiring list is in an emacs .org file, and I’ve written some emacs-Lisp to parse it and produce a connection list. It’s currently reporting 79 connections, but that includes earth, and some analog ones, so there won’t be quite that many LEDs. I’ll have to design a PCB for the LED part of the system (a resistor for each LED) which will also have the voltage dividers and zener diodes to drop the vehicle’s 12V down to 5V to feed to an Arduino Mega which will monitor just about everything (and will control very little; I trust big steel levers for most of that kind of thing in this context). Also, I have to alter some connections on the big “black helicopter” cab ceiling switch panel, and connect that up.

There are some more seatbelts to go in in the back (for the bench seats; the vehicle is old enough for them not to be required by law, but my insurer has started to require them). The new rear roofrack needs modification to take the tent, and will have mesh welded to it, and a few smaller changes. The winch bumper needs a little more metalwork (in case, when I replace the rather tired front roofrack, I go for a longer one and it needs suport from the bumper instead of the bulkhead), and while it’s out, I’ll overhaul the winch (which is a proper gearbox-driven one, none of this modern electrical stuff for me). The wheelarch extensions I built from aluminium and fibreglass really aren’t very good; I’ll cut some HGV ones down to size instead. (The readily available tandem-axle trailer ones are too small.) The second-row doors don’t really look right, and I had to cut them around quite a bit to make them fit, so I’ll replace them with some from a Series III (which are thinner). And I had failed to think of how to unlock them; with the extended B pillars, the locks can’t be reached from the front seats, so I may have to fit electric locks to them. The side steps (from a scrapped Discovery) need some welding to adapt them to the mounting points I have made.

But now I can do these without quite such a feeling of pressure, and a lot of them I can do in my own driveway, instead of driving to a village the other side of town. So now I can start doing other “spare-time” activities; for the past year, I’ve just been doing work, Land-Rover tinkering and Krav Maga. Today I started to dig the rather neglected vegetable patches in my garden, and I have some woodwork to do for storing things in the kitchen, and some software to write (including a tracker for the Land Rover, and programming the Arduino Mega), and a disorganized photo collection to sort.

More recognizable now: roofrack and painting

Once I got the distinctive roofrack back on, everything really clicked into place for me.

The original roofrack goes back on. Distinctively, it projects beyond the windscreen.

I got the forward extension to the roofrack made over a decade ago, when I got the rooftent, as the tent didn’t leave so much room for carrying things. Now I’ll have plenty of room, but I like the roofrack that way, so I’ll keep it that way… however, it’s not in brilliant condition, so in due course I’ll replace it with another extended one (or rather, two, to get the length); the replacement will be galvanized. I had split the roofrack when we took it off, as the part that had been supporting the tent (at the back) was really too corroded. I’ve put that piece back on too, just as a placeholder.

A fresh coat of paint, this time Masai Red instead of two approximations to Massey Ferguson Red.

After that, it was time for roller painting; having the vehicle in a consistent colour really transformed it, from a “major work in progress” project to a vehicle that looks ready to use. Actually the paint job’s not brilliant if seen close up, but I’m really pleased with how the vehicle looks as a whole now.

Rear interior, with matting

The second row seats, with seatbelts and matting

The next stage was to bring the interior closer to its target state, by putting in second-row seatbelts and some workshop-style floor matting. Unfortunately, the seatbelts aren’t long enough for this mounting position; I shall use strong strips of steel as mounting extensions.

There are still quite a few things to be done; the largest of them is to assemble and fit a sufficiently long exhaust system.

First move under own power

We’ve made good progress on the Land Rover stretching project in the last week or so. I’ve been doing wiring and the remaining bits of bodywork, and my friendly expert has been doing the transmission and brakes and working out how to fit the exhaust together.

No room for the wiring

The connector blocks on the back of the fusebox turned out to take more space than I had allowed for (I was expecting 8 of them, but it grew to 22). (Sorry about the poor focus in the photo.)

Cutting the scuttle

To work round this, I took the scuttle (lower part of the dashboard) out, and cut out its central section. There’s still a bulging collection of connectors, but at least it does assemble properly. This is just an interim measure; one of the first things I’ll do after getting the vehicle back on the road will be to make up a tidy connector system, with connector blocks glued together into neat rows in slots in a metal plate deep in the scuttle.

Installing the brakes

Meanwhile, my mechanic friend (and barn-owner) connected up the brakes.

First venture out of the barn

After this, it was time to start the engine, and to drive out into the yard for a jetwash in preparation for painting.

Roof painted white

I painted the roof first, as that’s a blocker for getting the roofrack on. (The number plate is on the roofrack, because there’s normally a winch on the bumper, but for now there’s a plain bumper while I’m modifying the winch bumper and planning to overhaul the winch.)

The interior, partly done

Here’s what the inside currently looks like. I’ve bought red, green, and blue harness belts for the central seats, and will line the ceiling and windowless parts of the walls with carpety stuff for insulation to reduce noise and condensation; and will put rubber matting on the floor, so it won’t be quite as shiny with chequerplate as it looks here. Also, I’ve got the go-ahead from the insurers to fit further bench seats, so eventually there’ll be a 3-person bench and a 2-person bench on each side.

Next steps (tomorrow): fit the exhaust and the seatbelts, and move the back edge of the rear floor forwards a little so the back door can close; then (probably Saturday, which looks like better paint-drying weather) paint the sides, front and back red. I’m really looking forward to seeing the vehicle painted so that it doesn’t look so patched-together!

Good progress but so busy with it I didn’t update the blog

I’ve been putting almost all my spare time into the Land Rover work recently, with good results.

The second row seats in place

I got the second row seats into place; that area looks a bit bare, but I can tidy it up after getting the vehicle on the road.

The cab area with the seats in place

The front seats were fairly easy; this area has more in it, but still looks a bit bare, with only half the dashboard present.

All three axles in place

More significantly, the tag axle is now in place, although there are still some more bolts to do on that.

I’ve almost completed the wiring, too; I’ve seen most of the officially required lights working, and the wipers and horn work too.

I’m heading off to do a bit more shortly…

Nearly there with the bodywork

I took yesterday as vacation from work to work on the 6-wheeler, and also worked on it today.

The end of the spare parts vehicle

To start with, we started the final stripdown of the Land Rover I bought for spare parts. Here it is about to make its final drive into the barn for disassembly. It’s still driveable in the form seen here.

A door triangle frame, ready to add

Someone came up with a better idea than fabricating frames for the triangular gaps left by using front doors as second row doors: use the corners of the second row door frames. I was already planning to get them TIGged in later, and to cut out the slanting part. For now, I’ve just used strips of metal with rivets to hold them in. I put the top strip of metal on the added frame first, so it would hold it in place while I rivetted it to the door.

A door triangle from the inside; a temporary measure

Later on, I’ll remove the slanting part and the aluminium skin, and fit a rectangular window.

Bending the wheelarch sheets

I also cut the rear wheelarch eyebrows in half and re-fitted the pieces, and bent some perforated aluminium sheet to make the section that goes between them.

Stretching the wheelarches

The perforated sheet will form the base of some GRP that I’ll lay up. The existing wheelarch eyebrows seem to be GRP (or some kind of matrix composite, anyway). The sheets are held in place with a few M4 machine screws with large washers; I hope the GRP will hold them in place too.

A small remaining gap

That just leaves some small remaining gaps to plug with aluminium sheet and bodyfiller; for example, this one behind the base of the C-pillar (which I’ve mostly covered with aluminium plate since taking this photo).

I’ll do those next time, along with starting to lay up the fibreglass for the wheelarch eyebrow extensions. After that, I’ll move on to the wiring.

Assorted tasks in progress

Over the weekend, we made progress on a variety of fronts. I did some more of the internal bodywork; there’s not much left to do on that now (of course, I may be proved wrong as I do it).

Interior, painted white

I got most of the interior painting done: white paint, to match the panels from the original vehicle and the spare parts donor vehicle. I’ll try to match the ceiling lining too, but that’ll come after getting the vehicle on the road.

Nearside, in red and green

We moved the vehicle, using a tractor, to make way for concreting the barn floor. This also gave me a lot more room to work on the nearside. Here it is with the original paint colours, showing which parts came from which vehicle. The panels with the large windows at the rear of the side aren’t from the original (red) vehicle; I bought them on eBay. All the other panels are from the original or the spare parts vehicles.

To get the project moving, I’ll make temporary panels for the triangles in front of the second row doors, and adapt the doors to the appropriate shape later.

I now have some perforated aluminium, glass fibre matting, and resin, to start building the extended rear wheelarch eyebrows.

By the time I took this picture, my mechanic friend had connected up the radiator and various other engine systems (hence the crawler blanket under the gearbox area). Fuel and brakes are still to come (the brake hydraulics can’t be filled until the third axle is fitted, anyway) and I’ll have to connect up some more of the main wiring to get through from the ignition switch to the engine; but it’s not far off being independently mobile now.

Power board for battery compartment

I started to make up an electrical panel to go into the battery compartment; I didn’t complete this, as I had to get longer bolts to make the connections to. The device at the top is a Schottky rectifier (to protect against back current in case of alternator faults), and the two blue circuit boards are 100A current measuring devices; their output will go to an Arduino which will monitor various circuits. The alternator side of the circuit will feed into the battery side of the isolator, and the power output to the rest of the vehicle will come from the other side of the isolator (which will connect between the two blue boards).

Assorted tools

At this stage, more sophisticated tools, such as Emacs’ org mode, come into play, along with the angle grinder, jigsaw, scissors etc. I use org-mode quite a lot now, both for lists of things to do, and for keeping the wiring connection list.

Brass block for power tap

Finally, I drilled some 8mm holes in a brass block (a piece of 1-inch square bar), and cut the block down the middle. This is meant to clamp around an 8mm diameter power cable that runs from the battery compartment to the back of the vehicle, letting me tap off one or two other 8mm cables, or smaller cables with an M8 ring terminal on one of the bolts that will clamp the block around the cable.

I was planning to do some more work on it in the evenings of this week, but the weather’s turned too cold. Next week looks more promising.

All major body panels fitted

I’ve been busy on the Land Rover project for the last few days, including using a couple of days’ holiday for it. And now, at last I’ve got all the major body panels fitted! What’s more, no parts are now held on with string.

All major body panels attached

The lower middle panels are rivetted into place under the capping, and the upper middle panels are bolted in (and also sealed in with clear mastic), and rivetted in along the back edge.

Side panels of central section, with rivets

The treadplate that will bridge and reinforce this joint from the inside will bridge part of the gap; the rest of it I’ll back with an aluminium plate, then smooth over with a layer of bodyfiller.

I know Defenders are notorious for bits that don’t quite line up, but I was surprised by how far out of true the added front of the rear tub was on the nearside. Its top surface, attached to the capping is level!

Front of wheelbox, with odd angle

The heights of the wheelbox tops were different in the two vehicles, but until I fitted them together, I thought that that would just make a step in the height, for me to cover with the treadplate that reinforces the join.

The worst part of that is going to be covered by an extension to an equipment compartment, anyway, so it won’t look that bad in the completed vehicle. Still, it’s annoying to know that something is that far out of true.

I hadn’t been looking forward to patching up the rectangular holes in what had been the front of the rear tub, where I had made some side lockers. Eventually, I decided to tackle them the simplest, and most thorough way: cover the whole panel that needed patching, with new pieces of aluminium plate. In due course, the top edge of the plate will be smoothed into the “shoulder” curve, again using filler; and then painted over, of course.

Patch to lower B pillar

I had been considering doing that bit with treadplate, as it’s a possible position for an extra ladder up to the roofrack, but eventually decided on plain sheet.

I also altered the bit under the back door; from now on that area should safe from my drill, and so the fuel tank can go in any time from now on.

Last thing before leaving the barn, I cleaned the galvanized metal that’s visible on the inside of the vehicle, and painted it with `Special Metals Primer’. I’ll paint the whole interior white, apart from the parts made from chequerplate, and the switch panel which is staying black. I’m not sure why primer is such a revolting shade of pink. Perhaps it’s to make sure you remember to paint over it? Or perhaps it’s connected with the chemistry of it, or perhaps mimicking the traditional oxide primers which are a similar colour? Anyway, a nice layer of white on the inside (and red on the outside, probably applied with a roller) will `help to unify the visual presentation’ i.e. hide the joins! Painting’s always a good thing to do at the end of a work session, so I can leave it drying and find it ready when I get back

The inside, with primer

The next few stages should include putting aluminium patches with rivets and filler over the various gaps and holes in the roof; the gaps, where I slit the curved parts to let the overlap work properly where the two original roofs join; and the holes, where I have run wires to extra lights in the past. (Wiring for the replacement lights will be more organized, with a few 8-core cables running through glands, instead of lots of 3-core cables running through grommets.)

I was expecting the area just behind the second row doors to be the fiddliest structural part, where the two lots of bodywork join in something other than simple panel-to-panel joins. The parts of that area I’ve done so far haven’t been too bad, but the lower part will be a more complicated fabrication.

Any time from now on, the friend who owns the workshop where I’m doing this will conect up radiator hoses, fit brake pipes, and so on; and then move the third axle into place from the spare parts donor vehicle. I have the wiring to fit (which is enough to need a post of its own to describe it) and the dashboard to re-assemble; and then the rear wheel-arches to modify; and then finally the sanding down and repainting of the exterior. Not a trivial amount of work, but now it’s feeling more like the completion of the project is in sight!

Middle section welding completed

On Saturday, we got the rest of the steelwork for the middle section welded, which means there’s now quite a bit that I can do unassisted, and will probably use up some days of annual leave this week to get on with that (it may be windy, but at least it won’t be as cold).

Bringing the B2 pillar forward

Here’s some of the preparation for the welding, and its results. First I cut away more of the front of the original rear tub (now forming part of the deep B pillar), so that we can fit the front doors from the spare parts vehicle as second row doors. After that, it was ready for welding the middle of each B2 pillar (as I’m calling the back of the combined B pillar) to the capping at the back of the second bulkhead (forgot to photograph that stage, sorry). We repaired the bottom of each B2 pillar, and welded it to a footing plate that bolts to the chassis.

Joining roofs. I resisted any temptation to use thatching.

Then, I went up on the roof, squeezed mastic in, and put in the first batch of rivets. (There might be more later.) The original roof (with the ribs, on the left in the picture) is to the front, the one from the green vehicle I bought for parts to the rear. They overlap for strength, with the `gap’ facing away from the airstream and driven rain. Not that it’s a real gap; it’s well sealed with mastic, and will be faired in with bodyfiller so there’s no edge to it.

A door in need of trimming

Then, I tried closing the second-row doors, and found they needed to have notches cut to fit around the seat frame. I must have measured lower down between the doors when measuring for the seat frame; or perhaps the original second-row ones might be thinner.

Side panels, with old capping removed

Once the doors were closing properly, the front of the rear bodywork from the spare parts vehicle could be test-fitted and cut for length. For strength, a length of galvanized capping will overlap the join. Here, I’ve just cleaned up the tops ready to take the capping.

New capping overlapping the join in the bodywork

Here, the capping has been welded on at both ends.

New base for the C pillars

The C pillars have new base sections, made from box section steel and welded into place, with their footings bolted onto those useful meccano-like flanges I had built into the chassis. It’s not anywhere near as close to the tyre as it looks in this photo!

Middle section, with capping joined

Now the middle section looks like this from the outside.

Inside view, with capping joined

Here’s the view from the inside.

The next stages will be cutting the remaining bodywork panels to size, and fitting them, and smoothing some of the joins over with a little filler. Then there are various gaps to fill in (that can’t be seen readily from the outside) and a few bits of reinforcement over joins.

A fiddly part I’m not yet sure of is how to make a long straight midsection for the rear wheelarch eyebrows; I don’t want the V-shaped dip in the middle (using 2/3 of each of two originals) that many 6-wheel Land Rovers have. For a start, I don’t think it looks neat, and anyway I might want to experiment with being an improvized half-track for off-road use, perhaps with extended snowchains going round the pairs of wheels! To start with, I’ll try GRP on an aluminium base.

After that, wiring can go in, and engine parts such as the radiator can be connected up. This is definitely looking much closer to completion!

More bodywork

Over the last few weeks, more bodywork has been going on. Some ot the latest bits are just a test fit, wedged precariously into approximate place, but the ones before that are solidly attached. I’ll go through the stages, to document the growth of the vehicle thoroughly. My apologies for the feebleness of my camera flash in the semi-open barn in the dark winter evenings!

Front roof added, overlapping the rear roof

First, I cut the front roof (the vehicle’s original roof) to length at the back, and fitted it, supported at the rear by it overlapping the additional roof which came from the spare parts vehicle. The overlap is that way round to minimize the tendency of airflow to force rain in.

B2 pillar added

Then I added the rear part of the extended B pillar — the one the second row door hinges will go on. This doesn’t look like much of a step forward, but in fact it was one of the slowest and most laborious stages, getting the position just right so the door would be straight.

Second row door

The second row door is bolted on (now I have the right bolts).

Panel behind doors

Then I got onto the bits that are just being tried for size for now. The lower bodywork panel behind the second row doors is balanced in place, held as much by the door lock as anything else. We could fix it here, by welding a footing plate to it to bolt to the chassis, but this area might get revised (as mentioned later in this post).

Upper panel between doors

I blanked out the hole in this upper panel which had been half of a porthole. I’d like to have a (smaller) porthole there still, but that would delay the project further. The lower hole is the front of an old locker I’d made. The lockers never were that good, and I rather regret having made them. The hole will be filled with an overlapping backing plate and a fronting plate, with some rivets and a little bodyfiller.

Also held temporarily in place is the rest of the bodywork behind the second row doors. I’ll probably move the old portholes to go into the upper bodywork here — it’s not long enough for another sliding window.

Red primer going on the midsection

I gave it a quick spray coat of the wrong shade of red, just to get the green covered up; shown incomplete here, to show that it’s the same panels despite the colour change (yes, I’m into traceability for this project; as I should be, to maximize the chance that it’ll count as the same vehicle when complete).

Midsection mockup

The camera perspective is probably stretching this a bit too much, but it’s now giving more of an impression of what the whole vehicle will be like.

Midsection mockup, from inside

For the record, here’s what it looks like from the inside. (Only the offside is done so far, so, apart from being pressed up against the wall of the barn, it’s easy to get a reasonable camera angle looking in.) The wheelbox forward of the bench seats, and the vertical wall section above it, will probably be overlaid with a section of folded treadplate, to give further strength to the join. There’ll be some steel angle bolted inside the capping and running a foot into either side of the join, and the front of the added bodywork will be bolted onto a flange on the chassis.

Considering an alternative door

I mentioned above that some of this will be subject to revision. The alternative idea is not to use the second row doors from the spare parts vehicle (which will need a lot of repairs to their rather rusty frames) but to use its front doors as second row doors. They’re in much better condition, the window design is better, and they’re slightly larger (34 inches instead of 30). In fact, along the bottom edge, they’re slightly too long, so would need to be cut down a bit, and the triangle in front of the door will need filling in, but overall I like the idea, and will look into how much work it would be to modify them; probably less than repairing the second row doors’ frames. Rather than cutting the bottom rear cornr of the door at the same angle as a normal second row door, I’m thinking of cutting it at the same angle as the top front corner, which should be the right amount in terms of how much space is needed for the wheelarch, and I think would look better too.

Next stages: fix all this properly into place, then do the other side.