Something new to me, and very different:

[Sir Sam]

As seen here on google street view:

https://goo.gl/maps/WUc9iKrtoXr

 

 

 

 

Vin plate on brake booster, matches vin on frame, which is important to be able to show for import:

2.5L Turbo Diesel with direct injection and intercooler, still not very powerful, my CRD KJ will run circles around this thing, oh well.

[Pete M]

that sure would look good in my driveway  

[HOrnbrod]

What's the tow van Sam? Looks like it might be a bit overmatched with that load..

[Eagle]

Now that's a REAL Range Rover ... not like those yuppie utes they sell these days.

[mjeff87]

:popcorn emoji:

 

Interesting, subscribed.

 

What gears in the axles in that thang?  That might help the 2.5.....

[Sir Sam]

10 hours ago, Pete M said:

that sure would look good in my driveway  

 

Hopefully look good in more than just a driveway, next summer I want to get it out to Ouray and then Moab.

 

I'm looking forward to recreating this photo with it:

 

And getting some other sweet shots in Moab:

 

10 hours ago, HOrnbrod said:

What's the tow van Sam? Looks like it might be a bit overmatched with that load..

 

Either a Peugot or Reanault diesel van. I'd say it looks that way too, but the tow standards in Europe are different. I think we have an overinflated sense of what we need to have for a tow vehicle here in the US. People tow with much less vehicle in Europe and are just as safe. Some say its better european roads, some say its better driving education. I'd say its some of both with a big helping of inflated American towing standards. Somehow we let the OEMs convince us we needed a 3500 dually diesel to tow a 5k trailer. Also not surprising is how much money the OEMs make off of trucks compared to everything else.

 

The KJ CRD is rated at 5k lbs towing in the US, or 7k lbs in europe. Same vehicle, same towing equipment.

 

7 hours ago, Eagle said:

Now that's a REAL Range Rover ... not like those yuppie utes they sell these days.

 

Solid axles and a huge range of years of parts that fit it. For example this rust repair panel fits 1959-2006, and the only reason it doesn't fit after 2006 is that the vents vent away and became solid for a newer style dash.

https://www.roversnorth.com/ProductDesc.aspx?code=CHAS34&type=0&eq=&key=it

 

2 minutes ago, mjeff87 said:

:popcorn emoji:

 

Interesting, subscribed.

 

What gears in the axles in that thang?  That might help the 2.5.....

 

3.54 is stock, I assume this one is stock, but I'll find out. 4.10s would help for sure. No idea how much it costs to regear. The rear end is a Salisbury, which is basically a metric Dana 60. But I don't know if that means I can use a regular Dana 60 R&P or not. The answers are out there in a search somewhere.

 

I'm trying to come up with my list of stuff that I should do, part of that might be ARB lockers and regear. I'm also looking at some stock alloy wheels. Replacing a couple of door skins, and the back window isn't glass so I will try and pickup a window while I am in the UK.

 

Already has a rear diff skid and that front bash plate. Who knows what else I might get up to with it.

 

 

Plan is to keep it for a little while, take it wheeling and camping a bit, do some value added work on it, and then resell it. Then repeat the process all over again looking for another one to import.

[Sir Sam]

3 hours ago, saveevryjp1998 said:

What happens if you have to replace your booster with that vin tag

 

Vin plate is on the pedal box that the booster attaches to.

 

This short video gives you can idea of the separate part that it is, but doesn't clearly show the tag which is mounted on the top:

 

 

[mjeff87]

^^^^oh if an XJ/MJ were so easy to work on like that.......LOL.

 

That's so simple a technology that it's scary.  What happened to vehicle engineering?

[Sir Sam]

49 minutes ago, mjeff87 said:

^^^^oh if an XJ/MJ were so easy to work on like that.......LOL.

 

That's so simple a technology that it's scary.  What happened to vehicle engineering?

 

The interesting thing is how easy it makes it to convert from RHD to LHD. The pedals just need to be removed and mounted on the other side and some rectangles cut in the right spot on the opposite side. The steering column hole also doubles as the heater box airflow hole, so it already exists.

 

Then you need to install a LHD steering box and knuckle, and source the opposite dash bits for install, install the LHD heater box. move parking break handle to other side of trans tunnel, installed LHD shifter or rebend exisiting. Surprisingly simple.

 

I'm thinking about a LHD conversion with a AC install.

[Eagle]

1 hour ago, mjeff87 said:

^^^^oh if an XJ/MJ were so easy to work on like that.......LOL.

 

That's so simple a technology that it's scary.  What happened to vehicle engineering?

 CADD -- Computer Assisted Design and Drafting.

 

CADD allows drawing plans and sections to 16 decimal places of accuracy. The engineers and drafters who are creating vehicles today are doing it in 3-D on computer screens, and I'm sure many if not most of them have never used a wrench in their entire lives. The goal is to make vehicles small and lighter, so all they care about is if the parts can fit togther. They aren't interested in whether or not there's any room left to service it in the field.

 

One example: my 19913 Honda Accord. Nice car, drove well, got good gas mileage. The oil filter was DIRECTLY above the exhaust pipe. There was NO WAY to get a wrench or a hand on it without your hand or wrist making contact with the exhaust pipe. Which meant that I didn't drain the oil when it was hot, as you're supposed to.

 

1984 XJ Wagoneer 2.5L. Only four cylinders. Should have been a piece of cake, right? It wasn't possible to access the #1 spark plug without first removing the A/C compressor.

[HOrnbrod]

1 hour ago, mjeff87 said:

^^^^oh if an XJ/MJ were so easy to work on like that.......LOL.

 

That's so simple a technology that it's scary.  What happened to vehicle engineering?

 

What vehicle engineering? It was made by the Brits and you know what they say about British engineering. Probably has Lucas electrics too.  

 

But I don't care. I'd love to have one...  

[Sir Sam]

1 minute ago, HOrnbrod said:

 

What vehicle engineering? It was made by the Brits and you know what they say about British engineering. Probably has Lucas electrics too.  

 

But I don't care. I'd love to have one...  

 

Side note. I was walking around the vertical lift fan on a F35 recently and noted the amount of lucas components on it. I had to chuckle slightly to myself about that, took a few pics of the lucas parts for posterity, I suppose I ought to get those uploaded so I can share them.

[mjeff87]

2 hours ago, Eagle said:

 CADD -- Computer Assisted Design and Drafting.

 

CADD allows drawing plans and sections to 16 decimal places of accuracy. The engineers and drafters who are creating vehicles today are doing it in 3-D on computer screens, and I'm sure many if not most of them have never used a wrench in their entire lives. The goal is to make vehicles small and lighter, so all they care about is if the parts can fit togther. They aren't interested in whether or not there's any room left to service it in the field.

 

One example: my 19913 Honda Accord. Nice car, drove well, got good gas mileage. The oil filter was DIRECTLY above the exhaust pipe. There was NO WAY to get a wrench or a hand on it without your hand or wrist making contact with the exhaust pipe. Which meant that I didn't drain the oil when it was hot, as you're supposed to.

 

1984 XJ Wagoneer 2.5L. Only four cylinders. Should have been a piece of cake, right? It wasn't possible to access the #1 spark plug without first removing the A/C compressor.

 

Lol, that 2.5 issue never went away.  My MJ didn't have AC, so it was easy to access #1 plug, but my 01 TJ did have AC (that I never used...).  You could get the #1 plug out with the compressor in place, but it took a voodoo combination of a short plug socket that had a hex head so you could get a wrench on it to initially break the plug loose, then a universal joint and a stubby extension to unscrew the plug.  Somewhere along the line you had to pull the extension off and finish unthreading it by hand....if your fingers were small enough to grip the end of the u-joint.  Lord help you if you screwed the plug the whole way out and it slipped off your fingertips and wedged itself beside the compressor.

 

After several plug removals, I just resorted to unbolt in the compressor and nudging it out of the way enough to have enough room.  I was always afraid of cross threading the plug putting it back in.

[gogmorgo]

9 hours ago, Sir Sam said:

the tow standards in Europe are different. I think we have an overinflated sense of what we need to have for a tow vehicle here in the US. People tow with much less vehicle in Europe and are just as safe. Some say its better european roads, some say its better driving education. I'd say its some of both with a big helping of inflated American towing standards. Somehow we let the OEMs convince us we needed a 3500 dually diesel to tow a 5k trailer. Also not surprising is how much money the OEMs make off of trucks compared to everything else.

 

The KJ CRD is rated at 5k lbs towing in the US, or 7k lbs in europe. Same vehicle, same towing equipment.

 

In the UK and EU, and in many other places, speed limits are reduced for vehicles towing a trailer. This means you can get away with a much lower tongue weight (minimum is like 4% GTW -as opposed to as you're never going to be going faster than like 55mph. In North America the higher tongue weight required to stay stable at speeds upwards of 80mph means you'll hit your rear axle weight rating at a lower total trailer weight. EG if your car is good for 500lbs tongue weight, in North America with a 10% tongue weight you're looking at a max trailer weight of 5000lbs, if your car is rated for it. Manufacturers generally go with a safer ratio than the minimum 10%, so you'll likely only see it rated for 2-3000lbs, But in Europe at 5% you're up to 10,000lbs, at which point tongue weight has stopped being the limiting factor to trailer weight, because your 3000lb car simply doesn't have the structure or power to handle that much weight. 

[DirtyComanche]

6 hours ago, Sir Sam said:

 

Side note. I was walking around the vertical lift fan on a F35 recently and noted the amount of lucas components on it. I had to chuckle slightly to myself about that, took a few pics of the lucas parts for posterity, I suppose I ought to get those uploaded so I can share them.

 

Well, now we know why the F35 programme is so far over budget.

[Sir Sam]

One of the things I've been thinking about is a LHD conversion. There is a company in the UK that makes replicas of the "Puma" dash installed in the last defenders. For the cost of buying LHD conversion dash parts from a used defender I can get this replica and update the look of the interior.

OEM puma dash:

Replica of Puma dash:

They have a new dash panel that allows you to fit the exisiting gauges into the newer dash:

Old style:

They also sell a RHD or LHD airbox that includes AC. So everything bundled together makes a very nice update for the LHD conversion.

For the LHD conversion I also need a LHD steering knuckle and box, but both of those can be sourced from a US Discovery, so this puts me firmly in the relm of LHD.

[HOrnbrod]

 

THAT is one fine looking dash. LHD convert using the Puma dash. Perfect..

[mjeff87]

Utilitarian, functional, and damn good looking.  Yes.

[Sir Sam]

18 minutes ago, saveevryjp1998 said:

 whaaaat?

I'm gonna ask a small yard owner that has 1 if it has a title and how much. The Hipsters here in Indy would probably would probably kill me for it by evaping me to death but worth the risk.

 

Small yard owner with a defender around? Hard to believe. Ask and take pics, its honestly hard to believe anyone would let a defender sit around rotting in a yard.

 

Even if it doesn't have a title ask how much.

[Sir Sam]

Well, go ask, take pics. I’m curious to see what you’ve found. 

[Minuit]

I like that Puma dash. A lot.

[Sir Sam]

12 hours ago, Minuit said:

I like that Puma dash. A lot.

 

Its much more modern looking for sure. If I can I would like to find an OEM dash, but thats probably hard to come across and expensive, and might be more work than the aftermarket. The aftermarket has been specifically setup to be easy to retrofit.

[Sir Sam]

I have found a wonderful sticker that defender owners have used to express where they have sunk their money:

[Sir Sam]

So I got the "heritage certificate" back for the Vin, this is important to verify the age of the vehicle for import.

Turns out the color was originally stratus blue:

I thought the original color was red, and this blue panel had been replaced, but I believe this blue is original, and the red is from a respray a long time back.

 

[DirtyComanche]

On 11/10/2018 at 8:55 PM, Sir Sam said:

I have found a wonderful sticker that defender owners have used to express where they have sunk their money:

 

That's funny.