HeloBubba
December 9th, 2008, 08:13 PM
I guess I'm not sure if this should be posted in the "smaller projects" or complete build-ups, but here goes.
Prompted by J-Tisdale’s curiosity about his old ride earler today, I thought I’d post some info as to what I’ve been up to with it over the last eleven months or so.
It started out as a Portofino Red high-mileage but good condition, leak-free (really) ’97 SW, that Johnathan gave me a great deal on last December. It had some corrosion and needed some TLC (along with new doors), but I’d just returned from deployment to the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean, and wanted another Rover without breaking the bank (initially). (Many Somali pirate leaders and warlords drive D90s and D110s, by the way. I’ve seen it myself. And they look cool on FLIR.)
My previous Landy experience was a hybrid Range Rover/Series II/Series III/D90 hybrid thing that I’d picked up several years earlier from an ex-Army guy in horrible shape and made into something less horrible. (LR D100? Range-Ender?) With those lessons learned, along with this website, selective Ebay shopping, decent manuals and friends in James and Jake at British 4x4 in Jacksonville, FL, however, I figured I’d dig into another money pit with fewer pitfalls. It does, however, now completely kick ass, and I’m not done! (But Defenders are never really done.) It’s awesome off road, even though James & Jake don’t believe that I take it off road.
Since buying it, I’ve completed the following non-all-inclusive, not in order of completion list. (I’m sure I forgetting a few things, as all of you probably understand.) Each item seemed to either open up a can of worms requiring other “adjustments” or helped me rationalize even more cash drain, but who cares. For the stuff beyond my grasp or tool ownership I enlisted the help of James and Jake, whom I recommend most highly if you need help in the Southeast. They’re good at what they do and great to deal with, plus they’re funny as hell and also prone to random weird projects like I am.
- Tired stock springs and shocks were first replaced with RTE springs and OME shocks. I later discovered, however, that the OMEs would top out on rebound under my truck when getting into it, so I replaced them with long-travel Fox 2.0s similar (but cheaper) than those I saw on J-Tis’s white rock monster. This, of course, required heim joint/eye-mount shock mounts, so I slapped those on from RTE later, too.
- Lifting it caused the resultant driveline geometry to groan and rumble like an old donkey under decel, so I also over time ended up with (in final version) front and rear double cardin driveshafts and GBR-recommended and built TruTrac front and rear diffs with 1:4.75 gearing for the…
- 35” MTRs and 15x10” steelies. (I’m currently just using my re-powdercoated stock 16” wheels with 33” ATs for around town, and while not ideally geared now with the smaller tires, it does haul ass. :)
- It also now has RTE trailing arms and Scorpion radius arms, and drives like a big car.
- With the help of this site and Johnathan I was able to track down the original AC kit from my truck that had been violently ripped out by one of the previous owners and sold to a site user unable to use it in its beat and incomplete state. All plumbing but one hose had to be replaced or replicated, but with a little cheapskate ingenuity, I was able to fab, repair or replace all parts without paying ridiculous LR part prices! The frozen compressor and stripped condenser were replaced with a good reman compressor and a hot-rod, high efficiency condenser. Once installed and James tested and recharged it, it worked immediately and continues to work like a champ. At one point this summer, I realized that it was blowing cooler air faster than my 2008 Z06! No joke!
- To add insult to injury, the gaping holes once cut in the seat box for 6x9”s have been supplemented with eight Polk speakers of various sizes, mounted in the aforementioned seatbox, doors, and upper and lower rear cabin, using speaker panels I found from Euro D90 models on Ebay. The stereo and changer sound great when I’m sitting still, but once moving, I can really only hear if set at helicopter volumes, obviously. :)
- All three doors were replaced to rid the truck of the dreaded Landy rot when it went in for a refinish. I took it to Mark O’Steen of O’Steens Autobody in Jacksonville, who is a master. He and his guys rid the truck of all body corrosion and spend weeks prepping for a beautiful refinish in between other work. Mark’s shop does all the repairs for the area’s luxury car dealers, but among other customers are the Brumos Porsche race shop and Ted Turner. A few months before I brought my truck to him, they restored Ted Turner’s D110. Mark is best known for super cool VW bug and bus restorations, and is currently doing an awesome ‘70s Bronco for himself. I was willing and able to do most of the disassembly/reassemble and prep myself, which saved me a bunch of dough.
- While the disassembled truck was at Mark’s shop, I had the roll cage, rear crossmember, RockWare winch bumper and wheels powdercoated. I also had the cage door bars repaired of the weird sawzall damage and strange clamp contraptions that the A/C ripper-outer owner had earlier done, I think as part of an aborted soft top conversion, were I to guess.
- As the Safety Devices roof racks had reached the ludicrous price and availability range, I installed one of those similar made by Derek Chase at Urban Offroad in CA. The quality is as good as or better than any others I’ve seen, Safety Devices ones included, and I’d also recommend his work and products very highly.
- Mostly just because I was sick of leaning over to open the windows, I installed electric window-openers while I was installing new VDO gages and an Iron Goat dash panel. The gages were all either doing the digital numeral dance or were so out-of-calibration that it made sense to replace them. It's funny to pull up to another D90 and have my windows roll down automatically.
- As far as other random stuff I can remember doing, I’ve installed some Hellas and a Superwinch, along with a CB and I recovered the torn up seats.
After all of this, let me remind folks that the truck has about 160,000 miles on it, is leak-free and is daily-driver ultra-reliable. I replaced my Z06 with a Subaru STI once I saw how crappy the Norfolk-area roads and weather were, but I can swap daily use of the brand new '08 STI with the ’97 D90 without giving it a second thought or concern of getting stranded. Additionally, when I take my nephews and niece for a ride they have a gas, and it’s even fun for my co-workers when I drive for lunch. (There are no limits to the funny crap that comes up when you put four Navy helicopter pilots in a D90 with jump-seats.) I expect that the stock high-mileage 4.0L may be great for some time, but perhaps a 4.6 is in order? (Another thread that prompted this one.)
I’ll post some photos when I get around to it in the next few days. Sorry for the long write-up! Thanks to those of you who have unknowingly helped by with your posts and imparted knowledge.
Murph
Prompted by J-Tisdale’s curiosity about his old ride earler today, I thought I’d post some info as to what I’ve been up to with it over the last eleven months or so.
It started out as a Portofino Red high-mileage but good condition, leak-free (really) ’97 SW, that Johnathan gave me a great deal on last December. It had some corrosion and needed some TLC (along with new doors), but I’d just returned from deployment to the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean, and wanted another Rover without breaking the bank (initially). (Many Somali pirate leaders and warlords drive D90s and D110s, by the way. I’ve seen it myself. And they look cool on FLIR.)
My previous Landy experience was a hybrid Range Rover/Series II/Series III/D90 hybrid thing that I’d picked up several years earlier from an ex-Army guy in horrible shape and made into something less horrible. (LR D100? Range-Ender?) With those lessons learned, along with this website, selective Ebay shopping, decent manuals and friends in James and Jake at British 4x4 in Jacksonville, FL, however, I figured I’d dig into another money pit with fewer pitfalls. It does, however, now completely kick ass, and I’m not done! (But Defenders are never really done.) It’s awesome off road, even though James & Jake don’t believe that I take it off road.
Since buying it, I’ve completed the following non-all-inclusive, not in order of completion list. (I’m sure I forgetting a few things, as all of you probably understand.) Each item seemed to either open up a can of worms requiring other “adjustments” or helped me rationalize even more cash drain, but who cares. For the stuff beyond my grasp or tool ownership I enlisted the help of James and Jake, whom I recommend most highly if you need help in the Southeast. They’re good at what they do and great to deal with, plus they’re funny as hell and also prone to random weird projects like I am.
- Tired stock springs and shocks were first replaced with RTE springs and OME shocks. I later discovered, however, that the OMEs would top out on rebound under my truck when getting into it, so I replaced them with long-travel Fox 2.0s similar (but cheaper) than those I saw on J-Tis’s white rock monster. This, of course, required heim joint/eye-mount shock mounts, so I slapped those on from RTE later, too.
- Lifting it caused the resultant driveline geometry to groan and rumble like an old donkey under decel, so I also over time ended up with (in final version) front and rear double cardin driveshafts and GBR-recommended and built TruTrac front and rear diffs with 1:4.75 gearing for the…
- 35” MTRs and 15x10” steelies. (I’m currently just using my re-powdercoated stock 16” wheels with 33” ATs for around town, and while not ideally geared now with the smaller tires, it does haul ass. :)
- It also now has RTE trailing arms and Scorpion radius arms, and drives like a big car.
- With the help of this site and Johnathan I was able to track down the original AC kit from my truck that had been violently ripped out by one of the previous owners and sold to a site user unable to use it in its beat and incomplete state. All plumbing but one hose had to be replaced or replicated, but with a little cheapskate ingenuity, I was able to fab, repair or replace all parts without paying ridiculous LR part prices! The frozen compressor and stripped condenser were replaced with a good reman compressor and a hot-rod, high efficiency condenser. Once installed and James tested and recharged it, it worked immediately and continues to work like a champ. At one point this summer, I realized that it was blowing cooler air faster than my 2008 Z06! No joke!
- To add insult to injury, the gaping holes once cut in the seat box for 6x9”s have been supplemented with eight Polk speakers of various sizes, mounted in the aforementioned seatbox, doors, and upper and lower rear cabin, using speaker panels I found from Euro D90 models on Ebay. The stereo and changer sound great when I’m sitting still, but once moving, I can really only hear if set at helicopter volumes, obviously. :)
- All three doors were replaced to rid the truck of the dreaded Landy rot when it went in for a refinish. I took it to Mark O’Steen of O’Steens Autobody in Jacksonville, who is a master. He and his guys rid the truck of all body corrosion and spend weeks prepping for a beautiful refinish in between other work. Mark’s shop does all the repairs for the area’s luxury car dealers, but among other customers are the Brumos Porsche race shop and Ted Turner. A few months before I brought my truck to him, they restored Ted Turner’s D110. Mark is best known for super cool VW bug and bus restorations, and is currently doing an awesome ‘70s Bronco for himself. I was willing and able to do most of the disassembly/reassemble and prep myself, which saved me a bunch of dough.
- While the disassembled truck was at Mark’s shop, I had the roll cage, rear crossmember, RockWare winch bumper and wheels powdercoated. I also had the cage door bars repaired of the weird sawzall damage and strange clamp contraptions that the A/C ripper-outer owner had earlier done, I think as part of an aborted soft top conversion, were I to guess.
- As the Safety Devices roof racks had reached the ludicrous price and availability range, I installed one of those similar made by Derek Chase at Urban Offroad in CA. The quality is as good as or better than any others I’ve seen, Safety Devices ones included, and I’d also recommend his work and products very highly.
- Mostly just because I was sick of leaning over to open the windows, I installed electric window-openers while I was installing new VDO gages and an Iron Goat dash panel. The gages were all either doing the digital numeral dance or were so out-of-calibration that it made sense to replace them. It's funny to pull up to another D90 and have my windows roll down automatically.
- As far as other random stuff I can remember doing, I’ve installed some Hellas and a Superwinch, along with a CB and I recovered the torn up seats.
After all of this, let me remind folks that the truck has about 160,000 miles on it, is leak-free and is daily-driver ultra-reliable. I replaced my Z06 with a Subaru STI once I saw how crappy the Norfolk-area roads and weather were, but I can swap daily use of the brand new '08 STI with the ’97 D90 without giving it a second thought or concern of getting stranded. Additionally, when I take my nephews and niece for a ride they have a gas, and it’s even fun for my co-workers when I drive for lunch. (There are no limits to the funny crap that comes up when you put four Navy helicopter pilots in a D90 with jump-seats.) I expect that the stock high-mileage 4.0L may be great for some time, but perhaps a 4.6 is in order? (Another thread that prompted this one.)
I’ll post some photos when I get around to it in the next few days. Sorry for the long write-up! Thanks to those of you who have unknowingly helped by with your posts and imparted knowledge.
Murph