Me Playing With Cars
A video that Dave made of my tinkerings
80″ Land Rover Restoration – Aeroparts capstan winch
When I purchased the land rover it came with an insanely heavy milk crate full of parts. In this was an Aeroparts capstan winch which had been disassembled. Obviously this was another job for the kitchen table. After measuring up for new seals and reassembling the winch onto its freshly galvanized plate it was time…
80″ Land Rover Restoration – Getting the doors on
It made sense to compliment the roof with a set of doors. I had rebuilt a set of door frames previously, oxy blackwire welding up the cracks and welding hidden corner reinforcing inside the frames. These had been galvanized and waiting patiently for me under a pile of sawdust in the basement for quite some…
80″ Land Rover Restoration – Getting the roof on
After having driven the Land Rover around for quite some time, the impracticality of not having a roof started to take its toll. I would often find myself ducking into undercover car parks during summer rain showers, or dressing up in winter jackets on chilly evenings. Thus I felt it was time for the roof.…
Ghetto car boom box
I used to work part time as a car audio fitter and auto electrician back when I was studying and needed a part time job. Somehow I ended up with a whole heap of warranty returns and ex demo gear given to me for free or at very low cost which I just couldn’t say…
80″ Land Rover Restoration – Smiths heater
A friend of mine found a nice Smiths heating unit with the optional de-misting attachment for me which I was very grateful for. I had to modify the manifold heating pipes and engineer a flow tap for the heater out of an old ball valve, some steel tube and a brass wingnut that I had…
80″ Land Rover Restoration – Getting it on the road
After getting the rolling chassis in order it was simply a matter of riveting all of the galvanized bright-work back onto the tubs, doors tailgates and bonnet using domed aircraft rivets. A set of new Lucas indicator lamps were added to the front mudguards where the original white parking lights once were. The reason for…
80″ Land Rover Restoration – Master cylinder substitution
Once all the brake lines were fitted it was time to bleed the brakes. I had rebuilt my original master cylinder, honing and putting a seal kit in it, sadly it was worn past tolerance and leaked fluid. I was faced with the option of having my original cylinder lined with a stainless sleeve or…
80″ Land Rover Restoration – Panel repair
The next part of my restoration involved fixing the bruised and battered panels which were showing a good 50 years of abuse. Many of the spot welds had broken near high stress areas such as door latches and seat bases while many sections of the aluminium doors had work hardened and cracked. The tailgate was…
80″ Land Rover Restoration – Rolling chassis
Unfortunately I don’t have many pictures of my land rover from before I started the restoration, it was 2006 and I was between digital cameras. This was not helped by the fact that I immediately started stripping it down upon getting it back to my place, so you will have to take my word for…