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Land Rover Series 3 Restoration


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Thank you again to everyone that has donated it really is much appreciated!!!!!! Looks like I will hit my target now which is fantastic news :) Now onto the blog...

 

 

Wheels

Main

Posted by min200 Thu, August 14, 2014 11:33:10

 

Remember how I was bragging a few posts ago about how I found a nice cheap Wilkinson alternative to Hammerite? Well ignore because the Wilko stuff is utter crap! It's like trying to paint water onto metal with the colour of cold tea regardless of what the colour is supposed to be on the tin.

So that was a waste of money but hey ho at least it didn't rain on me whilst I was playing with the stuff. Luckily I had a tin of silver spray kicking about and being the impatient bugger I am I decided to blow over the spare wheel I had with it before fitting it to the Landy to A) see what it looked like and B) actually get the poor old girl up on four wheels that had air in them giving me a little more room to get underneath etc.

Now that its on the Landy I don't know whether I want silver wheels at all. Maybe its because I have got used to the dirty mixed coulours of they existing wheels or maybe this wheel is just too silver. Maybe a darker matt silver would look better or maybe black? But Black might be too dark....bloody hell listen to me its only a set of wheels colour and most of the time they should be covered up in mud if I use it right!

What do you lot think then?

 

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Maybe they will grow on me and they will look a lot better with chunkier tyres on. Doesn't really matter for now as I don't have any more spray so I can take some time to think about it.

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Going for black wheels

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Posted by min200 Fri, August 15, 2014 12:13:55

 

After some deliberation I have decided to go with black wheels. I had to nip into town this morning to pick up some new work boots so I bought a few cans of black spray from pound land of all places!

After getting back I tried it on the wheel on the Landy and was impressed with the way it looked!

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I then got the rest of the wheels out and gave them all a couple of coats.

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Im am going to go with a black bumper front and back but that will have to be next week when I get the chance to get back to town on some errand Im sure the wife will have for me and buy some more spray!

Landy Project Costs

Land Rover £375

Sanding Discs £11.70

Ignition Barrel £20

Heritage letter £21.75

2x Batteries and rear 1/4 light £35

Pair Battery Terminal Clamps £3.99

Floor pan nuts & bolts £6.50

Grinding disc £2.25

Under Seal £8.99

Complete set of lights £85

5 Litres Primer £24.99

4 Discovery Wheels £10.20

Rear Door £21.00

Front Door £20.00

Handbrake spring £1.50

2 Discovery wheels

Two seatbelts

Wing Mirror

2 Headlight surrounds

2 headlight frames £60

2 Front Doors £60

Nato Green Paint £36

Rear Window Seal and insert £9.99

Wiring connectors £3.00

2 tins of silver metal paint £7.00

Fuses & Sandpaper £4.50

 

5x tins black spray £5.00

 

TOTAL £832.36

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Bumpers & Brakes

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Posted by min200 Wed, August 20, 2014 17:59:40

 

Today is the first day of six days off and I don't have to go on holiday with the Wife and kids or do anything in particular in fact I am just going to please my bloody self until I am told to do differently. The best thing is Wifey is at work until the weekend so I really do have a few days to myself!

Following on from blacking up the wheels I thought I would spray the bumpers black as well. So after a trip to the shops to buy some more paint I set to cleaning down and spraying up the front bumper....and it rained.

Not to be put off or have a bit of water ruin my good holiday mood I thought outside of the box...

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and painted it in the greenhouse! The veg might taste a bit well paintish but that's just the new type of veg I am growing.

As I looked at the rear bumperettes I decided that spraying them in situ was a bad idea as there was a bit of a breeze and quite frankly I couldn't be arsed to take them off just to change the colour so I headed for a nose around in the shed. I came up with some black hammerite that was abandoned at the back of a shelf and there was just enough to give three good coats.

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They have come out quite well. I did look at the Nato hitch but I am pretty sure that I am going to change it for a ball so I can drag a shed behind me when we go away for off road weekends so it was given a miss this time around.

By now the front bumper had dried so I set to digging out the new bolts and offering it up to the Landy. I remember it being a pain to get off and because it has a bit of a bend in it the nearside did take some "adjusting" with a hammer and pair of grips to get it on right. Then of course the bolts wouldn't drop down but after a couple of scuffed knuckles and some choice language from me they went in.

Then came fitting the washers and the nuts. For this may I recommend bribing a small child to put them on because if you have fingers the size of sausages like myself you have no hope! In the end, and I am being serious here, I had to balance the nut and washer on the end of the ring spanner then feed t into the gap and try to get the threads to bite. So back to choice words and more blood but they all eventually went on and the results look better than I thought they would.

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At this point in the proceedings I decided I wanted a roast dinner and a cup of tea so I took half an hour off to get all of that in motion because I AM on holiday and whats wrong with a Wednesday roast?

Then onto the brake system. If you remember I had some luck with the transmission brake but I didn't hold my breath on that luck lasting. Todays job was just to free off all of the brake adjusters so in I went with the WD40 and to my surprise I had the right imperial spanner for the adjuster 1/2.

On the front drums the adjuster was toward the bottom of the back plate and they both just freed off and started moving winding the pads back nicely.

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On the back drums the adjuster is toward the upper part of the back plate

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I jacked up each end to make sure the wheels/drums moved freely enough ready for a strip down inspection.

The inspection will be later on as there is also a problem with the servo or master cylinder.

I then changed a few of the old fuses for new ones

 

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and I have a few spares if you need any!!

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That will do for today because the roast is nearly done and it smells gorgeous!!

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Leaks and Clutch

Main

Posted by min200 Thu, August 21, 2014 20:02:33

 

I awoke this morning feeling bloody great as it is yet another day off and Wifey then walked in with a cup of tea informing me both she and my daughters were off to her sisters for dinner this evening, apparently its a weekly thing they do, so I would be by myself doing as I please...heaven!

Well I didn't get off that easily as my youngest wanted to go swimming this morning but hey ho life is about memories eh so we jumped on our mountain bikes and went off for a couple of hours.

When I returned it was straight into shabby work gear and into the shed digging out the clutch master and slave cylinders and off to the Landy were I found this rather large leak...

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It's coming from straight above it were the shaft goes into the transfer box...I think? Would one of you knowledgeable please tell me what it is and what seal needs replacing please and how to do it, in fact you may as well just pop over and fix it for me. yea a long shot I know so just the info would be a big help ;)

So I chucked some sand over it and popped an oil tray under it and left it to its own devices for now.

Onto the clutch I headed and the first job was to get the clutch pedal and master cylinder housing out.

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I unscrewed the pipe work that goes to the slave cylinder first using the 1/2 spanner.

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Then I had to undo the six bolts from inside the Landy running along the bulkhead next to the clutch pedal to release the framework.

 

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After a bit of twisting around wiring brake pipes and the such the whole thing came out with the usual Land Rover sacrifice of some skin blood and choice language.

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I then undid the two bolts holding the master cylinder onto the framework and it was ready for the new one to be fitted. I nearly forgot to remove the pipework coupling housing to put on the new one but noticed it was still on just as I was throwing it into the wheely bin so that saved a scramble through week old food to find it again!

As you can see the old master was well past its best!

 

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While the framework was out I gave it a quick rub down and a spray up in the handy black paint.

The I refitted it all and went onto the slave cylinder.

 

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If you have never had to fit a clutch slave cylinder to your motor be thankful to whatever god you pray to! What a ballache of a job it is! The best way was to jack up the front onto axle stands then try to get yourself and tools into the tiny gap on the passenger side behind the exhaust and on top of the chassis. Sounds easy eh!

I first took off the pipework whilst trying to keep the falling rust out of my eyes and the clutch fluid from running too far up my arms! Then I removed the bottom bolt holding the slave in...BIG mistake. Because the slave was seized it then pushed up on the top bolt whilst you were trying to remove that making it impossible to keep the socket in place so I attached some thin rope and pulled the cylinder back down refitting the bottom bolt.

Then I removed the top bolt first followed by the bottom with no problems. Whilst doing my Houdini impression I fitted the slave but then the pipe coupling would not screw into it for love nor money so after ten minutes I crawled out and made a brew. I decided it had to be a thread issue of course and took a torch back with me and a very thin screwdriver. Sure enough the thread on the coupling was ever so slightly bent just after the first turn so I carefully straightened it out with the screwdriver and it popped straight in first time.

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Then came the bleeding. Well long story short it didn't really want to so after an hour of pumping pedals I remembered someone saying about reverse bleeding from the slave up with the old fashioned oil cans so I gave that a go with my eldest daughter watching the reservoir for bubbles and levels. She says there was air and I managed to stop it from overflowing as well which was nice.

There is now pressure on the clutch pedal but also some play and no amount of fannying about seems to change it But the gears do now engage. I havnt had the engine running but the wheels are off of the ground and they lock nicely when a gear is selected.

The exhaust was also retightened because I really want to get the engine running again this weekend to see if the clutch is working properly and the last time I started it it sounded like a Lancaster bomber!

So again another good day on the Landy and if it drives I think I may just pee myself with excitement just a little.

Landy Project Costs

Land Rover £375

Sanding Discs £11.70

Ignition Barrel £20

Heritage letter £21.75

2x Batteries and rear 1/4 light £35

Pair Battery Terminal Clamps £3.99

Floor pan nuts & bolts £6.50

Grinding disc £2.25

Under Seal £8.99

Complete set of lights £85

5 Litres Primer £24.99

4 Discovery Wheels £10.20

Rear Door £21.00

Front Door £20.00

Handbrake spring £1.50

2 Discovery wheels

Two seatbelts

Wing Mirror

2 Headlight surrounds

2 headlight frames £60

2 Front Doors £60

Nato Green Paint £36

Rear Window Seal and insert £9.99

Wiring connectors £3.00

2 tins of silver metal paint £7.00

Fuses & Sandpaper £4.50

 

5x tins black spray £5.00

5x more tins black spray £5.00

Clutch fluid

Exhaust putty

WD40 £8.49

 

TOTAL £845.85

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Looks like the old girl is happy in her new home as she has marked her territory.

 

So far mike has marked her territory with EP90 from the transfer box (ongoing) and rear axle (twice), the right front swivel hub, brake fluid, clutch fluid, engine oil and loads of flakey paint:cool2:

 

Is that your clutch fluid on the floor?

 

Mike

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1/2" break adjusters? The luxury. The Saracen has 12 (2 per wheel) 7/16" ones.

 

The Landy is certainly starting to look good, by the way.

 

Cheers,

Terry

 

 

Does make it a bit easier :) and thanks the old girl is coming along nicely ;)

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Car Boot.

Main

Posted by min200 Sun, August 24, 2014 18:22:26

 

I like a car boot sale I have to admit. I love wandering around looking at what tat folk are selling and I love it even more when its tat I want to buy.

After a day off roading yesterday with the Nottingham Land Rover Club, who are a rather nice bunch of people that all have a laugh and took me and Wifey around the course all day, I realised there were to be many bits I needed to pick up for when my Landy is finally on the road.

With these and other bits in mind myself and Wifey wandered off to Tansley car boot in Derbyshire as we had wanted to before but never had the time. With it being a Bank holiday weekend the site was massive with loads of sellers so I thought there must be some pickings for me here. I was right! As I meandered about I came across a Jerry can that needs a bit of a refurb but still in great condition, a D ring, two snatch straps, around 18 metal grinding discs, cable ties, two small straps to hold the jerry can in place and a brand new padlock and keys to put on the Landy front spare wheel.

Now I like to haggle for a bargain but the prices started off reasonable so of course I haggled harder! The grand total for this collection of very useful bits...

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£13 quid.

I know £13! Man I have had a good day today :)

Landy Project Costs

Land Rover £375

Sanding Discs £11.70

Ignition Barrel £20

Heritage letter £21.75

2x Batteries and rear 1/4 light £35

Pair Battery Terminal Clamps £3.99

Floor pan nuts & bolts £6.50

Grinding disc £2.25

Under Seal £8.99

Complete set of lights £85

5 Litres Primer £24.99

4 Discovery Wheels £10.20

Rear Door £21.00

Front Door £20.00

Handbrake spring £1.50

2 Discovery wheels

Two seatbelts

Wing Mirror

2 Headlight surrounds

2 headlight frames £60

2 Front Doors £60

Nato Green Paint £36

Rear Window Seal and insert £9.99

Wiring connectors £3.00

2 tins of silver metal paint £7.00

Fuses & Sandpaper £4.50

 

5x tins black spray £5.00

5x more tins black spray £5.00

Clutch fluid

Exhaust putty

WD40 £8.49

Car Boot Bits £13

 

TOTAL £858.85

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The restoration of your Series 3 is mildly interesting to me, but the way you write about it is bloody hilarious! When it's all done and dusted, please do us all a favour and buy another vehicle to restore :)

 

The Landy is looking good.

 

Cheers,

Terry

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Hey Terry as long as I make someone smile or not make the same cock ups as me then its worth doing!

 

It's good to see whats been done for me! There will be something else afterwards as Wifey has got the off roading bug so I expect she will want a Landy buiding as well. Bet she wont want to bloody help though.

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We all make cock ups, it is part of the fun (later in life sitting at the fire with a beer type of story).

i had a blown head gasket, replaced it and the result was 3 out of 4 cylinders fired.

compression was 0 bar at 1, 10 bar on 2, 9 bar on 3 and 10,3 bar on 4.

the pistons wobbled a bit, but from 9 bar to 10,3bar i should had something at no1 cylinder.

i pulled the head again and replaced it with a spare one... long shot as i needed to drive 3 hours to pick up our dog from stud duty.

motorway 60 mph easy, peak district climbing hills in 2nd and 3rd gear.

it runs good now with 9 bar compression at cylinder 1.

later in the day i need to get the wife's 2,25 petrol out... make a decent engine out of two.

it's never over with a land rover.

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[h=2]Selling bits.[/h]MainPosted by min200 Mon, August 25, 2014 20:34:15

Digging around in my shed last week I came across the Military lights that I took off of the Landy as well as some old bike brake pads that I bought many moons ago so I thought I may as well chuck them on fleabay to see what happens.

It amazes me that folk will pay more for second hand parts, the lights, because they are original than what they would cost to buy a newer replacement copy set. Those old rusty lights and I do not lie on my descriptions they were listed as rusty and replaced went for £41 to a chap in Italy who then had to pay £20 to have them posted!

I know they are original and I do get the point of when restoring a vehicle you would like to use as many original bits as you can but bugger me its going to cost over £100 all in with the repairs that need doing to those light frames and bowls which is a price way to steep for a tight arse like me!

The bike brake pads went for £15 as well so I put the money to good use buying replacement shocks for the old Landy. Cheaper end shocks admittedly but far better than the rusty crap that's already on the old girl and perfectly priced for a miserly git like me.

Maybe I should pop them on Ebay when they are changed over to see if anyone wants to buy them?

Landy Project Costs

 

Land Rover £375

 

Sanding Discs £11.70

 

Ignition Barrel £20

 

Heritage letter £21.75

 

2x Batteries and rear 1/4 light £35

 

Pair Battery Terminal Clamps £3.99

 

Floor pan nuts & bolts £6.50

 

Grinding disc £2.25

Under Seal £8.99

Complete set of lights £85

5 Litres Primer £24.99

4 Discovery Wheels £10.20

Rear Door £21.00

Front Door £20.00

Handbrake spring £1.50

2 Discovery wheels

Two seatbelts

Wing Mirror

2 Headlight surrounds

2 headlight frames £60

2 Front Doors £60

Nato Green Paint £36

Rear Window Seal and insert £9.99

Wiring connectors £3.00

2 tins of silver metal paint £7.00

Fuses & Sandpaper £4.50

5x tins black spray £5.00

5x more tins black spray £5.00

Clutch fluid

Exhaust putty

WD40 £8.49

Car Boot Bits £13

Front & rear shocks £59.45

TOTAL £918.30

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Finishing the clutch

Main

Posted by min200 Fri, August 29, 2014 10:51:54

 

A change in work hours has put a stop to yet more of the pottering enjoyment of life but hey the plus side is that I get to see Wifey a bit more during the week...apparently.

 

But today I arose from my slumber a little earlier so went and got the swimming training out of the way with all of the sporty set at the local pool rather than the old gits I normally have a paddle with. You wouldn't think that there would be a designer war on how to look good when walking along the poolside to get in but it seems there is. These "Sporty" clowns have the most expensive budgie smugglers that money can buy along with reflective tinted swimming goggles. I mean why would you need reflective bloody swimming goggles in an indoor pool?? I just smirked to myself and got my 40 lengths in and walked off in a strutting manor posing my £3.99 shorts form Tesco.

 

So after getting home and dragging the dog out for a quick walk I set to getting the Landy started again to see if the clutch would engage seeing as there seemed to be so much play in it. Of course the old wreck wouldn't start and upon further inspection it seemed all of the fuel had run back into the tanks so I suppose there is a hole somewhere in the fuel lines or fuel pump gaskets that needs sorting but I am not going to bugger about with it for about £50 I am just going to replace the lot and be done with it!

 

I have been toying with changing over to a single fuel tank instead of the twins ones so maybe its a sign to just get on with it.

 

I managed to get the fuel back through and the engine running and to my happiness and amazement the clutch engages perfectly fine and the wheel spin nicely so that's a plus for the day. The axles will want a good service as well as the gear & transfer box but I will get to these eventually.

I then set to the clutch pedal as there was about 3" of movement before pressure and I started with the Haynes manual for a quick read and it pointed me in the direction of a nut on the outside of the master cylinder cage.

 

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Literally a couple of turns in and it sorted the pedal play right out! So the clutch now works and the pedal feels like it should do.

So for a spare hour not a bad amount done and with this coming Monday off and Wifey at work providing the weather holds it should be a playing day!

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### I don't know why the images are not linking I will sort them out tomorrow folks my laptop seems to be having a fit! ###

Brakes

Main

Posted by min200 Mon, September 01, 2014 21:41:25

 

You may recall in my last entry I was gloating that today was to be an extra day off for me to get covered up to my eyeballs in rust dirt and grease form the old Landy. We were to spend a wonderful day together just the two of us as Wifey was at work and the kids had buggered off somewhere else so a selfish self centred day was in install for me.

I woke up and it was raining.

 

Hey ho what the hell I decided to go swimming first to keep up my training for The outward Bound Trust week that's fast approaching ( a massive thanks to all that have donated toward it I smashed my target of £500 hitting £600 so thanks again folks) and nipping to the outdoorsy shop to buy a couple of thermal tops for the event.

 

It was still raining. So I headed off to the local bike garage to give away another £100 for a new front tyre as winter is fast approaching and I don't fancy sliding around in the bad weather or ending up slab side down which with my luck wouldn't take long!

 

Home it was and I had just taken out my landy work kit to put on when my youngest daughter rang informing me she was on the train heading home within the hour so would I pick her up from the station. I thought to tell her if she was big enough to get a train by herself then she can catch the bloody bus as well but realising what a world of hurt and noise that would end up giving me from the Wife I told the kid to "meet me in the drop off car park". Ha!! at least I had the pleasure of knowing she would have to lug her suitcase through the station and up two flights of stairs while fighting through the crowds of people that had just got off of the train before getting to me.

 

I met her on platform 5.

 

After a 20 minute car ride in which she didn't stop talking even to breathe, I swear my girls must breathe through their backsides, we arrived home where I ran upstairs put the mobile in flight mode so nothing could get through and skipped out to the Landy after giving instructions on the tea being made as payment for taxi services rendered.

 

Todays aim was to check the brake system over from top to bottom. The wheels did not want to come off after god knows how many years stuck on but a 3 foot persuading bar on a socket soon put paid that idea and the wheels came off. It was a little dusty back there!

 

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Both the front drums came off easy enough and at first glance didn't look to be in too bad shape inside either.

 

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Exploring a bit more though and the callipers were full of muck old copper grease and dust

 

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I cleaned them up a touch and my youngest turned up with the tea then was accosted into helping out with pressing the foot pedal to check on calliper movement.

 

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The callipers on both of the front brakes worked well enough but the back drums did not want to give up their contents. Firstly the retaining screws were seized solid

 

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A bit of WD40 sorted the problem on one side but the other side wasn't going to play ball. I soaked it heated it and bashed it but it would not come free. In the end I had to drill it out.

 

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Quite frankly the contents of the back drums were a mess. Seized callipers rusty brake shoes and leaks galore so at this point I decided that I was going to do a brake system rebuild. These things are going to be responsible for making me stop both on and off road so for the price of replacement from front to back I am not going to be taking any risks.

 

I cleaned the drums up a touch with a wire brush

 

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and popped the wheels back on.

 

Whilst I had my now filthy kit on, it does amaze me how quickly I get dirty I really am like the kid who is dressed up smart to go out who's Mum turns away for a couple of seconds and when looks again the kid is covered in paint and mud, I decided to rub down and prime up the Jerry can I bought last week at the car boot.

 

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Yes I know the cap hasn't been primed but my dinner was ready and I have not had it open yet.

Then online to order the brake drum rebuild kits to start and I will have to buy the new pipes and connections next month or sooner if I am allowed to hit the savings account before hand.

 

Landy Project Costs

Land Rover £375

Sanding Discs £11.70

Ignition Barrel £20

Heritage letter £21.75

2x Batteries and rear 1/4 light £35

Pair Battery Terminal Clamps £3.99

Floor pan nuts & bolts £6.50

Grinding disc £2.25

Under Seal £8.99

Complete set of lights £85

5 Litres Primer £24.99

4 Discovery Wheels £10.20

Rear Door £21.00

Front Door £20.00

Handbrake spring £1.50

2 Discovery wheels

Two seatbelts

Wing Mirror

2 Headlight surrounds

2 headlight frames £60

2 Front Doors £60

Nato Green Paint £36

Rear Window Seal and insert £9.99

Wiring connectors £3.00

2 tins of silver metal paint £7.00

Fuses & Sandpaper £4.50

 

5x tins black spray £5.00

5x more tins black spray £5.00

Clutch fluid

Exhaust putty

WD40 £8.49

Car Boot Bits £13

Front & rear shocks £59.45

Front & rear brake rebuild kits £81.62

 

TOTAL £999.92

Edited by minn200
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