minn200

You are indeed Eagle eyed! Missed something though

[h=2]Spot the Difference.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, March 06, 2016 15:35:12 It was time for the bike to come out of storage. OK I know it's still cold and damp along with the odd snow shower but I missed the feel of the wind and the fun of the ride so out it has come. It's taxed insured and back for a bit of fun. I cleaned it then got it started after an initial bit of a sulk on it's part as it pulled fresh fuel through. A quick titivate with a dab of paint here and there had it looking well so this morning I hopped on and set off in no particular direction to have a play. Before I parked it up for the winter it felt like the bike was trying to kill me but after today's ride I realise now that a big part of it might actually be me. You see today I had a good think about my riding style whilst on it and once I stopped trying to ride it like all of the sports bikes I have owned in the past and started to ride it like the tourer/adventure bike it is, it stopped trying to kill me and cornered very well indeed! After a good few miles were under my belt I pulled over to stretch my legs and get the blood flowing through my fingers again and took time to have a good look at it once again. I was home soon enough with the bike tucked up for a few more days sleep and I stood there wondering what to do with the rest of the day between the snow showers. I had put up the 110 and Disco for a possible swap yesterday but seeing as the offers are not coming in thick and fast of a brand new 110 for my two old knackers I will put the 110 on the back burner just grabbing some work from time to time. This afternoon was a "Time to time" so I got out a couple of tools and did a little on the back end of it but lets play a game. Can you spot the difference?

[h=2]A Swap?[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, March 05, 2016 15:46:10 I have had some serious thinking to do this week about life and what is coming up fast upon the horizon. With a new house move along with renovating it there will be little time left for rebuilding my Land Rover 110. Now I don't really want to sell it so I wont! instead I have come up with an idea that might be attractive to some so I will just put it out there to see what you all think. I am looking for a swap for my “D” reg 110 and my “R” reg Discovery for a 110 or 90 that is road legal and not a rot box. The 110 is my project that has had all of the welding done to it now including a new rear third chassis, new suspension all round and the bulkhead welded up to boot. It runs drives and stops but the wings are not bolted on nor is the front panel. You can see exactly what I have done either on the Facebook group Just Turned 40 or at www.nickysmith.me under the section “The 110” It is still a project and will want a fair bit of work doing to it but it's an ex RAF Landy with four bench seats in the back. The Discovery is an “R” reg 300tdi with MOT until August. 196,000 miles on the clock runs well with no mechanical issues at present. It will require welding for the next MOT on the inner wings at the front and the boot floor will want looking at. It has Boost alloys and all of the tyres have decent tread on them. I fitted a snorkel last week that seems to be air tight. You could use this to convert the 110 to a TDI if you were so inclined (I was considering it) once the rest of it is up to scratch. Both V5's are present and in my name. I am NOT looking to sell them seperatley but am looking to swap them both for a road legal 90 or 110 so I can continue to get to work and back as well as dragging the caravan around on. No panic if there is no interest as I will patch up the Disco then park up the 110 under cover for a year or two until I get around to it. If you are interested either message me directly please or email me at Nick@nickysmith.me I am based in Nottingham.

[h=2]Sealant & Stabbing.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Fri, March 04, 2016 16:05:45 Sealant. Black sticky as hell gets everywhere but where you want it to be but it does a good job at holding the rust at bay so a necessary evil. I think I have got most of the main chassis sorted with the stuff but I have left things like the inside of the outriggers where I will be changing bushes over etc for now because it will give a better coating once they are out of the way. The Discovery, as it turns out, is rather more crispy than I first realised and on closer inspection I need to stop stabbing it with a screwdriver in places that look a bit iffy because they always are! Even the rear cross member is going to need some work now for me to be happy towing anything off of it let alone the state of the front inner wings and boot floor. It's like the whole sodding thing wants to die! Well tough titty Disco I am moving house and cannot afford to buy anything else so suck it up buttercup you are getting cut up and put back together whether you like it or not. I had a mate over this morning because his Jeep needed a few patches welding on it's sill but the forecast was snow so we mackled up a bit of a cover to keep off the worst of the flurries that kept coming along. It was initially two patches but as is always the way that turned into four after chasing the rust through as well as blowing the extra hole or two when welding. It all went surprisingly easily until I had to change over the wire reel and now for some reason the feed is not longer constant but it feeds for about three seconds pauses for a second then rinse and repeat? I cant seem to see anything different with the way I have set it up but who knows. Now I know Land Rovers and Jeeps are supposed to be mortal enemies but there would be no issues in an outright fight because Jeeps are just bloody tiny!!!!!! I mean look at the picture the poor bugger looks dwarfed! It's like the weedy kid at school stuck between a pair of bullies! Saying that it's a hell of a lot less crispy than the Disco so who am I to take the micky here? With that done and a sausage cob later (for me the other fella is on a diet which meant I had to eat even more...gutted) my friend was off with his freshly undersealed sill and a warning about the sticky stuff not being set yet and likely to move into his house when he got back. The snow had buggered off for now as well so I was stood wondering what to do with the rest of my day and I decided that the replacement door bottoms I had bought for the 110 a few months ago needed a little welding tlc so I dug those out and made them whole again in short time even with the welder messing me about. I think it just does not like the reel I have put in it because bugger all I do with it makes any difference at all to the feed. That done and the dog looking at me with it's "Why have you not taken me out for a walk yet then?" face on I drove off to a muddy Blidworth woods where within two minutes I was up to my knees in sludge and so was the dog who thought it was bloody great fun.

[h=2]Wiring & Water.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Wed, March 02, 2016 07:42:01 Wiring. Old tired brittle wiring. I am sick to death of the sight of the stuff on the 110. The weather broke so I thought I would walk outside wiring diagram in hand to get the rear lights sorted. That was about as good as it got for the next couple of hours. Honestly I checked it all wired it up and then gave up because now sod all seems to be working and to top it off I made the mistake of opening up the fuse cover only to see the mouldy corroded fuzz on all of the fuses as well as the relays...it is no wonder bugger all works! Oh well at the damned thing runs ok at the moment. The 110 is turning into a major project now and if I am honest there is going to be absolutely no rush with it in fact this will probably turn into one of those “Will it ever get finished” projects especially as we have the house move coming up as well along with all of the hard graft that will be needed on that renovation. Still not to worry it will get done in time so I will buy it a proper cover to help keep the rust at bay. After a final manic giggle to myself when yet another wire broke up in my fingers I turned around to see my neighbour struggling along the pathway with a box the same size as her along with another heavier package in her left hand. I went over quickly to help her with these parcels to be informed they were for me and that the courier had dropped them off earlier. I don't know how me or the courier managed to miss each other maybe I was underneath the 110 muttering madly to myself at the time. She then said with a grin on her face “You are going to miss this Smith parcel drop off point when you move you know” and she is quite right I will! Maybe all orders will have to made for delivery on a Saturday morning from then on saving lots of trips to the local sorting office. The big box was the snorkel for the Disco and the heavy one was the new door hinges for the 110. Either were a welcome distraction from the wiring so what to do first? I went with the snorkel. I have no plans to make the Disco into an off road monster but I want it to be ready if I fancy a play or some nice easy old fart green laning so slowly I am working my way through it fitting the essentials like diff guards and snorkels “Just in case”. Out of the box came all of the bits and soon the template was in place... I then marked it all up double checking it was all where it was supposed to be after nearly moving the bonnet alarm sensor thing when I did not need to thinking I was fitting a 200tdi snorkel instead of a 300tdi one. Out came the drill so no turning back now... Soon enough using the drill and a grinder I had holes all over the wing! I offered it up and they were out a touch but not enough to cause me any concern so I removed the plastic inner wheel arch trim (going to need some welding underneath that lot before the MOT) and on the snorkel went... It was getting late now so once it was all tightened up and fastened on the passenger door pillar I called it a day. The air box and other bits underneath will be done later this week so at the moment the snorkel is just a fancy ornament doing bugger all! I would like to get the new hinges on the 110 as well so it feels like I am getting somewhere with it once again who knows I may even give it a lick of undercoat once the weather warms up a touch.

[h=2]Moss & New Metal.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Mon, February 29, 2016 20:46:55 It has been a busy day today with lots of running around the countryside and the seaside so I am quite amazed that I managed to get anything done at all on the 110. When we had stopped for an afternoon stroll along the river this afternoon and I noticed that some inconsiderate swine had scraped the rear half on the passenger side of the wife's car with what looked like quite a thick white bumper. This sort of thing makes me mad because there is no way you could not have noticed your car doing this as they have even dented the plastic rear bumper a bit as well! Why not just leave a note? I would have been happy for them to pay out themselves rather than going through their insurance if they were worried about premiums! Still what is done is done so I just left it until we got home to see what I could do with it there. This is where the problems started. It was supposed to be a quick five minute job of wipe the dust away apply some paint restore polish stuff I have and see if it worked. I am glad to say that it did work removing 95% of the scratches and I am sure a few more coats will see the whole job finished. But the problem now was that it appeared that it was a bit more than just some "Dust" I had wiped away, the whole car was pretty filthy if I am honest apart from this eighteen inch wide by half a car length long bit of a brightly polished section. I could not leave it looking like that it would drive my OCD through the roof! So I set to getting the washing kit out as well as the jet wash. Wifey's car soon looked nice clean and shiny again but now the Disco looked like it had taken a mud bath so I got stuck in on that. Twenty minutes later that was all sorted but I made the fatal mistake of looking at the 110. I had already noticed some mould on the bonnet that wanted sorting a few days back but now I was actually paying a bit more attention it would seem there was moss growing out of the windscreen surround as well as the gutter above it. The jet washer was now aimed at this lot as well as the soapy rags and before I knew it all of the living green algae had been removed leaving me wondering how on earth this stuff manages to grow so damned quickly. Two hours after I started I had a driveway full of shiny motors again. I have a new hinge set on order for the 110 so hopefully that should be fitted this week as well as me managing to finally align the front doors up correctly. I have also got to fit a snorkel on the Disco when I get a chance as well as sealing up the airbox under the bonnet. This week will be a busy one indeed and I am very glad the days are drawing out longer now to help fit it all in. Who said holidays are for lazing around and relaxing? http://www.nickysmith.me

[h=2]Locked Down.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, February 27, 2016 19:39:02 A dry if chilly day greeted me as I stepped outside with the dog for our Saturday morning stroll. It didn't get any warmer as I took down the greenhouse in preparation for our house move that hopefully is not too far away now and this was one of those jobs that usually end up taking more than you expect and with all of that thin glass you don't want to rush it for fear of nasty cuts or worse. I have to admit I was well dressed for disaster with thick clothes on plus my babygrow to top of it all so I had no fear of slicing and dicing bits of me I should not be. It's been a proper potter day and I soon ended up on the Discovery's roof to seal up the sunroofs and mid job I looked to my left noticing out of the corner of my eye that both of the 110's front door windows were slightly open but only at the front top corner of both of them? Seeing as I was up to my elbows in sealant I had to finish stopping the water running into my Disco like I was driving with all of the doors open first before I could investigate. So after a further ten minutes of stickiness that seemed to end up everywhere but where I needed it to be those windows got my full attention. I don't know who wanted to try and get into the 110 but considering if you threw a wet sponge at the door locks they would open for you they could not of had much of an idea of what they were doing. Both windows had been forced down about 10mm at the fronts only and one of the door hinges had been slightly unscrewed. I live on a main the main ring road and my neighbours all work different shift patterns so these wannabe thief's must have been disturbed pretty quickly hence everything still being there. They would have been really disappointed as well because I can guarantee it would not of turned over let alone started and this is still the case. All these thief's have done is make me lock the old boy down tight as drum along with leaving sod all in it worth nicking. The irony is that I had read earlier this morning how Land Rover thief's are targeting the Derbyshire area at the moment and I thought to myself that that was getting a bit close and thankfully mine was sat nice and safe on my driveway. Turns out we are not safe in the city in full view of a major road artery either so make sure you lock them down folks. nickysmith.me ©

Yep You are indeed a man after my own heart lol

[h=2]Radius and Rumps.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, February 21, 2016 19:14:31 I did get around to doing a couple of bits today after all much to my own surprise! First things first though, I need to say a very big thank you to my friend Richard for using his rather large press to sort out getting those bushes into the radius arms I refurbished last week. You sir are a true gentleman and have saved me hours of messing around trying to do it the hard way round so there is a crate of real ale winging it's way to you as a token of my appreciation! They do look well though... So that's six sets of bushes sorted out and only all of the rest of them on the 110 to go. Now in all fairness the back of the Land Rover looks like a bomb has hit it and it was far past time to sort it all out. I am trying to get on top of all of these little jobs that mount up before the move comes on so I set to emptying it all out. putting tools away where they belong as well as having a good sweep out. Then I popped my funky new seats that are going to be comfy for me to stick my ample rump on back in there and covered them all up but not before taking a picture or two first... I did manage to somehow get both of the head rests stuck in place only just in and I can't figure out how to move them either forwards or backwards now so I walked away before I got too frustrated and broke the buggers. I did get to thinking on what I should do on the inside of it and I will be going down the trying to get some comfort in there line. I wont be doing any serious off roading in it so comfort is going to be the key with this one...well as much comfort you can get in a Defender anyway. http://www.nickysmith.me

[h=2]Pauses & Patience[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, February 21, 2016 07:59:56 There is very little happening on the 110 at the moment and this is not just due to the weather. Because we are in the process of buying a house, which is coming on very quickly, and the fact that I actually have the 110 back into one piece as well as running leaves me loath to start to take it apart again. At the moment I can drive it onto a transporter trailer to get it over to our new home so I am sat here wondering exactly what I can do with it that wont effect it's forward motion... The replacement front seats were dropped off by my good friends yesterday and now they are here sat next to the landy I can see that they will look absolutely superb when they are fitted. I don't think I have ever seen half leather Renault Laguna seats fitted to a Land Rover before but I could be wrong there... So bugger all to report really I will get around to taking a few pics of the seats when the rain stops but apart from that I am a bit stumped on what to do next... http://www.nickysmith.me

[h=2]Bashing & Bushes[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, February 13, 2016 13:07:10 It feels like forever since I managed to get some time in on the 110 but seeing as I had sod all to do this morning today was indeed the day to play. Remember not so long ago I was unsure about rebuilding this? well it brought a smile to my face as I opened up the rear door of it this morning realising I had missed the old boy more than I thought and I was keen to get stuck in...funny how things change. I had one job in mind that I really wanted completing along with a few other little bits that needed finishing off so a potter around day it was going to be. First of all I decided it would be best to start the old boy up to warm him through so the battery was hooked up with me thinking that it would be flat as a pancake after this amount of time along with the cold weather we have had this week but it surprised me to hear it fire up straight up away after just a few seconds of preheat. With a little smile on my face I patted the dashboard as a well done to it got out and dug the old axle I had bought a few weeks ago. Now I had no need for this axle or anything on it but it came up at the right money and because I have to change the bushes in the front radius arms I figured it would be easier to do that to a set that was off of the 110 then it would just be a case of changing them over when it came to it. But before any of this could happen I had to get them off of that axle. WD40 is your friend you know and the bolts have been getting liberal doses of it over the last couple of weeks so the first side came off quite easily after a some gentle persuasion using two spanners to get the whole bolt moving freely first. The other side took a little more effort but after a few choice words the second radius arm was free. The next job ahead though was to remove those tired old bushes... Now I don't have a bearing press or any press of any kind so I had already had the forethought to trawl the internet to see what would be the easiest way to get these stubborn buggers out so armed with a chisel, screwdriver and hammer I set to work first cleaning the muck from around the bush edges then slotting the screwdriver down between the bush metal rim and the radius arm itself. A quick few hard whacks and the screwdriver was down the side forcing the old bush in on itself so with another set of whacks with the hammer onto the bush itself it was free and clear. "This is easy" I thought to myself as the second bush dropped out as easily as the first. That was where the fun ended. Could I get the buggers out of the second arm?? Nope they were stuck fast and did not want to play so I had to get a little creative. By creative I mean brutal. I dug out the metal chisel then set to smashing the damned things down one side with the hammer slipping off of the head of the chisel on a regular basis and whacking my hand. Trying to keep the air clean I hopped around shaking my hand from time to time but those damned bushes were coming out whether they wanted to or not. Sure enough after about ten minutes they were free and the only cost was a throbbing left hand. I then took them into the paint preparation area (the back garden) and got out the drill with a brush wheel and managed to get the years and years of rust, dirt and old paint off. Then it was time to put the first coat of Hammerite on it and here's a tip about Hammerite...don't leave it in a cold shed if you expect to use it as it thickens to the consistency of last weeks Sunday dinner gravy and you end up stirring it for ages to get some warmth into it. It doesn't take long to slap some paint around so while I was waiting for that side to dry I went back to the 110 to refit the accelerator pedal properly after it's foot well re-fit. There seems to be a shortage of nuts and bolts at the Smith household so the ones I used were a little long but not to worry they were made into short order with the grinder after fitting That done I ran back around to the painting area (the back garden again) to put a good coat on the next side of the arms. The results look quite good! When they dried off I could not get the new bushes in for love nor money. I poked sandpapered and scrubbed but all to no avail. Luckily a friend has access to a big press and has agreed to help out after asking "Can you just not do it because you are getting old?" Funny fella he is Then it was time to play with that mystical realm that is Land Rover electrics. Ever since I replaced the rear cross member and chassis the wiring has just been tucked up out of the way waiting for me to feel brave enough to try and tackle it all because I stupidly took no notice at all as to where it all went when I took it apart. So I sat there on the driveway like a dumpy little garden gnome cross legged on a piece of cardboard with my multimeter in one hand a hand full of cabling in the other and a perpetually confused look on my face. I did manage to get the rear side lights working along with the brake lights and the hazards. The hazards work so well that they come on when you try to indicate in any direction so I figured I must have a crossed wire somewhere to match the ones in my head. My backside was cold by now and I needed to think about returning some sort of feeling to my hands so I called it a day chucking the tools back into the shed and coming inside for a nice cup of tea. The 110 is coming along nicely now and each job I do seems to be one less off of the list. I am aware that that is obvious but now it feels each step is taking me toward the finishing line which at the moment is getting it a full MOT. There are plenty of plans of what I want to do to the inside and the outside but those are far into the future. Shall it be an overlander? Should it be military? Will it be red or will it be blue? I don't know yet but I am open to ideas for it all if anyone has any. http://www.nickysmith.me

Thanks Nic we are really pleased about the house As for the 110 yep it is feeling like I am getting somewhere now which is great because with all of the welding done it's just mechanical and paint paint from here on in

[h=2]Taking a Look & Tank Guards[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, January 31, 2016 08:07:29 It is not often I am stuck for words on how to explain how a day has gone both in my life and on either of the Land Rovers but this morning I am sitting here struggling with it. The fact that it is Sunday morning and not Saturday evening that I am writing also puts play into how hard it is to get the words down onto the paper. But I have decided to throw caution to the wind by just writing away and then not reading back over it in order to try to convey what has been going on over the last 24 hours! It started early with yet another house to view. I liked the look of this place on-line so did Wifey so off we went. The house was spot on, there was a lot of work that has been half done but that's half less of the work I would have to do and we like the area a great deal anyway as we have been looking over that way. Good sized rooms detached house with a garage car port and enough land to create hard standing/driveways to put the numerous and growing amount of vehicles we seem to have. It's a dorma bungalow type place at the bottom of a cul-de-sac so nice and quiet and most definitely a place we could grow old in if we wanted to. I am a big believer in following my gut and we kept the vendor busy for well over an hour going around and around the house checking it over in all the places and ways you need to when looking at a house. My gut told me in a big way this was the house and the price was well within budget leaving us enough a month in our wages to do the place up a bit at a time. We thanked the vendor and set off into Derbyshire for a walk along the first part of the Monsal Trial then into Bakewell for lunch... As we parked up at the start of the walk we had been chatting all of the ins and outs of the house we both liked so much so we thought "bugger it!" and called the estate agent with an offer because at the price it was up for we knew it would not be around very long. Of course it was not the full asking price but hey you have to haggle you know it is expected! With that done we started our walk not expecting to hear much at all for some time. We were wrong, very wrong. Within 30 minutes my mobile was ringing with the estate agent calling back to say "No the offer is too low" fair enough I thought it was a cheeky offer on a low priced house anyway but before I could say anything the estate agent then said "But she will meet you halfway price wise" There was only a delay on me responding because I was so surprised! I of course agreed straight away and the house was bought! To say we were pleased is an understatement as we danced around on the trial like kids whist the sheep looked on at us as if we were mad! So we are buying a house...our very own once again and Wifey has already planned the next three years work for me on it so I hope it all goes through ok! When we got back I needed a bit of down time and seeing as I had an hour or so of daylight left I naturally headed off to the 110 to see what I could do to it for a bit whilst I had a ponder over the days events. The first thing that came into sight was the tank guard I had bought, if you remember the 110 did not have one fitted before and in all fairness I had decided not to bother with one at all but this brand new one came up at a price I could not say no to and I thought "why the hell not keep it in good fettle eh!" It's only four bolts after all so shouldn't have taken too long. I was wrong again for the second time in the day (not that unusual if I am honest) it took all of the day light to shape and fit the bloody thing with the bolts going up and down on both ends more times than a hoar's knickers! There was some swearing I have to admit that turned into maniacal laughter after a while as I pried pushed pulled and lifted it to get around the mountings it needed to fit on but finally it was all in place with me slowly taking turns to wind all of the nuts up into place. It looks good though and I am glad I have fitted it as it finishes off the bad end nicely. Yes it is underneath where no one else will see it but I know it's right under there now So yesterday was a big day indeed that we had no idea was coming, as far as we were concerned we were off to take a nose around yet another house that would not be "quite right" and a walk. We ended the day owning (hopefully) a new house and looking around the one we are in realising how much we have to do to get ready for the nightmare of moving it all again. Hope fully this will the last one for a long long time....

[h=2]Wheels & Work.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Tue, January 26, 2016 20:24:57 Well they say time passes quickly and here we are already at the end of the second day of work. The only problem with being back at work is that it is dark when I leave then when I come back home again so the 110 naturally takes a back seat. Before this heinous time had come upon me I managed to get one last set of bits done for the old boy on Sunday in the form of starting to sort his wheels out. They were standard military lots of coats of green grey and sand along with some sort of sticky black thrown in just for fun! Out came the sanding brush that fits in the end of the drill and I took the worst of the rough edges away gave them a good wipe down then dug out the grey oxide paint. I have not decided on what colour the final product will be on the 110 yet so these will be left in primer for now until that tough decision is made! Now the reason I am not sure what colour it will be is because I thought it would just be green again and I had a tin of it in the shed and I had a go with it on one of the wheels thinking that would be another job ticked off of the long long list of things to do. I was wrong. I painted it and stood back to admire my handy work and instantly I did not like it...at all. I wondered if it was because it was wet, so I let it dry out. I still did not like it so maybe I am ready for my style on this motor, it will be my own design. No harm No foul I just dug out the sander again along with the grey oxide and soon enough they all looked the same again, sitting there just waiting for me to decide what colour to go with... http://www.nickysmith.me

[h=2]Scrap & S***e Traffic.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Thu, January 21, 2016 16:22:21 Well it's Thursday already to all of you normal folk but Saturday for me again! The week has been a bit funny time wise I feel like it's Thursday/Saturday already! but also it's onlyThursday/Saturday and I have got loads done! Either way it is what it is, with the winter frosts still holding fast as I woke up at stupid o'clock again to a world of white in fact it was that white this morning I did a double take to make sure it had not actually snowed overnight but thankfully no it's just freezing. The week so far has been a touch on the fresh side working on the driveway but today we had a bit of wind as well that really cut through you as you lay under the Land Rover. I am getting ahead of myself here though so lets back track to first thing when the garage collected my daughters 125cc bike to take it away for it's first MOT. I have not heard from them so far so hopefully all is well there and it will be dropped back off tonight. There was quite a pile of scrap metal amassed in the back garden so I dragged it all onto the front of the driveway as there are lots of scrap metal folks who drive up and down the ring road so it never hangs around long. There was just a small pile so I set a little note on it reading "Scrap Metal (not the Land Rovers!) which always seems to attract a bit of attention. There was going to be a quick trip to Paddock Spares this morning for a few bits so I could get the tank back in place and the 110 running again before tomorrow and the predicted rains that should be coming. I needed to get a pick up pipe thing for the top of the tank (I forget the correct name now), a tank cradle because mine never came with one and I am informed they should really be fitted along with another rear spring base. No problem I thought to myself just a quick pop there and back again not forgetting the jubilee clips that I needed from Halfords on the way home. 08:45 I left my house for what at worst should have been a 90 minute trip all in... 11:50 I got back onto my driveway. You may think I stopped for some kind of fun along the way or got distracted by something pretty and exciting but oh no dear reader it was the typical "Nick is out on his own driving so lets send out the "Delay Him and Wind Him Up Squad" Honestly you could not make it up! As soon as I got into to Derbyshire on lanes with no chance of overtaking for ten miles I came upon a learner bus driver. Now this in itself is not an issue we all have to learn and start some where, oh no the issue was the fact the bus never went faster than 20 mph STOPPED every time traffic came from the opposite direction and took every corner at approx 4mph...have you ever been to Derbyshire? there is a corner every 30 yards! The instructor needed a slap because there were many places to pull in and let the tailback of of 30 plus cars pass by taking pressure off of the learner themself and the frustration of all of the people behind them away. You could see the panic on the learners face as he looked in the mirror every 10 seconds the poor bugger! So no where to pass for ten miles and that's how far it was behind the bus. Still no problem I enjoyed the scenery then when the time came up I passed the bus quite easily rounded two bends and hit a long line of traffic waiting at temporary lights that let through three cars at a time in either direction. Trying not to lose my cool now I looked again at the rolling hills of frozen white and went over my order list again in my head. My turn to rush through the lights came and soon I was stood at Paddocks service desk all keen to buy the parts I needed and head home, the problem was I was the only person stood at the service desk. I rang the bell and waited, rang it again waiting some more, then I rang it again a bit more insistently and still no one came. After ten minutes of this crap I just rang the bell...constantly. Funnily enough within 20 seconds someone popped their head through the door and asked "Are you being seen to?" to which I replied with my nicest smile "Nope". All of the parts showed on-line as in stock so of course I only managed to come away with the pick up pipe thing some nuts and bolts along with the spring plate. Maybe it was payback for sitting on their bell. Never mind I was in no rush for the tank cradle I could just bolt the bugger back into place like it was when I bought it for now. I had to get back home first so sod going back the way I had come in I was going to go through Matlock & Matlock Bath instead. Yea, that was a mistake. To cut a long story short we will just go with multiple road works, temporary road surfaces, several temporary sets of lights, three tractors with trailers and a horse riding school that must have been out on a charity event to see how many horses they could get in a line two wide whilst riding from Matlock to Nottingham. I nearly forgot to get the jubilee clips but remembered at the last minute! Right then I was home and hungry now which was not surprising as it was now lunchtime so refuelling was done first then I got the fuel tank out to fit the new part to it. All 5 screws easily came undone on the old pick up pipe part then it was replaced along with the new gasket and off under the 110 I went. When people ask me next week where I went for my holiday I will reply with "Under my 110" because I know just about every bit under there now! Soon enough the tank was in place with the fuel pipes attached. At this point I did wonder to myself whether I had the fuel pipes the correct way around or not so que me chasing the pipework back from the front to check but everything looked good..I think. Once the filler and return was plumbed in I set my attention to the nearside spring seat, this was ok-ish that's why I had not replaced it at the same time as it's opposite but then I thought if I am going to do this I may as well do it bang on right. It took just minutes to undo the shock pop the spring out grind the old bolts off and put it all back together again. I then took away the axle stands the whole chassis has been resting on for weeks and weeks and for the first time since changing all of the suspension for new it sat on all of it's own rubber....lopsided. It does not look much in the pictures but there is a definite lean to the near side of an inch or two. It may be the spring or shock but both are new and I fitted it as it should be done with the correct spring on it's labelled side. So if anyone has any ideas or if I have done something glaring obviously wrong please feel free to rip the mick out of me but shout up with what it is too please In all honestly after the type of day it has been I was not surprised or overly bothered either so I popped off to the Petrol station and grabbed six litres of Diesel and chucked it into the 110 to see if I could get it running once again. I did not prime the pump, I did not bleed the fuel system either because I had taped up the end of each fuel pipe as I removed it from the tank so other than a little bit of air I figured what the hell lets just go for it and fire it up using what was already sat in the lines. It has been a few weeks since it was last started up so I turned the key to the preheat setting for a good 20 seconds then clicked it forward once more and it fired into life! After a few seconds I increased the revs a bit so that if any air in the system did work it's way through hopefully it would keep going until the diesel hit home once again self bleeding as it went. I need not of worried as it ran fine and true with no hiccups and very surprisingly no smoke when cold. There is only clean fuel in there now so maybe the fuel I took out of it was really old...you remember that fuel...I put it in the Discovery...best top that up then eh to thin the old stuff down a bit. So there I sat happy as a pig in poo until I got out of the drivers door to see a small puddle of diesel on the floor under the bulkhead. That was soon traced to a small split in the brittle fuel line that must have happened when I was messing around with the tank at the back pulling pipes in all directions as I worked on the chassis. No worries I just taped it up for now which is holding and I will replace all of the fuel lines from front to back before I am done. It has been a good week on the old boy, all of the major rebuild structural work is now done so the road ahead now lies with the more enjoyable mechanical rebuild bits. I still have to finish under sealing the whole chassis but the rot has been dealt with and the rest will be plain sailing because I now have a good base to build upon. I bought this 110 thinking it would be a quick "patch it up & play" motor but it would appear that I was very wrong. My heart sank at the thought of another rebuild I did not think I had it in me again so soon but as we have got to know each other I have started to enjoy myself once again. The old boy is growing on me. What this says about me God only knows but there is no rush to be done with this and it will be done right, it is being rebuilt for me and only me not a sympathetic resto like the last one nope I am thinking of what I want to use it for and what I want to do in it. So far I have no idea...

Looking good You hve tp love a Land Rover rebuild!

[h=2]Lazing & Loitering[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Wed, January 20, 2016 16:31:13 My body has caught up! I woke up early around 4:30am needing to pee, which in itself shows the years are marching on because I never used to have to wake up and pee during the night but it is now becoming an all to regular occurrence, then I hopped back into bed thinking there was no way I would be able drop back off but drop off I did not waking until Wifeys alarm jolted me out of a very nice dream involving working in my own very large garage on the 110 at 07:45. Bright eyed and bushy tailed I hopped out of bed made a cup of tea then thought "Bugger this" and hopped back into bed with me brew to watch the news. The news was crap but relaxing with a little internet time in no rush to get up or do anything was just what the Doctor ordered. But I could not be doing this all day so after a while I was up and about again looking what to do with my day seeing as it was wide open before me. I started by putting the freshly charged battery on the eldest daughters 125 which fired up a treat and then I grabbed my little tin of Hammerite to give the Disco's nudge bar thing another quick coat of paint as the last one I put on was a bit thin in places showing a little rust through it. That done I remembered the 110 fuel tank could do with a lick of paint and seeing as I had the kit out now I may as well give that a quick once over before I put it all away. It looked a lot better once done. The pick up pipe broke off in a rusty mess when I removed the tank so I have spoken to Paddocks who have one in stock so I will pop over there in the morning to collect that and a couple of other bits I need as well. Seeing as I was out and loitering on the driveway I decided to sort out the wiring under the chassis for the rear lights. This started with trying to fish out the rubber from inside the chassis that protected the wiring loom and after a few rather blue minutes I had managed to get it all the way through. I did not mean to leave it on the wrong side of the chassis in the first place but hey I am human and forgot before I welded the lot up! So once I had it out I could then set it right which took all of thirty seconds with two flat headed screwdrivers. Then I looked at the wires realising I had taken sod all notice of what went were before I removed them in the first place and thought "bugger this" again and decided to get the dog and go for a walk in the woods. Much to my surprise my daughter even came along for the 3.2 mile stroll which pleased me no end as we had time for a good catch up. The sunshine was stunning today through the trees and considering I was not going to do much of anything Land Rover wise I managed to get quite a bit done!

[h=2]Early Starts & Seats[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Tue, January 19, 2016 16:39:29 It's getting beyond a bit of a joke now, I am on holiday it is time to relax and do just what the hell I feel like while all of my family are out of the house and this should start every day with me sat in bed with a nice cup of tea watching the news for just a few minutes...ten would do! But nope my body is on work time and I am wide awake around five laying there staring at the ceiling until six because I refuse to get out of my pit before I would normally start a shift at work! Oh well if that's all I have to complain about eh, at least I get to see my youngest every morning before she leaves for school because there is no better start to the day than being mostly ignored by a teenager. Now my oldest daughter informed me that she was going to buy a motorbike because she has started working full time and would like a bit more freedom and independence than the bus network can currently offer her. By "she was going to buy" I should of put "she decided she wanted one and looked at Dad because he was the one who would be looking for it" Now this did not take me long really just a few days with most of that time letting her sleep on it a bit before she spent her money and changed her mind instantly after buying it leaving me to sell the bike back on again. This fad will probably only last a few months so I told her to set a budget of £500 and I managed to find a 62 plate Chinese 125cc with 2 miles on the clock...seriously! A husband had bought it for his Wife who liked the idea of it then rode up and down the road twice, popped it into the garage and promptly left it there for three years. The battery was shot so they put a new one on and delivered it to my door for the princely sum of £450. It will need an MOT now due to being over three years old but apart from a brake lever switch all seems good so it's going on Thursday after which my eldest daughter can insure it and I can have the pleasure of teaching her to stay shiny side up. By the time I got back in this morning from organising that lot it was 10 o'clock, tea time, which I drank while taking the first wheel off of the 110. The order of the day was to weld up the new chassis that was fitted yesterday so out came the correct tools like some big hammers and clamps to shape the metal around the old chassis giving an easier and stronger weld. It did not take long to jig the offside into place ready for the welder to come into play. You can see in the picture I also used some old wood to keep the lower part of the chassis flap in place by jacking it up first then gently lowering the jack down with the wood in position. This gave nice tight fit and before I knew it I was merrily welding away after adjusting the feed speed down a touch as it seemed to be flying through at an alarming rate. I was struggling a little bit here because I got a rusty bit of metal in my right eye yesterday and today it seems a little "gunky" although thankfully there is no metal left in there! It was soon all nicely welded up into place so just a bit of a grind down saw it bang on as did the messy underseal. That side done I jumped around to the other and it was more of the same although three people "had" to talk to me while I was under the 110 two being my neighbours and the last being the postman who as it turns out is a bit of a Landy nut and sat himself down on the path for a ten minute chat so if your post as late today it was probably my fault! It is a nice feeling having the last major welding obstacle behind me now as the rest of the rebuild feels like plain sailing because the rot has been removed. Now I am not saying am lazy here or anything but after two days of lying underneath the 110 for one reason or another I had had enough. I was feeling tired, not as young as I used to be you know, so I put the tools away and went into the back garden because there was the old chassis just sat waiting with lots of bits that needed to come off. I set too with it and every nut and every bolt came undone easily, not one of them fought me! I had the whole lot stripped off in less than ten minutes. I will be keeping the NATO hitch and handles but that drop tow ball is of no use to me. I want to fit a drop plate to the 110 so I can easily change over hitch types without sacrificing ground clearance. When we were out for dinner with some friends (yes I do have some real ones) over the weekend I was given by one of them a half leather interior out of a Laguna so I could modify the front seats to fit the 110 and drive in some comfort! Now this is a bonus as I wanted to put some different type of seats in it to make driving it over any sort of distance bearable and the fact they are free means I really don't mind adjusting them to fit Thanks again chap if you are reading! The rear seats will be made into a garage bench seat for drinking cups of tea on. I don't have a garage yet but it is a must for whatever house we end up buying over the next few months. Tomorrow will be a proper day off though as I intend on doing just whatever I damned well please be it a walk in Derbyshire or a lazy day stuffing my face full of crap or going out for a bike ride, I will not be working on the 110 or any other mechanical device. The leg is bruising up nicely from dropping the chassis on it so I doubt I will doing anything too strenuous! Having said that don't be surprised if you see another update because I decided to potter doing nothing in particular and ending up working on the 110 again! http://www.nickysmith.me

[h=2]Crying & Crossmembers[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Mon, January 18, 2016 17:40:32 Social media can be a fantastic thing with its instant access to lifetimes of information and the fact that you can be anywhere in the world on a webcam seeing places you may well never visit in the real world as well as all of the like minded friends you can make on there. But the other side really saddens me, first thing this morning because as usual I was up before the dawn I was on Facewipe and there were a plethora of hatred posts ranging from hurting animals to hating people. I am not going to preach from a soap box here but people come on people just live and let live, pass on a smile to folks you see look into different ways of life and cultures before you spin off in a mainstream media frenzy of hatred make informed choices. Chase the fun things in life use your energy to laugh as much as you can because God only knows there are enough tough times in our lives as it is! Right then enough of that and speaking of tough times I had my yearly visit to the Dentist this morning and I swear that bloke is only a Dentist because it causes folks pain he really is a sadistic bastard! "A quick scrape and polish" damn I thought he was pulling my teeth out by removing my gums first and with no pain relief either! Now I am a man and as such I do not cry, well in public anyway, but as I was lying in that chair I seriously had to hold myself back from giving the chap a quick slap and by the end of the five minutes of hell I did have water amassing at the corner of my right eye...it was just the bright lights you know! When I got home I looked at the 110 and knew it was time to tackle the chassis, the weather was good it was not too cold and inside my mind this was turning into a massive hurdle so head down arse up and best be getting on with it! Now does the back of anyone else's project Landy look like a bomb has gone off inside of it??? This was the first step of the day because tools seem to be going missing and I am sure most of them were in the rear twilight zone I have been developing...I was right! That done I dragged out the new 1/3 chassis and its box opened it all up so I could measure where and how much I was going to be cutting off of the old one. It was at this point I realised that I was getting ahead of myself so I went back into the rear tub and started to try to take the back panel off of both sides in order to access the wiring that needed to be disconnected so the wiring loom could be fed back through the old chassis. This kind of set the mood for the day because the single bolt and phillips head screw that held each panel in place were knackered and unmovable by traditional means. I looked at the 110 and firmly informed it that I was not going to be playing games with it today and headed out to the shed to get the grinder...that made short work of that problem. That sorted I laughed at the fact whoever wired up the old trailer socket on it used only yellow wiring, no seriously look I had to take a picture of it because I could not believe it myself! I could not put it off any more now I had to start on the chassis so I measured up from a few different places and marked up the old one where I thought it would need cutting. Once it was marked up I put lots of axle stands and a jack in place to catch the hold chassis when I made the cuts then I went off for a cup of tea for 10 minutes. The reason for that was I have been dreading cutting the chassis off because if I buggered it up it means I would need a whole new one and think as hard as I tried I could not find an excuse or reason good enough to explain to Wifey why needed a grand in cash. When I came back I triple checked my measurements and marking, again, then I checked once more! Nope couldn't put it off any more everything looked good so I fitted a 1mm cutting disc to my grinder (I hate using the really thin ones I think I am going to end up with a broken one in my face...Jesus I am turning into a worrying old git these days) then set to on the first cut. All went well and after a few disc changes the rusty old one was off... Looking at the pictures you can see how rusty it really was and way beyond any sort of proper repair! What I DO NOT recommend is dropping this very heavy rusty piece of crap on your shin when moving it out of the way because it really does smart a touch! At least it took my mind off of my visit to the Dentist! The chassis underneath looked good and the rear end looked all lost and lonely now its backside had been surgically removed! The wiring loom took some feeding back through into the new chassis and I re-taped it all up before I did. I also set it so it sits in the middle of the chassis using tension to keep it out of the way when welding. Now we would see if I had made the right cuts or not as I tried to offer up the new chassis... If you are going to attempt to do this particular type of work on your Land Rover may I suggest getting someone to help you as it is bloody awkward trying to fit a new piece this size by yourself but it was possible using the axle stands and a jack oh and the high lift. It was tight...I mean really tight to get onto the old chassis but with some gentle persuasion using a sledge hammer it went nearly all the way into place. I did use the nuts and bolts on the tabs at this point as well. I put them all into place which kept the chassis in line and helped by putting some extra tension/force moving the replacement chassis exactly where it was supposed to go. My measurements were all good much to my now smug satisfaction (I mean it is my why was I worrying??) the whole thing had lined up a treat! Sounds easy doesn't it? Well it was straight forward enough but this process of lining up and banging and bashing took about 45 minutes until I was happy with the end result, after all I hope this will be on here for quite some time. The back end looks good now though with no more rusty holes...no one likes a rusty hole... So first job tomorrow is to finish cleaning off the metal then clamp it all up and get the welder out. The reason that none of that was done today was because it was getting darker, colder and I had had enough for one day. The weather looks like it is staying dry until Friday so lots of pottering can be done without having to rush, I don't rush any more... http://www.nickysmith.me

[h=2]Hmmm Snow.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, January 17, 2016 07:43:07 I had to open my mouth didn't I. In a passing tongue in cheek comment I said all would be good for the work on the 110 chassis as long as it didn't snow on my week off... Bugger. lol at least it has not settled on the drive so work can carry on as long as that's all that falls from the sky! I wont be doing anything else until tomorrow anyway so hopefully some would have melted away On the plus side it was a fantastic walk with the dog early this morning who loves the snow rolling around as well as ploughing the fields with her nose in the stuff and the city does look very nice with the overnight white coating it has received... [TABLE] [TR] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

[h=2]Frost & First Cuts.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, January 16, 2016 16:42:20 Hurrah! It is the first Saturday of many (we are a bit odd in our house when we have a week off everyday is Saturday until the last Sunday...if you understand what I mean) and I was awake bright and early at stupid o'clock because my body thought I had to go to work. Not to worry I am long past fighting myself over trying to sleep more or forcing a lie in when I don't need them so I hopped out of bed getting a disgruntled muttering form the Wife about it being still dark and headed out for a wash to be met by the dog with the usual "Are we going for a walk then?" face on. Yes, yes we were because I love the early morning in the city while everyone sleeps but my oh my was it a bit parky this morning it was that nippy I actually put my winter coat and hat on to go for a wander amongst the hard frost that covered everything in a coat of frozen white. I the Land Rovers looked really nice wearing their white coats... After getting back in with one exhausted dog I woke Wifey up because we were back on the house hunt again first thing with a couple of viewings one of which has become a contender but as you should in such matters we are not in a rush and will sleep on it for a few days as well as looking at the area at different times of day and night. A cheeky sausage cob whilst we were out saw me in good ste ad when we got home around lunchtime to get started on the sorting the 110 out in the mid winters sunshine. First though I emptied out the bargain set of Defender 110 G90 wheels I had picked up last night from the Disco so I could use it of the need arose... A rub down and repaint will see these wheels ready for the 110 when it finally gets around to MOT time after the rebuild. It was then onto the 110 itself to start the preparation for the rather large chassis repair that is needed this week. First off the fuel tank had to come out so I had to remove the filler and overflow fuel pipes which should be easy enough after all they are only jubilee clips right? Wrong. The clips would not budge for love nor money so after five minutes of buggering about I got the grinder out and put short play to them. I was not worried about damaging the pipes themselves because they had turned hard as stone and could do with replacing anyway. That sorted I undid the easily undid the nuts holding the tank in place at the front and back then tried to remove the tank... It was when the tank would not come out of place that I realised I had been a bit eager here and had forgotten to remove the fuel pipes along with the electrics for the fuel gauge. I shifted the tank back into place and proceeded to snap off both of the fuel pipes, destroy the earth wire for the fuel gauge and break both the sender wires. Apart from that it all went swimmingly! I used the tow bar support arms to support the tank again as I lowered it out of place and they came in handy as an extra pair of hands. The tank itself is in surprisingly good condition but the fuel that came out was full of rust that had to be filtered out of it before I popped the little that was there into the Discovery. I have rubbed down the cross member ready for sealing up before I fit the new chassis section and refit the tank... The rear exhaust silencer was in the way and seeing as it was rusty as hell with holes in the pipework I made the job easier for myself with the grinder when it was removed. It was about now I had had enough of lying on the floor in the cold so I dug out the new chassis section for a look at it and I have to say I am not looking forward to cutting the old chassis away because if I bugger it up I will really bugger it up! I will measure then remeasure then measure again. At this point I will have a brew along with a bit of a think and then measure it all up again before making the first cut. Now as usual I will be totally honest when I do it but hopefully it will all be good news when that bit comes around. The next job will be to disconnect the rear lights and feed the loom back along the chassis a bit so I don't destroy that when the old part gets cut off! It is going to be a busy week! www.nickysmith.me

[h=2]Snow & Steel[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Fri, January 15, 2016 19:20:48 Well Winter has arrived properly the last couple of days with early morning windscreen scraping, driving to work wrapped up like a toddler going out to play in the snow along with the car heaters only just getting warm by the time you pull into your work car park. The frost looks fantastic normally best appreciated from behind your warm and cosy houses front window with a steaming hot cup of tea in hand. So what sort of idiot would be happy as hell that he has a week off of work starting right now that he can climb under a rusty 110 to disconnect the whole rear end of a rusty chassis and replace it with a shiny new one? Oh that would be me of course! Now it is cold and there is even a little snow forecast on Monday to be thrown into the mix just to keep me on my toes but I am determined that over the course of a few days, in short bursts between nipping into the house to thaw out that I will get this back end sorted because it is the last major piece of welding that needs doing to the old boy and in my head the brow of the hill on this resto. I got home to a rather large parcel waiting for me in brown paper packaging that I did not recall ordering but my name was on it so I opened it eagerly to see what was inside but also having the thought in the back of my mind that you would not have dared opened such a package a few years ago that you were not expecting because it was traditionally from the seedy back street mail order companies that only supplied items to aid personal gratification...most folks now just jump onto the internet for that sort of thing now! In the parcel were a few of this months copies of "THE LANDY" newspaper and I was amazed to see that they had dedicated just over three full pages to "The Project Has Landed" on this months write up of the book. Now don't get me wrong here they are publishing the whole book word for word but just taking exerts in a joint promotion type exercise which is fine by me and it genuinely still surprises the hell out of me to see my name and ramblings in print in yet another new place, it will not make me rich in fact it makes just about bugger all but pleases me none the less that it makes a few folks laugh or smile. Now biggest decision for this evening is what type of alcoholic drink to have and exactly what else I will do next week to please myself because, you see the Wife will be at work along with the kids at school so it is just me and the dog...how will I cope?

really enjoying this and looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

[h=2]Paint & Oil[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, January 10, 2016 15:50:57 Now I am not one to use a modern mobile phone to it's full potential in fact most of the fanciful things it can do are either genuinely lost on me or I have very little interest in doing whatever it is supposed to do along with the fact that I get very very frustrated with the damned things when my own lack of understanding means they don't do what I want them to do. So with that in mind you can guess I am not a big fan of any sort of "App" but I have come across one I do like and I even managed to fumble around on the internet with my phone and install it without crashing the mobile or bringing in a virus that would do that for me. Once installed I even managed to figure out what to do with it and hey presto I have managed to convert photos of all four of the Land Rovers that I have owned into a painting and they do look really good! I am not going to put all four of them up in this blog but feel free to have a look at the Facewipe group "Just turned 40" to see them all there. A free day today and against the norm in such days the ground is dry with the sun shining brightly in the sky pushing forth a meagre warmth but lets face it it does not matter if it is cold I always feel better when the sun is out, it just makes me happy to be alive when I am outside on a day like that. Wifey is feeling rough and wanted to do as little as possible today so there was no guilt of pottering around outside on the Land Rovers instead of being out and about in the countryside on this glorious day. First stop was Blue the Discovery because his gearbox had sounded a little loud this week which sounds odd but you know what it is like once you have heard certain noises you tend to have an idea of what the issue probably will be and the issue I thought I had here was that there was either very little or very old oil in the gearbox so I drained the lot out after having to worryingly use a breaker bar to get the filler plug undone. As I thought there was next to bugger all oil in the box and what was there was very old so while it was draining the last few drips out I set to fitting the pair of sump guards I had bought. This is just the first step of what will be a slow process of putting just a few gentle off road/green laning modifications Blue is going to get. Once on all shiny and new they looked good though. After making sure I had put the drain plug back in I filled up the gearbox with oil getting plenty down the inside of my forearm in the process, I have to say this is one of my least favourite jobs as I tend to end up greasy covered in oil and without a doubt somehow having to managed to ruin the clothes I am wearing under my baby grow! Then I had to top up the engine oil as I erred on the side of caution when I changed that amount wise so half a litre saw it right and for some reason the coolant expansion tank caught my eye so I took the cap off but the level was good with no signs of anything nasty going on. My gut though told me I was missing something and it took a little while to twig the coolant as completely clear, so just water there with no antifreeze and this became my next job seeing as the weatherman has forecast a pretty cold spell coming up. This did not take long to do in fact it took longer to get the engine up to temperature and the coolant flowing nicely around the block mixing up the antifreeze with the water than anything else. That done and parked up with me satisfied all was well for the little bit of winter we have coming I looked to the 110 and that off side rear suspension I walked away from a couple of weeks ago as I did not have the parts to hand to seat the new spring. This I had now along with the new securing bar so off with the wheel and out came the old spring and what was left of the rusty plate. I had to grind away what was left of the old bump stop plate at this point as well so that is something I will have to get around to buying then welding back into place along with a new bump stop itself but the more I look at things on the 110 the more I realise now that I will be stripping back just about everything on it and refurbishing it. The rusty spring plate and old securing bar along with the nuts and bolts that held it on had to be ground off as there was no way that they were going to be coming off by the traditional methods. Once off I gave the whole area a good dose of Hammerite seeing as it was not going to be accessible until the next time it was all taken apart and who knows how long that could be! New plate new spring new securing bar all came out of the shed and put into place. There was more room than I thought for doing up the nuts than I thought here which was a pleasant surprise as I thought it was going to be a bit of a pain with my sausage fingers! Once it was all set into place and secured I jacked up the axle seating the top of the spring in the process then fitted a new shock absorber to finish it all off nicely. Time for a brew as I sat back admiring my handiwork. My thoughts soon wandered to the fact we are house hunting at the moment and I mentally ran through the properties we have seen over the last couple of weeks, there is a clear leader at the moment but it is up in some daft "Modern method of auction" which after reading the small print with it is a load of tosh with no end date and many restrictions against a potential buyer along with lots of added costs that are unnecessary so if we do put an offer in on the house it will be on the condition that we follow the traditional method of house buying or they can keep the place. I am not being grumpy here but I will not be messed about or have the family set their heart on something only to lose out on it at the last minute because no doubt a mysterious bidder will arrive and up the ante...folk must think we just fell out of the tree honestly. Once I snapped myself out of that daydream I decided to make a start on getting the rear cross member ready to be cut off next week (weather permitting). I chucked WD40 over just about anything that would need to be undone and started with getting all of the nuts and bolts off of the rear tabs that hold onto the rear bulkhead. It didn't take long really with it all moving quite easily so that after a happy twenty minutes playing twister by myself on the driveway I had them all off. Turned out that the six middle nuts were welded to the rear of the tub which was a surprise, the rest of the bolts looked in good repair so I grabbed an old food tub used for housing the unlucky bugs that were my Bearded Dragons dinner popped them all in with a liberal dose of WD40 and left to soak and be reused later. This is quite a handy trick for keeping things separated until you need to use them again saving the usual hunt around to the last missing bit that you need when reconstructing. I sat thinking of what the next job was when I realised that I could not be bothered with it. I was getting cold even though I was sat on cardboard and my enthusiasm was leaving me so rather than force the issue I set to cleaning everything up and putting the tools away. I have been using my new Halfords set and loving the feel of it and again recommend these to anyone that wants a half decent set of spanners and sockets that do not cost the earth for hobby wannabe mechanics like me. There was yet again lots of rusty crap to be swept up that left me wondering if the 110 was actually loosing weight through this rebuild process... www.nickysmith.me

[h=2]Frames And Lists[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, January 03, 2016 14:06:32 They say age catches up with us all, if we are lucky enough and it seems much to my surprise that it does. I started having to wear glasses a few years ago now for driving, then for watching TV or working on computers then I got to have two sets for doing theses things as my sight got just a little more worn out. This is not a problem as such but if I did not put either on in the morning I could usually potter about for hours no problem at all with seeing what I was up to but this morning it turned out it was the first day I could not actually do that either! Now my mind is telling me that I am not any older than 26 and I will not wear out any more ever but my body seems to be betraying me and if it was either of the Land Rovers I would be ordering a few new parts! Funny really because I am fitter now than I have ever been but the forties aches are starting to appear but I refuse to grow old oh no I will be a big kid until my best before date passes and I move onto whatever lies in store for us all next. I did not have an early start today,it is Sunday after all, but I was out on the driveway for 9am trying to beat the rain that the radio weather folk said was on it's way in. Over the weekend I had dug out the old A frame bar that came with Blue the Disco when I bought him and stripped off the cracking plastic covering using a heat gun and wallpaper scraper. This was a bit of a chore but only took about an hour or so keeping my hands warm in the cold before I then gave it a quick coat of Hammered Black Hammerite paint leaving it in the shed to dry over night.The reason I wanted this back on the Disco is so I can do a bit of gentle green laning from time to time and this frame has built in recovery points on it so it saves buggering about having to buy then fit something else...make and mend do and all that! So this morning I got set up and the old Disco looked a little bare on the front end... I undid the bumper bolts and offered up the frame, it all but fell into place for the bottom bolts which I slid easily into place then I pushed it up to do the top bolts and it was here the problems started... It should have been an easy four bolt do but nope the frame had been "bumped" at some point and bent back enough that I could not get it with 20mm of the bolt holes I wanted to use. I moved it up and down from side to side I even took the bottom bolts out to see if the top bolts would go into place but no the top of the frame just dug into the bonnet no closer to it's goal than before. I took a step back at this point to have a brew and a think but the only option I could see was to drill a couple of new top holes in the brackets so I shoved the drill through the chassis on each side to mark the place the new holes needed to be, took the whole thing off and drilled the new markings through. This took some doing as it turns out my metal drill bits are pretty tired and need renewing but after lots of noise that I expect my neighbours loved on a Sunday morning the deed was done and the frame fell into place no problem at all! I stood back to admire my handiwork and liked what I saw there, yes it is a little lower than it should be but none the less it looks well enough and will work perfectly for towing me out of where ever I get stuck! The rain started then right on queue so tools down packed away along with a quick escape indoors. You may be wondering why I am doing these few bits to Blue seeing as he was just to be my winter motor that would be sold on again but it has been proved once again that I have possibly the most understanding and best Wife kicking around on this small ball of a planet we live on because when we were chatting about moving house this year last night we somehow got around to talking about how to get the stuff moved again as well as parking spaces that would be needed at the new place when she said "you will need three spaces plus the bike" To which I replies "I thought we would be selling Blue by then?" She just smiled a gentle one sided smirk and said "Let's face it Nick, Blue won't be going anywhere" God I love that woman and what I did to deserve her I have no idea but she really lets me play with the big boys toys and keep them too! Once indoors with another brew in my hand my thoughts turned to the 110. I have a week off coming up in a couple of weeks and I intend to make some serious headway on the old boy then by at least getting the fuel tank out, new rear 1/3 chassis welded into place with the fuel tank treated and put back into place if it is still serviceable and if not I have a plastic Discovery tank stood waiting in the wings to take its place. A list was needed then of what I need to pick up for this rather large chore and so far it looks like this... New nuts and bolts to attach the chassis to the body on the rear tabs. New Nuts and bolts to hold the body to the chassis mounts underneath. New nuts and bolts for the tow bar and Nato hitch. Tin of Underseal. Tins of waxoil for inside the chassis. Wire brush and Wire brush for drill. Another roll of welding wire as mine is getting a bit in the low side. I think that's about it as I have the grinding discs etc to cut the rotten bit off already in the shed and even as much as I would like too I don't think I can book the weather to be dry in advance in fact knowing my luck it will probably snow that week! If it does I ill shovel it out of the way and just crack on as long as I am not fighting a blizzard or torrential rain as this is the last big welding hurdle to overcome and I cannot wait until it is behind me. nickysmith.me