Facelift Discovery 2 (Td5)

Plans, a decent reliable car.
Standard problems? Well...

Initial inspection showed the chassis to be generally good, a bit of welding done a year or two previously, but the only visual letdown (considering I was lieing under it in a field) was that the N/S/R spring seat had escaped it's welds and was now relying on the inner arch/boot floor to keep it roughly in place.

Not a deal breaker by any means, I've saved worse in the past, and as I've already mentioned; It's a £400 Disco.

So, on the lift, wheel off, spring out and here's the starting point.



It became apparent it was going to get worse before it got better, the white stuff visible is remnants of fibreglassing.



The inside wasn't much better when I started to it, whilst it became apparent that the previous 'repairs' were playing over the rot, rather than cut it out and replace, so I kept cutting...



Then adding fresh steel back in to keep some structure, and replace the rot.









Then a bit more on the inside.





Then repaired the spring seat...



Welded it on.



And added the spring to make it all self supporting again.



There was quite a bit of rotten steel came out, over a total of about 18 hours.



A bit of a wash, and 2 front sidelight bulbs saw it MOT worthy, and it left the testing station with a pass.



Straight into use, we got to enjoy such modern conviniences as the Curry hook, and a few other refinements in which my 110 is lacking.



The first weeks running was trouble free, but for The development of a squeak from the front propshaft, a common Disco 2 issue of the -non greaseable- ouble carden joint at the gearbox end falling apart.

Being a thrifty chap, I wasn't keen on spending out on a new propshaft, so instead raided the parts stockpile and found a more traditional shaft from a 300 Tdi Discovery.
Fitting the 300 Tdi item required swopping the front output flange on the transfer box for one to suit (the D2 one has a larger PCD) but was a straight swop over by the simplest of definitions, and left a propshaft with greaseable joints either end.

All continued to go well until one afternoon I got a phone call from herself saying it wasn't going into gear properly.
Some diagnosis revealed the clutch was likely bollocksed, so back on the lift and pull the box out to find a 4 piece clutch kit.
Not sure where the rivets ended up, but not worth worrying about.



£200 saw a new clutch kit arrive from Clutchfix LTD, including a nice billet release bearing.
Fortunately the flywheel was in excellent condition.





Very grateful to my mate Jack for coming out for the evening to give me a hand getting the box back in, it was a pig of a job for 2 of us, I can imagine it taking twice as long if I'd attempted it myself.

Since the clutch, it's been racking up the miles, the main highlights being finding an 18" rim for the spare to match the others on the car, and a couple of tyres, a bonus buy at £15 each for nearly new tyres from the local breaker.

I was also fortunate enough to get hold of a couple of key fob chips from scrap vehicles for next to nothing, and bought a pair of refurbishment kits on eBay (£8 to my door) and another £10 spent on getting the fresh blades cut to suit.
15 minutes with my mates Nanocom saw them programmed to the car, and we had two new programmed keys for it for less than £20.

It's taken a bit of time and effort, but doing some sums with purchase price, parts and MOT, we've got a good solid (and quite well specced) car for less than £800.
What's not to like?

Pictured with my 110 (it's looking a bit rough recently)



And this one, just because it looked good.