1959 Land-Rover Series 2. Seating, and distractions…

Ok. We survived the trip with no dramas. 

I've done a bit over 500 miles since swapping the pump and injectors and can confirm now that the economy has jumped back up to where it should have been just like the performance did. Back to 30mpg from 25. 

It's a bit embarrasingly smoky though. I don't know how the proponents of "rolling coal" cope. 

So, the first pump has definitely been confirmed to have been the root cause of the running woes. I have boxed it and the injectors up and sent them up to Diesel Bob in Lancashire to be stripped, autopsied and rebuilt to their "performance" specification. 

Having spent a few weeks selling stuff, sorting stuff and working a bit of overtime I have replenished the motoring fund enough to take the plunge on a replacement exhaust system too. After going back and forth with the options I have decided to buy one of Steve Parker's off-the-shelf setups again to get me rolling in the quickest and least painful manner. There are still one or two niggles with it, mainly regarding the mountings, but overall I think it offers the best compromise between cost and practicality. I am having the front and intermediate pipes made in stainless, with just the rear box in mild steel. I would have gone for the complete system in stainless, but the lead time for a silencer is currently 10-12 weeks as they're bought in from elsewhere and the supplier makes to order. The system uses custom front and intermediate pipes and a standard V8 rear silencer, so I may investigate getting a silencer direct from the manufacturer in due course, but for the moment I save a bit of money.

Roof leak is much reduced, but not completely cleared, so I will be doing another round with Capt. Tolley when it stops raining.

I really want to swap the pump and injectors back before I fit the replacement turbo and new exhaust, just so I can make comparisons as to what bits make what changes, and because I don't want to fill the new system up with soot. Hopefully, over the next week or so, I can get all the bits I need ordered up and here waiting so I can make a start once the pump comes back.

New list:

1. Continue to attempt to cure leak from joint in the riveted seam between roof panel and roof gutter.

2. Refit original pump and injectors when they come back.

3. Swap manifolds and turbo for 300 Tdi setup, and fit new exhaust (ordered). 

4. Rebuild spare steering box, and swap over.

5. Fit power steering kit, swapping alternator mount etc.

6. Revise switchgear and wiring for column switches, make a new auxiliary panel for the area around the steering wheel, relocating gauges to where they can be better seen. Fit relays to headlight circuit.

7. Wait for something else to break.

Rimmer Bros used to supply part stainless exhaust systems, might be worth a call for a V8 backbox? You might need a 2nd mortgage though

i have double S on my series 3, and the ninety before it. they are stainless but pretty low grade, definitely better than a standard mild system. but if deviating from standard i think its the right call to find a dedicated pipe bender and have a system made in 304 grade

ah i missed up, think i turned adjective into verb "i'm having the front and intermediate pipes made"

so, steve parker front and middle (stainless), standard v8 rear (mild)

I have a grumpy postman. 🤣🤣

Had a few deliveries this week. 

First off was an unfeasibly awkward package that contained this. 

I think, possibly, we have already established that I’m not quite right… however, just in case there was any residual doubt…

Many years ago, ‘98 I think, I received an offer I couldn’t refuse for the Land-Rover’s original registration number (3274 EL). I sort of regret selling it, but it did pay for a brand new galvanised chassis, so it’s more like “sorry, not sorry” than proper “I should never have done that”.

Anyway, that’s when I bought the current number plates. When I fitted them I had the bright idea of using the same mounting hole spacing front and rear, so they would be interchangeable should I ever need to. No, I can’t actually think of a reason I might need to, but it seemed important at the time…

So, I looked at the spacings on the original plates, decided the way the front one was mounted would be best for the new ones, and drilled both plates to suit.

I put the front one on, no bother.



When I went to the other end though, I realised that I’d dropped a clanger. The top holes would be fine, but the bottom ones wanted to go right where the base of the toolbox runs, or underneath it where you can’t get a nut behind.

Pants.

I ended up having to drill two more mounting holes, to match the original ones, and then blank off the redundant ones with four dummy fixings.

This has had a visual naffness that’s triggered my OCD for decades. Granted, time has softened the tooth-itch, but I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.



So, the new plate had to go on the rear, and just has two holes in it.



With that on, I now have a plate spare that is ready drilled for either end of the vehicle.

So, I snipped off all the (fairly terminally rusty) little clips holding the characters on, and took the lot indoors to give them a good scrub in soapy water.





The plastic digits came up really well. The black actually went flat/faded pretty quickly, but it’s only got really bad in recent years, and a scrub with a sponge revealed that it’s not actually flat paint any more, it’s no paint at all. I’ll sand it back flat and give it a coat of etch primer, and then a couple of coats of something a bit better than the Aldi black I generally use; suggestions welcome.

When it’s done, I’ll temporarily fit it to the front while I strip and paint that one in a similar manner.

I bought them from here, both times, back in 1998 and last week:

Polar Automotive Classic Plates

As to the quality, well you’re not exactly overrun with options for stuff like this any more. I think they must have a fairly elderly jig for punching the holes for the digits, because both the original set and the new one have the S exactly at the same level of crooked. I would like to have seen them assembled with more attention to detail, but I have to remind myself that they are (and always would have been) mass production items, banged out quickly with little care and are entirely appropriate for a vehicle like mine. The oblong one is better in that respect than the square. 

I think I might try Tippers next time I need some, but I fear that I’m always going to be able to find fault. 🤪

I agree, the stamped aluminium ones often look wrong, particularly if they’re the laminated ones that have the black bit start to peel off after five minutes. These ones looked very shouty “NEW!” for a relatively short while. After time the black went a little flat and the characters a more creamy white. 

These arrived back before Christmas, but there’d just not been a day when either work, rain, darkness, domestic stuff or my mood had stopped me doing anything with them until Saturday. 



Removal of the temporary ones was straightforward, having done it a few times now. 





And refitting, to quote Mr. Haynes, was a simple reversal of the removal procedure. 



You will be pleased to hear that, once bled, starting was easy and performance is brisk. The horrible black smoke from the temporary pump has pretty much disappeared. It does smoke a little when worked hard, but I am told that raising the boost pressure a little will help that. There’s also a few thousand miles of built up soot in the exhaust which can’t be helpful. 🙂

Next step is to swap the manifolds, fit the new exhaust and reroute the inlet pipework to suit the new turbo location. I was looking at the exhaust manifold before Christmas, thinking that I could fit it as it was, but that once on it would probably never come off again to do anything with cosmetically… so I took it to the bloke who aqua blasted and Ceracoted my bike bits and had him clean and coat it. “What colour do you want?” he asked. “Don’t care, whatever’s in the gun if it’s cheaper” was my response…



That'll teach me! 🤣🤣 Still, it only cost £60 and we had a laugh, so it makes further dealings there more enjoyable. 👍

I still haven’t swapped the manifolds…

Weather, my mood, other domestic stuff and Bantams have distracted me. So I’ve mainly just been driving it.

One of the things that I’ve found though, with driving it, is that the reach down to the handbrake becomes quite uncomfortable if repeated in quick succession. This is probably an age thing (mine not the Land-Rover’s), although when seatbelts became compulsory in 1965 the factory modified the handbrake so that it could be reached easier.

The standard early version I currently have looks like this:



An appeal to the Owners’ Club saw someone I’ve swapped bits with before offer me a late version for the cost of postage, so a few days ago I received a very suspicious looking package…



Once unwrapped it revealed this:



I took the opportunity to give it a clean up and a fresh coat of paint.



I’m currently laid up with Covid, and feeling pretty pants, so it’ll have a few days to cure before I’m likely to be ready to fit it, but it’s not more than a twenty minute job and should be another little tweak that makes quite a difference to how it is to live with.