It has been a while sine the last post, so this update is as much to show the blog is still active as much as for any other purpose! In truth, there is very little to report.
The 109 has had an engine oil change and has had Silblades fitted to the windscreen wipers. This entailed cutting the frames of the old Bosch blades down from 11″ to 10″ (at 11″, the ends hit the windscreen frame outer and lower edges on the outboard end of the sweep), the removal of the Silblades strips from their frames, cutting the blades down to 10″ (Mudstuff only sell the longer Defender size blades) and fitting the blades to the modified Bosch frames. They work very well.
The Range Rover is running fine, despite the fuel injection pump not responding to the turbo charger’s boost ever since installation (the pump was incorrectly assembled by Bosch, but acquired as a second hand unit and the charge then waived because of the faults, I can’t complain too much!). The bodywork is still in fairly good order but showing more signs of deterioration, with small rust patches appearing on the bonnet edge and lower tail gate. I have had an estimate from a top-end body shop (which deals with a lot of classic Ferraris and luxury cars) of £5000, which is just too much. I’ll have to find a shop I like with an estimate closer to the £3500 I was given elsewhere.
The Lightweight is still in storage. The rear diff and rear springs still need attention, but since the vehicle is just a toy, the other vehicles take priority.
The house move is progressing. The sale and move out of the old house is long settled, which is why I have no work space at the moment. The new house is getting closer to completion and should be finished by Christmas, but since we have the rented accommodation until well into the new year, I’ll use the time overlap to get the house and, importantly, the garage/workshop sorted out before moving everything across, including the Lightweight, which will at last have permanent shelter. Of course, a new house takes a lot of time and money out of the kitty, so projects in the coming year will have to be fairly limited. As impatient/desperate as I am becoming to have the RRC body restored, it will probably be deferred again, but I do expect to finally fit the 109’s new axles in the spring – that project needs very little more expenditure and mainly needs the space and time that the new house will afford me.
It’s not strictly relevant to this blog, but I’m very disappointed in Land Rover’s DC100 Defender replacement concept. It has completely gotten away from what the Defender is; a simple, strong, basic and highly adaptable platform. It seems to be a flashy, rather vulgar fun car with 4wd capability, but not a true off-road work horse. I’m sure it would appeal well to young urban professionals who want to drive it to the kids’ school, beach or ski-slopes, but it doesn’t appear to have any of the characteristics that make up a Defender. I’m not alone in such an impression, and public approval for the concept as a future Defender seems dismal. Land Rover seem to have taken note of the general mood, too, with several press releases and comments that the concept vehicle is deliberately extreme and that the developed vehicle would be more restrained, and that their legal team had misinterpreted the EU legislation and thus the mandated 2015 end of the current Defender may no longer be the case. But it all smacks of poor management and excuses for not listening to what loyal customers need or want of any Defender replacement. I think Land Rover could be onto a winner with the DC100 as another vehicle in their line-up, but not as a Defender replacement. Still, that’s just an opinion…
Many congratulations on your housebuild. You will be looking forward to garage/workspace? . Well deserved and will be well used I’m sure.
Atb
Alex
Thank you, Alex!
I am finally getting a double garage, so nothing exceptional, but adequate. It makes a huge change from what I had before, which was small even by single garage standards – it was just big enough to squeeze the Lightweight in alongside the work bench, but there wasn’t enough room to open the doors, so I had to get in and out of the Lightweight through the back of the rag top! Any work on any of the cars had to be done outdoors, but now I’ll be able to work on the Lightweight or RRC indoors. I still won’t have that luxury on the 109, though – it’s too tall to fit through standard garage doors.