Seattle Snow Run pictures

This past Saturday, December 11, 2010, was the Pacific Coast Rover Club "Snow Run." If I counted right, we had 1 Defender 90, 4 Discovery's, 4 Range Rovers, 3 Series II 88s, 1 Series 1 107 and our Series III 109. We went up Beckler Road off Highway 2, just west of Steven's Pass.



As the newbie in the group, I did my duty and got stuck in the ditch giving several dedicated people the chance to try out various recovery techniques and all their fancy recovery gear. We tried snatching the 109 backwards, pulling it sideways and pulling it forwards with both a Discovery and a Range Rover linked together. All we succeeded in doing was digging the ditch a little deeper. Finally, after about an hour, the Discovery just winched us out.


Once we were freed from the ditch we drove another ten minutes and caught up with the rest of the club, sitting around at a roaring campfire in the falling snow.


Around 3pm we headed back down the mountain and back home where we hosted the party/dinner.

Rocky Mountain Doortop unboxing!

Wooo hooo! We received our new doortops from Rocky Mountain today!! The window seal kits for the middle doors and rear windows arrived yesterday. A very big thank you goes out to Jeremy at Rocky Mountain. Extremely nice guy and very helpful. Had his weekend not become booked by unexpected events, he was even going to drive the parts down to Bellingham, WA to meet me! He has won a new loyal customer!

Here is the hardware:



The packaging is very impressive and effective. I will try to reuse when I find a buyer for our old door tops.



Of course, I want to install them RIGHT NOW, but our current door tops are snugly rusted in place, it is pitch black outside and it is raining. The last two things don't bother me, but the first one I would rather tackle in daylight. We'll see if I can get them in before the Seattle Snow Run with the Pacific Coast Rover Club this Saturday!

Inverter for front seats

I disassembled an old 80 watt inverter that plugged into a cigarette lighter and extended all the leads so they could plug into a new fascia I made out of sheet aluminum.



Our welder friend, Paul, had built a simple switch box for us a couple of years ago. Originally, it also contained a three-place cigarette lighter unit but it was not secured very well and could be pushed into or pulled out of the box. In its place, I made the aluminum fascia on the right side of the following picture. Using step drill bits, a dremel and several files, I created holes for the 12V plug (far right), two holes for the seat heater switches with a 5V USB plug under them, and a hole for a 120V plug. I epoxied the 120V plug and the USB plug into the fascia. All the other plugs are held in place with built in clips.

The metal plate in the upper left is the bottom of the switch box. Riveted underneath it is a plastic project box that will hold the inverter itself.




Here it is nearly done. The toggles on the top are, from left to right, roof rack lights, inverter on/off, and interior LED lights. There are two extra holes for later expansion. This will be mounted to the upper dash just above the three gauge cluster.

Trip to Tinkham Road

Last weekend, my son, our dog and I took a drive to Tinkham Road, off I-90 between North Bend, WA and Snoqualmie Pass.



If you look closely, you can see our dog's glowing eyes in the back window:

First Snow

It was only a couple of inches. The 109 did great on the roads though!

Inverter for the middle row

A couple of weeks ago, I ran both positive and negative 6 gauge wire from the battery box under the passenger seat box, up through the B pillar and into the cab. Yesterday, I used those leads to power a 400watt inverter for the middle row.

I installed the inverter on the back of the Tuffy Box, under the drink holder using two stainless steel straps left over from the venting kit on a tankless water heater we had installed. This location, while not ideal under a drink holder, was the only one that made sense and kept the inverter out of the way. I am going to fabricate a shield of some sort to divert any liquid away from the inverter.

I am still working on the inverter for the front seats.

In the garage:



Installed and operational:

Parts for Sale

One pair Series III door tops. Glass intact. Frames in good condition. Studs are still functional. Need new window channels. $75 each





Two NEW Series III 109 rear door bottom seals. One original LR; one RovahFarm: $10 each

One New Hi-Lift Jack Polyurethane Securing Ring (did not fit our jack) $12

Middle row seats for a 109. $20 each



Condition of the middle row seats

It started!!

For the first time in 10 months, the 109 started! We found a replacement carburetor on Craigslist--a great guy down near Puyallup that used to run a carb shop until the 80s when there just weren't that many left on the road. He has about 600 carbs in his garage for sale.

He charged us $40 but warned that it probably needed a good cleaning, a new float and a rebuild kit. Gord'n installed it just to see what would happen and it worked "as is!"

Not without a bit hitch however--the automatic choke is not working. So tomorrow (just 3 days before we plan to drive the 109 to Portland) he will rebuild the carb and hopefull find/install a manual choke.

Carburetor issues

One of the final issues to address was the wonky throttle linkage that was on the truck. It looked like that Mousetrap game once you have it all assembled--lots of moving parts, cables stretched at weird angles, etc. We used a Lokar universal throttle linkage.





So, we have the cool linkage, but if the engine won't catch and stay running, it means nothing. Now the search begins to find a carburetor to replace ours--preferably a very simple, basic carb.

The Hood is On!

I don't know why this seems significant, but the hood is back on.



I think Limestone and silver looks good together.


Since the core support has been modified to fit the new 4 core radiator, we can no longer use the hood latch so we found a set of military latches in England. Note the grease build up on the hood from sitting in the shop for the last 10 months.

Electrical Work

Although this picture (which shows the "almost final" product) makes it look like a mess, the new wiring in the 109 is beautifully done.







A closer view reveals a new auxiliary 4 circuit fuse box mounted on the right hand footwell. In the upper right corner, the red you see is a power post since the starter was getting overwhelmed with power leads.





A closer shot of the new fuse box.

Exmoor Middle Row Seat Surprises

First, the worst surprise--three seats were damaged. One with a razor cut and two with abraded or popped seams.

Second, the middle row seat bottoms needed woodserts to be bolted to the frames. We tried lag bolts first on one seat, but they just pulled out.

Third, the middle row seatbacks were at an odd/uncomfortable angle--vertical to slightly forward. In the picture below, the near and middle seat backs show how they sit upright. The far seat back is resting on the "Oh Sh*t" bar (what we call the combo front seat back rest bar and middle row grab bar).

This shot shows how close the new seat bottom and back sit to the rear 3 man bench seat--about 1/4 inch gap.










This shot shows how far the seat back is leaning forward at its most upright position--see how the line of the seatback is not parallel to the vertical line on the 3 man bench seat?











The solution was to cut off the tabs shown on the far left and far right in the picture below and reposition them lower and at a different angle.







Here is the result. Now all three seatbacks are slightly reclined. We may end up swapping the 3 man bench seats in the rear for 2 man or individual jump seats and converting the middle row to be able to fully recline.

One month later....

Turns out, I was focused on the wrong car show. All this time, we were aiming for the All British Field Meet in Portland, OR over Labor Day weekend......!

Installed new, proper Land Rover seat belt anchors. In the picture below the smaller holes in the rubber mat are the new anchor points. The old anchor points have been covered with washers. If our reconditioned heater and lower dash plenum does not do the job in keeping us warm, those holes will come in handy to run water lines to an auxiliary heater mounted under the middle seat of the middle row.

A new, hinged and lockable toolbox cover was installed. Previously, we had a cutout section of rear tub as a loose lid.

Right hand side inner wing detail showing the cancerous sound deadening foam, the shock, new brake lines and the sway bar linkage.

Left hand side inner wing detail

Gord'n created a new transmission tunnel to accomodate the new position of the gear shift and transfer case controls. The R380 shift tower sits higher than the Series III tower so he had to create a pedestal so the rubber gaiter would fit. Here is a top view:

And a side view:

Our new 110 speedometer installed in our dash. Gord'n also installed a new speedo cable and converted the method of attaching it to the transmission. We no longer have to mess with those three little screws. Instead, he installed what I think is a Range Rover clip mechanism--the cable is held in place with a U-shaped spring clip that is pushed into place.