Deadline missed, disappointment rampant...

Despite a valiant effort, the 109 did not attend the All British Field Meet in Bellevue, WA on Saturday, July 24, 2010. Perhaps if the final reassembly work had started a little earlier, we would have driven her there Saturday morning...

T minus 1 day

Here are some shots from Friday, July 23rd. Remember, that the goal is to drive the 109 to the All British Field Meet tomorrow and, if we are REALLY lucky, drive it to the cocktail party this evening at Park Place Motors.

Lower Dash installed and wiring for the gauges/ignition begins


After 9 months, the roof is back on!

Inside (ignore the Range Rover County seats, our rear tub serves as storage from time to time):

Our yellow top Optima disappeared somewhere in the shop over the last 9 months, so we settled for a replacement

Exhaust installed. We reused what we could of the original but had to replace the muffler and the tail pipe.

Installed new Defender style door seals on both middle doors and began installing seals on the front doors

Installed a valve to shut off hot water to the heater matrix--a luxury we did not have before this project.

Getting soooo close!

T minus 2 days

The linkage for the parking brake had to be reworked as a result of moving the transmission and transfer case.



Foam applied to the kick panel that forms the back of the seatbox.



Seatbox installed permanently! You can also see that both middle doors have been installed as well.


Low range lever installed through custom built tunnel cover

Upper dash and wiper motor/drive assembly installed:

Windsheild and vents installed. Can also see that the heater matrix and blower are in place.


Work continued until midnight Thursday...

T minus 3 days

Here are some shots from the work that was done yesterday.

MORE FOAM! It looks terrible, but if it the result is a less noisy ride, I say its worth it! This is the middle floor.

And even more sound deadening material. This is Dexdamp (from Hamilton Jet) applied to the bulkhead. Right hand side still to be done, and probably some of the interior as well.

Since the drivetrain was moved a few inches back to accomodate the R380, the transmission tunnel is now very short. So, the transfer case had to be modified a bit.

Like them or not, we've got some big ol' side steps and to make sure the chassis was not crushed when they are bolted on, Gord'n welded in galvanized tubing and then dressed all the weld points with "Galv Ez" (?) to prevent rust.

Packing up for reassembly!

Mini full of Exmoor seats



Roof rack remounted after languishing 9 months by the side of our house:

And the Toyota gets all the rest...

Roof

As long as the roof is off, why not compound out 33 years of crud?

Reassembly Has Begun!

New custom tunnel for the 5 speed.


Test fitting the side steps


Repaired, galvanized bulkhead with new galvanized T posts


Custom radiator in modified, galvanized core support

RHD galvanized front crossmember

Finally, the time has come! The goal is to drive the 109 to the reception on Friday evening for the All British Field Meet the next day. That means, it has to be done no later than 4pm Friday!

More posts to come this week--stay tuned!

Roof Drip Rail & Seam Sealer

After finishing the new headliner, I flipped the roof "right side up" and put it on our trailer for the trip over to Gord'ns and the long-awaited final assembly. Thats when I remember the paint on the roof wasn't in the best shape so I used compound to clean it up a bit (separate post). In the course of rinsing off the compound, I discovered the roof leaked along the drip rail. This should not have been a surprise since the original headliner frame was badly rusted.

This meant re-sealing where the aluminum roof is riveted to the galvanized drip rail. The first step was to chip and scrape out the old sealant. Most of it popped out in big brittle chunks by there was some that was still gooey. This suggests to me that spot repairs had been made over the past 33 years. Once I had nearly all of the old sealant out, I used the drill and wire wheel to remove the rest.

I found some 3M "Fast'n Firm" seam sealer at a local auto body store (Wesco) and had the choice between clear or beige. Since the first ingredient in the beige seam sealer is limestone, I had to chose that one! As you can see in the pictures below, it is actually a pretty close match to the original limestone paint.

The seam sealer is applied with a regular household caulking gun and is not quite as thick as household caulk. It took me about 45 minutes to apply it all around the roof and "tool" it with my finger. I will wait a full day before mounting the roof rack just to make sure it is fully set.

The original build sheet from Solihull

A couple of months ago, I was removing the rear tub supports so they could be galvanized. It seemed like several pounds of dirt and gravel were trapped inside those supports. So when I a rectangular chunk of dirt dropped out of one of the supports as I removed it, I ignored it.

When I was cleaning up afterwards, I broke the rectangular chunk apart and discovered what was left of the original build sheet! As you can see, not much survived after 33 years inside a rear tub support, but some of it is still legible.

New Exmoor Seats!

Trakkers Extreme with Seat Heater installed plus harness


Seat bottom comparison between Trakkers Extreme and Classic High Back

I've spent too much time over the past couple of years trying to figure out how to get better (and hopefully somewhat safer) seats in the 109. I had always wanted Exmoor seats but due to excessive dithering on my part, I missed the last time the dollar was strong against the pound sterling.

I tried fitting Volvo seats ($20 for the pair off Craigslist--with seat heaters!) but they were too tall and made it a real hassle to climb around the steering wheel. Then I started looking at Porsche 914 seats. I think these would be the best and easiest seat to fit in a Series truck. They are one peice with a high seat back and they have a thin seat bottom--around 4 inches. Plus, they can be found in black vinyl and they are from the 1970s so period-appropriate as well. Just when I had located about 8 seats across the country, ranging in price from $35 to $150 per pair, the dollar began gaining strength against the pound and hit the magic exchange rate I had set in my mind.

So, without further dithering, I placed the order from Craddocks. Two Trakkers Extreme for the front seats, both with seat heaters and three Classic High Backs for the middle row, two with seat heaters. Then I learned that Craddocks does not charge until the seats are ready to ship--which is nice, but meant that the dollar had weakened slightly over the one month it took for Exmoor to build the seats. So, in the end, I paid about $70 more.

I received 2 of the 4 total boxes within 2 days! The other 2 boxes arrived 2 days after that! Very fast delivery!

Front Sway Bar

Months ago, we came to a point in the project where it appeared that we would have to modify the chassis to military height in order to provide enough room for the front axle to travel. Part of that plan included installing front and rear sway bars to help offset the increased body roll that we expected would happen with a higher center of gravity.

As it turned out, we did not have to modify the chassis, but we decided to install the sway bars anyway as a hedge against what we expect to be a faster (pause for laughter) land rover. The 109 already had the tendency to lean away from turns before we started all of this.

The pictures above show the test fit on the front sway bar. Note the newly galvanized parts! All that new zinc made the bushings not fit so easily so Gord'n and his assistant Erich created an adaptor to use with a large C clamp (called G clamps in England, apparently) so that they could slip the cotter pin in place once the clamp was cranked down.

Nut plates will be installed in the front frame horns when the new RHD front crossmember is installed.

There will be a separate posting on the rear sway bars.