Our 109 Featured in January 2011 Issue of Rovers Magazine!

You can view the magazine here:

http://www.roversnorth.com/store/t-downloadsrnnews.aspx

Our story begins on page 6 with this picture--my son is reading a book in the front passenger seat and our dog, Cocoa, is looking at me with glowing eyes from the back.

About a year ago, the editor of the Rovers Magazine solicited articles about Land Rover rebuilding projects. I submitted a draft article in February 2010 when we were about halfway done. After we had the 109 back, I contacted the editor again and we finalized the article in November 2010. I did not think it would get published until Summer or Fall so it was a great surprise to receive the magazine in the mail on Friday, January 21st and find our story!

Interior LED lights

Since we have never had functioning interior lights in the 109, I installed LED lights in the dome light, the middle seat row and the back. I ordered peel & stick LEDs from superbrightleds.com. These come 12 to a strip and can be cut down into 3 LED lengths. You just have to solder the wire leads to them. I really didn't know what to expect as far as how much the interior would be illuminated so I used 12 of them. I made a new backing plate for the dome light out of sheet aluminum. The original backing was pressboard covered with headliner material and was warped. In the pictures below, you'll see that the bulb is still in place. I left it there even though there is no power running to it.




For the middle seat row and the back/rear tub, I used a set of LED lights from Ikea (Dioder model). These are 12volt LEDs that are run through a transformer so they can be plugged into a standard 120v house outlet. I cut off the transformer, grounded the negative lead to the drip rail and ran power to the positive lead from the switch box/inverter (described in another post). Two strips are mounted on each side of the rear tub and on each side of the middle row where the roof windows are located.

Here are a couple of pictures of the lights on at night. Bright enough to find things and to read by, but not bright enough to blind you.

2010 Christmas Shots

While we did not get a white Christmas, we did get a white new years.



And here are a couple of shots of this year's Christmas lights on the 109.