Update on the Range Rover - sound instalation

It's been a while I don't update the status of the Range Rover.

The damaged made by the rain has been sorted, hopefully there's no gremlins left behind.

The front door where covered with Dynamat extreme, new speaker pods where built in MDF.

To add to the lower bass sound I'm building a small box for a 12" subwoofer

Scuba diving in Madeira and Porto Santo

Another of my hobbies is Scuba diving, and recently I visited both Madeira and Porto Santo,where I did some great dives.

I leave a few pictures for you all to see.

RR returned from paint shop

After almost 2 months I received the RR back, but I'm very sad to say that the work was done to a very low standard. The fact the painter knows me from other jobs and knows ( or should know ) my expectations makes it even worse.

To make matters worse they send the RR when was raining, without even covering the dashboard. The car was completely flooded.





inside the dashboard it was full of water, I put a dehumidifier inside the car and removed more than 10 lt of water. But there's more bad news.

What initially looked like a stain is really beneath the lacquer , there's a few places you can see things like this

It's hard to photograph but there's paint drips as well

Carrying on, I found that one hole was closed using only body filler and I told Him that I wanted the holes welded, not filled with fillers. These makes me wonder how is the rest of the work done, but I rather not find.

Range Rover going to the paint.

Now that the RR as lost all its panels ( except the roof ) its time to have them painted.

You can notice that the inside panel have been treated with a rust proofing from dinitrol.

Repairing series 3 steering relay

We are all used for the steering of the old Land Rovers to be heavy, but recently it became more than what I could muster !

The steering box was refurbished recently, just before the 2012 trip, so problem had to be lower down the line. I came to find that the steering relay was completely seized,I surprised that I could even turn the steering.

First step was to removed to the steering relay :




Now where you expecting for the steering box to move so easy ? Not a chance ! Plan B !





Now, 10 tons where not enough, and when I tried a 20 ton jack, well let's just say that I got the feeling that if something was going to give it wasn't the relay !!!

So what did I do ? well, what I should have done in the first place, repaired the relay in situ !

First I opened the old box ! Atention, there's a very strong spring inside, follow the workshop manual carefully !



I bought a reconditioned relay ( cheaper that buying the necessary parts one by one )

I removed the inside bit, using jubilee clips to keep all in one piece !









After this was easy just to slip the inside bits back to the original relay.



After this the steering was completly diferent, compared to the old it felt like it had power steering .

Some rust

Work is in progress, slower than what I would like. The RR is not in a bad shape for a 17 year old car, but a couple of rust spots required attention.

This one on the rear right wheel arch looks inofensive, with some surface rust.

after cleaning with a wire brush a high speed tungsten cutter it looks like this

removing bonnet and side front panel

I continue removing the panels, this time the front ones.

First work on the Range Rover

There's nothing like to start a new year with a new project !


Today I removed the interior, rear seats, front seat, carpets and so on, found some rust on the expected places, nothing serious. I leave a couple of pictures below .