Just a quick update to add in the weekend's activities. In between the rain and helping the neighbours rebuild the fence around our carpark, I managed to get out to the Land Rover garage and swap the newly purchased rocker stud for the correct sized one for a diesel. The one I oringinally purchased was for a petrol engine and was a lot longer. It seems the previous owners made the same mistake as one of the ones that was fitted was also of the wrong type. While I was at the garage I bought a new battery, as the charger I had borrowed had shown the old one to be dead. The new battery is about 20 Ah less powerful, and about 4" shorter but it is the battery the newer Defenders use, so it should be fine for the job. It's lack of physical size will require a strap to be made to hold it securely in the mounting and I've been promised some similar parts from an old Mazda, from which I hope to be able to make one.

Whilst fitting the new rocker studs I noticed one of the locating screws was missing, so this will need to be purchased when I next order parts.

I bought 5 litres of diesel on the way back from the garage, so with the battery and rocker cover fitted, I took Hero around the carpark. The fact that the tyres are rather soft made the steering extremely heavy but as this was so hard I'm now wondering if the steering box is broken or if one or more of the linkages needs a lot of grease.

The headlights are now working albeit dimly, but during a check of the connections, I found that the passenger side headlamp bowl has rusted through and will need to be replaced. It would seem this is a common problem as the same item on the drivers side had been replaced with a plastic one, which would seem to be the way to go.

I may have only entered the first post a few hours ago, but there have been several developments since then (mostly good), and I think they merit a new entry.

On the plus side I have secured a new set of front seats for Hero on Ebay, which are badly needed as the old ones are just crumbling foam on all but the driver's seat (which has a torn cover and a broken base).

As you can see from the photo, the covers are necessary to hold the seats together (and yes I have a third cover that I've washed and now need to sew up the tears).

The new set will be a massive improvement and will actually make the Landy look less like an abandoned vehicle!




I've also managed today to arrange to go and see a local Land Rover specialist garage tomorrow who said they have the parts I need to finish the rocker cover. The last owners abandoned their rebuilding leaving the rocker cover without washers, nuts or even one of the studs that goes though the cover. I've also managed to source some wire I need to rebuild the rear lighting loom, which will make life a lot easier. In the interim I spent more time under the Landy tonight, and now have a full set of rear lights. The wires I've had to reconnect won't last with any use, so will need to be replaced, but at least I know now which wires match which circuits, the Haynes was no help here as the wires are not the colours they are meant to be! The wire I previous thought was a botched repair turns out to be the loom for the tow hitch (for the trailer's lights). Since the old hitch was removed when the rear crossmember was replaced this wasn't obvious. I've left it in place for now as I may re-add the hitch before the vehicle goes for an MOT.

Another stroke of good luck today was a colleague lending me his battery charger, which is a heavy duty one and should be able to charge up the 12v 95Ah beast that the Landy uses. My charger was nowhere near gutsy enough and after 12 hours plus of charging the battery had next to no charge. If the battery has no charge after tonight, it's obviously dead and will need to be replaced..but at least I know!

While checking under the bonnet this evening I saw the fuel sedimentor was poorly attached to the bulkhead. This turns out to be because one of its mounting holes is broken. I think the easiest way to repair this will be to drill some new holes for it and move it a few millimetres to the left.

Now the only really bad bits of news for tonight. I broke what I'm told might be called a Spire Fixing on the steering column case, but as the part was badly bent, replacement was likely anyway, and the damage to the side of the tub shown in the last update's picture is a little worse than I thought, and will require stiffening once the crease is beaten out.

Ok, so what's this blog all about ? Well, in short it's an attempt to record my activity relating to restoring my Land Rover. The vehicle in question is a green and cream 1975 Series 3 88" Land Rover, and is now called "Hero" due to its registration, HRO.

I purchased the vehicle via Ebay on Monday the 15th of May 2006 and it was delivered the following Saturday. To bring this site up to date, here's a short timeline of events. ( most recent first)


24/05/06 Spent over an hour under the vehicle trying see why the rear lights didn't work and to fix them. I discovered that the loom had been cut from the wiring in the tub, and that a large 7 strand wire has been attached for no discernable purpose. I suspected that it was a bodged repair.

23/05/06 Didn't do much due to bad weather, except observe corrosion on the footwell, and a bodged attempt to fix it by putting a new footwell in from the INSIDE!

22/05/06 Managed to start the vehicle twice, before the battery died, and moved it around the carpark. A lighting check revealed the rear lights to be inoperative.

21/05/06 Sweep out as much dirt as possible and finish the inventory of supplied "spares". I also try to charge the battery with my charger, with limited success.

20/05/06 Vehicle is delivered on a trailer, with a copy of the Haynes Manual inside....

17/05/06 Have a second copy bought for me!

16/05/06 Purchased Haynes Manual

15/05/06 Purchased Vehicle