Paint your Wagon

[Wheeledbeast]

I gave JohnWearing a ring, and they sent me out the correct size.
Here is a quick shot of the removal process, which was going reasonably well until the oil seal problem. The Rear cab bulkhead was exactly in the wrong place. So the engine crane I was using to remove the gear box was actually pulling the box in towards the engine at the same time as lifting it. So what I needed to do was find some way of puling the box back while lifting it.



It took me quite a while to realise that I had another crane sitting on the back of the truck that could do that job, it is amazing the things you forget about. Anyway it involved a bit of running round taking up the slack on one crane lowering the other, then taking up the slack again. But it got the box off. Just about everything else came off well. There was one chewed up Whitworth bolt on the clutch cover that had to be ground off, but once the spring pressure was relived it came out with mole grips….
Then obviously it all come to a dead stop...

.... that was two weeks ago. I managed to get every thing resembled by Friday night and then made the journey down to Dunsfold in the early hours of Saturday morning. Unfortunately the oil leak was still present and i was using ( or loosing) a litre around every 30 miles or so. I'm still looking for a solution to this problem so watch this space....

[22900013A]

Have you seen this?

http://stonefield.tkf.yuku.com/reply/38 ... ZAu3PlVhBc

[Wheeledbeast]

Second attempt at dealing with the oil leak, seemed to be coming from the rocker box under the exhaust pipe. I replaced the gasket using lots of Hematite sealant. It is not a good design and I noticed that the gasket tends to slip in (or out) when it is tightened. (leaving a gap, that is hard to see on an FC). I did a 100 mile round trip last week end to Gaydon I seemed to “use” about a pint of oil , but I think that was burnt away rather than leaked out. So, so far that looks quite positive.

I am still planning to fit oil pressure and oil temperature gauges as I am concerned that the oil in the engine is too hot, more to follow on that shortly.

Ps This is a photo Claudia took at Gaydon, which I think is fantastic, it even manages to make my paintwork look good

[Wheeledbeast]

there may be a trip to Billing and possibly Goodwood on the cards . need to get on with the painting and fix the holes in the floor... Still not made any progress with oil tem/pressure senders.

[Wheeledbeast]

Cab floor and rear bulkhead removed


It was quite a battle to get that out

but at least it is done now.

[Wheeledbeast]

Here are some photos of the bulkhead refitted. It has been move backwards by about 18 inches and a new floor fitted into the rear half of the cab.

as you can see from the photos there is still a small over hang on the rear roof. My hope was that most people would not notice the change, but that it would make life much more comfortable for the rear passengers.

I have refitted the external lamp, although I had to move it slightly to the right hand side ,as the cable is now a bit shorter.

The new floor is made from ¾ inch shuttering ply and stops at the bulkhead, the bulkhead comes down past the chassis. This will hopefully mean any water in the pick up will run out onto the floor and not into the cab. ( I have not got round to repairing the pickup floor, that will be a crane off job)

The floor mat is a stable mat from my local farm shop. It cost £30, but it is good quality and gives a reasonably neat finish to the cab ( well I think so any way )

I have made a new engine cover, that can double up as a slightly uncomfortable rear seat for short journeys. I made a frame of steel angle and aluminium box section then covered it in aluminium plate. The inside is insulated with builders foam board and the actual bench part is ¾ shuttering ply covered in some off cuts of the stable mat. It is held to the floor by two rubber bonnet catches, and held to the bulkhead by two cabinet toggle latches.
In the longer term I am going to investigate fitting some forward facing rear seats and may be a storage locker underneath them, but that is a long way off yet.

[Wheeledbeast]

Caution the following post may contain images of chequer plate; if you are of a delicate constitution you are advised to look away now.

Here are some shots of the access arraignments for the fcs engine.( since the modifications to the rear).

So this is how it starts out, For full access you need to remove the floor mat.
(although you can remove the engine cover with the mat still in place if you choose to, or only require a limited access).

Once the mat has been removed there are two rubber bonnet latches to undo, and a toggle latch on each side to be undone.
The engine cover can then be lifted out with the handle.

Finally the floor plate can be lifted out. It is trapped under the flor on the rear end, and held in place by the engine cover at the front.

This gives a decent amount of room to work, and I hope enough room to remove the gear box if needed.

Just for the sake of completeness I have included some shots of the front end access.
Remove the bonnet from between the seats and then fold up the passenger seat.

[DasLandRoverMan]

Very neat.
Bonus points for correct use of chequer plate somewhere it might actually stand a chance of being stood on.

[Wheeledbeast]

Tried sleeping out in the back of the van . ( every one keeps asking me why It is not wide enough to stretch out so I had to keep my legs bent . The rubber floor mat was quite hard and not very comfortable . It was a frosty night, and did not seem to get that cold in the van and even though there was a lot of condensation, it did not seem to drip on me . It was a full moon and very bright in the back of the cab, so I need to sort out some curtains . I have got plans to put a bit more insulation in the roof and I need to find something more comfortable than that rubber, but not bad as a first attempt.

[DasLandRoverMan]

Hammock maybe?