110 Hard Top Conversion

[Hitchhiker42]

We bought our Defender a while ago with a view to creating a touring vehicle capable of getting to places a 'fat low down' camper van couldn't reach. Plus we wanted to camp away from traditional sites full of rows and rows of caravans. I'll also be using it as a daily ride. So the brief was for a bit of a hybrid. A vehicle with a comfortable front cab for day to day use and touring, plus a rear set up able to support extended trips away.
Covid lockdowns, a couple of injuries, work pressures and loss of workspace seriously delayed the work - but a lot of progress has been made recently.
So this is what we bought - a 110 TD5 hard top. As a base vehicle to start from it seemed sound. The shell and chassis just had minor rust and it didn't seem to have been abused. Some of the previous owner mods were a bit questionable, but the 110 was going to be gutted and renovated anyway so this wasn't an issue.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

The first thing I did was a bulkhead removal to improve front seat reclining and driving position. The car also came with rails to raise the front seats. I found to look out the side windows I was stooping down so these were removed.

Cutting away the bulkhead. Note I've also started drilling out the tub floor rivets here.

Etch primed the bare edges

Clamping the new strengthening member in place.

Riveting the top bar

Difference in seat recline

 

[Hitchhiker42]

I tackled the tub floor next. As you can see there was aluminium corrosion with small pin prick holes appearing and galvanic corrosion.

Once I'd drilled out the rivets and removed the tub floor I found the top hats and cross struts were badly corroded. Out they came.

While I had the floor up I took the opportunity to take off old underbody treatment and the worst of the surface rust from the top of the chassis and treated it with a marine grade rust converter.

Next I wire wheeled the lip of the tub bed and etch primed the cleaned metal.

Replacement parts were protected before fitting.

These were then bolted and riveted into place. NOTE: The Hard Top is basically a metal sound box. To help reduce resonance and sound transference through the tub floor I isolated each piece from the chassis and each other using rubber spacers and silicon. This will also help prevent future galvanic corrosion. The floor lip was also treated at this stage and I marked the position of top hats and struts around the edge ready for fitting the new floor.

The new tub floor was laid on a bed of silicon around the edges and struts to further reduce noise and delay corrosion before being riveted into place. The edge joint was then silicon sealed. I used a lot of silicon during this restoration It is Silkaflex EBT - branded as a building sealant and sold cheaper through places like Screwfix.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

The vehicle had blind spot windows fitted. We wanted to improve visibility further and if sitting in the back to have better views and ventilation. We decided to fit larger sliding side windows. Here are the originals.

Removed and template for the larger replacement taped in place.

Side wall all marked up and ready for cutting.

It's a scary thing cutting your car up The corners were cut out using a Dremel and the straights using a jig saw.

Hole cut and ready for the new window.

I put a double bead of mastic around the edge before riveting the new window in place. Finishing rubbers will go on later after the respray - I'll come back to the windows later.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Because we intend to use this for extended trips away - maximising storage is a priority. x3 exterior lockers to fit. I wanted the ones which can take full sized 20L jerry cans. Sadly by the time I was ready to order the manufacturer had stopped making them as their fabricator was long term ill. I couldn't find an alternative big enough and so bit the bullet and bought these (new wing stays in the bench next to them - stronger than the originals and a couple of mine were v-rusty).

I wasn't entirely happy with the quality - some of the welds had shards of metal sticking out which proved very painful when prepping these for painting - as can be seen here. All were filed down.

Despite prepping we had problems with the spraying. The etch wouldn't take we think it was just too cold. 2nd attempt failed as well. In the end I painted the outside with Hammerite and then sealed the external joints with Silkaflex. Not pretty but nobody is ever going to see it unless I've run over them.

More bodywork cutting. Measured 3 times and then did it again. No room for error on this. I still had brain fade and started cutting the wrong line - duh. Had to do a repair.

The rear nearside locker was a very tight fit. I had to 'adjust' some fittings to get this in. But I've ended up with two large lockers behind the B pillar and a smaller locker behind the nearside rear wheel. Useful extra storage. These are just laid in place for the photo. Permanently fitted later during the respray.

x6 new wing stays painted and fitted.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

When I inspected the inside I found water laying in the channel where the roof meets the side walls. This needed addressing. I also wanted to make this vehicle as quiet as possible to make it a more relaxed drive. This is what I've done on insulation so far. I started with the rear cabin. I'll deal with the from cab separately.
First thing - there are lots of gaps around seams and joints. eg

I Silkaflex sealed every single joint and seam in the rear cabin.

All door return lips, bolt holes, aluminium corrosion, etc were nylon wheeled back to bare metal, etch primed and any not required filled.

Larger areas were cleaned, etch primed and where necessary plated over and sealed.

I then used sound deadening matting over every surface - and I do mean every surface.

Wall and roof ribs were completely filled with moisture resistant expanding foam. Nowhere for condensation to form or voids to create resonance.

Every joint was then sealed again.

I then covered the ceiling and walls with acoustic foam.

When done all the joints were sealed once more. Note : I haven't added foam to the box section which will be part of the rear cabin fit-out. The front cab is now part done but there is some remedial work to compete before finishing off this stage of the insulation.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Perhaps I should explain a bit about how we want to use the 110 for camping. I'll put up a diagram of the rear layout later but this was our thought process.
We want to tour using a mixture of wild camping, quieter camp sites when necessary and mix this in with B&B's and Hotels for the occasional bit of luxury. We want to get up narrow country lanes, tracks and go off-piste to wild camp - things you can't do in a wider low slung camper van or caravan. When we get to a camp site we want a minimum of setting up to do before we sit down with a beer or cup of tea. We are not interested in having to empty kit from the back of the Landy and setting up camp each night. Getting too old for that. Convenient camping if you will. The essentials list included:

Sink
Fridge Freezer
Dry Food Storage
Cooking Area
Portaloo
Sofa
Lots of Dedicated Storage
Sleeping Area

We decided not to go for an opening wedge roof and sleeping platform. We are going for a roof tent - with an option to sleep inside if the weather is too bad to open up the tent, or we get to camp site too late to be bothered. We wanted good visibility while driving to see the landscape and to be able to see out of windows if sitting in the back. This precluded floor to ceiling racking and blocking off side and rear windows. Personally I'm not a fan of turning the rear cab into a corridor with cupboards and drawers up the walls.

We are not going to be doing competition mud plugging and rock climbing. The idea is for this to be a capable and comfortable off-road tourer. Light green laning and getting off the beaten track. I hope that makes sense.

It's getting late - I'll put up our design ideas tomorrow.

(Note: First sentence in the post before this - should say water not later)

 

[Hitchhiker42]

If anyone is interested this is how we plan to set up the rear of the vehicle. Several diagrams here as a the overhead plan doesn't fully explain the layout.
This set-up is probably a bit unconventional but we think (hope) it will suit us. Some of the exterior modifications should make a bit more sense having seen these.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Because we wanted an on board water supply we needed a way to fill the tank. I didn't want to be playing with a funnel and jerry cans or a hose inside the cabin. The answer was an external fill point. So - another hole to cut in the bodywork.

Cut back to bare metal before etch priming to protect the metal before the respray.

This is where the tank is going. Low down and central. It carries 60L.

Here is the Fill Point coming into the vehicle.

And the position of the exterior skin fitting on the vehicle.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Everyone knows Defender heaters are woeful. We decided to fit an auxiliary diesel heater. This will be positioned under the front cubby box. The exhaust will run out under the car. I was concerned about water travelling back up the exhaust into the vehicle if wading through water so the exhaust outlet needed to be positioned as high as possible. Originally I intended to mount this above the offside locker to mirror the water fill point on the nearside (OCD kicking in). But I realised this would have meant bringing the exhaust pipe back into through the box section to exit it at the same height. So it's a bit lower down the bodywork than originally intended. I'll fashion a bung for if wading through a water to prevent water running back down the exhaust pipe.

The exhaust outlet will be fitted after the respray. Note the state of the old wing stay and pin prick holes developing around the rusty fixing point.

 

[Big Sandy]

Note: First sentence in the post before this - should say water not later)

Sorted that for you.

You've been doing a good job so far, awesome progress.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

A few pictures of dismantling the vehicle getting it ready for its respray.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

The body wasn't in bad shape. Having stripped the vehicle I used wire and nylon wheels to take off any rust. Wire where it was needed on steel and nylon on aluminium because it is less destructive than wire wheels. Also any holes for fittings, bolts and screws which would be required later were cut and drilled now so that they could be fully etch/primed/sprayed for long term protection during the respray.

Most of the rust was light surface rust like this

There was some deeper pock marked areas - mainly around doors

Every single rivet was cleaned back to bare metal

I found the odd hole here and there. These were cleaned back back to bare metal and filled with aluminium cement before sanding.

Even the rear quarters weren't too bad. Superficial corrosion for the most part.

Because of the water ingress I found I decided to Silkaflex every seam. This stuff is paintable so it was done before the respray. Both the gutter seams and the waist seams were sealed. I kept the 'groove' visible rather than attempting to finish this off flush. I wanted to keep the original look of the vehicle as far as possible.

So - once I'd dealt with rust and aluminium corrosion we DA'd the car - sanded smooth using an orbital sander with progressively finer discs. Then the car was panel wiped several times to get rid of dust and debris. Then masked up - ready for spraying.

 

[Big Sandy]

Out of interest, which rust converter did you use?

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Out of interest, which rust converter did you use?

Aquasteel Rust Converter and Primer.

 

[Big Sandy]

Ta! Will give that a shot next time.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Next job was the respray. We had a temporary spray booth set up for use with our business but it was too big for this job, getting a bit tired and needed relining because of overspray. So we set up a temporary second booth within the bigger one so we had a clean dust free booth to work in. The tape on the anti-static sheeting is to add some weight to them and stop them sucking inwards due to the extraction fan. Same on the floor plastic.

After we had warmed the booth and got the car metal up to a decent temperature the first coat was a high quality etch. If it's too cold this will not take and any subsequent layers are wasted.

Some bits were not masked as they would eventually be covered or were being replaced.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Primer coat next. Because the final colour was to be dark colours we used a black high build primer. The car was given two coats of this.

Still drying when this photo was taken

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Once the primer had dried we sanded the car down with a fine grit paper.

Any bad imperfections were then filled, sanded and re-primed with just a spray can primer for local priming

Note: I have not filled every imperfection. There are still a couple of small dinks and a small crease. While I'm trying to make this a good as I can, this car is going to be used off-road and it will get scratched. If I turned this into a showroom quality finish I'd never take it off the tarmac.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Before the top coats were applied I fitted the external lockers. I wanted the outside edges to match the body colour and be sealed in with the main car. First off - drill the rivet holes. The edges were then etch primed. Next - back to the Silkaflex. I sealed the rims as the lockers were fitted and clamped into place. Note the wing stay sitting on the back wheel. These were fitted as the lockers went in. You can see the depth of internal insulation here.

Once clamped tight and riveted the excess sealant was removed and the edges smoothed ready for spraying to continue.

The locker rims were then etch primed

The car was then masked up ready for spraying.

There are two final colours with the roof a different colour to the main body. To avoid the worst of the overspray a 'curtain' was taped around the rest of the bodywork. Not too important as this would be sprayed next but just good practice.