110 Hard Top Conversion

[Paul d]

I look at yours and think... Now that's a proper off road truck

But not for touring that’s for sure ..I used it for work for 5 days a couple of years ago as my van had some work done .
Omg never again ..it’s to noisy for the road but great off …..guess you can’t have it always ..

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Now that's a proper off road truck

Not yet - getting there but still so much to do. I still think I've done it backwards. Should have dealt with the mechanics first - but the idea was to get the back done, use it and then move on to other parts of the build. The job has just morphed - can't do the back without affecting everything else - with hindsight I should have just started with the underpinning and engine/gearbox.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

But not for touring that’s for sure

I hope you're wrong. I'm pretty sure I've dealt with the noise issue. I've got loads of storage, cooking two ways, water tank and running water, extra fuel capacity, what will be a very comfortable cabin and decent rear seats for when the weather is bad. The way it's laid out I could even make up two short bunks in the back. A skinny vehicle with good clearance and off-road ability. I'll be pee'd off if it doesn't work as a tourer and wild camper.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Well that was a bit of a day. Spent the morning viewing a potential new business premises. Brunch meeting to discuss. Phone negotiations with landlord to agree terms. Tried to get some work done on the Defender while waiting for the Heads of Agreement to arrive. Mind not really on it though. Got the crimping tool and connectors out to finish off the rear light - got distracted with another impromptu meeting discussing the new site - never did get the light final fix completed. Another coat of paint on shelving and lids, so I did get something done in the end (although I painted one piece without sanding down between coats so that will have to be done again). Head has been elsewhere all day. Should have just given it a miss.

Unpacked the edging strips to check OK. Offered some up to where they will be fitted to make sure I'd ordered the correct ones. All seems fine. I've got various aluminium profiles to deal with the different corners and depths.

Then had to shoot off home to review the new Heads of Agreement and make an initial payment. Picking up the keys tomorrow! Sorted.
Now I've got to give notice on this unit and get everything moved across - this will be my 6th and final move during this restoration. The good news is I'll have power, light and heating for the first time - luxury. The only thing missing is a car lift - but that's just being greedy.
Won't be much progress on the vehicle for about a week while I get packed and set up my workspace at the new unit.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

I know I said there'd be no progress for a week but I had to just get the rear light wired in. Two minute job -
It's a MUD4x4 unit. Just 3 wires and I'm only using 2 of them - what could be simpler? One of the connectors was a different fitting to what I had available so had to cut this off and crimp a comparable spade connector on. For some reason the wiring is designed not to sit within the depth of the plinth and protrudes proud of the back face. This meant I couldn't simply wire it up and screw it flush to my wood headlining. I've had to cut out two sections of my lining fabric and plywood to make voids for the wiring connectors to recess into. Otherwise forcing the plate up to the plinth put pressure on the two switches and they popped out the front plate. Anyway, done now.

I haven't bothered with the door operated switch - just the on/off switch at the unit. It can be reached from the door easily enough and the annex light switch is just inside the rear door.
The unit has white or red light options.

Got a lot of packing done today. 26 crates of car parts and camping gear so far and 4 sets of racking dismantled ready to take to the new site. Long wheel base van hired for a couple of days next week. The Defender will be towed over on a trailer.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

So no work of the vehicle for a week. Got everything packed up, moved over, racking rebuilt and loaded into the new unit. Almost ready to get going again. Just need to clear out rubbish from my previous unit and trailer the Defender over - hopefully this weekend.

My new workspace. Light, power, heat and room to move. Bliss. Until the Defender is finished I'll be taking over half of this section of the unit.

Racking going back up.

Sorted. Sure it won't stay this tidy but I'm lucky to have this amount of space.

 

[Paul d]

So no work of the vehicle for a week. Got everything packed up, moved over, racking rebuilt and loaded into the new unit. Almost ready to get going again. Just need to clear out rubbish from my previous unit and trailer the Defender over - hopefully this weekend.

My new workspace. Light, power, heat and room to move. Bliss. Until the Defender is finished I'll be taking over half of this section of the unit.
View attachment 530307
View attachment 530308
Racking going back up.
View attachment 530309
Sorted. Sure it won't stay this tidy but I'm lucky to have this amount of space.
View attachment 530310

That’s a Palace not a unit ..wish I had that .

 

[Hitchhiker42]

That’s a Palace not a unit ..wish I had that .

The rest of it will be full of work stuff inside a fortnight including a very large dirty lorry to be renovated. I'll be screening off the connecting open doorway to stop overspray hitting my Defender.
No doubt tools will be 'shared' and I'll be chasing things down as well.
But yes, what I had before was better than most peoples working conditions and this is a step up from that.
If the new business takes off and we hold on to this unit I'll be installing a winch system - so I can literally unbolt the roof rack (complete with tent, wolf boxes, solar panel & camping chairs) and winch it up into the roof void in-between trips to reduce weight for day to day driving.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Pretty much finished moving tools & parts last Thursday. Towards the end of the day I managed to tweak my back. Just a tiny movement was enough. By the evening I could barely move - lower back muscles all tightened up and very weak. I guess that's a combination of 6 days packing, moving and unpacking and age. Today was my first day 'semi-mobile' again. We got the Defender trailered to it's new home this morning. Bit of a rarity - it was a dry day and the fog cleared as we started the move. All went smoothly.

Now safely locked away in a decent workshop with all my tools and parts in one place for a change.
Hopefully I won't need to move it again and can concentrate on finishing the project now.

Back permitting I'll be back at it tomorrow.
I want to get the rear cab conversion finished off so I can move onto the front cabin and get the doors & bonnet refitted.

Doors and bonnet tucked up safely in a corner ready to be fitted.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Moved some of the last remaining parts across to the new unit and started clearing out rubbish from the old unit ready to hand the keys back.

Started working on LED strip lighting today. Got the mini-conduits cut to size. Still trying to work out how I'm going to secure them into place. I need to fix them down to the wood ledge but can't get tools to the conduit because of the curve where the roof meets the side walls. Had to invest in an angled screwdriver which arrives tomorrow. Also found out our soldering kit was among the tooling included in the recent sale of one of our businesses. Grrh. Just had to buy another. Again arrives tomorrow - then I can get on with wiring up the LED's.

Continued painting locker doors and internal shelves today. Final coats applied to these sides. Will turn them over and give the other sides their last coat tomorrow. The two unpainted bits of wood are the lower locker doors. I can't paint these until I've lined and edged the walls, as they will need to be trimmed to fit.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Woo Hoo - painting parts for the rear cabin is complete. Finished today. Also got the final coat in two of the internal lockers. Four to go.
My new soldering kit arrived today as did the angled screwdriver. Ready to fit the LED's as soon as the lining is on the walls.
Tomorrow will do internal sealing around the side windows. I'll let that cure over the weekend and on Monday I can get back on with the lining.
I need to decide how far to take this. I was going to line out the lockers but not sure it is worth it. The painted finish isn't too bad and the insides will be out of sight most of the time. Will see how I feel when I get this far.

In other news one of our containers arrived at the new unit. Now I know you take it slow and steady but the driver made a bit of a meal of offloading and soooooo slow. Tried it in four different configurations before managing it. It was when his boom locked up at 100% load and he said it will get easier as he 'extended and lowered it' we just looked at each other. Physics don't work that way.

Nope - 2nd attempt and the lorry is still positioned wrong - couldn't get the container into the right spot.

3rd go. Ain't going to swing that round without smashing the fence down. All about spacial awareness and it got a bit hairy at this point.

4th bash at it - big smile from the driver as he told us during the initial lift only 67% of capacity - duh yeah on a vertical lift - extended the arm over to the other side of the trailer - 30 sec's later - locked out at 100%. Lots of messing about to get it down and in place.

And this was the easy one. Never did get back to us with the 2nd container - ran out of time and now it's the bank holiday weekend. Delayed until next week now.
Still it made a break from painting bits of wood.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Went in today and cleaned the side window frames ready for masking. Mask just would not stick afterwards. 3 bloody hours to mask up 2 windows. Bad language was used. What a waste of time and 1/2 a roll of tape.
Eventually got it on and started squeezing in the mastic. This is just to fill in any small gaps between wood and bodywork to make sure everything is sealed and to bridge any irregularities between the framework and window frames to take the carpet liner. Tube ran dry and went to get another - had 4 on the shelf - all white (no good for sealing in a black frame). A one hour round trip to go and buy more black mastic - so I smoothed off what I'd done and gave it up for the day. Went and stocked up on Sikaflex ready for tomorrow. I'll warm it up overnight so it flows easier in the morning. Ordered some fresh flux and soldering wire ready for starting the electrical work.

Masking up.

Gap filled and mastic smoothed up to the masking tape line.

Masking peeled off - clean straight line where mastic meets the frame. Ironically most of the mastic will be covered by lining next week.

Not the greatest of days but I'm masked up and will have this finished tomorrow - so can't complain too much.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

A much better day. Finished sealing the two side windows. All ready for lining the side walls now.

While the sealant is curing I've made a start on lining around the quarter light windows and rear door pillars. When the rubber seal is fitted this is going to be a tidy finish to the door surround.

Took some time working out these cuts. Needed to be patient.

Got a nice tidy finish around the quarter lights. I'm happy with this.

Only had time to do one side today but starting to get an idea of how the back cabin is going to look.

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Gritted my teeth and bought FSS100 Fire Safety Sticks. Expensive - but have a 15 year shelf life, are lighter, take up less space and last a lot longer than traditional extinguishers if used. As a Brucy Bonus they make less mess. One going in the front cab and one in the rear. This will be fitted near the rear door where we will be cooking on a fold down table.

The one in the rear will be fitted above the fridge freezer on the side wall, along with a Fire Blanket and a Rechargeable Torch. No Life Hammer going in the back. All the windows will have grilles on and the rear door (if not blocked) can be opened from the inside - so it would be pointless. There will be a Life Hammer, First Air Kit and the second Fire Safety Stick fitted behind the drivers seat in a dedicated niche.

 

[mikeau]

Any reason why you went for the 100?
I was looking at these a while ago and Im still considering buying a couple, but I thought 50 seconds of discharge would be enough, especially if doubled up..?

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Any reason why you went for the 100?

Couple of reasons. 1) The 50sec costs around £75 - £85. The 100sec cost around £100 - £105. For double the discharge time it wasn't double the price. 2) It just seemed sensible to have that reserve incase a fire flared up again or was difficult to reach (behind a bulkhead or panelling) or perhaps getting established and needing more time to extinguish.
I've effectively got 200sec's rather than the 12-15 sec's you'd get with a traditional 1Kg extinguisher. With the 1Kg cylinder if you don't knock the fire out immediately I'd say you were pretty well stuffed. I just felt the FSS version offered a better safety margin (aside from the weight/space saving and no maintenance benefits).

 

[Hitchhiker42]

Got to work lining the nearside wall of the rear cabin today.
All being done out of one piece so lots of material flapping about. There is only the top 6" to the left actually glued in this photo. Taking care to get a nice tight joint on the top ledge before working down and across.

Working back to the quarter light window. A bit tricky working into the recess to get a clean finish at the window frame.

Happy with the result. Looks quite tidy. The two sets of wires hanging out of the conduits are for the 12v sockets. These can be wired in and fitted now.

Got the return done underneath where the sink will be fitted. Most of the side wall glued and trimmed.

Trimming around the windows was a PITA. The material is a 4 way stretch, but there wasn't enough 'give in the fabric to be able to stretch it into the tight corners as one piece. In the end I had to cut and add a small patch.

The lining butt's up tight to the window frame and none of the sealant is visible. In the end the two corners look OK but I'm not happy that I've had to do what I consider a bodge. These cables are for one of the rear USB sockets.

So the nearside wall and rear quarter are lined and complete. The panel for access to rear wiring will be lined to match.
View looking back.

View looking forward.