Blinking Land Rovers (Discovery)

[CompoSimmonite]

I have had numerous Land Rovers over the years and always advise people to consider anything else as they need so much maintenance and rot badly
However I never listen to myself and found myself with a N reg 300TDi Auto ES Disco without test tempting me last year. I drove it the 70+ miles from seller to home via a pre arranged MOT to stay within the law plus know what repairs were needed. Other than sills everything else was easy mechanical with a number of advisories however I found myself suffering with health issues so despite being insured all this time have only the last few days thought I better start doing the work.
One of the advisories was poorly repaired rear load area. In the past I had a 6 year old 200TDi Disco that the floor had rotted so on a 20 year old I'm not surprised mine had been repaired in the past.
Yesterday decided to start stripping out the rear jump seats ready to properly assess rot only to find besides floor the inner wheel arches, rear side panel, inner door shut arch and even the upper seat belt mounting rail just below the Alpine window are all badly rotted away.
That's it, had enough and am going to chop it down into a pick-up !
Moral of story is if you have, or are interested in a Disco, the area hidden behind trim can rot just as badly as the exposed areas so be warned.
BTW if no trim mine would have been an MOT failure on rot within 30cm of seat belt mounting however as hidden all tester could do is gently tug so they passed on that aspect. In an accident the mountings would probably have ripped out of the body.

 

[MoreWellie]

the area hidden behind trim can rot just as badly as the exposed areas so be warned

That applies to any make or model. The phrase "what you can see is just the tip of the iceberg" applies to pretty much anything that can corrode

I was under our 16 year old landcruiser last night and was wondering just how much longer it is going to pass MOTs without major surgery

and as part of a land rover owning family I know just how much abuse we all give them

 

[CompoSimmonite]

That applies to any make or model. The phrase "what you can see is just the tip of the iceberg" applies to pretty much anything that can corrode

I was under our 16 year old landcruiser last night and was wondering just how much longer it is going to pass MOTs without major surgery

and as part of a land rover owning family I know just how much abuse we all give them

Do Land Cruisers suffer from serious rot ?

 

[julianf]

Do Land Cruisers suffer from serious rot ?

If you speak to most landcruiser owners, the degree to which they have issues seems directly, but inversely proportional to if you have mentioned anything to do with landrovers.

If they find out you own a landrover, or even, god forbid, more than one of them, then the landcruiser becomes some self healing eternal immortal thing.

(or at least that's been my experience!)

 

[Rannsachair]

Corrosion protection on Defender 1 and 2's seemed very poor, I bought a 3 year old Defender 2 and the underside was far worse looking than my 13 year old defender!

 

[Robotstar5]

...That's it, had enough and am going to chop it down into a pick-up !

Food for thought, the Hibak based on RRC or Disco I

 

[Cobbler]

Do Land Cruisers suffer from serious rot ?

My son had a Landcruiser about 5 years old & we fitted a towbar, to do his the bumper had to come off, along with some of the trim brackets behind. I was shocked at the state of the unseen bits, several of the bolts broke off & I had to drill them out, the bits you couldn't see were unprotected & the bolts mild steel & not plated. There was no serious rot in it, not surprising because of its age, but for the money I would expect it plated bolts & painted brackets. Also the price of spares if required hurts, we had to replace a driveshaft boot if I recall, while it was apart we noticed there's a seal where the drive shaft joint goes through the suspension upright/kingpin, to keep dirt out of the bearing. This was damaged & the replacement was about £100 if I remember correctly, we also replaced an ABS sensor, this was into 3 figures as well.

 

[ibrooks]

Food for thought, the Hibak based on RRC or Disco I

I was looking at those the other day and they seem like an obscene amount of money for what you actually get.

I'm leaning more towards the Sahara from NCF (although it's not a lot less than the Dakar) or maybe the LongRanger which is far cheaper but needs to retain more of the underpinnings of the Disco body.

Iain

 

[MoreWellie]

Do Land Cruisers suffer from serious rot ?

In case you think I haven't seen land rovers, between my sons and I we have had 1 series, 4 defenders, 2 classics and about 8 discoverys so I have had an opportunity to see most of the possible nasties

I suppose I would have to say, no Land Cruisers, in my experience of one, don't suffer from serious rot but they aren't immune. I can see a fair amount of surface rust along the chassis, wishbones and on the body around the body mounts, even the engine bash plate is heading towards a hole. The tow bar is pretty bad despite only being about 5 years old. We have owned this one from new and it has never been used as an off roader so all the damage is down to winter salt

 

[CompoSimmonite]

My intention is a DIY conversion rather than a kit.
I don't have the need for 7 seats and have a car when 4/5 seats needed so it'll be a 2 seat workhorse.
Yet to fully work out design but have got box section already with new mounts to replace the original sills. The back of the cab section will then be closed off in a way that the panel can be removable as quite like the idea of building a camper back !
The Skoda Fun had a removable bulkhead which has given me the idea -

 

[Moosevan]

If you speak to most landcruiser owners, the degree to which they have issues seems directly, but inversely proportional to if you have mentioned anything to do with landrovers.

If they find out you own a landrover, or even, god forbid, more than one of them, then the landcruiser becomes some self healing eternal immortal thing.

(or at least that's been my experience!)

Nah, Cruisers aren't perfect but we've had our 2001 Colorado since early 2003 and still no perforation anywhere underneath. Only in the last 12 months has anything minor begun to appear on surface of chassis...

Looking to move it on now, but only because I'm going back to something old (very) and simple (fix with bigger hammer) with minimal electronics 'cos I'm a dinosaur too

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I had a bobtail disco pickup for a time, it was ok. I think the day mine becomes too rotten to save, the chassis and running gear will be going towards building a 100" defender

 

[CompoSimmonite]

This is the factory 114" prototype pick-up based on the Disco for the military -

 

[barracuda816]

Not a fan of pick ups, but I actually quite like that. It looks quite 80s ford but more utilitarian imho.

 

[MrFluffy]

I wonder if a defender military canvas and hoops would mate up to the disco body. I've seen a couple sell recently in auctions for not too much money...

 

[julianf]

I know the axels are shared, but the disco is a fair bit wider.

I know this as i have a 300tdi disco, and a 300tdi defender, and i have to fold in the mirrors of the disco to get between the gate posts here, whilst the defender can go straight through.


With regard to pickups -

The high cap 110 with ifor back - i was set to get one, before my better half started talking about children...

Hence the csw -

 

[MoreWellie]

Nice aerial but you would probably get better radio reception if it wasn't touching the roof rack

There are a few advantages to the CSW over the pickup

You will have more driver room as the seat goes back just that crucial bit more

It gives plenty more room for the spiders and other bugs from the garden rubbish to roam more freely
I went to a tip tthe other day that refuses to let land rovers in if they don't have rear seats as they are pickups and therefore commercial. It was an equality opportunity policy as they refused entry to a mitsubishi double cab whilst I was there

 

[Robotstar5]

This is the factory 114" prototype pick-up based on the Disco for the military -

Never seen that one, the only company stretched D1's I've seen was the 111" ambulance conversion, they built 3 for trialing by ambulance services. This one is at Rover, Longbridge.

You can see the "stretch" panel between the front & rear doors.

 

[Cyberprog]

They also did one with a taller roof also.

 

[owas]

Would you be able to put a longer pick up bed on the rear than the disco originally is?
I'd want to have it long enough for 8x4 sheets if I did ever end up doing it to mine