"Lando" - C79's V8 Disco Build Thread

[Crawlerer79]

Well guys, I've been slacking about with starting a build thread on my Disco 1 that goes by the name of "Lando." Seeing as ORE seems ta be drying up with threads I figured 'better late than never,' so here goes...

Back in 2014, I decided I wanted a Landie. I've been into 4WDing since I was born and born into a Land Rover family, it was only right that by the time I had saved up some $$$ for a vehicle, that I bought a Land Rover (always been my fav ). After having nosey around Trade Me and looking at some in my price range I realised that for $2k, ya can't buy a tidy Landie!

However, Dad wanted ta move from a V8 to a TDI Disco, which meant our family truck was no longer needed. Dad offered me to sell it to me (looking back I got a steal - thanks Dad ) at a price which I could afford as a 14 year old!

Here's how I got it:



Here's what it looks like now (I'll keep this picture up ta date):



It's a 1994 V8 Honda Crossroad (or Land Rover Discovery 1), with a 3.9 motor in it (yep, big motor in early model vehicle ). The owner before Dad had fitted the Airflow snorkel, +50mm arches (while trimming the arches out more), a bit of a sporty exhaust and a few other bits a bobs. He used ta run it on 32" muddies and with a 2" lift and a massive bullbar. I knew the this owner and actually had a photo of this exact Disco stuck on the wall of my bedroom... This exact vehicle was my dream truck since I was about 8 years old! Funny how things play out!

At 14, obviously I couldn't drive it on the road, so rego got popped on hold and we chucked an A-Frame on it and it got used as a river truck (looking back it seems a shame I used such a tidy truck!)





Here's how it sounded when I got it:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjmPmHDiAB8&t=3s

However, that didn't last long! Wasn't long before I smacked the exhaust hard enough to get about an inch gap between the exhaust manifold collector and the downpipe... whoever had worked on the exhaust never bothered to put the bolts in on the flange, or they'd fallen off! Either way, it would be an easily fix I thought. Just pull the downpipe off, throw a new gasket at it and put some bolts on! However, as soon as I pulled on the downpipe ta get it free from the studs, the whole exhaust jumped forwards about 75mm! When I hit the exhaust, it put the whole system under tension when I bent it, so now I had an exhaust I couldn't get back on! After faffing about for about 4 hours we got the downpipe back on with a new gasket and figured that'd be it (thanks Dad!). Unfortunately it didn't seal properly up and having spent all my money on buying the truck (had about $1.20 to my name!) so I figured I could just run it anyway (Regrets) - More on this later

Next job was a 2" lift. I fabbed up some spring spacers outta box section and fitted them, along with doing a swap with Dad for my fairly worn 245/75 Muddies on mint alloys for his 235/85 BFG muddies (about half life) on rough Rostyle rims.











It was then decided that more protection was needed for when I was pushing up again trees and riverbanks etc. so the A-Frame got some mods... Nothing 'Tomsoffroad"-ish at all but does the job!







Looked at tad rough so figured some plates ta fill in the gap would look better









Also got a tow hook plate for the other chassis rail... even managed ta find one of those really nice Toyota tow hooks with the wire keeper...







With all the A-Framing down gravel roads, it wasn't long before I stuck a hole in the headlights... after a couple trips I had holes in both that ya could easily fit a golfball through! So I whipped these up one afternoon





And that just about does it for the mods that have got it to present day! Simple jobs such as extending the breathers, waterproofing and replacing starter motors (yes, that's plural in less than 3 years... 3 Starter motors and 5 starter solenoids to be exact! Apparently starters don't like to be soaked with water and then sit for a month at a time ).

So while there is nothing fancy about this truck its a blast of a vehicle to drive... and its not going to be staying like this much longer.

The plan is to finally get it on the road. I initially intended on driving it as soon as I got my license but a Suzuki Escudo seemed a bit kinder option for the wallet!



Once I bought the Zook I starter going down the road of turning that into a club truck (got me a locker, suspension bits and stronger bits and bobs) before taking Lando for another drive... where I quickly remembered how much fun the Disco was and sold my upgrade bits so I could afford to get the Disco up and running. However, other things got in my way and I currently have two lightly modified trucks, but with plans to sell the Zook and me now having a job to fund the mods, I figured it's time to start a build thread on Lando.

So, what's happening then???

Well, I've got my name down for the Sheffield Mud Plug this year... gonna do it with my cousin. I have a heap of things to get done beforehand so watch this thread! We gonna be busy! Then the plan is to get it up to a road legal state, yet capable enough to compete in next season's Mainland Winch Challenge. The plan is for 35s, twin lockers and all the other goodies to get Lando up to comp. spec.

I also run a Youtube channel (a rather empty one!) which I'll document the build with as well. Unfortunately our computer can't run any video editor as its a bit of a gutless old heap (no, not the Landie ) but I have hours of footage of trips in it and I've already startied filming the build series on Lando. Pop across to: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRaep1 ... QbhyLtV3UA and subscribe so that ya don't miss out on the videos once I get me a computer ahaha... which will happen once the Zook goes.

But for now... I gotta get ready for the Mud Plug!

Cheers guys

Random photos from over the years you may like

[Crawlerer79]

Videos:

Once I have videos out I'll post them wherever they fit in as well as here at the start where it's nice and easy to find

[Smurf]

Good write up, Good to see you getting the motivation back to finish the Landie off. That hook though aye,

[Crawlerer79]

Good write up, Good to see you getting the motivation back to finish the Landie off. That hook though aye,

Hope to have it rough enough for the Labour weekend trip this year if one is run like last year. Save Dad's Rangie

[SMOKEY]

First off well done you, great to see new young fabricator's motivated enough to take our sport into the future. Now to offer some advice:-- your flash new hook with no rating needs to be replaced with one that is rated as this is a requirement for any event or trip.
I happen to have a new rated hook(chrome ---Bling) that you can have. -------- more advice :- Sheffield will break and or damage your Landie ------ the oldies on here will tell you how I know, Now get out and use your truck.

OUT THERE DOING IT,

FITZY.

[Crawlerer79]

First off well done you, great to see new young fabricator's motivated enough to take our sport into the future. Now to offer some advice:-- your flash new hook with no rating needs to be replaced with one that is rated as this is a requirement for any event or trip.
I happen to have a new rated hook(chrome ---Bling) that you can have.

Will keep that in mind! I like the design of the wire keeper to them as it holds the rope better than the spring steel keepers which seem dead most the time... but will definitely look into getting new hooks ASAP! Appreciate the offer of the hook but the bolt pattern for the hooks I've used is different to most so unsure if they'll fit... Mine are spaced 55mm centre to centre. If anyone knows where I can get hooks from with a spacing of 55mm it would be much appreciated... most others seem to all be 35mm. Thanks again for the offer Fitzy

Sheffield will break and or damage your Landie ------ the oldies on here will tell you how I know, Now get out and use your truck.

Definitely aware of that! I have been the mud plug since I was about 8... and have seen a lot of vehicles leave the event in a bit rougher shape than they started! I will do my best not ta let the red mist descend on me ahahaha... try not get caught up in the heat of the moment and do something really dumb... being only on 32s I will be quite a ways from the pointy end, just out there to get more experience and test the truck (which will certainly happen!!!!). I got a few plans before I compete tho... It won't quite look as it does now as it will in a months time

[derk]

to add to that hook it looks like its cast not forged, when cast fails it breaks off and snaps, forged will typically bend and open up when it fails

[Crawlerer79]

Update #1

Well things have been fair moving along getting Lando ready for the Mud Plug... 3 weeks to go!

A couple weeks back now I got job one ticked off the list... new exhaust. I mentioned in my first post...

Wasn't long before I smacked the exhaust hard enough to get about an inch gap between the exhaust manifold collector and the downpipe... whoever had worked on the exhaust never bothered to put the bolts in on the flange, or they'd fallen off! Either way, it would be an easily fix I thought. Just pull the downpipe off, throw a new gasket at it and put some bolts on! However, as soon as I pulled on the downpipe ta get it free from the studs, the whole exhaust jumped forwards about 75mm! When I hit the exhaust, it put the whole system under tension when I bent it, so now I had an exhaust I couldn't get back on! After faffing about for about 4 hours we got the downpipe back on with a new gasket and figured that'd be it (thanks Dad!). Unfortunately it didn't seal properly up and having spent all my money on buying the truck (had about $1.20 to my name!) so I figured I could just run it anyway (Regrets) - More on this later

Well... it's later now. Time for an explanation. The exhaust leak was upstream of the O2 sensor... so the sensor has been reading funny since then. The truck seemed very underpowered and would stall when coming back from cruising rpm down to idle. On one of the recent trips after the damage dad radio'd me ta say that 'I was blowing black smoke on hard acceleration.' I think with the leak the O2 sensor must have been reading very odd (I don't know an awful lot about this sorts stuff but with the leak my best guess is it was reading outside what its normal range would be so the ECU went into some sort of overide mode as if the O2 sensor had died). From then on I drove it very little as I didn't want to do any engine damage, and then of course the Zook came along and Lando got parked up... life got in the way and repairing Lando got shelved.

So, took it down ta Uniweld and Grant whipped my up a new exhaust... he resurfaced the exhaust manifold outlet flange and chucked another new gasket at it. The previous owner had installed resonators to replace the cats but had brought the tube size down from 2.25" to 2" to fit the resonators. These resonators had been damaged by the riverbank and the 2" pipe had been squished pretty bad so all that got pulled out and replaced with a 2.25" pipe ta keep things simple. The old muffler had to go as well because it took a beating on the riverbank (not a normal riverbank but one that had been an old council road for gravel extraction that had had the edge washed away in a recent flood so was a super hard packed edge because of the clay in the road and obviously the fact huge trucks had been going along it... it was like concrete) so the spot welds holding the baffles in let go and the casing got crunched so it rattled horribly and in general was a mess. I got a 'Afterburner 15" Bullet' resonator to replace the old muffler and the resonators deleted... and a phone call from the exhaust shop to say that the truck was 'rather loud!' It certainly is

Now that the exhaust is all finished up (also got the whole system tucked up as high as possible) I need the ECU fixing... it's gonna go round to Canterbury Land Rover Spares soon and get the ECU cleared (they said that it was probably needed) as well as an O2 sensor delete and a tune... hopefully this should sort Lando out!

Photos





Last weekend I through a set of HD steering arms at the truck as well as relocating the damper so that it's out of the way of being smacked. I used Race Rally NZ steering arms (http://www.racerallynz.net/landrover) and adapted the included damper mount to suit the different angle at the axle side of things, while I made up my own bracket to bolt onto some existing holes in the chassis.





I've also got some new hooks (ended up going through 4WDBits, TWL doesn't sell them anymore ) and new plates to mount them as they have a different bolt pattern... now we have rated hooks (not fitted yet tho )

One last thing... look what I just picked up from the shipping depot today... my old wheels now modified courtesy of Howat Engineering. I'll leave this as a teaser, they're now off to be powdercoated. The truck is coming together... happy days

[Clint]

Nice work! Good to see some solid tow hooks going on early in the build - hopefully you've got something similar out the back? Looks like the next project should be a front skid plate going down from the bumper maybe?

Cheers
Clint

[drive it ...]

Hi T, Good to see Lando is chipping away making progress. Couple of years time I might head down a similar track with a disco. Hope to see you out at Shefield, did another CV in the saf but should be able to get my act together between now and then. Thought you might have been out at Cust for a nosy at the WC?

[Crawlerer79]

Hi T, Good to see Lando is chipping away making progress. Couple of years time I might head down a similar track with a disco. Hope to see you out at Shefield, did another CV in the saf but should be able to get my act together between now and then. Thought you might have been out at Cust for a nosy at the WC?

Yep its finally getting somewhere! Another CV??? I hope that's only CV number 2... soon those chromoly ones mighta paid for themselves Yea I was hoping to get along and either man the BBQ trailer or marshall but was up in Hamilton for the weekend...

[Crawlerer79]

Nice work! Good to see some solid tow hooks going on early in the build - hopefully you've got something similar out the back?

Yep, back one's already a rated one

Update #2

Well in the last update post I said Lando was going round to Canterbury Land Rover Spares to hopefully get the stalling issue sorted. Well, it's back now and Max's majic has worked! O2 Sensor is now deleted and the ECU reset... now has heaps more snot and doesn't die! Very stoked with the result!

After school on Friday I also popped round to Elite Powder Coating and picked up new wheels, freshly powder coated satin black. I had them sent to Howat Engineering in Wellington where Brian beadlocked them and cut the centers out before welding in them 35mm deeper. The wheels started out life as 15x8 Mangels for those of you wondering.





While I've not got any tyres mounted up I figured I might as well see how they look. Before I sent the wheels away for modifying they had about the same offset as my Rostyle steelies with 30mm spacers... so it not has much offset! (sidenote, will most tyre shops mount onto beadlocks? Any recommendations in Christchurch?)



Roystyles with 30mm spacers:



New Steelies



I have also picked up another Disco (to be a short term replacement for the Zook while I get Lando road legal etc.)... Rough but a good 'gap filler.'



Already has a 2" lift, and considering the new wheels for Lando are 15"s but my current set are 16"s... I found myself buying these





Nankang N889 Mudstars in a 32x11.50x15.. with heaps of tread!

I know I said in my first post that...

The plan is for 35s, twin lockers and all the other goodies to get Lando up to comp. spec.

...and 35s is still the plan! So the reason I got 32s is that this new Disco should be able to run them with some trimmed arches (previous owner had it on 285/75s but they've been very obviously rubbing!). Seeing as I can only drive one vehicle at a time, and Lando is currently on a 2" lift and trimmed arches as well, I figured if I bought these new 32s then I can put them on whichever vehicle I want to drive... solving my tyre situation for both vehicles. Also it meant I didn't have to rush getting all the bits you need for 35s (bigger lift and driveline mods) but they are very much still a happening thing!

So that I don't end with rubbing at full compression, I whipped in some 1" extended bumpstops from Gwyn Lewis 4x4 (another sidenote for you Landie guys, Gwyn's a great guy to deal with!)





While I was under the back I noticed the diff breather has come loose and been sitting on the exhaust... I now have a two piece rear breather with melted over end another job

Then the new hooks and plates went in... we are now rated front and rear ... only took 3 years



That's all from me for now, been a busy day! Hopefully next time Lando will be sitting on new beadlocked rubber
One month ta go before Sheffield! Stoked!
Cheers guys

PS: Apologise for beginner mistake... forgot to resize the previous posts photos so are huuuuge files. I will go through and resize them once I have some free time

[mudsurfv6]

Looking good.

What did it cost to get the rims done?

[Crawlerer79]

Looking good.

What did it cost to get the rims done?

Thanks, it was $150 a rim for beadlocking and $40 to move centres plus gst. Done a nice job too... just wish I'd noticed the welding splatter before I got them powdercoated collected them at night and dropped them off next morning so didn't notice... sigh. It not too bad, but if you're looking to get them done definitely whip round and clean it off. Was much cheaper to ship up and get done than locally with Elite Wheels. They wanted $275 for beadlocking and $80 for centres!!!!

[mudsurfv6]

Bit of price difference.

It's an option I could do, just got to get other stuff done first. And save enough $.
I've got internal bead locks I was going to use but always good to think of other things.

[Crawlerer79]

Update #3

Hopefully next time Lando will be sitting on new beadlocked rubber

I lied... no beadlocks fitted yet but we got a front locker now

Well today's been pretty full on. The job for today was putting a KAM 'Drop In' E-Locker that Dad bought for his Rangie and hasn't ended installing yet... with the mud plug coming up and a possible trip over to the coast I asked if I could borrow it for a couple months... and Dad said yes!

Nothing much to say about the swap apart from it was a pretty normal diff swap... Big thanks to Dad for not only loaning me the locker but also starting work on the swap while I was at work funding this thing... made it a much more achievable job for the few hours remaining after work. Still needs wiring finished but the physical swap is done. Sorry, no piccie of the new locker... got a dodgy SD card which messed up the file of the photo I got

Out with the old



New diff installed



Little switch holder Dad whipped up while I was at work



Next job is throwing in a locked rear diff after school sometime this week...
Cheers guys

[Crawlerer79]

Update #4

Well I said that next job was throwing in the locked rear diff 'next week'... that was two weeks ago. While I did actually get it in I've been so flat out I've had no update time!

However it wasn't simple. So much for back diffs being easier than the fronts. I guess it would have been if the diff head casing was the same...

Tuesday night:

Me and mate came home from school and got stuck in. Wheels off, drain the diffs, propshaft and halfshafts out as per usual diff swap routine. Then with a bit of a struggle the diff came out (been RTV'd in rather than installed with a gasket... seems like everything in this truck has been RTV'd ) and set about cleaning all the mating faces for the gaskets to go onto. Then my friend headed home and I got the new locked diff in myself... along with a little 'gentle persuasion' from the old hammer.

The new Diff



Then when I went to bolt the diff back in, 4 of the 10 studs were too short... it looked like when I hammered the diff in (really not that hard), I'd knocked the studs out of the axle casing. Sigh. Call it a night

Wednesday night:

Came home from work and out with the diff again to pull the studs through. Then I found that the studs were all perfectly seating still... apparently a diff head casing of a 1997 Discovery outta the front isn't the same as a rear diff head in a 1994 Discovery... 4 the studs on my truck were shorter than the rest of them, to suit a step in the casing.



Old Diff



New Diff



Fortunately I was able to whip out the studs from my spare casing and it was problem solved (again no photo thanks to bad SD card ).

Thursday night:

Finally through the locked diff in for good and got everything fitting back up. Job done!

All in



Now... the wheel situation.

After getting the wheels back from the powdercoaters (went pretty much straight from the shipping depot to the powdercoaters, only had a look to check if everything was there etc. and get some piccies) I found that when the beadlocks were welded on, a lot of the spatter was never cleaned off. Safe to say the job was done and nothing more. So I now have nice powdercoated wheels with spatter on them . While it's no biggie, it's a bit of a pain. Fortunately they'll be covered in mud for a fair amount of the time

However the sharp edges around the valve was another prob, as was the bolt holes that had been tapped wonky (found this out when I cleaned the powdercoat out of them with a tap... and no I wasn't accidentally cutting new threads and cross-threading it!). The final issue was today when I sent the wheels around for fitting and I had a nice courier fee popped on top of my fitting charge (which is already huge for beadlocks!) as not enough bolts had been supplied. So I'm not overly impressed with Howat Engineering... a bit disappointing but that's life. Rant over (and yes I did file the valve hole smooth and then repaint where I filed away my powdercoat...)

On a good note I had great service by Marshalls Tyres... big thanks to them! Tonight's job was swapping over from half worn pizza cutters on Rangie rims to beadlocked rims wrapped with the new muddies... and what a difference!!!!





Old



New



Old



New



I absolutely love how it now looks (no that's not why I did it but certainly a good side affect)... glad I went with black! Also I'm stoked with how well they fit... the maths and measuring of stuff said it would work in theory with the new offset but to have them fit so well in real life, I'm stoked. They fill the arches perfectly and don't rub even at full lock... although I'm yet to check when flexing ... that's tomorrow's job. If they do rub it should be almost noting and the extended stops should help as well.

What they are:

-32x11.50x15 Nankang N889 Mudstars
-35" 4WDBits Tubes
-15x8 Mangel 8 Spokes with lots of offset (will measure soon) and Howat Beadlocks

One last picture of how it fits... hard to tell but just sneaks past the arches



The truck certainly is coming together for the Mud Plug... got a busy weekend finishing it all off and prepping for the cage....

Cheers guys

[Trials]

However the sharp edges around the valve was another prob, as was the bolt holes that had been tapped wonky

I'll have to give the old man shit for that! Shame to hear about the quality of work done on them.
Disco is definitely looking the business by the way

[Crawlerer79]

Disco is definitely looking the business by the way

Thanks!

Update #5

First thing first, I figured some 'beauty' shots of the truck on the new wheels were needed... the lighting was weird but this one came out alright...



Also threw some new fluids at it...



Big news though.... New parts truck!!!!





It's muddyplumber's old 3 door which he had on 36s... safe to say its seen better days.

Before:





Has no engine, gearbox or transfer case and had to supply my own axles. After a day testing the blue Disco with the club we popped around and swapped the axles in about an hour and a half, from Saf front and 80 Series rear to some old rover casings to drag it home on. Will be robbing the Safety Devices 8-Point cage outta it from Lando as well as some other goodies.

Looks like the next project should be a front skid plate going down from the bumper maybe?

As requested...



While the cage won't be in for the Mud Plug this weekend, it should be a happening thing shortly.
For the meanwhile I needa go fit some breathers for the gearbox and transfer case... waters meant to be 1 metre deep this weekend if no further rain... and more rain is forecast
Will be interesting to see how well the waterproofing holds up and how many times I end up drying out the dizzy!
That's it for now,
Cheers guys

[BlakeNZ]

Hasn't Muddyplumber's 3 door disco got the yellow Camel trophy paint underneath the green?

[Crawlerer79]

Hasn't Muddyplumber's 3 door disco got the yellow Camel trophy paint underneath the green?

Yep, that's right. Engine bay and any hard to reach places are still Sandglow paint... was obviously a very nice truck once upon a time. A shame to see how rough it's become

[LR90NZ]

Hasn't Muddyplumber's 3 door disco got the yellow Camel trophy paint underneath the green?

Yep, that's right. Engine bay and any hard to reach places are still Sandglow paint... was obviously a very nice truck once upon a time. A shame to see how rough it's become

and underneath the yellow it was originally white.

[UBZ]

Hasn't Muddyplumber's 3 door disco got the yellow Camel trophy paint underneath the green?

Yep, that's right. Engine bay and any hard to reach places are still Sandglow paint... was obviously a very nice truck once upon a time. A shame to see how rough it's become

and underneath the yellow it was originally white.

And the 200tdi from it is sitting in my shed getting ready to be put in my defender , pretty sure the rest of it has been parted out as well .

[Crawlerer79]

and underneath the yellow it was originally white.

And the 200tdi from it is sitting in my shed getting ready to be put in my defender , pretty sure the rest of it has been parted out as well .

Funny how things spread around NZ ay... I bought everything bar engine, gearbox, transfer case and he hung onto axles. All the goodies from when muddyplumber had it, like Webasto heater and full camp set-up, has all been stripped and the body dereg'd so is definitely good for nothing but parts now

[lax2wlg]

Cool Rover project mate, looks great. Love the Rostyles, a nice tip of the hat to the earlier coil sprung Rovers.

Yeah shame about the 2-door, a 2 door 200Tdi would be an awesome project to restore to factory condition, IMO.

What type of rear locker arrangement do you have?? Keep it up!

[Crawlerer79]

Cool Rover project mate, looks great. Love the Rostyles, a nice tip of the hat to the earlier coil sprung Rovers.

Yeah shame about the 2-door, a 2 door 200Tdi would be an awesome project to restore to factory condition, IMO.

What type of rear locker arrangement do you have?? Keep it up!

Thanks, yea I do like the old Rostyles ay but couldn't get enough offset outta them so went to the 8 spokes.

I would have loved to save the spares truck before it ended up the way it is now...

It just a welded diff. Dropped some high tensile rod in the spider gear and got the fizzed up.

Update #6

Just a short update before tomorrow's event... headed down Intake Road today for a test run and loved it.

Truck goes way better than before the mods... new tyres and lockers made it go anywhere we pointed it. Still haven't stuck it in water as deep as tomorrow but have pushed the truck limits a bit more. The new wide tyres at 16psi made it float over all the soft stuff and has heaps of grip.

Unfortunately to fit the truck onto the borrowed trailer we have to swap over to the old rostyles one one side as they have less offset so can squeeze onto the trailer... Another sidenote: The truck sounds soooooooo good!!!! It's amazing

Loaded up



Action!



Aftermath



All washed again and reloaded for tomorrow's event!



RIght, that's all from me for now, need some sleep for tomorrow and hopefully I don't break anything...
Cheers guys

[catalystracing]

How did the day go ?

[Crawlerer79]

How did the day go ?

Went really well thanks!!!! Still had a running truck at the end of the day which is a win! Has a slightly pushed in fuel tank, bent the number plate and lost a headlight cover... so all in all, basically came away with nothing!

Will do a full write up when I have free time, but will leave you with this:



Side note, if anyone knows where results are, I'd be interested to know where exactly I came

[noexitroad]

Hi there, can I ask where you got your tow hook plates from? I could do with one or two for mine

[Crawlerer79]

Hi there, can I ask where you got your tow hook plates from? I could do with one or two for mine

I got them from Max at Canterbury Land Rover Spares. I think they were around the $30-$40 mark... then you just have to drill the plates for your hooks. I also have the holes in my dumb irons bored out to 1/2" so I also drill those holes (in the plate) out as well