Masochistic Early Midlife Crisis - Old Land Rover Content

How big was the greenhouse? Surely you don't need planning permission to put up a greenhouse?

It's service and annual maintenance time again.

MOT is officially due next week, but that obviously gets the 6 month extension automatically. I am going to use some of the extension and hopefully get it MOTd towards the end of the summer, subject to possible harvest work. It won't pass at the moment in any case. Nothing major - track rod and drag link ball joint boots have split and there is a minor fuel leak. The steel filler neck has rotted out and it is definitely leaking from there as the whole area is soaked with diesel and I can see holes, but it also looks like there is a tiny leak from the tank seam. There is a possibility that the leak from the filler is running around the seam, but I have ordered a tank, fitting kit and gaskets to be on the safe side. The tank is fairly rusty as it is.

The rest is oil and filters, grease around and check wheel bearings. It could do with a new set of BFG tyres too as they are down to 4-5mm which makes them about as good as road tyres off road, but they are still legal at the moment and will do the summer.

Parts are taking a little longer to arrive due to the suppliers slowing down, but that is to be expected under the circumstances.

Got the main annual service done. Oil and fuel filter (still waiting for the air filter) and greased round. One ball joint boot replaced as it was split and chasing an oil leak.

The oil leak turned out to be a crack in the oil thermostat housing which fell apart when I removed it. It is a special order (couple of days) so looks like I'm going farming in the Mazda for a few days.

Looks pretty shocking but, you did the usual great job on it.

The tank and filler were fairly shocking. Looking through the history, it last had a new tank in 2012. I don't know whether they rustproofed it prior to fitting. 10 years is the expected lifetime, so not far off. You would think that somebody would do a plastic tank these days.

I am contemplating a set of front mudflaps and Gwynn Lewis does a kit that protects the rear of the tank and the filler neck as they are exposed to the wheels. I have slathered it in Dinitrol before fitting the guard so hopefully that will help.

There used to be a plastic powder that could be used at a dip, can a tank not be plastic coated?

I've gone for two new BFG KO2 A/Ts and had the local tyre place put them on eht rear and swap the rears to the front.

The rears still have 7mm of tread compared to the 3-5 mm of the front pair.

I'm going green laning on Thursday which should test them out.

Haha, I think Hell will have frozen over before Martin takes his RR green laning!

On another note, I have fitted a subwoofer to the Defender. It's one of the underseat types which I have fitted behind the passenger seat on the bulkhead. I wish I had done it years ago. The smaller speakers can cope OK with treble and mid range but always distorted with bass. I now have decent bass and good sound overall capable of being loud enough for the Defender without distorting or sounding crap.

I drove down a lane yesterday that was very green with a tree tunnel. Does that count?

I saw these at the LRO Show a year or so ago.  Despite my body's best efforts, I am not quite ready to check out just yet!

At two and a half grand I'd just open a window as the Land Rover gods intended.

I can't stand being hot and bothered especially if stuck in traffic, get it ordered. And no more steamy windows!

My F-I-L’s Series 3 finally got back to its home this week, after the fixing began about 14 months ago. After the new chassis, bulkhead, wheels,and repaint iT felt a bit sketchy on a test drive so we booked it in for a brake check last October.

10 months later it has new brakes, Exhaust, full wiring loom, lights, rear spots, door cards, seat, re-vinyled dash and loads of other things, and a bill of about £5k with 50 odd hours work in it.

Might just about be worth what it has cost.