Just a short note and picts to show the 110 Hicap project underway!!! Finally got the garage squared away enough that I could fit both trucks, and all the dismantled D90 stuff at one time. Have most of the easy stuff taken off the 90. Now for the body work and bed. Still got the 4.0 engine/harness/ecu for sale, as well as the full softop/rear cage etc.

Blister

And another:

Blister

And all the bolt on stuff on the floor.

Blister

Billster!

Looking good there man. Part of the fun of seeing the 'under construction' pics for me is seeing the random stuff in the background, trying to figure out what it is, and finding what, if any, workshop 'etiquitte' we might have in common.

I have a feeling if you went to my shop and I went to your garage, we'd feel pretty equally at home. Glad to see I'm not the only one with crap strewn all over the floor!

Lots to be done if we're both gonna make our 'deadline'!

Welcome to the 'ground-up' school of LR construction. You'll enjoy it!

Michael

I'm probably crazy for even thinking about this but....

Are you going to sell your D90 Frame/ parts? I have a Jeep TJ right now (I know, I know) but I want to sell it and get a D90.

The only way I can think of doing this is building one myself rather than buying a $24k one :eek:

I know serious one is really close to me and I think I've driven past his shop once or twice...judging by the vehicles I've seen outside. Anyway, maybe you have some suggestions michael?

Cheers,

Justin

Here's my advice:

DON'T START A LAND ROVER BASED PROJECT TRUCK!

LOL.

Seriously though (kidding aside), doing a frame-up LR is an excercize in patience, futility, humility, masochism, exhibitionism, and lots of other 'ism's'.

It can be fun, and definitely rewarding, but you have to be COMMITED.

That's the tip of the iceburg as far as advice is concerned. Ask Billster and Doug and StrangeRover for their advice. Those guys have also BTDT and can expound!

Later,

Michael

PS Our shop is moved, and we're now in Washougal for a while.

Haha, thanks michael.

I'll guess I'll just wait till I get out of school....my poor photo student bank account wouldn't like a Rover project I'm guessing ;)

JM

Here are some more 110 frame/workshop picts for Serious One:

Blister

ps. Notice the playmates workbench my son uses in the background. Even has his own set of tools, and is constantly wrenching on his bike. He has recently been trying to plumb some extra ARB blue line on the bike. Has is going from the front caliper up to the handlebar stem right now.

If I could just get him to recognize the names of all the tool, I would have the ultimate gofer.

More picts:

Last workshop/110 frame pict:

Blister

So Bill, you're using the D110 frame and bulkhead to combine it with your D90 and other parts, right? That's pretty sweet, you should consider documenting the buildup with 35 mm film and then sending it to LROI or LRW. I always get a kick out of the buildups you see on the pages of those magazines, I admire those guys doing a complete restoration out of a tiny apartment in England!

lookin good bill!!! but i have to say that i think you should definetly bob the bed. on hi cap 110s and 130s, the bed hangs way further out than the frame does. on one of my friends 130s, he extended the rear frame about 10", and it is still 6" too short from being level with the back of the bed.

so IMO bob it, or have it bobbed for you courtesy of moab :D dont think you could do such a dramatic wheelstand on dump bump if you had another 25" hangin off the back!!!

best of luck, and get wrenchin!!!

Thanks for the encouragement guys!! I cannot wait to get the rolling chassis going. I am waiting on a 30 spline ARB and some 30 spline maxidrive axles for the rear. Then I will take the axles and suspension off the D90 and transplant them to the 110.

Not sure if I am going to run the "earless" SG trailing arms though, would be a shame to cut a perfectly new 110 frame (but I prolly will, with all that breakover angle crap). Just have to source a new mounting plate for the heims.

As far as engine goes, I have been saving my pennies for a few months, and will "order" the TDI at the beginning of the month (after payday of course). I gave alot of thought to using a Cummins engine, or a SBC, but I would have to ditch the axles completely and start at D44/F9" minimum, or go up to D60's.

Gonna run a zf auto in the thing, but up in the air about whether to use mine (with the tdi bellhousing,torque converter), or the supplied auto (that prolly is somewhat used), or to get a rebuilt unit from Ashcroft directly. What do you guys think? (and keep your "you need a 5 speed" comments to yourself):flipoff2:

I just have to get all the stuff I sold off the D90 out of the garage, and off the truck.

Blister

Originally posted by BillnSandi
Thanks for the encouragement guys!! I cannot wait to get the rolling chassis going. I am waiting on a 30 spline ARB and some 30 spline maxidrive axles for the rear. Then I will take the axles and suspension off the D90 and transplant them to the 110.

Not sure if I am going to run the "earless" SG trailing arms though, would be a shame to cut a perfectly new 110 frame (but I prolly will, with all that breakover angle crap). Just have to source a new mounting plate for the heims.

As far as engine goes, I have been saving my pennies for a few months, and will "order" the TDI at the beginning of the month (after payday of course). I gave alot of thought to using a Cummins engine, or a SBC, but I would have to ditch the axles completely and start at D44/F9" minimum, or go up to D60's.

Gonna run a zf auto in the thing, but up in the air about whether to use mine (with the tdi bellhousing,torque converter), or the supplied auto (that prolly is somewhat used), or to get a rebuilt unit from Ashcroft directly. What do you guys think? (and keep your "you need a 5 speed" comments to yourself):flipoff2:

I just have to get all the stuff I sold off the D90 out of the garage, and off the truck.

Blister

if you are going with a used motor, whats so bad about a used auto? i would go with the one that comes with the motor, it will be a lot easier than changing yours, and a hell of a lot cheaper than a rebuilt one. besides, whoever had that motor and trans before you probably used it as a grocery getter only, and it should be in a lot better shape than yours, with all the off road use.

on another note, i think that with 30 splines in the rear and the beefiest 24s in the front with a UJ conversion, you should be in a good spot as far as strength goes. the Tdi just does NOT put out enough power to really have to worry about breakage.

but you know what would be cool :flipoff2: is a rover front end with D60 outers on it redrilled to 5 on 6.5 :D

another side note, you may want to think about changing your gearing back to 4.10s if you want to use the truck on the road at all. the Tdi really runs out of power at higher revs, and it would do it a favor to run a little less gear in the axles.

but come on, you KNOW you want a cummins!!! :D

or maybe a 5spd??? :flipoff2:

Gearing should be okay, as I will run 38's or 38.5's depending on what will clear the front outrigger (rears will be no problem with the hicap bed). Plus, this truck will not see alot of highway miles. Mostly daily driving 3 miles to work, and rockcrawling.

As far as the front end goes, we shall see how the 23 spline front CV's hold up. So far so good (although the stock 32 splines held up pretty well for a couple of years).

Blister

I was just checking out the pic's while my wife walked by and said don't even think about it..... I wouldn't, but I still am very very jealous. ...

johnny

"Gonna run a zf auto in the thing, but up in the air about whether to use mine (with the tdi bellhousing,torque converter), or the supplied auto (that prolly is somewhat used), or to get a rebuilt unit from Ashcroft directly. What do you guys think? (and keep your "you need a 5 speed" comments to yourself) "

Bill before I found my el cheapo R380 I was planning on running a zf.

When I checked w/ ashcroft they did not have any cores for TDi zfs. Maybe they do now? I dunno. Anyway you have to be kinda sneaky about it as you need a D90 TDi and a disco zf, so you have to source two different used components and I could not get a strait answer out of anyone as to what the tricky bits were as far as getting them to go together (if in fact there were any mating differences).

Since you have a perfectly good zf now I might just go with that. Sure its way different but for crawling does it really matter?

Ron

Billster,

I can appreciate the tiny tots workbench for sure. I don't want to get my Connor one, because if I did, he'd never want to play with 'my' tools!

Also, Ron wrote...

"Since you have a perfectly good zf now I might just go with that. Sure its way different but for crawling does it really matter?"

I am going to agree with him on that one. I think with Coopers underdrive/overdrive within an honest 12 months of being released you might just run it the way that it is, and if you decide you need lower gearing (or higher gearing for that matter), you could slap one of his onto the rear of your LT-230 and not have to change anything else at all.

Just a thought.

Michael

PS Bob the bed! I did!

Originally posted by evilfij
Anyway you have to be kinda sneaky about it as you need a D90 TDi and a disco zf, so you have to source two different used components and I could not get a strait answer out of anyone as to what the tricky bits were as far as getting them to go together (if in fact there were any mating differences).

Ron

The defender Tdi is virtually the same as the discovery one (300Tdi this is....) and the ZF will mate straight up to either. a friend of mine has one, a ZF auto in a D90 Tdi and he just bolted it straight up. using the stock R380 square crossmember and stock propshafts. had to do a little fab work to fit the oil cooler pipes. and obviously use the flex plate from the Tdi engine (should come with the ZF IMO). i'll try and get up to his shop and take some pictures of it, especially the pics of the kickdown cable on the FIP.
he used the stock 5 speed manual transmission tunnel and fabbed a bracket to fit the shifter unit on, but it looks a little scruffy, but the NAS auto tunned will fit too, and uses ( i think) the same shifter.

Jamie

cool pics there Bill, reminds me of when i started the project90! it's great when the pile of "ready to bolt on" bits grows smaller, and the vehicle grows bigger!

:beer:

Jamie

Originally posted by Serious One
Here's my advice:


PS Our shop is moved, and we're now in Washougal for a while.

Michael.... your old shop, was that the "quattro sports" address? do you still get mail from there?

i sent a package a few weeks ago to that address for you but you may have to chase it up?

Jamie

VERY cool my brotha!

Just a suggestion...If your going to run 38.5' (which IMO would be perfect) you might want to consider modifying your front bulk-head outriggers....And at the same time get those rear-ears off from below the frame rail...You could just cut them off and relocate them up and out of the way, and keep your bushing. It's the perfect time to do those mods now rather than when she's all purrdied up in'stuff.

Looking forward to progress segments!

--D

Here are the last picts of the drivable D90 (stripped). I took it to a shop that was buying the engine for removal. It was a fun drive. The thing really hauls ass with 4.75's and missing about 500 lbs of stuff.

Blister

More picts:

Blister

2 more to go:

Blister

last one:

Blister

"The defender Tdi is virtually the same as the discovery one (300Tdi this is....) "

My understanding was that the disco turbo was in the wrong spot, making it a PITA to fit the D90. Also most (some?) discos had the electronic control on the TDi so you would have to find a way to yank that stuff off. I thought there were some other differences, not the least of which would be the intercooler/rad assembly.

I could be off base but I was advised to find a D90/D110 300TDi to use in a D90/D110 and not to mess around with a disco one. Obviously you need the ZF from a disco as no D90s had a 300TDi and a zf.

Ron