Land Rover delay------Fire!

 27 Aug 2020

Well, there is going to be an undetermined delay on the next project.

On 15 Aug 2020 the State of California experienced an unusual lightening storm with over 4000 strikes setting 650 fires.

One of these fires, the CZU fire, tore thru long unburnt forest in my County. Because of so many fires resources were limited and many of them could not be stopped. Every County in California had a wildfire except San Francisco County.

The fire raged and eventually 77,000 peoples were evacuated including me. I was evacuated Tuesday 18 Aug 2020 actually leaving around 0300 on the 19th with most of my camping gear and those valuables I thought of at the time.

As you regular readers will know My roof was just painted and I was researching doing the headliner and because of this work my roof rack is not on. I did grab my OZtent RV3, but had to leave my Rhino Rack Batwing awning as well as the gearbox I just picked up from Timm Cooper. I left my trailer since it is full of junk right now, plus I was going to a motel and didn't want to have the added hassle for parking a trailer would bring. Besides, it was just going to be for a few hours, right? Then they would have the fire out, right? Right?

Wrong. The forest was dry and the flames hungry, they ate through California's first State Park, Big Basin, Then climbed the side of the Ben Lomond Mountain, pluton heading South towards Santa Cruz and down the Hwy 236 towards Boulder Creek and my house, while the West side devoured it's way to the Pacific Ocean. Eating the 1909 Park Lodge and so far 634 structures and 81,000 acres with 1 death.

I am OK my 109 and I got out, but not my motorcycle and many family heirlooms.

As of today it seems they have started to gain control, this morning 19% containment, and are starting to repopulate some of the more distant evacuations.

Right now my house is OK, it is 1/2-3/4 mile from the fire front and the town of Boulder Creek is in between. It will probably be a week or more before I can go home.

Here are a couple of pics. 

From my neighborhood Wed.

Smoke over Monterey, California

The fire went through Swanton Pacific Railroad; https://sprr.calpoly.edu/

And that's if for now !

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Land Rover sunsheet refurbishment

 4 Aug 2020

I decided to start working on the exterior of my trop top whilst I figured out what to do about the headliner. Starting at the rear third I tried to remove the fungus/ tree droppings. Nothing worked that crapola had etched into the aluminum.

I tried acetone but that only proved good for a quick pre-wipe before sanding. Hitting it with #80 then #120 and finally #220. I had to hand sand around the rivets.

6 Aug 2020

    I made the mistake of letting it sit unpainted and the early morning fog and drizzle left watermarks that had to be sanded out again. With that lesson I covered it with Rustoleum 2x primer/paint in gloss almond. It worked out that doing 1/3 at a time did well for me at beating the Summer sun and heat.

7 Aug 2020

   Friday saw me doing the center section, the same way, wipe, sand w/80,120,220, hand sand, blow off with air hose and post wipe, paint. It was hot enough that I got 3 or more coats during a day.

You can see in this pic how 1) bad the spots were, 2) how I overlapped the sanding/painting  3) how banged up this top is.

Looking at the front compared to the finished back.

Interesting how much gloss the paint lost as it dried.

10 Aug 2020

   

The sunsheet was finished.  I had ordered new seals for the alpine glass from Trevor at Rovahfarm; Weatherstrip #302177 and locking seal #DBF500040  both x2. It seemed to take awhile for them, but when they finally got here I was ready.

11 Aug 2020

Probably the original seal.

 Very crumbly, This side had seen more sun. Came right off with the putty knife.

Chiseled out the outside and pulled the glass out.

This shows the shrinkage gap in the old seal at the top.

At this point with the seal out and the rooftop side empty, I sanded it down, again 80, 120, 220 and post blow down and wipe. This was going to be an all day job! Then a couple coats of paint.

While the paint was drying; 

With care I cleaned the glass, eventually I needed to use steel wool on the edges to remove the old seal.

Before steel wool on the left, after on the right.

The shape of the new seal, you can see one side is larger, that is the side the glass fit in. The weird shape in the middle is for the locking strip.

Testing the glass fit.

I fitted the seal and made it about a half inch too long and then crammed it in, this should help with shrinkage over the years

Using Dawn dish soap I lubricated the inner gap for the glass. It took a few tries as I wanted to start it in the top where the seam was, but eventually I came to the conclusion that it needed to start on the bottom.  I got it in and by now it was hot and I was in the full sun. I knew I needed to get some of the locking strip in---just in case.

    Well I didn't buy the tool, I've seen it done with WD40 and screwdrivers at my old job and used that technique on the rear windows on my 88, Ignotus.

Struggling in the heat I got it started. Using the bottom 180° from the seal seam. I had coated the locking strip with Dawn to allow it to slip in easier.

The heat was on but I got 1/2 of the strip in before I called it a day. Going around the curve was PITA. Along the whole strip I had to push one side and then the other into the seal: one screwdriver width at a time and often it would pop out.

12 Aug 2020

    The next morning in cooler weather I preservered. Again making the locking strip about 1/2" longer to account for shrinkage.

Done on this side!

My 109 has a 2 piece roofside, You can see the outside seam in the above pic. On the inside there is this flange and it has a no longer available rubber trim covering. After several websites and inquiries I found somethin I hoped would work. From McMaster-Carr I got 10' of EPDM rubber trim #8693K26. Here is the profile view;

A test to see if it will work, the old stuff is below it.

Not the look I was hoping for, but it will work.

Notches were required at the top.

13 Aug 2020

Rinse and repeat for the drivers side. Remove seal and glass, sand, paint, clean glass, install seal, install glass, install lock strip.

14 Aug 2020

Up early to get the last bit of sanding and painting done ; the rear above the door. 

This was probably the easiest, wire wheel the gutter and a light sanding as the paint looked really good.

Later that afternoon, on my back porch.

In the mail I received the rubber washers I ordered for under the sunsheet spacers. These were obtained from Primal 23 Industrial,  EPDM rubber washers, # EPDM70-101418-25

15 Aug 2020

Old ones on the top new on the bottom

With a spacer. And while we are on the subject of spacers; these are just pot metal, I don't think they were originally painted , but I am painting mine.

 

I did one side and then the other. While the spacer was out I removed the old washer and sanded and painted, I also wire wheeled the threads on the machine screws and sanded and painted where the washer sits on the sunsheet.

Lastly I replaced the top washers with stainless ones.

Not bad even if I do say so myself!

Land Rover tropical top, vent clean up and install

30 July 2020

When we last left our intrepid 109 owner;

I was fixing the sand blaster given to me by my neighbor. Once it was working I was able to hit some of the larger items, but the small washers still needed to be done by hand on a 220 grit sanding sponge.

The blaster paid for itself once I had it dialed in for pressure and flow I was able to clean the inside of the slides and the rest of the latches.

For the vents I cleaned what I could with a wire wheel in my corded drill as blasting media was a limited supply.
The stuff I couldn't reach with the wire wheel I got with the sand. Then I sprayed with rust preventer and almond paint.

31 July 2020

The cotter pins I put in the first on bothered me. I needed something better. I put on my mask(for Covid) and made a trip to the hardware store. Looking for 1/8" dia clevis pins. The holes for the original hinge pins are 1/8". Alas, the smallest I could find were 1/4" dia.
   Something else was needed. Looking at the rows of drawers of hardware I found some 6-32 allen head machine screws. I needed 12 so I bought 14, I had zinc plated locknuts at home. I also have plenty of metric and SAE allen wrenches, but WTF, none of them fit. I wound up using my dremel tool to grind down a wrench to fit.

Once the parts were all cleaned they were rust inhibitor coated and then painted flat black, with the exception of the finger pins. They would need to be pressed back in to the slide.

Interestingly 2 of the finger pins were now a loose fit in the slide. Taking a sharp chisel I renewed the groove in the center that splayed out and made the press fit possible. PIA....

Using a block of wood to prevent damage to the paint I hammered the pins back in and measured them to get the sides even.

The paint was still drying on the vents and trim rings so your trusty blogger decided to wire wheel the old dried glue off the inside of the roof.  Before photo;

After doing the rear section;

The slides were hit with a last coat of paint to cover the finger pins and since it was in the 90'F they were dry by the time the wire wheeling was done.

So some assembly was required!  I put the dogbone links on the slides. Not having a good fitting allen wrench was frustrating.

I should have worn my face shield! The after pic;

1 Aug 2020

Overnight I decided to remove the damaged front headliner and insulation. It is all just held in with screws. I took it out whole which caused a little struggle due to the metal side strips making it hard to get the frame out of the inside drip rail.
   Then I found this;

The headliner insulation was falling apart on the right side. So I covered my seats with a canvas tarp and out came the insulation. After yesterday I knew I would be wire wheeling the dried glue off....

The insulation came out easy and on the inside I found this mouse nest,  "I hate meeces to pieces!'  to quote Mr Jinks. At this point I was glad to be wearing my respirator to prevent Hanta virus.

All the glue to take off;

  A sweaty 45 minutes later;

Since I had my tools out I decided this would be a good time to grind off the lip in the roof seals for the door seals. Down came the seals, out came the angle grinder. I carefully ground down the lip one side at a time, painted with galvy (97% zinc) paint, then reinstalled the Defender seals.

Also taking advantage of the extension cord and tools being out, I drilled out the drip rail for the top of the shoulder belt bracket. This was harder and time consuming. Having to line up the holes and mark for the new ones then use a long drill, and it was HOT! With the grinding of the door seal and drilling, bolting in of the shoulder harness bracket took 2 hours per side.
Now it looks like this and I feel better if I have to go anywhere being belted in;

2 Aug 2020

Well, after a couple of days the paint was dry on the vents, so on to assembly!!

Without a good fitting allen wrench I'm glad I only had to do this once.

Right away there was a snag.......Remember the holes were 1/8"? Crap, the 6-32 machine screws were a couple thousandths over that. The shape of the vent prevents a drill with a regular size bit to get in and enlarge the hole, a long, 6", bit is needed. I don't have a 5/32" long bit, neither does any of the hardware stores within 25 miles and online would be 5 days.
      So I took a piece of 3/8" aluminum rod and drilled a 5/32" hole in it and loctited the bit in it. Allowing it ti set a while I was able to drill out the holes to fit the machine screws.

All the vents were put together;

I did find it easier to just grab the head with a small pliers and turn the 5/16" nut with an offset wrench,

3 Aug 2020

Again overnight I decided to remove the insulation in the middle section. So I suited up in respirator, earmuffs, and this time the face shield! Using a putty knife I carefully peeled off the horsehair(?) insulation thinking to preserve it for a template and possible resale.

It separated fairly easy'

And left me with this dried glue to wire wheel off.

Eventually it came off and then I used my air compressor to blow out all the frelling dust and old "hairs" of insulation. It was as you would suspect EVERYWHERE!! Probably took 20 minutes to blow out to my satisfaction, but it was done.

Before it got too hot I wanted to install the vents. As mentioned before I used the 3M strip caulk. One strip covered 1/2 of the opening.

2 strips went all the way around the edge. I decided to double the width using 2 strips and this would cover the holes for the trim screws, you can see the exposed holes in the next pic. I offset the ends of the 2 rows to prevent leaks.

My pack had a double row ready.

To install the vent I used an ice pick, a nail set would work also, first find the screw hole by peeling back the caulk, replace the caulk and put the pick through the hole in the vent and present the vent to the hole in the roof and find the hole for the screw at the same time. While holding the vent in place pull out the pick and insert a screw. Screw it in a couple turns by hand and find another screw hole with the pick and screw it.

Note that on my roof there were 2 types of screws used, the pointy ones were used on the trim rings and the blunts on the vent.

Once all 4 screws are finger tight use a driver to tighten and squeeze the caulk to seal! Then check the function of your refurbished vent action!

Now I just have to figure out a new insulation and headliner.......