Evil German Dude – OKIEROVER.COM

October 3, 2022May 16, 2023

D Pillar – Painting? (Post #602) 10/3/2022

D Pillar Work, Interior trim painting…allergies

I got out into the shop and was working on some peripheral projects over the weekend. Peripheral because they don’t directly get the Big White Bus back on the road for driving. These are the cosmetic fixes, plain and simple. The primary project line is getting the motor back to 100% and making it reliable. I completed the repair of the heater fan blower motor. That disabled the motor due to the coolant hoses being removed.

I did start the motor about a month ago. Surprisingly she fired right up. I was really happy about that. I have not addressed the original issue with the reliability of the motor which is the ignition system. I’m 94.67% sure I’m going to replace the distributor with a Davis Unified Ignition (DUI). Its an all in one unit built in Memphis, Tennessee. Seeing the price today makes me wish I’d have bought it a year ago. The price has gone up about 50$(US). Although waiting has allowed me to start the one year warranty when I’m actually driving her.

All other projects from the list….linked here [Okierover.com Blog] not counting the replacement alternator, which I believe is where my vampire batter drain is coming from, are not keeping me from driving her.

I’ve ordered Knightsbridge seat covers. I finally talked myself out of putting leather back in. The estimates I got from local car upholstery companies were more expensive than ordering new leather…..customized with embroidered family crests on the headrests and my face digitally embroidered on the seat backs. Just kidding, but seriously, super expensive. So I ordered seat covers I’m not afraid to get muddy and dirty.

My new radio and speakers have arrived. I’ll need to watch the install video, call tech support 16 times, and finally give up and have the Evil German Dude or JagGuy help me install it. I’ll post something about that when I get closer to installing.

Still a couple of interior trim pieces that need painting. I am not going to remove them, I’m going to paint them in place, its just not worth the effort to remove them. The door cards came out without much effort and I need to wash them down, tape them off, and paint them. Perhaps next weekend.

I know this post was about the D Pillar so let me close with that. I have the welding repair still yet to do. As mentioned in the video, I used a palm sander and 100grit sandpaper to remove the glue from the beauty cover. It formerly had vinyl wrapped on it.

I’ve cut out some closed cell neoprene foam to replace the rust inducing open cell crap they delivered the Range Rover with from the factory. I’ve decided to start with painting the beauty panels. Rattle can style…can’t get much more redneck than that. I’ll show the finished product when I get it done.

Thanks for reading, watching, and Happy Rovering.

September 19, 2022May 16, 2023

Painting My Dash (Post #600) 9/19/2022

6 minutes of rambling about painting and rust.

My dash looks like hell. The sun has really taken it’s toll on the plastic. Several places are starting to turn into dust. It also is no longer uniform in color and some pieces aren’t even close to the original color. That color was/is Bokhara Green. Named from the color often found in oriental rugs from the Bokhara district of Turkestan. Traditionally made by the Turkmen tribes, the rugs were made almost entirely from locally obtained materials. Using wool from the herds and vegetable dyes, or other natural dyes from the land to create the Bokhara green color.

In my extensive research (30 minutes of distracted Google searching), I could not find a paint code I could take to a paint store. Nor could I find a can of paint on my side of the big pond (the Atlantic Ocean). You can’t ship paint, believe it or not, its flammable (the more you know…).

Before we get too far into this post…a disclaimer:

I have no idea if painting the plastic parts of my dash is going to work. I did not do any extensive research on best practices or if the products I had available would even bond properly with my very sun damaged dash. Undertake this at your own risk.

With OEM Bokhara Green unavailable, I started looking for colors and stumbled across Rust-Oleum Specialty Flat Earth Brown Camouflage Spray Paint [Ace Hardware]. I originally found the green color but once I saw the brown…I knew that was it.

I painted the dash pieces and have decided that the “flat” and “powdery” nature of this paint is going to be difficult to clean up later. Dust and whatever that will inevitably find its way on to these parts is going to be hard to wipe off. So I decided to experiment with coating the paint with a matte clear. It will also help with keeping the sun off the plastic. UV protection is right there on the label.

I stopped at the store on the way home and picked up the Matte Clear. I tested it on a piece of trim. It dried to a matte finish. This is a second wet coat in the picture.

I’ve got a bunch more work to do. I found some more rust on the floorboard in the cargo area. To get this fixed I’m going to need to cut the floorboard out and patch it. The floorboard is supported by a piece of steel that is very rusted and failing in several places. To do this right, I need to replace the steel that is failing. I don’t know what that will entail at this time.

Rusty hole in the floorboard in the cargo area.

I also popped for this ridiculously expensive rust paint.

Hopefully this will magically do what it says it will do.

This paint was insanely expensive. Like 160$(US) for this gallon. I’m not going to lie, I’ve got high hopes for this stuff. Everything I’ve painted on this Range Rover has already begun to have surface rust. I see these types of products used on the YouTubes and TV shows and I’m hoping it works as well as it appears to in the magic of television and the interwebs.

To replace the rusted bits, I’m going to check with Mickey at Mickey’s Garage [Mickey’s Garage] as he indicated on the Facebook that he may have a donor vehicle that I could perhaps get some parts from.

Every one of these “new discoveries” just postpone the day I will get to drive the Big White Bus for pleasure again. It’s frustrating, but it is what it is. I need to fix this rust. The things I want to use this vehicle for will require the flooring to be fixed. No reason to spend a few hundred dollars on building a bed and drawer solution if its just going to get ruined when water gets inside. It’s fun to fix stuff…right? Am I having fun? I’m not sure yet.

My friend the Evil German Dude gave me some excellent advise recently. “You’ve got to leave work at work, and put things behind you so you can go out to the shop and do things you WANT to do.” He’s right, I’ve been very distracted by home repair, nursing our dog back to health again, and I have neglected myself and my wants and needs.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

July 26, 2014May 16, 2023

Garage Day – July 26, 2014 (Post #507) 7/26/2014

It was another hot Saturday in Central Oklahoma. The temperature made it to 102 F in Norman. Even with the temps as nasty as that we don’t stop work because we might get a little sticky and sweaty. We just turned on the fans and opened up the doors.

The Evil German Dude had us all over for some electrical fun. I know you’re thinking, Land Rover…Electric…sweet! Well not this weekend. The modifications were for Magnum Mike and Paparazzi Ford. Both of them had some seriously unimpressive factory wiring.

First was Magnum Mike’s Dodge Magnum. The work was to upgrade the ground. On this model of Magnum the battery is located in the trunk. That’s Mike sitting and sweating in the back of the very impressively modified Magnum. It is a true hot rod. He drove us to lunch one day. I’ve never been so scared and excited since Eric Kammerlocher took me for a spin in his Corvette back in the 1980’s.

The standard from the factory ground wire was a very small wire maybe 8 AWG. Compared to a normal battery cable the ground is about a fourth of the size it should be. The battery terminals are a simple flat metal. Not nearly the beefy terminals EGD uses normally.

You can see the flat metal and small wire in this image.

So the plan was to swap out the cables. EGD doesn’t do anything “half-assed”. The new cables were 2/0. Yes…two aught.

This wire chart should give you a great comparison.

We tease EGD but he knows his electrics. He has all the tools and always has the fittings, connectors, and heat shrink wire just about anything. The hydraulic crimping tool is pretty impressive too. So when you hear me talking about upgrading my battery cables you know why I am taking the Range Rover over to the evil lair.

The crimping dies had to be modified. Here EGD makes another minor correction to the tool’s die.

You can see in the next picture that they got the cables in place and the battery strapped back in.

Paparazzi Ford brought his Jeep Commander over with a very persnickety start problem. Basically something was wrong with the battery cables that would disable the vehicle. He would futz with it, the Jeep would start for a few days then quit him again.

He drove to EGD’s evil lair but when his turn came up the truck would not start. He popped the bonnet and I simply twisted the positive battery cable just a bit and the Commander started. Being as Jeep is now owned by Chrysler/Dodge the same type of battery terminals are being used.

Upon further inspection it turned out to be a very corroded connector. Swapping the terminals out had to be done. Here the crimping tool is used to marry the cables to the terminal.

Heat shrink is moved into place.

And here the heat gun heats the shrink wrap.

I couldn’t stay longer. JagGuy promised to take a look at my air conditioning. As you have no doubt read or have seen in my video blog my A/C is out. I’ve been chasing fully functional air conditioning in my Range Rover for years.

So JagGuy mentioned at lunch on Friday that he had a freon sniffer. Such a handy device.

He was keen on my idea to swap the AC compressor for a more common unit from a Chevy. The hoses would need to be custom-made. Before making all the effort to reinvent the system he said we should find out what has failed. Is the hoses? Is it the compressor? Is the radiator leaking? The only way to find out was to test for leaks.

I didn’t take a picture of the sniffer in action its sensor is an audio one. We sniffed the system and found that the front seal on the compressor had failed.

JagGuy suggested I go to the company that bought out Oklahoma Auto Air. They do all manner of compressors and hoses. The compressor on the Range Rover is basically a Sanden 709. So next week I’m going to drop by their shop and get the details. Hopefully I’ll have some air conditioning the week after I get back from my 25th wedding anniversary trip.

The weather is going to cool off this next week so my daily commute won’t be the 35 minute drive in an oven. Mrs. JagGuy has told JagGuy that she wants to drive a Land Rover Discovery II. They are looking for a good one. I can’t wait for them to go with us on a jaunt.

EGD is working with a company that has some pretty cool lighting solutions. I’m looking at them for some possible trail lighting. I’ll get back to that when I investigate further.

And in other news…he was only kidding about buying a Dodge.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

May 31, 2014May 16, 2023

Slow Days of Summer (Post #497) 5/31/2014

Sorry for the post drought lately. I finally have a new job and haven’t had much time to do much of anything Land Rover. I ordered a CV joint and some other bits to sort out the axle problem that I referred to in Front Half Shaft Oil-Seal Failure. I thought they’d be in this weekend. Rovers North told me the CV joint was on a container ship last week. I thought for sure I’d have it by this week. By Saturday morning it had not arrived.

So Saturday I took the long drive up to Jones, Oklahoma to help the Evil German Dude. The sunroof was open and the windows down and I had a Mexi-Coke. Life is good. EGD has had some trouble with his swimming pool of late. The original liner failed after a few years and a new liner that was installed a couple of weeks ago required yet another new liner. Many hands make light work. Porsche Mike and his sweet wife Mel came out to help as well. Mel is keen to do some “off-roading” with us and very much enjoyed the comfort of the Big White Bus when trying out the seats. I hope to see more of Porsche Mike in the future…like maybe at a Garage Day, hint, hint.

We were thinking of Paparazzi Ford who was unable to attend due to the loss of his father this past week. My buddy Mr. Fisher lost his sister this weekend too. She succumbed to a long battle with cancer. Our thoughts are with both of their families in this difficult time.

We finished everything we could do and all that was left was to watch the water fill the pool at 6-8 gallons a minute. I drove home and stopped on the way home for some petrol and the BWB’s odometer was sitting on 209,000. The now twenty-one year old Range Rover has shown us some great miles. I managed to get 15 miles per gallon out of this last tank full. That really surprises me because my new commute has a lot more stop and go traffic due to the new hours I have at my new employment. I am stuck in “five o’clock traffic” on the way home and that is usually terrible for gas mileage ratings.

I guess I’ll schedule next Saturday for an axle tear down. I’m almost reluctant to swap the CV joint. The sound I’m hearing is not there very often. The noise could also be explained by the wrong fluid being in the reservoir. If I do swap it, the old CV would be an excellent shelf spare if it should ever be needed.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll be videoing the axle tear down and will post it all up when I have the time.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

March 14, 2014May 16, 2023

Gearing Up for SCARR, Part Four, More Maintenance (Post #465) 3/14/2014

I can’t be the only person who gets that special warm feeling inside when all the tick boxes are filled in on maintenance. I love it when I’ve gone over my Land Rover and done all the maintenance.

Fluid and filter swap for the transmission. Also a fluid swap for the transaxle and viscous coupling this weekend. I bought 20 quarts of Castrol® Transmax™ High Mileage – Automatic Transmission Fluid. I had never heard of it until I went to research my options.

It was cheaper than the first fluid I was considering. Royal Purple MAX ATF® was 14.99$(US) a quart. Royal Purple got rave reviews online but at twice the cost I don’t believe it will be 100% better than Castrol. I’ve never been let down by Castrol and I will continue to use it until someone can give me a solid reason to stop. The Transmax was just 6.39$(US) a quart from Advanced Auto Parts. O’Reilly’s did not carry it even though the Castrol’s website said they did.

My new oxygen sensors should also be in today so I will be putting those in as well. As near as my crappy record keeping can determine the last time I swapped O2 sensors was 6 years ago. So with 205,000 miles on the clock it’s time.

I am also installing the new power steering pump this weekend. This is going to be a very busy weekend. I should have probably scheduled a Garage Day with The Evil German Dude and Paparazzi Ford. Paparazzi Ford’s dad is not well and this was EGD’s “on weekend” at work. I don’t have any more time before S.C.A.R.R. so I’m going for it.

This is part four(-ish) of my Mega-Maintenance Month. I’ll pop some pictures up on the individual jobs as I have time to complete blog posts.

Gearing Up for SCARR, Part One
Gearing Up for SCARR, Part Two
Gearing Up for SCARR, Part Three

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

December 30, 2013May 15, 2023

Radiator Cooling Fan Cracked Again (Post #426) 12/30/2013

I was under the hood looking for my power steering leak and noticed my cooling fan was cracked. This is the third failed fan. So annoying.

As you know or may have read, if the cooling fan fails while you are driving down the highway catastrophe ensues. My understanding is it destroys most everything under the hood. I’ve even heard of a bonnet damaged so much it had to be replaced.

My options are… Continue reading “Radiator Cooling Fan Cracked Again (Post #426) 12/30/2013”