I decided that my existing cell phone and tablet mount in the Range Rover Classic needed to be replaced. Mr. Fisher and I went to the MOORE Expo [Moore Expo] in 2022. We saw lots of products and gear. One of the cool pieces of gear was the Bulletpoint Mounting System.
Mr. Fisher bought a system for his new Chevy Silverado. Once we got home, I decided I needed a system for my F150. My existing cell phone mount was disappointing and needed to be replaced. I got to thinking that I should upgrade the mounts in the Range Rover Classic. I took some measurements and emailed the company to ask which of their existing system would fit best for the measurements. I chose not to cut up my coin tray. I did have a thought that I would mount the system over the tray. But it would have had to be cut and would have been useless if I wanted to remove the system and do something else.
As you can see in the video, not everything goes according to plan when you are “fabricating” stuff. I had to make a makeshift painting “booth” in the sunroom in the house. The temps in the shoppe were too cold to be painting, but it was a toasty 76F in the sunroom.
Mrs. Okierover didn’t fuss too much this time about the fumes.
Overall I spent four or so hours putting that together. The assembly was a lot of trial and error. I think it looks good and is very sturdy and will be perfect for holding my cell phone and a new tablet once I decide what that might be.
There are lots of accessories for this mounting system. I’m thinking of the handheld radio and or the microphone mount. Of course I have to decide on a radio before buying.
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Blasphemy! you might say. So I’ll qualify that to it’s too hot to wrench. It is the height of summer here in Oklahoma. Temperatures while they haven’t been anywhere near the lovely year of 100’s, they have been close. Our exiting of the drought in such a dramatic way this year (2015) has the humidity up to the levels I remember it from before the drought.
So your greasy fingered blogger has not put much effort into much of anything Land Rover. That is not to say I don’t have a handful of project to do, I do.
In my post Unplanned Problems I talked about a missing exhaust gasket and a broken bolt. Both problems were more or less easy to solve. I had to wait for Mrs. Okierover to return to the house with the CR-V so I could fetch the parts I needed. The weather turned cold and I had to bundle up to finish up the jobs.
The exhaust gasket was, as I predicted, unavailable in the Oklahoma City metro area. I’ll have to order it from one of the vendors. I talked to JagGuy and bought some High Temp RTV.
I was coming out of lunch today at Richey’s Grill(Urbanspoon) in the Research Park and eyed a young man giving my Range Rover “the once over” (Idiom dictionary). I quickly noticed his Range Rover next to mine in the lot. That gentleman was Cyrus. I introduced myself and we then began chatting about our Land Rovers.
As you can tell his Land Rover was a bit different from mine. His is a 1988 model. Cyrus went on to tell me that the fellow he got it from went to a lot of trouble to make it appear to be an even earlier model. You can see some of the work in the pictures. Wing-mounted mirrors, badging, wheels, even the gas filler looked to be non-North American standard. He’d stripped out the interior and even swapped the steering wheel for an older version.
We talked about that a bit. I don’t know the models before 1989 very well so I didn’t have much to offer. I later looked them up on Rangerovers.net and the differences were great. Cyrus’s previous owner was obviously on a mission. The automatic shifter-cover even appeared to be from a 1970’s model Ford Maverick.
He opened it up and showed me the terrible floor pan rust he has. It is truly terrible and will take a lot of fabrication to correct. Cyrus talked about bringing it back to more original kit with an instrument bezel and some other bits.
I really enjoyed talking to him. As with most of my meetings it almost immediately turned to the subject of off-roading. I told him about Red Dirt Rovers and some garage days of old and shared my blog address again. He seemed really keen to join and meet up again. I’ll be sending him an email and a Google Community invite for Red Dirt Rovers.
I think I need to have some of those cheap business cards printed up so I can share this info more efficiently.
Ken Arciga of Los Angeles, California, sent me an email recently. He wanted to thank me for the site and to share some comments back with me on things he’d learned and tried when working on some of the same projects for his 1995 Range Rover Classic expedition project vehicle.
He has many of the same issues I have with the fuel economy and is yet another “old Rover” guy looking to swap in a diesel. He uses his Rangie in typical fashion to drop off the kids but at 4$(US) a gallon its expensive.
I must say, excellent color choice 😉
Before we get to the email, my first observation, Ken has the cleanest engine bay I’ve seen in a LONG time. Ken, you’ll have to tell us the secret to that in another email. His email after the jump…
Hi Eric, Pleasure to meet you, thanks for putting up your site and sharing. Wanted to share notes on a couple of things I just went through:
1. STEERING SHAFT – Looking at your picture, my steering shaft was also put in the same way your old one was, is the part with the rubber band (crash/break away joint?) was on the steering pump side. So that is the same direction I put in my new one. However I had my truck in for alignment and the independent dealer noted my steering shaft was installed backwards! Sure enough I looked in the manual and it is backwards – that rubber band part is supposed to be on the steering wheel side. I bet it was probably put in either way as these manuals aren’t always accurate.
2. 2ND BATTERY – I kind of did what you did with my P/S pump reservoir and bracket, however for the air box I just drilled a couple of holes to move it over and was able to get the 2nd battery to fit – with the HORN OFF.
3. CC VACUUM PUMP – I ended up not wanting to go through the work to relocate my cruise control vacuum pump unit (my cruise control isn’t working either) but the battery was pressing up against it which I didn’t want – so I ended up taking a little metal off the radiator bracket so the battery could be positioned over enough to give the CC Vacuum enough room.
Anyway thanks for your info, reading up on some of your stuff that I still need to tackle! -Ken
Steering shaft. My Range Rover was a front end wreck before I got it. When it was put back together there is a good chance this was put in backwards. With that in mind, there’s probably a very good reason one way is preferred than the other. Knowing my OCD will not let that stand, I’ll probably switch mine to match the manual. Great find.
Bracket. Nicely done. I think the bracket I used was from a Discovery I. I read that online quite a while ago. So I just went down to Rover Cannibal and picked one up. I like Ken’s bracket, simple and functional.
After getting such high praise and being a generally curious guy (and seeking permission to publish him) I followed up with another email. He sent the above picture of his excellent Range Rover and the following description of things he has already dealt with. He wants to take his Range Rover to Peru someday and has thoughts of a shake-down expedition a little closer to home in Baja California.
Here is what it looks like so far – I started with suspension (OME 2″ springs, nitrocharger shocks), front radius arms and adj. pan hard to get steering back, wheels, tires, P/S pump (PAIN in the butt, Cardone rebuild didn’t work), gearbox (Meridien – LOOOOOOOSE but I tightened up) and shaft, got the 2nd battery in but saving up for the kit to wire it, oil pan gasket and probably doing the head gasket next (leaking of course : )
Just finishing up the fluids – have the trans pan kit and fluids, transfer case to do, just got my LR grease for the swivel housings. A ton more plans.
I don’t know how to weld but contemplating learning so I can build my own bumpers and skid plates – really a big part of this is to fix stuff and to learn on a vehicle I’ve always wanted since I was a teenager.
Rack, lights….this list goes on!
Anyway thanks again for sharing your stuff, only people that dig into the nuts and bolts I think can really appreciate the details!
Ain’t that the truth?!? Like myself, I imagine he has expedition dreams on a domestic beer budget. While I am worried about breaking down in my own STATE! he is contemplating a long trip to another continent. Excellent.
Thanks for contributing Ken. These are great tips and I felt they had to be shared. Thanks for letting me put them up for every one.
