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May 29, 2013 21:17:51 GMT
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Can of worms time.... Is a Disco as good as a Defender off road? ? Depends on your definition of 'offroading' I suppose. I bought an old 200tdi for 500 note about 4/5 yrs ago, all it 'needed' was a new clutch (hence the price)it was an ES spec with the twin sunroofs,therefore meaning more places to leak .......... it had a replacement rear floor and the chassis was good ... was quite a tidy motor ... till I got chunky muds,modular wheels,2inch front lift,3inch rear lift (to level it out,they do sit front high when lifted) snorkle etc etc ...green laned it great little truck ... till I killed ...... right before the bad winter of 2010. So good luck with it,looks like a great project, I'm jealous. You kind if contradicted yourself then..... You have implied they are comparable off road, and then you list all the mods you put on it to off road ;-) Going on the theory of depends on your definition of off roading, you could say that a Freelander is as good as a Unimog.
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May 30, 2013 18:52:30 GMT
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Was at the ultimate 4x4 challenge over the weekend and looking at the results in standard class and modified(lift etc) the defender seemed to fair a lot better than the discos. Less broken parts and roll overs. Well done on your progress though.
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No my car is not modified its just had an update!!!!!!!
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Depends on your definition of 'offroading' I suppose. I bought an old 200tdi for 500 note about 4/5 yrs ago, all it 'needed' was a new clutch (hence the price)it was an ES spec with the twin sunroofs,therefore meaning more places to leak .......... it had a replacement rear floor and the chassis was good ... was quite a tidy motor ... till I got chunky muds,modular wheels,2inch front lift,3inch rear lift (to level it out,they do sit front high when lifted) snorkle etc etc ...green laned it great little truck ... till I killed ...... right before the bad winter of 2010. So good luck with it,looks like a great project, I'm jealous. You kind if contradicted yourself then..... You have implied they are comparable off road, and then you list all the mods you put on it to off road ;-) Going on the theory of depends on your definition of off roading, you could say that a Freelander is as good as a Unimog. When did i say they were comparable?? straight out of the factory not much comes close to a Ninety in the rough stuff. Mine was mainly for the look of it,I prefer the look of a disco when its it been modded,thats just my preference.(plus snorkle helps when water is halfway up windscreen) The biggest influence on off road capability is the competance of the driver.
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I didn't say you had said they were comparable, I said implied. The reason I said that is because your opening sentence questions what I meant by off roading, and then you launched into an impressive list of performance modifications that you had done to a Disco.
The Discovery is a great car, I've had 3 of them, including a very modified one, but in 90% of off road situations it can't hold a torch to a 90 with the same mods
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Jeez, peace guys, did'nt mean for this thread to turn into a Disco/Defender debate, just mentioned what it said in a mag i read, could be wrong, i'm just building this for a bit of fun and a pose, i appreciate the interest in the thread (did'nt think it'd generate as much TBH) and value the advice from Disco/LR experts on here (as it's all new to me) Anyhooooooooooooooo, got a bit more done today, got this side just about finished, also chopped the other side out, forgot to take a pic but the rust is'nt quite as extensive. Thinking about chopping the rear anti-roll bar mounts off, two reasons for this, the mounting brackets are bent to hell and chopping them off will allow better access to this chassis rot (this is the worst bit of rot on the chassis BTW though recon i'll need to replace the OSR outrigger), i know bob tails run without an ARB so figured it'd be ok on this ? Going to order the new rear crossmember on Monday also thinking about going for a 2" body lift kit.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Had to do a double-take when I saw the first pictures in this thread because I saw the twin to it when I was out today. Looks like a lot of work ahead, but you seem to be taking it in your stride.
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Alot of the off road ones don't have ARB's as it aids articulation with them removed. Only side effect is road manors are some what compromised.
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Some days you just need to take a grinder to an inanimate object, just to make your day a tiny bit better!!
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Alot of the off road ones don't have ARB's as it aids articulation with them removed. Only side effect is road manors are some what compromised. Ah, rear ARB is for the massive scap pile then , wont be hooning it on the road anyway with the lift and Mud tyres.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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I've never seen a Disco chassis with that amount of rustage! Defenders and series yes, but Disco's and RaRo's seem to have 'better' chassis ...... (of course this is balanced out by horrific rusty Disco shells .....)
How are you finding the welding going on the shell? Mine was a complete nightmare to try to get a decent weld going, so much so that we had to admit defeat in some of the corner bits and bring out the fibreglass matting ....... My Disco never had anti roll bars fitted,so losing the mount should'nt be an issue. And don't put that stupid underlay/matting back in .......
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I've never seen a Disco chassis with that amount of rustage! Defenders and series yes, but Disco's and RaRo's seem to have 'better' chassis ...... (of course this is balanced out by horrific rusty Disco shells .....) How are you finding the welding going on the shell? Mine was a complete nightmare to try to get a decent weld going, so much so that we had to admit defeat in some of the corner bits and bring out the fibreglass matting ....... My Disco never had anti roll bars fitted,so losing the mount should'nt be an issue. And don't put that stupid underlay/matting back in ....... Funny you should mention that, was doing a bit of reading up and it seems Disco 2 chassis are horendous for rust, something about the chassis being hydroformed ?, also i think when they are offroaded and used for putting boats in water etc (then not cleaned properly which most are'nt) it reduces their life drasticaly. Definitely think the quality of the steel used in these is'nt great, was trimming a bit of the rear interior metal with tin snips and honestly felt i could have used a good pair of scissors , was blowing holes in it easily with the welder turned right down. Like you i'll probably need to break out the fibreglass in a few places. The chassis will need welded in about five places,two areas on the N/S rail, a bit behind the O/S/R spring and the big crossmember in front of the fuel tank, also needs a new O/S/R outrigger, front section of the chassis is fine, body will need the rear X-member, patches on the front floors, also a few other random less important places, hoping to patch up the boot floor and cover it with tread plate. Once i get it done i'll be covering it with seam sealer, underseal, engine oil and whatever else i can use About to tip the project over the edge of no going back though as the rear X-member is £140 odd and the rear outrigger is £112 (Rimmerbros), once i've spent that money i'll need to see it through.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Have you tried Paddocks etc for prices ?
I was lucky with mine, it had the boot floor done before I'd got it ...but it had gone by the rear wheel arches and the front footwells. But what got to me the most, was when using a flap disc to get clean metal to weld, the 'steel' never seemed to 'shine',it kept to a dull greyish hue .... so no idea what steel it was made of .....rejects from the local heinz factory probably .....
Landrover should have done away with the Alpine lights .. of at least have sealed them properly,thats the biggest cause of the rot in the rear.
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Last Edit: Jun 2, 2013 15:08:05 GMT by optimusprime: carp spelin and rubish grama
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Really liking this Discovery already, Keep up the good work mate. don't let the rust put you off mate
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Have you tried Paddocks etc for prices ? Landrover should have done away with the Alpine lights .. of at least have sealed them properly,thats the biggest cause of the rot in the rear. Just ordered the rear X-member from Paddocks thismorning, £114 + Vat seemed quite reasonable, also ordered the bushes for the body mounts though as mentioned pretty sure I'll be going for a body lift kit. Got some more sparky electric glue gun action done thismorning Rot cut out and first bit of steel welded on, chassis repairs will be done with 2mm steel and continuous welding. MMMMMmmmmmm, shiny steel Notice the anti roll bar and mounting brackets are history.
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Last Edit: Jun 3, 2013 13:55:03 GMT by markgenesis: spplelinng
72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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good work so far mate anti roll bars are just that, they were only installed to give them better road manners. on the one hand they reduce articulation quite drastically compared to say early 90/110 without them. but on the other hand you've got traction control for cross axled situations which said vehicle doesnt.
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Looking good there fella.
(I shouldn't be reading this thread ... makes my want for another Solihull product even greater) .....;(
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Made a start on the rear X-member earlier, removed the rear door, braced the shell with a bit of box section, chopped the old rotten X-member out, lot of tidying up still to do though Also headlining was filthy, tried to clean it, failed so ripped the lot out and binned it , of course i found some rot behind the headlining but i'm just going to ignore that for now, is there any place these friggin things don't rot ?, middle of the bonnet maybe Scrap pile is looking mighty impressive now
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Jun 13, 2013 21:17:57 GMT
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Sorry to those who had been following this but this Disco is now not long for this world : (, have seen another very tidy Disco 1 for sale localy that has had all the welding done to a high standard, fully serviced, on the button, has all the Offroad kit (owner spent 3.5K on it ) and i'm buying it tomorrow for what i would have eventually spent on this one, life's too short so i'm going with Robbie's advice. I am into off roading, especially Landrovers and my advice would be to unbolt all the extras, sell the engine/boxes/axles and weigh the rest in to but yourself a better base car to bolt all the extras to. Robbie Annoying thing is i started to weld in a new rear body crossmember (£135) so that's wasted , but at least i tried. Will need it gone as soon as possible (space) so will rip the engine out over the weekend, will keep the wheels and a few other bits but the rest is going. Will post up pics of the new Disco over the weekend for those interested.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Jun 13, 2013 23:00:36 GMT
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You could add the new one to this thread and change the title, tidy that way
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It was a bit if a rot box - lots of better ones around!
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Koos
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You could add the new one to this thread and change the title, tidy that way Will do It was a rotter (MDH ^), should have walked away when i saw the rot in the chassis, thought i was up for the challenge but the reality check is i could have spent a year of my time and over 1K on it and it still would'nt have been anywhere near the standard of the one i'm buying.
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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