Mat's BX Blog

[mds141]

Mat, get yourself onto ' Rimmer Brothers' website, they have everything for series 1 Disco's on there including repair panels.

[Mickey taker]

why do's "Rimmer Brothers" sound so wrong , or is it just me

it sounds like a gay incestuous country and western group

[mat_fenwick]

Thanks for that Mick - I'll never look at them in the same light again!

I use them quite a bit TBH - they want £46 for the genuine LR panel or £38 for a pattern part. At that price difference it's not worth going for the pattern part but It's still more than I'd like to be spending. Will have to see how neatly I can cut a donor section out...

[mat_fenwick]

We went up to the Lake District for the weekend - spent a night camping by Wast Water:



Then set off to climb Scafell Pike.







The summit was fairly crowded, so we didn't stay long up there.



And in car related news, I gave the Focus a good check over before putting it into use. Although it had a recepit to say it had just been 'serviced', I was none too impressed with what they'd done. Although to be fair they may have only been asked to carry out an oil and filter change (which from the state of the pollen and air filters appeared all they had done!)



they didn't notice a few things that IMO should have been pretty obvious to anyone working on the car. The timing belt cover was missing two bolts, and flapping about as a result. Plus quite a few hoses had broken or missing supports, and were chafing away on various things. But easily rectified, although highlights the importance of finding a good garage who look at things rather than simply changing fluids.

[Caffiend]

So much for getting away from it all eh?

Lovely pix/weather

[Defender110]

I was there last week diving, we go 3 times a year follwed by a heavy night of Lancashire v's Yorkshire at dominoes in the Wasdale Head

[Mickey taker]

I haven't been there since 1980, hasen't changed much though ,

[mds141]

You should of popped in for a brew on the way past Lancaster Mat. Kettle's always on.

[mat_fenwick]

Cheers Mark.

I did pop into the Wasdale Head for a quick (most welcome) drink after the walk - I'd had it in my sights all the way down the valley!

Last night I removed some of the trim around the wheel arch in the Discovery, to find (as always) the rust was worse than it appeared at first glance.



This will obviously need to be patched, but the donor wheel arch section I had hoped to use was not worth removing, as that has rust down at the lower end towards the sill. So I've bitten the bullet and bought a genuine Land Rover panel. Might have a bit of free time Thursday to work on it, fingers crossed.

[toddao]

Lake District looks great ( I'm a bit slow on the uptake) - I too was there sometime in the 19th century. As for the Focus? I hope you washed your hands after touching that thing!

[Dollywobbler]

And here I am contemplating Discovery ownership. I'll probably just add yet more rot to the fleet...

[Tim Leech]

I thought Landrovers were made from birmabright which didnt rust?

[mat_fenwick]

I thought Landrovers....didnt rust?

I wish! The ones which most people would describe as 'proper' Land Rovers are mainly aluminium apart from the chassis and bulkhead, but Discoveries of this era only have aluminium outer panels (apart from the roof) on a steel frame which rusts nicely.

I think the new Range Rover is all aluminium though, as they've cut the weight by about 500kg. About £79,000 too expensive though

[Dollywobbler]

I guess you think Reliant Scimitars don't rust as well Tim?

Steel chassis, steel body structure (a bit like a DS) with alloy panels. The steel rusts, as steel will but the aluminium also corrodes due to electrolytic reaction with the steel (which is why the paint often falls off the doors).

[mat_fenwick]

Look away now Ian if you don't want to have nightmares about the next car on your wishlist! Taking off the plastic trim revealed very thin metal that although not yet holed, would not have much strength and would be next to impossible to weld to...



...so I cut that back to good metal.



Fortunately the rest of the sill was near perfect, with just some very light rust around the fixing holes. While the trim's off I'll grind than back to shiny steel and paint it. The old wheel arch was removed by drilling through the spot welds - there's no going back now!



I've stopped early for the night after doing all the cutting - 'all' I need to do now is make up a few repair patches, weld those in and then the new wheel arch section, which fits perfectly.