Progress has been super slow but about to hopefully pick up now that once I pick up a new battery (pilfered the one in it for my dual battery set up in my white disco) now that the exhaust is completed. Not pictured replaced 2 tie rod ends as they were shot. Haven't driven it much after I did that bc cats were stolen like a week later but it seemed to clean up the handling quite a bit, the leaky swivel isn't helping that either. Have a leaky swivel on the driver side that will need to be addressed next. Then it's time to decide on tires and get them mounted and on vehicle so I can decide how the body work will shape up. Basically flares or no flares..

Have a trip to Moab in February that I'm hoping to have this all together for. Assuming no major mechanical issues pop up between now and then as I try and get some miles on her, I should be able to make time for the body work/painting.

 

Rebuilt the driver side swivel/hub assembly as it had a pretty good leak. Good news is everything looked great inside and was truly just the swivel ball seal itself. Attempted to put in the O2 sensors finally only to find that the vehicle side electrical connectors were both damaged beyond repair when the cats were stolen. Ordered Deutsch style connectors to replace the damaged units and will rewire them all when they come in this week. Headed up to the mountains next week and hope to take this and get some miles logged as it's looking more and more like this is what I'm taking to Moab, all ugly and all. Won't have time to have any of the body work/paint done and I'm waiting on mounting the new beadlocks until after this trip when I can try and get them and the body together kind of all at once.

 

Drive past two of these sitting in a guys yard every month on my way to treatments, alway think about stopping to see what's up with them. But, instead...l stop at my bank and we go over my savings account or lack of one and that pretty much puts an end to it...lol.

Sometimes l wish l was twenty years younger....wait...what am l saying...all the time l think this. But no, wish l had the time, health and energy for a couple more projects.

Enjoy following along on your project though.

 

Thanks Deputy! This classic is big dumb and super ugly currently but hoping to make some headway on the ugly this spring..I love my discos but there's just something about this classic that draws you in and the rear leg room is so so so nice especially when family and friends are in town, can load up and even though it's super tall the lwb door openings are huge and it's easy for anyone to crawl up into. Hope to have more photos here soon for this thread as I'm really pushing to take this Moab in Feb.

 

Rebuilt the swivel on the driver side the other weekend and it cleaned up quite a bit of sloppy handling at highway speeds. That said it's still a giant marshmallow but one step closer to being ready for Moab. Will schedule an alignment here soon and then it just needs more miles on it before I'm ready to trust it the 6 hrs over to Moab. Need to solve rear hatch latches as they are frozen/rusted and really causing issues as it would be a lot more convenient to not have to basically rely on gorilla tape to keep the hatch closed lol.

Has proven to be very reliable around town and the extra legroom was very nice with family in town the past week. Wife is even coming around on it a little bit even tho it's an ugly turd still.

 

The methods are going to look right at home. Will need extended studs to mount them however. Very frustrating that the extended 60mm studs that are “required” for wolf or military wheels are not available on ready to buy hubs. So if anyone has any hubs with extended studs available to sell I’m very interested for the sake of saving time vs swapping out 20 wheel studs…

 

Made some major progress today. 3 of the 4 tires showed up. No clue what happened to the 4th but it has its own UPS label so hoping it turns up sooner than later lol. Finished re-wiring the O2 sensor connectors that were destroyed when the cats were stolen. Got one tire mounted up!! Knocked out the stock wheel studs on the hubs and will fit extended studs tomorrow! Rolling along with a deadline of the 15th quickly approaching.

 

 

Did your fourth tire ever show up?

 

not yet. Allegedly today maybe but ups isn’t showing it but summit racing does so who knows.