I’ve been Disco-less for about 18 months. That’s way too long… A while back a friend told me he wanted to get rid of his Kalahari that he got from the original owner. He’s a good friend and is the Lead LR tech at the local Independent British car shop.

I had just decided to sell my dirtbike, got $2k for it. So after thinking about it for a while, I asked him what he wanted for it. $2,500… I offered $2k and got me a sweet, 2 owner, genuine Kalahari with 136k on the clock and solid service history.

But there has to be a catch, right? There’s a huge catch… The original owner left it outside, under a tarp, when the sunroofs open or cracked, for FOUR YEARS.

The headliner was a living being. The interior smelled like a forest - like that humid musty smell of dirt, moss, and leaves… And it was strong. Yuck.

Also, with open sunroofs comes plenty of water damage to the interior electronics. But, fortunately, minimal rust. Lots of little things don’t work - drivers side door lock, the digital clock, forget about the blower motor… The radio has a mind of its own, but somehow the sound quality is still decent. Neither sunroof works, as expected. Most of the windows seem to roll down. The factory off road accessory lights don’t work (not totally sure on that tbh). Cruise control in-op.

But - it’s a legit Kalahari. Bumper cut outs, Saudi grill, Safari Gard sliders, brush guard, light covers, weird leather + cloth interior, Typhoon wheels, and LR Special Vehicle's badges. Pretty cool!!

The motor is, almost, flawless. Within the 20k miles it’s had head-gaskets, camshaft, lifters, timing cover/timing chain, and probably more that I don’t have verification of. I mean, the brake fluid reservoir and the air filter had dates on them from when they were last changed.

It drives really nicely. Plenty of power, smooth idle, shifts great, goes into Low Range no problem too.

Someone really loved this thing until they decided to totally neglect it. What a shame.

So far I’ve made about 4 passes cleaning out the interior with a vacuum, steam cleaner, and shampooing the carpets. Then simple green and Armourall to clean the leather. I removed and threw away the disgusting headliner.

I went ahead and swapped the OE thermostat to the @Extinct inline thermostat (180 with silicone gasket 👍&#127995 and replaced the fan clutch after seeing the temps creep at idle. Temps are perfect now. Did the @Best4x4 PCV mod as well.

My time to work on it will be limited, but it’s not far from being a really nice truck. The door jambs, engine bay, and roof have some perma-crud dirt still. Takes a lot of effort to get that off. It’s dirt that’s been there for 5+ years now, baking in the heat and freezing in the winter. Takes effort to get rid of it. Amazingly, the paint is not terrible!

Three amigos (shuttle valve code) and SES (some fuel related code I’ve never seen before) are alive and well. Planning to pull the modulator and replace the shuttle valve seals and do option B as my next big project. Then pulling the headliner from a donor and getting it recovered. I’ll try and seal up any leaks while the headliner is out too.

It’ll need a lot of little stuff and trouble-shooting some of the electrical issues and lots of miscellaneous interior bits.

Worst case, it’s a $2k off reader ready to hit the trails.

Best case, it’s a solid example of a Kalahari that’s been saved from extinction.

I have not been taking pictures of before and after cleaning. The pictures wouldn’t have done the nastiness of the dirt covering the exterior and interior of the truck justice. I am probably 8 hours + or cleaning into this thing already, easily… You can get a sense for the perma-dirt from the first picture.

$2k transportation. Gotta love a disco!

The only shot I have of it in all of its filth. Gross! Could barely see out the windshield!

That’s better…

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The motor is smooooth. Runs like a top. Tons of service history.

Hard to tell, but this interior was covered in mildew.

 

Congrats! I have had to tackle these types of interior restorations before. The rear carpet has an extremely thick padding under it. Remove the rear carpet from the truck completely and put it out in the sun upside down to dry out, it will never dry out otherwise and will always smell moldy. Once you have that out you will have a better idea if the front carpets and padding are dry and if they need to come out. Worst case those get pulled as well to dry. Once out you can use your choice of carpet shampoo devices but worst case Mr Clean sprayed on the surface and vacuumed off with a shop vac does an excellent job. The other thing that works excellent is a small electronic ozone generator, I have had good luck with this brand: https://a.co/d/9EhnpLH I put it in the truck, shut the doors and run it a couple of cycles. It kills all the mold bacteria and removes the smell.

All the electronics are just normal deaths, not water related, just cheap BMW electronics.

 

Good info on the Ozone machine. I think that'd help a lot. I have not removed the carpets yet, although that makes perfect sense. Any recommendations or best practices there?

I think it would be worth having the front seats recovered. Although I know this Kalahari interior is unique, so I'm a little hesitant to do that. I have never used an upholstery shop before. Maybe they can match it closely enough my concerns are not founded.

I think my goal is to get this truck to the point where I can use it as a daily when I want, for as little $'s as possible. I have a nice '08 L322 so no need for another daily, but would be cool. Need to feel comfortable the mold is eradicated to the point my 3 year old and wife will ride in it... To get it to this point, I just need to do 1) Three amigos fix 2) New Headliner/roof leak seal 3) More cleaning and/or new upholstery.

I spent $2k on the truck. I have bought $320 worth of maintenance and cleaning items. It's not registered or insured, might do that once I plan to drive it more. Trying to get the three items done above for antoerh $200-300 max if possible. Having a solid daily-able truck for Under $3k is the goal.

Here's my longer term/ more expensive project list:

• Suspension upgrade (steel accessories have caused major sagging and shockingly low ride height)
  • I think my preference is new stock height springs with D1 perches for a slight boost in height + Bilstein shocks for the best ride quality.
  • Terra Firma 2 inch lift is temptingly cheap. But just going back to stock with D1 perches will boost ride height by 3 inches based on how badly it's sagging now!
• New Tires, likely either 255/70/16's or 245/75/16 General Grabber ATX's (I like the way the tread pattern on the ATX looks, like an older BFG AT). Roughly a 30.5inch tall tire will give me the right look and good balance between more ride height and road handling
• Transfer case swap to CDL lock. This is unlikely, but would be cool for more serious off road adventures, and just to have it even though the TC/ABS is totally good enough
• Safety devices Roof Rack? Ultimate Safari look is important...
• Roof Access ladder? See above
• New hood blackout? It's very tired looking right now

Anyone have any other ideas for projects? Since it's not my daily, gearing it towards being an occasional off-roader is doable. But mainly, I want it to look the part. The full safari vibes and look is the most important thing.

 

shouldn't have to swap the whole t-case unless it's a late 2002 which might have it left off. just need the linkage. I prefer the linkage from a d1 personally. I'd pull the push bar off as more likely to destroy anything than protect it and again personal preference is I don't like the way they look. One thing I did that changed the pre facelift performance is LED bulbs, Best4x4 had a rec a few years ago and well worth the money for way better light output (still like factory cut offs).

 

I haven't looked at the Tcase yet to see if it does actually happen to have the CDL. If it does, that will become a priority. Good point.

LED's is a good idea. I have only had 03/04 D2's before, the headlights are super underwhelming on this one.

I hear you on the brush guard. Hurts approach angle too. But, I dig the Kalahari factory spec. It looks and feels right. If I could find a way to mount the factory off road lamps without the brush guard I would consider an alternative...

 

I can assure you those off road lamps are going to be very underwhelming lol I had a very nice set of period correct (blanking on the brand but supplied through ARB once upon a time) that came with one of my discos and they were truly no better than the very low output highbeams haha. Do you have fog light pockets? One option would be to run diode dynamics 6" lightbar sae fogs behind the lower center grill area. So wouldn't be seen unless lights were on. I've gone through enough amazon special lights to truly appreciate the pricier options especially if it's a SAE rated pattern that you can get almost daily use out of.

Understand the factory spec dilemma on the brush guard. I really dig the bare factory bumper on a slightly lifted disco. Our green disco is on a 2in lift and no armor and it really just looks perfect imo.

 

Harbor Freights knock off Baja Designs have been great. $150 per, instead of $500. Not the same style, but roughly the same size. they are POWERFUL.

 

I run cheaper hellas on the roof of one of mine and would recommend them in a heart beat. But ponying up for daily usable legal road use lights has been very worth it imo.

 

I recently installed some air conditioned seats on my Avalanche and the factory perforated leather was pretty tired so I had the local shop replace the factory perforated leather with perforated alcantara from relicate.com They only charged me $280 since I brought them the seats and it was only the center section. Very pleased with the results.




Coat your cowl panel with bedliner spray to prevent uv cracking. Same with bumpers. Read my threads on sunroofs for sealing those https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...81/#post713877

Don't forget the list post: https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...-04-d2-118597/

 

Yep Auxbeam 9003/H4 bulbs will make the headlights be excellent. CDL wise most Kalahari's seem to have em. Mine certainly did so I just used an 04 CDL Linkage and SLABS unit to be exactly like an 04. Voyager Roof Rack will be just like the Safety Devices but a little thicker in the tubing department. I run 265/75R16's with a 2.5 lift and it looks amazing on my Kalahari.

I'm not a fan of the OEM brush guard because if ya hit something it will usually add to the damage. However I agree with the special bumper the Kalahari has (normal 99-02 Bumper but with high clearance spoiler and no fog lights). Fog light wiring is there though so easy to enable with a switch, and relay. The OEM Aux wiring relay for the Safari 5000 lights is awful & certainly dead by now. I simply just switched over to the factory Fog Light wiring and then using a Nanocom enabled the fogs to work with Hi or Lo beam.