Having A/C again looks like it will be an issue, looks like all of the hoses have been removed.

Good luck, with the build. Will enjoy following along.

Brian.

 

 

Today i decided to try and clean up the rear windows. They look like plexiglass or something and over time have become pretty clouded.


You can barely even see through it. So during my lunch break i pulled the rear windows off and took them into work to try and clean them up. Luckily since i work at a dealership we have a detail crew and i was able to get some professional advice on what to do. Which was to replace them because it was going to be a lot of work for little reward.... Not what i wanted to hear. But i was up to the challenge so i asked the head of our detail department what he would do; he gave me a buffer and some cutting polish and said "It's going to take hours". So that's what i did, for about 30 minutes because at the end of the day those windows don't do much and i can't even see out of them from the driver's seat anyways. But they looked terrible and it was bothering me. So after i spent some "time" buffing one of them i came up with this
here's a before:

And and after:

Not a real big difference and i was mildly disappointed. But it was already 6 and i had errands to run so i cleaned them up with some polish and headed out. On my way home i stopped by Home Depot to grab some adhesive weather stripping because i noticed water leaking into the windows the last time i was washing the Disco off. Then when i got home i went to work on putting my mildly clearer windows back on. So here's my mildly clearer plexiglass +weather stripping install:

Every good install post has a picture of all the stuff laid out and clean so here's mine. But what's different( Besides the amazing Washington beer) is that my install picture has a box of gloves and a bottle of Eucerin. Today's tech tip is to rub some lotion on your skin(or it gets the hose again) before putting on gloves. It makes them easier to put on and prevents your skin from drying out. I have eczema and wear gloves on a daily basis so i always have eucerin handy.

So back to the window install, i cleaned off the sills and you can see the riveted nuts that have been installed. You can also those big *** dents on the bottom right corner.



Then came time to install the weather stripping in each sill. I don't have any mid install action pictures but i do want to point out that with the weather stripping i got i was able to make one continuous strip all around the sill. And another tip is to start/stop your stripping on the bottom of the window. That way the whole top section is one continuous piece and is less likely to leak.




I'm ashamed of how wavy the weather stripping is on the bottom but it's in there now so o well. Now onto the the drivers side and i took this photo during golden hour so you can really see all the dents.



Now it was time to install the semi clearer windows. O i forgot to mention the spare coolant hoses and drive belts that were stashed in between the passenger rear window and the chicken wire


Yup these were hiding there the whole time but you couldn't really see them through the cloudy window. The hoses were in good condition and the belts weren't cracked so i just put them back in and went to install the passenger rear window.


Apparently i made them a little clearer than i thought. yay. One thing i noticed was that whoever installed the rivet nuts didn't particularly care about actually getting the window to seal. They are so oddly spaced and in weird positions that it when tightened the plexiglass bulges out



And yes i backed off the screws to try and get it to seal better but what you see is them just barely tight enough that i know they wont back out. All in all i'm fairly happy since i did manage to clean the windows up some and it's always a good time working on the Disco.

*edit
I tried to replicate the first photo

 

I'm glad we were able to finally get in touch. I cant wait for the first time we can go wheeling together

 

Don't get me wrong, but if this rig needs an engine...why not look for a better body and running rig..and swap all of the goodies off of this rig to that? You mention using this for camping, wife driving it and some everyday use, wouldn't a cleaner body be a better starting point. Now, if you are just using it for off-roading/wheeling/rock-crawler...then where it's at is perfect.

Just throwing it out there, please don't take any offense. None was intended.

Brian.

 

No offense taken at all Brian. You hit the nail on the head.

It's going to be a dedicated off-roading/wheeling/rock crawler. Since all these panels already have dents in them i won't feel bad adding a couple of my own. Plus i think it gives it character(not really but that's what most people say when you point out damaged parts on their vehicles lol). I don't mind them really since i can guarantee i will be adding a lot more. As for being comfy i mean that very loosely. Comfy for me is just some kind of seat to sit on. But I want my girfriend to come wheeling with me. And she likes to have things like heat, working AC, a radio with more than 2 functioning speakers,seats that have some padding in them and aren't completely ripped up, and power windows. Stuff like that. I mostly just want it to be comfortable enough so if i get hurt she can drive us out of wherever we are. She struggled a bit with my Ford, it being a manual with a heavy clutch and especially when it would throw the power steering belt off. Off-roading with no power steering can be pretty difficult. I've been thinking about getting a heated passenger seat as a little present for her too. Or add one to the existing seat using some chevy seat heater parts i have at work. hm....hadn't thought of that until now.... anyways

As for everyday use that would mostly just be during the winter when we get snow.

 

That makes perfect sense, rover on!

Good luck, with the rest of your build, l'll be following along.

Brian.

 

It's been a long time but I've finally got an update. After doing months of research and trying to find a good price on a motor, which is hard in a small town in SE Washington, i came across a 3.9 interim motor from a 1996 range rover. So i had my friend help me tow the discovery to his shop so i could go about yanking out the old and in with the new.

The 5" lift makes those 33's look so small. Also we almost had to let some air out of the tires in order to get the oil pant to clear the radiator support since we maxed out the cherry picker's lift height. Surprisingly though the swap went pretty quickly and we were able to get the new motor in before all the snow hit.


So much room for activities!





You can see how much different this motor is than the 3.9 that would have come stock. The water pump is smaller and with a smooth pulley. This is when i realized none of my accessories would mount up and that i essentially had a 4.0 Bosch motor but with a hole for a distributor.( notice the distributor installed). So as of right now the new motor is in and this weekend i'm going to a wrecking yard that supposedly has a couple 96-98 discovery 1's. Hopefully no one has robbed the power steering pump, bracket, idler, tensioner pulley, or alternator. So for all you people wanting to run a newer 4.0 motor in your 1994-95.5 discovery 1 i'm here to tell you that it's possible. You can either hunt for a while trying to find an interim motor that is complete, like i did, or you can piece your own together. Not all parts are interchangeable as the crank driven oil pump 3.9's had a longer crank key way to run the gear for the oil pump.
I've also decided to ditch my 2" coil spacers and just run the 3" lift springs with fox 2.0's from (lucky8 https://www.lucky8llc.com/collection...cks-for-2-lift).

I also mounted up my spare 35x12.5 to see if i would need to trim the fenders anymore. The spare is just a all terrain, i have a new set of 35x12.50r15 km2's that i will be running.




Hopefully i can get it going before all the snow melts! I tried to fix the headers on my truck right before the snow came in but in came earlier than expected so my Evo has been on full snowplow duty.


So that's where I'm at right now. Hopefully i should have another update this weekend. It's supposed to get up to the mid 30's and hopefully most of the snow will melt so i can get this beast going!

BONUS ENGINE CARNAGE PICS

 

Well she runs! At first it was only running on the drivers bank and it turned out to be a faulty ECU. Threw in the spare ECU and she fired up on all 8. Then the next day i drove it 400 miles to the Oregon dunes to meet my friends. I've got a lot of updating to do but I'll lead with some action shots.
Quick and dirty stats:
-94 Disco body
-96 Serpentine belt 3.9 engine with distributor
-2000 Disco 2 power steering pump, bracket, oil cooler, and belt tensioner
-Fox shocks from LK8
-RTE 3" lift springs
-35" BF Goodrich KM2's
-Terrafirma Dual front shock mounts with 9" limit chains in front shock mounts


​

 

It's nice when they are moving again under their own power. Great pictures.

Brian.