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hinsonberger

Member Since: 31 Mar 2017
Location: Thames
Posts: 32

2003 Defender 110 Td5 XS CSW Zambezi Silver

Next job on my list was the seat bases in the rear of the Defender.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

As you can see in the pictures, all four of the plastic bases had gone brittle (common issue) & were falling to bits badly. I looked at what to replace the plastic with & decided to go with aluminium sheet. When looking for our Defender I looked at a few vehicles that had replaced the plastic with alloy chequer plate, but that’s not my style (just my personal opinion

).

I got the alloy plate from a local engineering shop, who I also had cut the four pieces to size. It took a little while to pull one of the old plastic ones off & use the pieces as a template, but managed to mark & drill all the holes. A bit of filing to round off the corners a little, & they were ready for painting.

I sprayed them with an etch primer & then some satin black.

Put them all back together & installed them into the Defender.

So busy doing it that I forgot to take any progress photos

As below; nothing too pristine, but a lot tidier & functional.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Cheers
Bruce

1st Jul 2017 2:54am

jomara

Member Since: 26 Oct 2009
Location: Lanarkshire
Posts: 1756

2014 Defender 110 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Santorini Black

Your upgrades look great Bruce, love the silver, m,es me wish I'd kept my last 110

2014 110 2.2TDCi XS Station wagon
1971 Bowler Tomcat 88 4.2 V8 Auto
2022 110 250D XS

1st Jul 2017 6:49am

L110CDL

Member Since: 31 Oct 2015
Location: Devon
Posts: 10476

Very nice, neat job Bruce, very satisfying when the outcome turns out that good

1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up. Keeper.

Clayton.

1st Jul 2017 9:26pm

hinsonberger

Member Since: 31 Mar 2017
Location: Thames
Posts: 32

jomara wrote:
Your upgrades look great Bruce, love the silver, m,es me wish I'd kept my last 110

L110CDL wrote:
Very nice, neat job Bruce, very satisfying when the outcome turns out that good

Thanks guys! I'm slowly getting there!

Cheers
Bruce

1st Jul 2017 9:48pm

hinsonberger

Member Since: 31 Mar 2017
Location: Thames
Posts: 32

Rock Sliders

I had always intended to remove the standard XS tubular side steps, due to them hanging down too low, plus not really offering any robust protection.

Click image to enlarge

I figured I'd need to buy new, probably from the UK, but kept my eye on the local online auction site here in New Zealand (Trade Me) and managed to pick up some second hand rock sliders with tree bars. I re-painted them with some smooth black Hammerite.

Click image to enlarge

Then I removed the old tubular side steps.

Click image to enlarge

I then removed the alloy sill panels, which gave it a bit of a rough & ready look!

Click image to enlarge

I offered up the sliders and with a bit of figuring it out as I went, jacking the bulkhead up slightly and measuring twice, I managed to drill all the holes in the correct alignment. They all bolted up fine and fitted pretty well.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

I just need to buy some adhesive grip tape to apply to the tops to make things a bit safer, but overall I'm happy with how they came together.

Cheers
Bruce

22nd Aug 2017 10:40am

agentmulder

Member Since: 16 Apr 2016
Location: Outer Space
Posts: 1324

And here's me in exactly the same market - never thought they'd turn up on trademe...

Lucky we weren't bidding against each other

Nice looking machine

Solved the bowel problem, working on the consonants...

22nd Aug 2017 10:56am

hinsonberger

Member Since: 31 Mar 2017
Location: Thames
Posts: 32

Yeah, glad you didn't spot them

I did an auto-bid & then just let them go. Managed to get them just under my auto-bid limit, so that was good!

22nd Aug 2017 11:14am

VVS210

Member Since: 12 Nov 2016
Location: Hampshire
Posts: 953

They look good - I have a pair just like them sitting in the barn waiting to be fitted to my DCPU when I get the chance

22nd Aug 2017 11:33am

L110CDL

Member Since: 31 Oct 2015
Location: Devon
Posts: 10476

What a difference Bruce, much better

1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up. Keeper.

Clayton.

23rd Aug 2017 9:06pm

hinsonberger

Member Since: 31 Mar 2017
Location: Thames
Posts: 32

Been awhile, but I've added some grip tape to the tree bars & sliders so the wife & kids don't slip scrabbling in & out on a wet day.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Next job was to replace the tinny horn! I bought a set of Hella Super Tones https://www.hella.co.nz/en/products/access...-of-2.html

Mounted them to the edges & they'd just fit behind the grille.

Click image to enlarge

With the grille back on, they're nice & stealthy!

Click image to enlarge

Up close, if you know they're hiding there, you can spot them, which I kind of like!

Click image to enlarge

26th Nov 2017 9:31am

L110CDL

Member Since: 31 Oct 2015
Location: Devon
Posts: 10476

Many thanks for your up date and your still enjoying your landy

1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up. Keeper.

Clayton.

26th Nov 2017 11:12pm

hinsonberger

Member Since: 31 Mar 2017
Location: Thames
Posts: 32

L110CDL wrote:
Many thanks for your up date and your still enjoying your landy

Cheers! Yeah, I really enjoy the Defender. It would be nice to drive it more though!

27th Nov 2017 9:08am

hinsonberger

Member Since: 31 Mar 2017
Location: Thames
Posts: 32

Next on the list was to try & address, at least in part, the lack of headrests on the middle row of seats. My kids are quite tall & complain about the low seat backs, especially on a longer journey when the get tired

Plus I wasn't exactly that thrilled with the lack of whiplash protection!

Options I could see were:
1. Puma middle row seat install - very nice, but quite a bit of mucking around & very expensive, at least in NZ
2. Exmoor Trim Premium High Backs - very nice, but don't tumble forwards, & very expensive, again, even more so to land them in NZ
3. Exmoor Trim Classic High Backs - appear pretty good, & not as expensive (not exactly cheap though!), but again don't tumble forward, plus I'd need to try & find the three individual seat bases second hand from an early 110. Not that common in NZ
4. Fit a different middle row seat (Discovery or Renault Scenic?) - a bit of mucking around, & not exactly genuine, plus issues around mounts, etc.
5. Purchase dog guard & attach some type of headrests to it - a reasonable solution, unless I have more people travelling in vehicle & decide to take any guard out, in which case you have no headrests again
6. Modify existing middle row seats to form some sort of headrest - not exactly a big comfort increase, but possibly fairly cheap & may be able to enable the tumble forward function

After too many evenings scouring the internet for any ideas I might have missed, & trying to decide what to do, I made the call to go with Option 6 - modify existing seats.

The Defender is not our everyday car, so I figured the kids could make do with some improvement, that wasn't exactly a giant leap forward in comfort! Plus I don't have spare cash lying around to go with any expensive option

So I kept my eye on Trademe (NZ version of Ebay) & picked up a couple of Puma front seat headrests in the XS trim, so matching my Defender trim level - even better! They were pretty cheap too, so fitted the bill.

Here's one:

Click image to enlarge

I bought four of the genuine plastic sleeves the headrests slide into. Then I, luckily, found some steel tube I had lying around that was near perfect in size, so cut four short lengths of that, as below:

Click image to enlarge

Next I took the seat backs out of the Defender & removed the fabric covers. I figured out that putting the tubes on the back of the seat frames would be preferable as the seat backs are fairly shallow. I didn't want people feeling the additions sticking in their back.

I marked up the positions on the seat frames & took them to a trusted local engineering shop & got them to weld them in position, with a bar behind the lower edges.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

I refitted the foam & fabric to the frames, cut the fabric at the top of the tubes and with some trimming & filing of the plastic inserts, made sure they were a very snug fit when knocked into the tubes with a block of wood, also trapping the vinyl so they look fairly neat.

I refitted the seats to the Defender & overall, pretty happy with them.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

If I want to fold the seats away, they pull out just as they should.

One future improvement I could make is to look at getting an angle put on the headrest legs to tip them forward a bit. They're fairly far back, but I didn't want them interfering with passengers heads when not needed. The kids seem satisfied with them so far, & I envisage the real value will be when they're tired & want to lean back & rest. We'll see

27th Nov 2017 9:49am

L90Andy

Member Since: 29 May 2014
Location: Stratford-Upon-Avon
Posts: 716

Cracking job. Looks very 'factory' which is meant as a compliment

Keep up the good work. Instagram: l90andy

2006 Land Rover 90 TD5 CSW Silver Edition

My 1984 Ninety: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic56071.html - SOLD!
My 2015 Defender: http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic39625.html - SOLD!

27th Nov 2017 10:07am

hinsonberger

Member Since: 31 Mar 2017
Location: Thames
Posts: 32

L90Andy wrote:
Looks very 'factory'

Thanks! I do try & keep everything as 'factory' looking as possible!

27th Nov 2017 6:51pm

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