Build Thread My car

[DaBull]

Thanks man, 45 years young.
Amongst other things, a keen cyclist - takes 9 tubes to fabricate a bike frame.
Dan

That will keep you young.
I'm back out surfing at 71 and going for 9+ more tubes.
DaBull

 

[Karearea]

Planning:
After cutting the grille I felt like the "plastic was off". At the time i couldn't find any info with regard to how and where to run electrical wires for UHF ratio and electric trailer brakes, compressor placement etc, so i set to stripping the car to have a good look around and start planning.
i stripped the back door trims and the cargo areas, removed the battery covers from the rear seat, removed the front seats and carpet under them. Then took the dash apart, removed the centre console and roof switch panel. wheel inner guards came out along with the wheel arch flares and the external trims around the back door. Learnt plenty and didn't break much.
I found all the spare aux wiring - what an easter egg hunt that was!
Then set to testing a bunch of things to see how they worked and what voltage things ran at.
Also sketched out the aux switch panel as people kept asking me what was what up there - ref the photos below

Love that karmann ghia! Please look after the roof

 

[Karearea]

Very inspiring - just hope I can at least attempt some of this on mine when she arrives

 

[Wayneos]

Rear muffler removal:
I was pretty keen to start looking at making a second fuel tank, most obvious spot i could see was where the rear muffler lives. So to get the ball rolling a friend removed the rear muffler and straight piped it.
No it doesn't sound any different. Honestly not the slightest bit either inside the car or with your ear next to the tail pipe.
No idea why it's there, maybe for the petrol and it gets left in for the diesel. i don't know.
Anyway, i havent had a chance to get onto the tank yet, but there is room for a good 50L by my measurements. Shouldn't be too hard to tee into the filler hose either. then the plan will be an electric transfer pump to pump into the main tank.

Glad to see someone do this finally! First thing I thought about when getting a Gren was chucking the muffler and using that space for extra fuel and/or water.

 

[Nocrays]

Rock sliders / Side steps:
I had the car delivered with factory sliders in the hope they could be used for side steps too. They can’t.
So I cut them off the mounts and moved them. They went up and out about 50mm, and rotated downward a bit too. They now roughly line up with the tyres when viewed from above. This is better for getting in and out of the car, plus now they sit outside the bodywork they’ll protect it from being doored in car parks etc.
I now need to pull them off and re-powdercoat them.

I echo the others - thanks for recording your mods.

I have the sliders ordered and like you want to mod them to double as steps. Was think about adding a second outer tube but I am now considering your solution to just reposition them as they are as it wouldnt add any further weight. Are you able to share how you reconfigured the mounting points?

 

[BarnesH]

Sounds good to me if I can get another 80L plus under there. Will save carrying extra fuel in Jerry cans. I’ve just had confirmed by a friend in the know that this will not affect the MOT in the U.K. as long as the sound of the exhaust isn’t noticeable louder.

Hi Logsplitter, I’d like to get this done on my Petrol TM in UK. If you find anyone willing to give it a go on ours, please let me know!

 

[Rok_Dr]

A great read @ninetubes. Thanks for posting.

I’m starting to compile a similar post for “Henry” but my electrical skills are limited to uhf installs and crimping up adaptors.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Logsplitter]

Hi Logsplitter, I’d like to get this done on my Petrol TM in UK. If you find anyone willing to give it a go on ours, please let me know!

Will do. I’ve got some feelers out. Myself or my Grenadier won’t be back in the U.K. for a while. But no rush it’s good to watch the forum and seeing what others are doing and which fabricator is doing what

 

[DaBull]

It’s my wife’s. I did 5 months in that as a daily in the final run up to the grenny.
We have since sold if to make way for the camper. Losing that, the landy, and an rs4 I the last 12 months feels like something that I’ll talk about a lot in the future

Hi ninetubes, I used to have a Karmann Ghia that was almost identical to yours. I painted mine Porsche "Ice Green". That color made it go faster. DaBull

 

[DaBull]

Photo or it didn’t happen

That was over 50 years ago, did they have camera's back then. DaBull

 

[[ Adam ]]

Excellent work - thanks for sharing so much. Great food for thought.

 

[globalgregors]

Super build log, thanks for sharing. How did the new camper perform?

 

[globalgregors]

10/10! I’d done all my maintenance and a few mods like lithium before we left so no dramas (except a minor adjustment of a new set of brakes I over adjusted)
I friend had an X1 for a good 5 years. After seeing where that got to, the abuse it got and the way it kept coming back for more, I didn’t even look at anything else.

Good to know. I’m a bit of a towing sceptic but for Gary Junction Road/Tanami etc it’s clearly the way to go. X1 in particular looks very nicely engineered.

 

[Defenderlover]

Rock Lights:
I found a bunch of rock lights amongst my stuff. A set of 6 coloured ones, and a pair of white ones.
I think they were given to me so I do t have a link, but similar to these Stedi ones
I didn’t really aspire to having these on the car, but given I had them I thought they could make for good ambient camp lights. Nothing too obnoxious, just enough indirect light to stop you from tripping over something.
The six seemed over the top, so I fitted 2 to the car. I mounted them on the rear facing part of the front rock slider mounting bracket. So just behind the front wheel. They are well protected there and cast a light to the sides and out the rear of the car (for when you approach the rear).
To wire them up I took the 10A under bonnet aux power (EXT 1) and ran that under the car. For the LHS light, I pushed the wire inside the cross member to keep it neat and protected.
The 6 coloured ones went on the camper, which is kind of neat as they can be controlled by your phone or music etc. which mezmarises my 3yo daughter.
View attachment 7839933View attachment 7839934

Hi Nine Tubes, thank you very much from Germany for the excellent documentation of your improvements! That`s a great help for many people all over the world!
Here I have some questions:
1: Is the elongation of the rock sliders wide enough to enter or leave the car conveniently, even with boots? Maybe 5 cm more would be better?
2: I saw and measured the full roof rack. In my opinion it`s too short at the front and at the back. With my roof tent from Maggiolina on it, there is no roon left(front and back). My roof rack on my defender is much longer. With the roof rack on it, I still have ca. 60 cm in front of it. The roof tent on the Grenadier could be 10 cm longer at the end and at least 30 cm longer up to or over the windshield. I need the space for Jerry cans, water canisters and other stuff when we are travelling in southern Afrika. What is your opinion?
3: I can´t believe that the sound of the Grenadier without the muffler in the back isn´t louder as with the muffler. Maybe when you are idling. But when you accelerate fully and when you drive with higher speed, the sound of the truck must be louder. Otherwise there wouldn´t be a muffler.

Good luck and much fun with your Special Truck! Hans

 

[FrankeMatt]

Rock Lights:
I found a bunch of rock lights amongst my stuff. A set of 6 coloured ones, and a pair of white ones.
I think they were given to me so I do t have a link, but similar to these Stedi ones
I didn’t really aspire to having these on the car, but given I had them I thought they could make for good ambient camp lights. Nothing too obnoxious, just enough indirect light to stop you from tripping over something.
The six seemed over the top, so I fitted 2 to the car. I mounted them on the rear facing part of the front rock slider mounting bracket. So just behind the front wheel. They are well protected there and cast a light to the sides and out the rear of the car (for when you approach the rear).
To wire them up I took the 10A under bonnet aux power (EXT 1) and ran that under the car. For the LHS light, I pushed the wire inside the cross member to keep it neat and protected.
The 6 coloured ones went on the camper, which is kind of neat as they can be controlled by your phone or music etc. which mezmarises my 3yo daughter.
View attachment 7839933View attachment 7839934

Nice Work!! Could you tell me where you found the Ext 1 (10amp) wires? I found the Ext 5 location, but can't find Ext1. Thanks!

 

[Jean Mercier]

Fantastic work, I am really interested to see if somebody will sell some commercial extra fuel tank. That's the only thing I will never do myself! Petrol is so flammable.
Really, thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[globalgregors]

Nice Work!! Could you tell me where you found the Ext 1 (10amp) wires? I found the Ext 5 location, but can't find Ext1. Thanks!

EXT1 on my RHD was nearby EXT5, on the lower side of the loom. Had to remove the airbox lid to get a hold of it.

 

[FrankeMatt]

Here are both the 25A and the 10A pairs. The rearmost one is the 10A. Look for the shiny PVC tape on the wiring harness behind the airbox

Thank you!

 

[Defenderlover]

Hey Hans,
Thanks mate.
1. The sliders are just far enough out to get a boot on. Ergonomically they are a bit too high to enter and exit comfortably. The trade off to maintaining good ground clearance.
2. I find the 2.5m long roof rack adequate. Enough room for a 2.1m roof tent plus jerrycans etc.
3. The muffler makes no difference at all. Even under load at high revs. I have seen it removed from a petrol and it made a big difference. I believe it’s mainly for the petrol and has just been left in the diesel which doesn’t really need it due to having 2 turbos a cat and a dpf to attenuate the exhaust noise.
All the best, Dan

 

[Defenderlover]

Hi Dan! Thank you very much for your reply! I see you really know what you are doing.

Many people with the LR Defender take the muffler in the middle of the exhaust system out and say, there is nearly no difference. Your argumentation with the turbos , the cat and the DPF sounds very convincingly! But our TÜV(the organization that checks the car every 2 years) will say no!

To the roof rack: The Rack on my Defender is 2.80 meters long and together with our roof tent from Maggiolina we had enough room for our equipment on our safaris in southern Afrika. The roof rack of the Grenadier could easyly be 20-30 cm longer. I took measure of the mounted racks on the Grenadier. I will wait till my producer of the roof rack in the Netherlands( Tembo) or an other will produce a longer roof rack. I need the space.

To the rocksliders: I think your idea to cut the sliders off and weld three short elongations in a different angle, so you can put your boot on it to enter or leave the car, is the best and cheapest way to solve two important problems: how to enter the car and how to protect it.

Thanks again for your posting of your ideas! These posts make this forum excellent! Hans