LR 110: Two years and thousands of hours

[Azarur]

So. Enough whining and let's get going with this. Job 1: Measure twice and cut many more times than twice!!

[Azarur]

Then let's get all the cross-supports lined up, epoxyed, bolted and ready to go.

[Azarur]

Finally, let's isolate every metal joint and put everything together. Once it's all bolted and straight, let's apply anticorrosive compound and lizard skin to the entire bottom. Lizard skin is amazing. First, it obviously isolates sound (that's what it is primarily used for). Second, and in our case most important, it provides a moisture barrier, and because of the roughness of the compound it creates nucleation sites for water droplets and condensation, which reduce surface tension and make them drop and dry much quicker than flat metallic surfaces. If you think spraying the entire bottom of a 110 with lizard skin is a waste, try not doing it!

[Azarur]

By now, I'm sure a couple of purists are gasping and going catatonic, because there's something not quite right with the middle-row seat mounts. Why does it look weird? What is this guy doing?
Well, this guy is 6 ft tall, which should fit comfortably in the front seat without raisers and extenders. However, Antonio (13) is ALREADY 6ft tall and shoe size 11. Alex (11) is 5'6" and shoe size 9.
Now we have a new issue:
There is just NO WAY they will fit in the middle row in a year or two, and there is NO WAY my wife will let them ride shotgun (even though she is "only" 5' 5"). So. We gotta move the middle row back *gasp*. All the guys are saying to me: "What is wrong with you?!? You will sacrifice off-road performance just to fit your freakishly large children?"
Uhhh. Yes! I suck at off-roading! So if I lose about an inch of wheel travel the one time a year I'll take my 110 off road vs. have to hear the three of them whine and complain on the 5-hour drive to our annual summer camping trip, or the 3-hour WEEKLY ski drives in the winter, that's really well worth it!!

So. Purists, please take a break (or a zanax). The rest of you enjoy watching the defilement of a virgin 110!!

[Azarur]

By the way.. the seats are AWESOME! They were a bit pricey, but Defenders Northwest did a fantastic job sourcing these amazing, Puma-style, black leather with silver stitching, heated seats. Hats off to them!!

[Azarur]

Alright. So we have to move the middle row seats back about 4 inches. How did we come up with 4 inches? We used an evolutionary technique called growth projection protocol. Basically I got my dad, who is a huge dude (6' 4" and like 250 lbs), and happened to be visiting, to sit in the middle row and assume that's going to be the average size of my three boys!

[Azarur]

Ok. After cutting the old mounts, now we have to fabricate new ones. And again, we are following the same standards: Stainless, insulate, lizard skin!

[Azarur]

By the way. Two really difficult things:
1. Keeping everything square while changing so many body parts. So the guys built this beast of a frame to make sure everything lined up. You can see it in the last picture.
2. Seat belts for the middle row required a re-design of the tensioner. Was not easy!

[icnsltmfg]

Don't forget to post the info on the A/C unit and how you mounted the new heater box...

[Azarur]

Hey guys,

For those who asked. The model that we ordered for the Vintage air was the 671400-VUZ. Be aware that the user must provide the duct work connections and vents (i.e., if you're planning to use the stock vents, you will need to modify the air ducts):

http://www.vintageair.com/2015%20Cat...talog%2044.pdf

And the 04808-VUA Compressor:

http://www.vintageair.com/2015%20Cat...talog%2070.pdf

We fabricated our own brackets.

On the controller, we bypassed the vintage air controllers, and instead used the Dakota Digital controller DCC-2400:

Digital Climate Controller for Vintage Air Gen IV

[Azarur]

The next area was the roof. Our roof was in excellent shape, so luckily not much body work was needed. Here are the before photos:

[Azarur]

As we started removing the old white paint, some small defects became apparent. Luckily no major repair work was required.

[Azarur]

After repairing the small areas of rust the roof was primed, and sanded. Afterwards, and just as it was done for the undercarriage, lizard skin was applied. Finally, dynamat was used for final thermal and sound isolation.

[Azarur]

Next up were the rear quarters. Those were a mess! Corrosion everywhere, nasty patches of bondo, lack of structural integrity. Here are the "before" pictures:

[Azarur]

Given the sorry state of the rear quarters, we decided to take them completely apart and repair what made sense, but replace what could not be done with the standard of integrity, stability and appeal that we established. I would say about 30% of metal was replaced:

[Azarur]

Following metal work, the rear quarters were put back together, primed and the joints were painted. I am very proud of how amazing those turned out after the state of disrepair they were on initially.

[Azarur]

The hood was boring. Not a major area of trouble. Yawn. Here are the pictures:

[NPT90]

great thread, nice build, I have garage envy

[Azarur]

The front seat mounts are typically not an area where people spend much time. Repair, refresh, done.
In our case (*SPOILER ALERT*) we decided to change the entire electrical system (why, oh why did we do that???). And we needed to find a place to mount the central hub and two controllers (BTW, we picked this really cool system from Infinity: </title> <meta name="robots" content="index,follow" /> <meta name="GOOGLEBOT" content="INDEX, FOLLOW" /> <link rel="canonical" href="http://shop.infinitybox.com" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jque )
We decided that the best place to mount the system was under the passenger seat. Besides the usual top access, we decided to build a side access panel with a sliding tray. This allows access to the system (including fuses) without removing the passenger seat cushion. Therefore we needed to open a window and reinforce the sides.
Here is the storyboard of the progression:

Before photos:

[Azarur]

Here are the bodywork photos and modifications: