Ownership Verified: My Land Rover Discovery 200tdi

[kalf]

I first ended up here months ago after google searching for something relating my current Land Rover Discovery 200tdi and finding the answer in Matt2000's Discovery Bobtail thread. Been so long ago I can't even remember what it was that I was searching for , but ever since I've been regularly checking in on most "Post Your Car" threads (and scrolling through the other parts of the forum). Now I've finally took the time to register an account, so it seems fair to share my project car which led me here in the first place.

For the last 10+ years I've pretty much always had at least one Land Rover (driving, work in progress, broken down or parts car) sitting on my driveway or in a garage. With a driveway looking something like this being no exception:

With the best part not even being owning/having having up to 4 Land Rovers at the same time, but having a wife who doesn't mind .

At the beginning of the pandemic I got tired of the Range Rover Classic I had been working on and decided to go back to the car I know best: a Discovery 1. Not wanting to pay a ridiculous amount of taxes but also wanting to be able to take my 4 kids with me, it needed to be 30years or older.
So in the middle of lockdown season I bought one 300+km away from here, based of some vague pictures. Drove it back home (I don't understand how I got it home safely after al the problems I found later on) and started with some "small" jobs including converting it from what was basically a van to a 7-seater and what was thought to be some minor rust repair with the sills and boot floor already being replaced by the previous owner.

First started with with removing the closed panels for normal windows.

The little rust repair ended up with a couple of m² of new sheet metal for replacing the drivers side footwell and floor halfway up to the B-post, on the passenger side I "only" had to replace 50% of the floor and footwell and also pretty much everything around the brand new boot floor. I also replaced the inner sills, 2 completely rotten body mounts and installed 2 new front inner fenders (partly because I still had them from a previous project).
I've owned enough Discovery's to know the weak spots and 90% had been "repaired" by the previous owner. Except for the part that repairing to him apparently meant welding new metal over rust without removing it and even glueing sheet metal onto rust or putting paint or body sealer over rust.
Because I had to do it al outside, after work hours and combine it with family life, it took more than a year to finish all the welding. I've welded up some many Disco's that I no longer even bother to take pictures of the process.
I'll just give you these two to give you an idea of what "at first glance there are only a couple of small holes" ended up all over the car. The cut-out in the first picture eventually ended up halfway up the firewall.

As you can spot on the last picture, during different stages of rust repair I also fitted another bumper to house the Warrior 12000lbs winch I had lying around from a previous car. Which in fact was another kind of rust repair since it came from a burned wreck. The bumper itself was in good condition, but pretty much all the paint had melted off leaving it covered in surface rust by the time I bought it. But hey, it was cheap . Since I had to paint it anyway I shortened the sides by 10cm (copying the original curved line) to make sure they wouldn't hit on bigger tyres and removed the top part of the front plate meant for installing a 8274 style winch.

After finishing all the rust repair I replaced all the worn suspension bushings, the front wheel bearings, pretty much all brake lines both hard lines and rubber ones (replaced the latter with steel braided, but with a matt black finish so it still looks original), some hoses, all new oil and filters and got it to the Belgian "MOT" to get my license plates and papers. Passed without any serious remarks, so after that I could start with the more fun kind of work.

Exterior modifications included installing a 2" suspension lift, mounting 235-85-R16 Mud-Terrain tyres on black 8-spoke wheels, installing a Detroit locker in the back, installing a steel rear bumper and removing the complete tow hitch assembly. I also painted the bottom half of the car and top half of the bonnet with black raptor liner since I had to replace one of the front doors. I couldn't find a colour matching one, hated the mismatched looking door but liked the green to much to completely cover it in boring black.

Interior-wise I made a custom centre console (since one of the PO's made a mess of it), modified a RRC gear knob to fit the look of it and installed a switch panel in the middle of the roof console with winch controls and switches for some extra lighting. I also spent some time fixing the butchers work the PO's had done to the wiring and installed an auxiliary fuse box to power all the current and future extras. The aux fuse box is ignition switch powered through a big relay so forgetting to turn light off doesn't drain my battery.

TLDR list of modifications:
- 2" suspension lift
- 235-85-R16 Mud Terrain tyres
- Detroit locker in the back axle
- steel bumpers front and rear
- 12000lbs Warrior winch with synthetic rope
- HD steering and track rod
- front skid plate
- two tone raptor liner paint
- custom centre console
- switches + winch control in the roof console.

 

[kalf]

It is currently living the true Land Rover life: on jack stands with the front wheels removed waiting for parts .
Last time I went to an off-road event two things happened: the already noisy front right CV joint got a lot worse and from time to time a banging/knocking noise seemed to come front the left. First I assumed it had to be related to the bad CV joint, but then when I hit a hole with my front left wheel I felt it through the whole car and it also yanked my steering wheel.
Quickly checked the entire (mud covered) front axle, steering parts and propshaft but at first glance nothing seemed wrong.

It was when I removed the front wheels for a thorough clean of the front before inspection that I found the culprit. It seems I forgot a tiny detail when installing the new chassis to radius arm bushes: the front washer.

Apparently it isn't supposed to look like that, but like this:

How it managed to stay in place for a couple of months without the washer, I don't know. But when it gave way it basically allowed my axle to move backwards and f'ed up my steering geometry.
The bad CV-joint has already been replaced by now since the required parts are standard spares/stocked items I keep. It had quite obviously been running dry at some time in its life.
Now I'm waiting for the bushings and washer to come in and it can go back on the road.

 

[kalf]

Oh yeah, forgot this one:

 

[Matt2000]

Crikey, another 2-door 200tdi. Wonderful. Clearly another Discovery fan too, if they weren't all LHD I'd accuse you of keeping them all from the rest of us. Nice 300tdi 2-door too, my old 300tdi originally had the indicators in the bumper and clusters with red only.

I'm seeing my past and present Land Rover life right here with this one too, the upgrades and the methods to work around the previous owner's handiwork. Your dash is definitely looking better than mine, I cut the centre console so it's easier to remove. Front and rear bumpers aren't a million miles away from what I had on my 300tdi either (link in my signature to the old thread).

Really looking forward to seeing your work on it, thanks for posting and welcome to FG! I'm glad my thread was useful, I'd hate to think of what advice I might've given but my years of Land Rover shenanigans have definitely produced plenty of content - like the unrine of an alcoholic has plenty of content.

You may read about Ringmeet, an annual event that often lacks Land Rovers now I've sold my old V8, wouldn't mind getting to see this in the metal.

 

[kalf]

In my opinion the Discovery's are highly underrated, although they seem to have slowly started to rise in value (but I guess so has pretty much every car in the last couple of years). I do like the Defenders and RRC's, but really don't get the absurd amount of money people pay for them. And Discovery's are in my opinion the best of both worlds. With the added advantage that with being a lot less valuable that nobody cares if you cut up the fenders or dent one.
And most parts are easy to come by, except for the 2-door specific or 200tdi model specific parts those are getting harder and harder to find.

And I do share them, the parts cars usually end up spread out over parts of Belgium and the Netherlands and so have done pretty much al my Land Rovers . I have a tendency of getting tired of a car quite quickly, especially when they don't get used as much as I would like or when I consider it as pretty much finished.
My Land Rover addiction also seems to be at an all time low, I can proudly say I currently only own 1 Land Rover. I even got myself to clean out the shed and sold pretty much a complete Disco 1 in parts over the last couple of weeks . Although I still have enough parts to keep my inner parts hoarder satisfied.

Even thinking about buying a non-Land Rover as second toy car but more for "touring". Which knowing myself will end up in selling this one at some point in time, saying I'll never buy a Land Rover/Discovery again and 6-12months later I come across an advert or get an offer I can't refuse and buy myself yet another Land Rover .

 

[ninjacoco]

Welcome to FinalGear! I love this.

 

[rickhamilton620]

Welcome to FG! Can't wait to see how this thread progresses!

 

[kalf]

Parts arrived today, also ordered a replacement breather=>air intake hose because the one currently in the car got scuffed by the alternator fan blades (started it to move it and forgot I moved the airfilterhousing to paint the inner fenders). It didn't go completely through, but it had less than a mm wall thickness left. With the new hose being Britpart off course the shape and bends seem to be way off. But nothing a pair of cutters and some zip-tie's can't fix .

Before I ordered the parts I looked for the missing washer and couldn't find it, but then off course the next day I did find it. Luckily Land Rover parts are dirt cheap, so it only set me back roughly 2euro. The main reason I went looking for the original washer is that the originally curved washer is now only available as a flat one. I'm sure it will do the job of holding the bushing in place just fine, but for some reason I prefer the curved ones.

I've got the next three days off from work, originally for some home renovation and the kid's first day of school, but I hope to find some time for repairing the Disco.

 

[kalf]

Yesterday I had some spare time to replace the bushings. Just did a little test drive around the block (always a little scary/sketchy after doing work on a car in between other stuff, not knowing if everything was put back correctly) and all seems ok.
Removing and replacing the front radius arm is a typical job that can go two ways after putting both the car and axle on stands: 1. after removing the bolts the radius arm pretty much falls out after a tap with a persuasion device (hammer in this case) and putting it back in is just as easy 2. the angles between chassis and axle are a little off and a 30-45min job becomes a 2-4hour job (even without bolts that are rusted stuck in the front bushings).
Luckily this time it was the first one and since I used new bolts and anti-seize they too came out easily.

No wonder the cars steering and suspension were behaving weird. The bushing was completely destroyed and 5-7,5cm out of place, so at least at one point the axle must have been that much out of place too . Had to cut the bushing of, but it wash trash anyway.

Looking a lot better now .

The next jobs are already on the to do list and all 3 have one thing in common: they aren't really bad jobs but just so damn fiddly.
- Adjust the track rod to get my steering wheel pretty much straight when driving straight (it's been roughly 20° off since replacing it)
- Fix the passenger door lock that keeps automatically locking. I already have the little spring that needs replacing and I've done it multiple times on other cars/doors, but it can be such a sh*tty job.
- Cut the last rust holes out and weld in some new metal. This too really isn't that bad of a job, I've just been postponing it 'cause of all the weird angles and pieces I'll need to fabricate.

 

[kalf]

Used it to take two of my kids to a tennis event about 40km from where I live, since it didn't start behaving weird at 120+ km/h speeds I'm quite sure everything is ok.
I actually do enjoy the looks on some people's faces when parking this thing in a parking lot with mostly Teslas, Audi's, BMW's and the likes .

 

[kalf]

Over the last 3weeks I didn't have a lot of spare time, but considering that a lot has happened.
First of all I finally tackled the rust spot at the rear, didn't have a load of time when doing it and couldn't really be bothered so I went for the "grinder and paint make me the welder I ain't" approach. Didn't end up perfect, but not too bad either.

Next I fixed the problem with the passenger door automatically locking. Not too bad of a job (especially when you've work on the inside of Disco doors so often you know where every tiny rod goes), but replacing that tiny spring does mean pretty much completely dismantling the door.

Also got the steering wheel more or less straight. When doing so I saw the track rod I didn't replace last time was actually in a worse condition than I thought, so replaced it since a had a spare one lying around.

 

[kalf]

Apart from the repairs something else happened. With the constant 3steps forward, 2steps back (mostly because of screw ups by GDPO's) and not being able to drive 150km without needing the next repair the car was becoming more of a burden than something I could enjoy. So I've been playing around with the idea of selling it. But on the other hand all the work I had already put in and the fact that I had built it with the idea of keeping it for a long time for trips and offroading with the kids, kept me from actually selling it. Apart from the problems, it rarely got used since it's not the most practical car and we mostly do short trips which aren't ideal for an old diesel car.
Then I got a message from someone who was interested in buying it, he came by for a test drive and we agreed on a price that helped me get over my concerns .
When they came to pick up the car I admit it was with mixed feelings. On the one hand it rarely happens that I actually care about a car leaving my driveway for the last time, but on the other hand I got a feeling of relief. And since then it's mostly the relief that is taking over.

As it usually goes, the new owner will probably use it without any of the problems/sh*t that made me want to get rid of the car in the first place since I already fixed most of it. But on the other hand, he was actually going to use it for what I had intended it so I hope he'll enjoy it.

I did clean it before the visit of the potential buyer and took pictures of it for the archives. So I'll share these last pictures but it seems to be someone else's problem now.

I did already buy another weekend/fun/toy car, but no more Land Rover for me in the near future (I've said that before). Bought myself a MK3 Ford Escort Cabrio xr3i. But that's something for another topic once I've had the time to pick it up.