'Tis the Season to Be Jolly.

Tra-La - Lala - La. Doesn't feel too wintry here at the moment, though, and certainly not very white...unlike the smiles that we hope we've helped to give the kids in Morocco. 

And Malawi. Since Sue retired in September we've had her surgery chair taking up space in the shed.

 Too good to throw away, we wanted to sell it but given our location just on the Wrong Side of the Arctic Circle, no-one was interested in collecting it, even though it was worth ten times what we were asking for it. A chance conversation with our dentist provided the solution, much as a similar conversation had generatd the idea for "toothpaste to Tan Tan" earlier in the year.
To cut a long story short, Sue's chair is now en-route to Africa under the control of these guys:

We were very happy to see it go, not for the space it was taking up but more because it was going somewhere it was going to be useful.

Back in the workshop, things were not all going according to plan. 

1. Water supply. I had a long play about with the pump and decided, after dismantling everything related to it, that it was going to be more trouble than it was worth to rearrange plumbing etc to get the pump down to the same level as the bottom of the tank. It woud seem that the thing doesn't have the "suck" to draw water up through the filter so it's easier to remove it and use a submerged pump instead, like this:

 Not only did this work well, it's made more space under the sink for storage and maintenance, which is always a bonus.

2. The sink came in for some modification too, as I noted before that it didn't drain completely. Even mounting it at a slight angle wasn't going to solve the problem as it needed some kind of recess around the plughole to get all the water out. Having given this a bit of thought I did an experiment with a similar bit of plastic, the careful use of a hot air gun and a paint tin. This did the job and now the sink has the proper "dimple" around the drain. I thought I'd taken pictures of the process but they've gone Walkabout, so maybe these will appear in due course.

3. I'd congratulated myself a few weeks ago for overhauling the heater system and getting everything sorted for winter. Tempted fate a bit, there, I'm afraid. Not only was the air now coming out of the vents with some force again -a good thing - it wasn't exactly hot. In fact it was barely above body temperature for the first 15 minutes. Time to investigate the thermostat....

This bit of chewed-up plastic isn't normally found inside the thermostat housing. It's another Special Modification carried out by the Previous Owner. It's actually the remains of the top plug which has been broken off at some point in the distant past and left inside the housing. Since there isn't a lot of room in there and that which there is only just allows the thermostat to operate properly, I suspected that this bit of detritus might have affected matters a bit. I removed the old thermostat and, not surprisingly I suppose, the witness marks on the remains of the plastic plug matched the edge of the thermostat frame exactly. I think it got jammed under the frame and stopped the valve from closing. As it happened, when I tested it the thermostat was jammed open anyway so no wonder it was taking the coolant an age to warm up. With a new unit fitted, "hopefully that'll be the end of it"....I thought.

4. Wrongly. A few days later the fan stopped working on slow speed, and a few days after that stopped altogether. Fuse checked, nothing wrong. Ho Hum - yet more electrical fun to be had trying to track down the fault. I got back under the bonnet and luckily found the problem pretty quickly. While checking the connectivity to one of the funny little plugs the movement of the loom produced some reaction in the fan. A bit more pulling and twisting of the wires revealed a very iffy connection in the 3-pin plug. I pulled this apart to find 2 rather burnt connectors which I can repair but not with the wiring in place - there isn't enough space to work in for such a fiddly job. I found that by a bit of bodging and ty-wrapping I could get the connection to work, so that's how I've left it for now. A two-speed fan again, though for how long?

5. I had a thought about the heater control as well - the hot/cold air selector, that is. Any "slack" in the mechanism would lead to cold air leaking past when "full hot" was selected. I loosened the pinch bolt on the arm, pulled it hard over to the hot position and re-tightened the bolt. I gained about 15mm of travel in the process, which must improve the heat output....mustn't  it?


6. More mail-order fun. I bought a proper Landrover bottle jack - the one with the proper "horns" on the top - from a salvage yard which arrived as planned but a bit dusty.

In fact it was full of crud and cobwebs so hadn't been tested before posting...and it didn't work. I've done my best with it, of course, but the seal's gone inside and it won't pump.

  
7. The same day the new side locker arrived. 

Great, I thought, an easy job for the holidays. But no. Unpacking the box I found that somebody had been using the parcel as a seat while they ate their sandwiches. 

Not designed for some lard-arsed Hermes bloke to do this, it'd collapsed on one side and popped the rivets. Another mail-order disappointment. At least the company that sent it reacted quickly to my complaint but, of course, the last post had gone and it was a Friday, so I wasn't going to see the replacement "until Tuesday next week". Make that Thursday, actually. So, what with the wiper motor, the jack, the side locker...not scoring well with long-distance purchasing at the moment, not to mention the non-Landrover related stuff that Hermes have delivered, got a signature for etc etc...but not from the person it was addressed to, ie me.😠

Given nothing better to do, I started work on the side rack for the sand plates and fitted the jerrycan rack. The latter needed a bit of inventive thought since the original position just aft of the window relied on the gutter for support, and now that's gone with the old roof, I don't think the Alu-cab replacement is really up to the job of taking the weight of 20 litres of diesel at 3g+ as we hit the bumps. A few little accessories for the cargo rails has sorted it, though.

These work in the same way as the ones I designed for the seat mountings inside before I realised these were commercially available. The "proper ones" fit better than mine and have a load spreader, so they'll take the weight of the fuel can if it's hung off the tracks.

The rack for the sand plates is formed from 2 strap hinges, suitably bent to clear the tub cappings but able to hinge downwards. 

 









A bit of scrap aluminium plate will do as a table top for the time being until I can find something a bit longer which can be used as a flap-down surface outside the NAAFI flap, and it'll need some wires to hold it up or the hinges will bend. The space behind - presently packed out with a blue box lid -  will be used to store another folding table like we had before, but made of some kind of waterproof board, if I can find something suitable.

Two ratchet straps hold it all up, and all the screws are secured with Rivnuts, some of which were a real PITA to set. I think that, in future and despite their usefulness, they'll be the fixing of last resort due to the "hit-and-miss" nature of their grip. I had two of them spin when I ran the screws in but managed to save them by whacking the edges with a punch. This gave them enough "bite" to allow me to get the screws out and have another go at resetting them, but only one worked.
The sand plates are very light and strong, and have replaced the heavy, awkward and unpleasant-to-use waffle boards. Although I doubt the new plates have the bridging strength of the waffles, they are apparently rated to 10 tonnes so maybe I'll give 'em a bit of a test soon, just to see.

Inside, we've bought a folding seat to go onto the "library chair".

It's just the right width to fit the space and much more useful than the re-purposed lounger cushion we had before.Like the lounger, this also folds flat but can be set at all the angles in between without the need for a separate back support, so it'll provide a seat for relaxing, can be slid towards the table for eating and be laid flat for sleeping, if necessary.

The newly-discovered, by me that is, Facebook Marketplace has  provided 4 new tyres and some rather tatty modular steel wheels this week. The tyres are 235 BFGs - brand new, never fitted and half price!

The wheels needed sandblasting at our local outfit in Mosstodloch, and they put a coat of primer on for me as well for £25 a wheel. This is the first time I've had this type of work done - I normally spend a few weeks, wear out a few wire brushes and DIY it - but I think it's worth doing the job professionally this time. In fact as the wheels cost £15 each, by the time I've put more primer on and the topcoat and lacquer for the few quid I've saved I might as well have bought new ones.

Anyway, I've made another useful contact in the sandblaster and had some good tips on finishing the wheels so they won't rust as quickly in future, and maybe the final finish will be better.

These steels rust quite badly around the inner part of the rim,like the ones on at the moment:

The rust around the outer part of the rim is easy to remove, but not the stuff closer to the centre and around the dummy beadlockers.

Here I've been "striping" the areas where the sprayed primer won't have penetrated, as well as the sharp edges that always show rust more quickly..

...and a line of sealant in the gap ought to keep things cleaner for longer.

Finally, the Engel has a new coat:

Sue made these up - top cover, fridge and freezer - from the same material as we bought for the window insulation. They fit over the camping mat insulation we fitted previously and are held in place with velcro and thin bungee cord. I don't know how much difference having them on will make, but the insulation is now much better than the commercially available jackets which are marketed as mere covers "to protect the finish and enhance the resale value". A lot of money to spend on cosmetic protection, so a hell of a lot cheaper and better value to make than to buy.  
The Engel's being used, as I type this, as the overflow fridge for the Prosecco...Happy Christmas!