Thanks Morat. That one looks to be pretty much what I need. Nice to know there is something known to be decent out there if I don't want to make something.

Agree with Sloth that rivets / nutserts are bastard things but are what you need. Biggest problem is that there are many varieties with different holding powers and tool insertion pull requirements. Most of the inexpensive kits with pliers type inserters are really for electronics chassis, thin metal boxes et al jobs and don't hold particularly well. My kit is from RS components so a better one of the breed but I'd not put a bolt in it. Screws only. Screw jack out or screw ramp type puller inserters are much better and let you use a better type of insert with much more grip in the hole.

This guy seems to have the right sort of insert :- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Range-Rover-P38-Dog-guard-Bracket-Bolts-To-Fit-STC8924-/282381608141?_trksid=p2349526.m2548.l4275.

As for insertion tools

This :- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M6-Rivnut-insertion-setting-tool-rivet-nut-nutsert-threaded-gun-blind-rivet-new/282162933560?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D46150%26meid%3D8861a8a85bb94428943049411b8503b1%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D122697572513&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
or
This :- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M3-to-M10-Engineers-Heavy-Duty-High-Tensile-Rivnut-Insert-Setting-Tool-Nutsert/122721967342?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D46150%26meid%3Dfb25c615c45c48b4a15be56dbadc6a3f%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D282162933560&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

are far better than the pliers type. Outrageously expensive for a high tensile bolt, nut and spacer tho'. I figure about thruppence three farthing to knock up a spacer with spanner flats if you bring your own bolt. Or a ha'penny less to just drill a bit of hex bar and turn a round relief on the ends so it doesn't catch up on things.

Helps if you have pre-punched holes in the car.

Clive

Brothers guide dog is retiring around the turn of the year so I get to inherit 56 lb (ish) of 11 year old Yellow Labrador / Golden Retriever cross dedicated to covering folk with yellow hair. Presumably 'cos blondes have more fun. Although healthily svelte she isn't genetically the most athletic of hounds and doesn't like being picked up so I'm figuring to get some sort of folding ramp or steps to help her into the car.

I don't approve of home alone for long periods and re-bonding will involve a good deal of riding around with me as well as regular walks over Ashdown Forest et al so whatever I get needs to be up to considerable use. Seems to be a wide range of sizes, styles and prices or ramp out there. Mostly mail order so see, let alone try, before you buy is hardly an option.

Does anyone have any experience with such ramps and how to tell the good from the bad?

Thanks

Clive

Time to put some thought into how many more miles you are going to put on the car and what it's worth to keep it healthy.

My view is that once past the 100,000 mile and / or 10 years old anniversary you are onto a hiding to nothing chasing individual potentially serious "could be ... or maybe ... " type faults on any car without obvious evidence of what's gone wrong. Like shrapnel or pass the earplugs luv. Better to isolate the sub system and take the nuclear option of doing the lot in one hit. Generally P38 service and garage level replacement parts aren't silly expensive so if you plan any reasonable future mileage its financially viable. At least then you know where you stand and you've not wasted a ton of time removing and refitting bits several times as you dig deeper.

Putting my money where my mouth is this months play fund is going on full set of suspension bushes etc and 4 UJ's to be done over the winter. (Gonna cost a lot less than the washing machine that ate up last months play fund!). CVs and steering ball joints next in line.

Got so annoyed with the LRcat site during parts picking that I made a Word file of the whole Suspension section and printed it out. Another ring binder on the shelf next to the 8 holding my RAVE printout. If anyone wants it I can easily send the Word file or a PDF over by FTP.

Clive

Nah. Just me being anal! Got reputation for overdoing overdoing to keep up y'know.

Seriously I do wonder where these things fit from the pressure vessel regulations point of view. Normally a cylinder of this size and pressure rating would require permanent serial numbers and pressure ratings applied. Like the welded on label on an ordinary Calor gas cylinder.

Clive

Maybe a set of these is what you need :- https://priorart.ip.com/IPCOM/000251024 . Take look at the preview. Sounds good in theory but practice might be different. Dunno if anyone makes them, if its a patent or if its something that has been made and publicised without patenting. Looks fairly trivial to make if you want a bunch. PIA for one or two tho'.

Its been alleged in certain quarters that (repeatably?) lifting a P38 wheels free may slightly unseat the airbags and older airbags lack the squidgyness to go back to fully sealed. Not happened to mine yet.

Clive

All in order on Mac Safari 11.0

Clive

The O ring seals are lifed components and only last so long before flexibility drops off allowing them to leak. Used similar pipe and seals on the floating optical tables in the lab back at RARDE / DERA / DRA / QuinetiQ and these were only reckoned to be good for 5 to 10 years even in a benign air conditioned environment. Rather lower pressures tho' so inherently more leak prone. Having the compressor cut in half way through certain experiments could ruin your whole day! Do-overs on tricky 11 hour test runs I could definitely do without. No overtime for salaried staff. Unavoidable requirement for 3 + hours unpaid slavery not being calculated to improve the bunny happiness quotient at the best of times.

Clive

So I picked up another suspension air tank a couple of weeks back. OK condition but the red stuff was on the march so the sensible thing to do was to re-decorate given Mr MoT Mans views on advisories. Still had the yellow label. Careful application of a heat gun got it off in one piece. Took the air tank back to bare metal and treated all the once rusty areas with rust killer. Unfortunately the tank was just too big to handle easily in my blast cabinet so it wasn't possible to do a perfect back to metal job. Close but not perfect. That said I always hit even apparently completely de-rusted steel the the rust killer. Its surprising how much purples up indicating that there was still some rust in the surface.

Two coats of Blackfriars anti rust metal primer and two coats of grey topcoat later the tank was looking pretty good. Can't be bothered to set-up to spray things like this and the Blackfriars brushes on well with decent coverage. Been using it since it was QD90. Vapormatic tractor paint might be a little better but my tins of that are reserved for the P&W. Why grey. Its what I always do. If nowt else it makes it quite clear what I've painted myself. Brightens up the underside bit too.

Was going to put the label back on but it looked far too secondhand against the smart tank. So I scanned it into the computer. Copied it and fired up the CAD program. Put the JEPG picture on the bottom layer of the drawing file and copy on the upper layer. Couldn't quite match the print fonts and doing the diagram bits was um "interesting". But I did find out a few handy wrinkles buried in the Vectorworks menus that I wish I'd discovered 15 years back. Faithful Laserwriter 4M+ printed it out on thin card stock, nearly the right yellow too. Finally ran it though the laminator to protect it. All I have to do now is to decide which glue to use.

PDF file of the label available if anyone else here is mad enough to want one.

Clive.

Dunno what the actual breed of my so called OEM one was but its only lasted about 3 years. Still just holding the lid up but the slightest knock takes it down. Judging by the relative prices its gotta be genuine LR all the way.

Clive

Gilbertd

I figured another £1,000 (ish) to get one ready for UK roads and UK climate. Tyres, air springs, brake flexi hoses, other rubbery suspects and speedo. Radio not an issue for me as I'd do the tablet in the dash mod. Everything coming undone as it should being a major attraction when doing work.
This last episode of back trouble (still on stand up jobs and light duties after three weeks) has made me seriously think about how much under car and similar work I should do in future. Still having problems coming to terms with 63 not being the new 23.

I'm sure I can unload the Bristol project for rather more than enough to cover the expense so pretty cost neutral in the end.

Clive

Hard to tell as the lighting in the photos is all over the place. Probably smartphone not camera pictures. But some of the wood, especially on the centre console, does look more like cheap hydrodip rather than proper RR stuff.

I see that there are some repatriated Japanese cars on E-Bay at the moment. Generally £7,000 ± a bit. Often wondered if such are an acceptable way to get a low mileage, un-got at, car without UK climate damage issues. A bit expensive compared to getting a potentially good one nice again but if it gets you 50,000 + miles purely on a normal service schedule a £1,000 premium may be worth it.

My only knowledge of Japanese imports is on the motorcycle side back in the day when it was a fashionable way to get some of the harder to find and unique models. Folks usually found it turned in to a nightmare once the new to me bling had worn off. Nothing that I ever wanted to touch with a barge, let alone the pole!

Clive

P38 Range
Nice to know that I'm not going to have any pressure problems when I'm finally fit enough to the job. Looking like next year as I did my back good and proper this time. Spasmed and tore things inside the muscles. Just thankful that it didn't do a disk in.

Gilbertd
That BRC LPG set up the guy at Horsham had was a neatly done installation and he was selling everything manifold, wiring et al all hooked up. About 8 years old tho' so of no interest to me. He said he'd had same on a P38 before and it all went well. Not that worried about selling it due to considering going back to a P38 from an L322 TD6 should the right deals come up.

Clive

Need to play around with windows, and sunroof, opening to kill the low pressure area inside car that sucks the exhaust in and establish airflow through the vehicle and out the back. Was told that back windows down an inch or two increases airflow through car without making lots of noise. Maybe something similar will do the deed here. Windows wide open probably won't work as, despite the "mocked up with Lego bricks" appearance, the P38 does have some aerodynamic subtleties to ensure that opening a widow whilst driving isn't instant hurricane inside so airflow is limited.

Clive

Gilbertd wrote:

Run, at £400 anyway, you could buy new for not much more (and something a little more user friendly than BRC). <

About what I thought. New tank and gas lines being pretty much given unless it were only a year or three old. But if all the rest was quality kit and properly installed it looked to be saving a fair bit of work with all the pesky details needed to get an install right. So much easier to modify out the "cable-tie" level stuff on an existing install than do a clean sheet of paper one myself. But if its just another so-so set-up the effort isn't worth it.

Clive

Bought the Laser Tools bush removal and replacement kit as I didn't want to mess around making the bits.

Guess what.

No tapered installation compressor and no mention of one being needed. Just squeeze it straight in according to the Ikea style picture instructions. Great! So I'm still in for making one once I find out what the proper taper sizes are. Be surprised if you can get much more than 6 ton force out of the dinky threaded rod through the middle. Says threaded rod and nuts are a consumable part. Yeah about one per bush I reckon.

Not that any car stuff is going to get done this month as I put my back out (again) last Wednesday making up the guest bed. Standing around at a machine sort of OK from Monday, sitting up still not good but off to Horsham tomorrow to pick up my air tank and see if the man still has a badge for Mark and will part with it sans tailgate. Says he has a BRC gas set-up from a P38 for under £400. Grab, look over careful like or run?

Clive

Got your PM Mark. I've messaged the guy at Horsham about picking up that suspension air tank, we will see if he replies.

Clive

Is this the guy at Horsham breaking one with LPG? Not silly far away from me so was contemplating ambling over to see if that suspension air tank is still for sale and, maybe, take a look at the LPG system. If so I'm sure I have kit here to get the badge off without killing the tailgate. Wrong colour for me too, not that I need a tailgate.

Clive

The big red beast, a model year 2000 4.0 HSE, has gotten especially "lumpy" in roll over the past year or so. Particularly noticeable over nearside humps and hollows. Initial suspension movement seems a little too free then the dampers seem to catch up with a soft but sharp bump settling into a smooth but over damped feel. Currently just over 88,000 miles on the clock so I guess its suspension parts getting old. But which ones?

First noticed a couple of years back primarily appearing to be back end sway related. New OEM Panhard rod bushes in the Land Rover pack toned it down for a bit but obviously not a full cure. OEM Boge shockers went on this year as Mr MoT man was getting antsy. Seemed to do the trick and toned things down considerably but a couple of thousand miles down the line problem is back to seriously annoying again. Plan A for next step is to blitz all the other suspension bushes in one or two goes. Does this sound reasonable? Are there any unexpected issues with getting things out and undone. My usual practice is to replace all the bolts when doing this sort of job so if the quick, easy and effective way is "just destroy the nuts and hit it" thats fine by me. Recommendations for OEM quality bushes? I usually mail order from BritCar. No particular reason, just habit from when they were the only folk who had it all in stock for a job some time back.

I have the Laser Tools P38 specific bush fitting kit, a 12 ton press in the workshop and one of those Chinee universal bush removal kits so should be no tooling issues. Bought the Chinee kit primarily for the sleeves. Saves the mucking around looking for big sockets or making something up. Two decent lathes in the shop so making is no great problem but finding the material can be. Classic 10 minute job that takes an hour too.

I've contemplated getting a second set of suspension parts to re-bush and, where appropriate, re-paint at my leisure. Worth it or not? My MoT man is pretty good and only 50 yards round the corner so I can drop it off and walk home but has a thing about advisories. Especially paint and surface rust underneath so the occasional bit of re-decoration keeps him happy.

Anything else to be done whilst its all hanging loose. Recent airbags so no issues there. Maybe fit re-con prop shafts or at least change the UJ's given the miles. I figure that by 100,000 miles we will be in the zone where replacement should be expected so its not overly early.

Clive

Oh lor. Does this mean I have to get braces before I can do mine.

Braces really don't go with the proper Rohan Bags experience y'know.

Clive

Did mine with everything in situ. And bonnet at normal opening height 'cos nobody had told me that a P38 opens extra wide just like a Full Fatty does.

Having size 6 hands helps.

Jury out on the verbal encouragement. But it made ME feel better!

Clive