Nugget's 110 Defender

[nugget]

Well the weather in Brissie might be perfect if you are a duck, but it did have an upside for me ....... a day in the shed knocking over a pretty stock Defender project but one I have been wanting to get to for some time, installing my Mulgo Ex Box. The idea of raising the electrics appealed, having given a few trucks internal baths over the years and a higher centre console would be a better height for an arm rest on long trips.
For anyone not familiar with Defenders, this is how it all looks out of the show room.

The electrics are currently under the drivers seat and the idea is to free up, this room for another yet to be determined use.

First up the centre console has to come out. 4 bolts...easy as long as you have a set of star head drivers..think thats what they are called..

Under the centre console is a plate which also has to come off and which then gives you complete access...even to the ground below!

I had spoken to Daniel at Mulgo and he gave me a great tip...rivet the fuel line retaining bracket in place before undoing the nut as the bolt is used later to secure the Ex Box. If it moves at all it would be extremely difficult to get it all back to get together, especially if you are on your own.

Now it is time to start getting into the nitty gritty...removing the electrics. I numbered each joiner so I would know where it had to go back.

Next you pull the harness out of the side hole

The central locking wires have to be stripped out and fed back into the original compartment. As they would now be exposed under the car, I protected them and also applied heat shrink.

 

[nugget]

The Mulgo people had also told me that heat could be a problem with the Ex Box so I protected the under side with Heat shield to minimise the effect.

The wiring harness is then fed through the bottom of the E Box and the box bolted in place. The ABS box and Fuse box bolt straight in. The relay strip are drilled off and then relocated in the box.

Centre console bolted onto the lid so the E Box

Job done..

Well job almost done....have to block off the holes in the original cavity under the drivers seat...

Now just bit of wiring to tidy up and check under the truck .

 

[nugget]

Next cab off the rank was a roof rack. I had a very specific requirement as listed earlier. Plan was to do design exactly what i wanted then get the pro's to do the bit I couldn't , wouldn't or had no idea of how to, and do the bits I reckon I could stumble through.

Basically I got the hoops bent and the legs laser cut. I machined my own mounting system and di my own welding. The basket is ally and the legs steel plate.

 

[H3slate]

Looks good Wayne. Keep those updates coming. :corn:

Can't wait to see the finished roof rack.

 

[nugget]

The project took much longer than I expected..partly me being new to milling and it taking a lot longer than I thought plus some messing around with getting the front mounting plates right..bit complex for a simple guy like me with the angle of the roof and the radius of the bend.

These are all of the bits and pieces..probably doesn't make much sense until I start assembly!

 

[nugget]

Just in cast some of my measurements/design weren't as accurate as I thought, I decided to put a polyurethane bush between the brackets and the basket

 

[nugget]

Nothing like drilling holes in the roof of your new car!!

 

[nugget]

Pretty happy with the final result...almost looks like a bought one!!

As you can see, I still have anorexia beat

 

[nugget]

Just realised I missed the middle section of the build..

The cross rails I milled off centre so they would sit flush on 1 side of the tube , but low on the other side to allow room for the security screen floor

Helps if things are square before you start melting metal

All good to go

Brackets I welded a gusset in for extra strength and then linished them back flussh

positioning the mounting blocks and then welding

the other half of the mounting bracket I milled in blocks of 4...needed 8

great when a plan works!

 

[nugget]

With the roof rack done and dusted it was time to move onto a bullbar. Had a look at what was available commercially and nothing was what I wanted so I decided to build my own.

My concept was for a steel bar with a centre loop which would follow the radiator/grille lines, take a winch, provision for a ladder rack and a couple of other things I still have up my sleeve.

To make the job a bit easier, I managed to get my digits on a raw channel with brackets not welded in.

Unfortunately it had indicator slots which i didn't want, and the winch slot was not where I needed it so the first job was to fill in the holes.

The brackets sit on the inside of the chassis rails so positioning was important

I also added a bit of extra strengthening. A plate to sit against the end of the chassis rail and also a plate to bolt a recovery point through. This plate was alos braced back to the bracket later for even more strength.

Unfortunately the winch, whilst fitting between the brackets, would not centre properly so I modified the bracket.

A spacer and new plate section was added later to maintain the strength of the bracket.

I decided to machine my own Hawes fairlead which would have a front plate and rear plate so there is a fairlead on both sides and the 2 halves would be bolted together, sandwiching the bar between them...pic later of that one...and would also incorporate the number plate. First up it was time to cut the new slot.

A bracket to hold the winch control box and the access hole for the engage lever

Time to slip it on and check everything was going to work. Position of the centre tube and also the ladder rack hole finalised.

 

[nugget]

Centre tube welded in with a bit of extra bracing for the really big roos!

Starting to all come together

The tedious but important part...preparing for powder coating and trying to make my welds look half decent.

You can also see the thickness of the steel where the recovery hook bolts on. 4mm channel with a 10mm plate behind sound enable a decent recovery.

Time to start machining the fairlead parts

Whilst I was in protection mode, decided to make my own bashplate as well.

And of course bash plates need barackets....

While everything was off being powder coated, I fitted the headlight guards which finish of the frontal protection.

 

[nugget]

Everything is back from powder coating so time to bring it all together...

First up is to fit the fairlead

I made the fairlead to go either side of the bars front channel so that there would be a lead in for the rope on both sides, would add strength as the channel is sandwiched giving a larger foot print and the winch bolts through the whole lot, again adding strength.

Fit the sleeve for the single post ladder rack....removable so I will only put it in when needed but will come in really handy when picking up lengths of steel etc

Some front recovery eyelets. You can see in later photos that there is a l;ot of strengthening behind these points as well as bracing back to the brackets.

fitting the winch and control box. I will be having dash mounted controls as well as the remote, which I have re-positioned into the top of the bar for ease of use.

Here you can see some of the extra steel and bracing for the recovery eyelet

 

[nugget]

[h=3]Re: nuggets Defender[/h] by nugget » Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:22 pm
Bugger it....might as well throw it on..

And with the bashplate and diff guard

Still a couple of small things to do as well as hook up the winch but getting there.

 

[cgalpha08]

Wayne, your mods inspire the masses! Makes me want to just go nuts and do all kinds of things to my 3!!!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

 

[nugget]

Finally finished the final bits and pieces on the bullbar build.

I found that I couldn't reach the top of the single pole ladder rack to tie stuff down with out stepping up on the bullbar which was going to scratch it up over a time. Solution was some tread plate steps which I had anodised to match the ones on top of the mudguards. Made one for each side to even it out.


A major feature of this build was to be in cab winch control. The Defender has a host of spare switch positions on the dash for option they have in the UK which are not bought into Oz so I decided to utilise those. three controls..an On/Off isolator switch in the central flanked by an "In" and an "Out" which only work when the isolator switch is in the "On" position.

Started out by sourcing the switched from a wrecker and then working out the wiring..


The blank faces were white injection moulding sprayed grey so I had them Laser engraved which I reckon has given a more factory than factory finish. A future build will be a rear winch so there may well be a matching set in the future!









I wanted the uhf aerial to be the same height as the roof rack, there by doubling up as a feeler guage/height indicator. The first attempt proved too whippy as the spring base was not strong enough. Found an excellent GME spring base but they don't make an aerial the right length so I turned up an extension to fit between the base and the aerial.


The front end dropped 25mm..1"...with the weight of the bar and winch so I fitted some HD Land rover front spings and a set of OME shocks for good measure which has bought the front back up nicley.


All finished and ready to hit the road

 

[H3slate]

Great job Nugget!! I am very impressed with your work on that front bumper. It is clean and simple, but very stout and looks good on your truck. :cheers:

 

[nugget]

Thanks mate..has proved it self already and come through without a mark. recent trip scores are...

Roos 0
Nugget 2

and

Emus 0
Nugget 1

 

[MaxPF]

Subscribed

 

[JoshuaL]

:corn:

 

[nugget]

Defenders house the battery under the passenger seat and all the other relays TC controller etc under the passenger seat. I wasn’t too comfortable with important electrics being so low and importantly not in a water tight compartment. Obviously I wasn’t the first Defender owner to have such concerns as there is a fix already on the market.

The E Box allows the electrics to be moved into a new box which goes under the centre console, significantly raising it.

When I got stuck in water which quickly filled the footwells and which flowed into the compartment which had housed the electrics, I was glad I went to the trouble.

As standard










As I disconnected, I tagged..not that I don’t trust manufacturers to ensure fittings are not interchangeable




All the wiring retracts through the hole in the side wall of the compartment

 

[nugget]

Pretty basic construction in the ol 110....no surplus metal around here as can be seen when you remove the centre console....

 

[nugget]

First up poke all of the wire through





Some heat shield to the underside of the metal E Box to stop the knees blistering from the heat transfer...




Reconnect all the wires...





Bob's your Uncle, all done....




Except a plug in the original compartment which will be a compressor

 

[LagunaH1]

Very very nicely done. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get the Defenders here in the US......

Tell me more about the truck: Does it have locking diffs front center and rear? traction control? Can you articulate fully with those wider tires and fender flares?

 

[nugget]

Has centre locking diff and Traction control. Wheel articulation no problem and I am standard height.

Jury still out on TC for me. Sometimes it is OK but others you would like to just plant it and let lockers do their work but it is difficult to build up that extra bit of speed sometimes like in mud with TC. I have found the fuse

 

[nugget]

Given my history of internally washing most of my trucks in bog holes, I figured a snorkel was an early investment.

Wasn't real happy with the the air intake ducting so decided to upgrade the lot while I was at it. All a bit tricky with the original ducting being a slot shape at the air intake morphing to a round fitting at the air cleaner box. All of this was just push together plastic which didn't get my juices flowing at all so it seemed the best idea was to start from scratch.

The easy end was the the air cleaner box where I turned up a joiner...



At the other end I needed to be able to bolt a box in place which connect the snorkel to a 90mm pipe so with a bit of tricky dicky fabrication we ended up with...



and even something to fix the pipe with some big ass man clamps clamp....now there's an idea!




Join it all with some decent re-enforced duct pipe





and we are ready for a dunking....