Dash Box: Micro update...

Well, THAT was a whole lot easier than I was expecting!

If you've been keeping up, I laid my mitts on some polystyrene sheeting (2mm thick) to replace the loose fascia panels that came with the instrument case that's forming the body of the Dash Box. These are slide-in panels that are nominally held in place by the frame of the box at each end, in grooves moulded into the case for that purpose. Problem is that the panels supplied were slightly shorter (by roughly 1mm in length), and a bit thinner than the (2mm wide) grooves. In use, this would cause all manner of rattling when in the car, and that's unacceptable. So, panels that fit more snugly were required. Since these aren't sold, I had to make them. After getting the polystyrene sheeting from Amazon, I had to cut it to size, something I've not done before with polystyrene.

Turns out it was dead easy.

All I had to do was measure, mark, and scribe the size required onto the replacement sheet (roughly A4 in size), and then cut out (with the aid of a steel rule, a steady hand, and extreme care not to slip up) the required shapes of polystyrene from the sheets to form the replacement panels, using a sharp hobby knife.

Sorted.

Now to mark out the holes to be cut.

Now, cutting those out is gonna be... interesting...

Project Dash Box - Quick update:

Arrived yesterday through Amazon, a 2mm thick plastic (polystyrene) sheet for use as the front (and possibly rear as well) panel of the dash top box, and a tool I should have had when I drilled the Meccano girder, a deburring tool. This WILL come in useful for tidying up the panel cut outs I do this weekend, and will save a mahoosive amount of grief by not having to use the Clarke Rotary tool to do that particular task.

Project Dash Box - another update...!

Dash air vent mounting, Meccano Girder, and alternative phone mounting method...

The Dash Air Vent Mounting bolts...

The ‘L-bolts’ a mate of mine (Thanks Dave!) threw together, using his welder, arrived today. And it was immediately apparent I may have cocked things up a bit. The holes in the vent between the vanes are smaller than the bolt shank, dammit, by about a millimetre and a half or so side-to-side: Yup, the damn vent slots are OBLONG, not bloody SQUARE. D’OH.

There’s little point in remaking the bolts in a smaller size, as the welding (I’m not a welder, but I believe it’s something to do with the flux on the welding rods) just would not hold on such a small thing (M3, maybe M4 or so, I think), so instead, I may well use my Clarke rotary tool (a Dremmel-like hand held power tool), and saw off a vent vane at each end to make room for the bolts to go into place.

This seems to be the best way forward, without entirely disassembling the dash, so it’s the way I’m going to go, unless a better way comes along before I install everything.

The Meccano Girder...

Well, the painting of the girder was almost flawless. Unfortunately, I didn’t check to see if the paint can had a trap attached. Oops. Rolled a Snake eyes. It DID have a trap. A small break-off tab that lands in front of the spray head nozzle.

Plastikote rattle cans are wonderful things, they have a lock/unlock head unit over the spray nozzle that locks the spray head off when not in use: You have to manually rotate the thing through 90 degrees, to unlock it. But before you use it for the first time, make sure you’ve taken off that tab, or you’ll wind up spraying the inside of the locking head, with the overflow dribbling down the side of the can. Glad I was wearing nitrile gloves!

Anyhow, tab removed, lock head and can top cleaned, spraying actually done now, and the girder is now drying in the sunlight of an unusually warm April afternoon. I’ll give it another coat on both sides in a couple of hours. After that, I’ll give it a coat of Plastikote clear matt lacquer (I’ll remove that damned tab before I begin THAT operation!), and that’ll be that, ready for installation.

Alternative phone mounting method...

I’ve also figured a way around the phone mount issue. I’m not going to mount the phone on the girder after all.

Instead, I’ll be installing the dash box so it’s overhanging the centre console, and I’ll then screw the mounting into the underside of the dash box instead. This will result in the box pulling the box directly (near vertically downwards, in fact) onto the girder, and not exerting undue angular rearward and downward tension on the girder, and thus the phone mount will not be imparting the resulting excessive torque on the rivnuts to be used to hold the girder in place.

So, now I have to go back to the CAD package, and work out how I’m going to alter the front panel layout, now that the I have all this extra space I’m not going to use for the radio control head, or the phone :)

Any more physical work on this project will have to wait for another weekend on the work rota.

Still, two steps forward, one back, and all that…!

Project Dashbox update...

OK, I have the Meccano 'girder' prepared for painting. However, I have encountered an unforeseen problem.

Enlargening a pair of holes in the girder (the first one I messed up: I opened out on of the holes nearest the sidewall, but the nut for the mount wouldn't fit there!

So, plan B: Open up another hole, this time in the centre line. Job done on second attempt ;)

However, on testing the fit with my phone fitted into the mount, it was very clear that a LOT of mass was involved, so much so, that I'm concerned that the rivnuts (to be installed) won't be able to handle the weight of the mounting with the phone attached, without bracing from the top - in other words, it'll pull out the rivnuts out of the dash top, unless the box is also mounted on top of the girder, providing reinforcing strength.

Oh, FUDGE, And other words.

So, I'm going to paint the girder (no reason not to), and consider my next move.

Irritating is not the word... :(

Anyhow, the photos. There are three here, showing the girder in detail in two (top and bottom shots), and the tools involved; I utterly shagged two dremmel-style wire brushes, and two sanding bands, in preparing the surface of the girder to be painted (I used my Clarke rotary tool for that).

Ye gods, that Zinc is tough stuff!

The holes in the girder were enlargened with a 6.5mm high speed steel drill bit (using my Bosch PSR-18 cordless drill), and I then de-burred the holes using a couple of grinding stones in my Clarke rotary tool.

In between every part of the job, I had to recharge the Clarke tool; that battery needs replacing, but they don't sell spare ones :( Guess that's another task for me to do... crack open the battery casing, and replace the NiCads in there with new ones... shouldn't bee too hard ;-)

Oh, and note the filter mask. ANY time you're sanding something, be it wood, plastic, or metal, you produce dust. Metallic dust is especially bad news for your lungs. So, if you're sanding - especially using power tools to sand something - wear PPE; in this case, a filter mask and goggles. You don't want that crap down your lungs, or in your eyes. Oh, and wear gloves, too, if you use power tools - even a Dremmel or similar rotary tool.

More tomorrow...

Dash Box project: Musings and developments...

OK, an update on Project Dash Box...

Following a couple of really good suggestions, I’ve laid my grubby mitts on a Rivnut installation tool with assorted metric sized rivnuts. It’s a bit like a pop rivet gun, but for threaded pop rivets style nuts to accept screws and bolts. I’m awaiting delivery of a few metric Cap Head Socket Screws (hex, or Allen key sockets).

From the imagery and measurements I’ve taken of the centre console assembly, it looks as if I should be able to stick an M4, maybe an M5, rivnut in the console flat top, so as to fix the Meccano ‘girder’ in place. I’ve therefore chosen the Cap Head Socket Screws, as I can reach into the screw holes in the top of the girder, to screw the screws down into the rivnuts.

I reckon five of the rivnuts, spaced equally along the dash top plastic surface, should do the trick, with M4x10 or M5x10 screws to anchor the girder in place on the console top with a fair amount of rigidity. The instrument case that forms the dash box will then be mounted on top of the girder, and bolted to it using conventional nuts and bolts through the casing of the box. This will provide resistance to forward and rearward motion of the box at the front.

With the two L-bolts I have on the way from a friend to lock into the air vent I mentioned in a previous posting, and as well as holding down the rear of the box to the dash, the rear of the box will be anchored in place at the rear, and will prevent both lateral and forward/backward motion of the box.

Before I can get moving on this, I have to prepare a few things first.

The Meccano ‘girder’ is covered in a zinc coating, which needs to be roughed up with sandpaper to accept a couple of coats of matt black paint (this to prevent reflections in the cabin of the car).

Once that’s done, the girder will be ready. Then all I have to do is test and install (one trial rivnut smack dab central on the plastic flat top of the dash, to check for practicality), and then it’ll off to the races.

I also have to bend the girder base back slightly - there’s going to be some testing and adjustment to this, as I need the box to rest on top of the thing flat, with no gaps; one ‘leg’ will be at a right angle (and won’t be messed with) - that’ll be the leg to be mated to the dash box. The other will be bent back slightly, so as to provide the correct angle against the plastic dash top, for when the dash box is eventually mounted in place. I’ll have to use a large vice to bend that metal girder ‘leg’, as the girder is remarkably tough for a meccano part!

I also have to enlarge one of the mounting holes on the girder to accept a standard 1/4"-20 pitch thread camera mounting screw. That’s going to be fairly easy (you use an electric drill, and re-drill the hole required).

The initial aim here, is to get the basics done, in preparation for the installation of the box itself, which will be a monumental PITA of a job, but which also lays the groundwork for future upgrades to the wagon.

The box installation will require wiring runs and routing, and may require major parts of the dash to be removed for the purpose. I’m looking at doing that after the first week in June, as the first week, I’m planned to be in France for the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. All of this, by the way, when I’m on leave from work for three weeks from the beginning of June (leave tends to be block allocated by the company).

In the interim between this week and the beginning of June, the girder installation will provide me a reliable mounting point to remount the Yaesu two-way control head, and my (new) mobile phone mounting assembly.

Should be interesting!

Dash Box developments...

Right, interesting developments and a couple of follow-ups. The latter first, I think...

As promised, here are the links to those two items I mentioned yesterday.

The red phone mount from the previous posting:
Ulanzi ST-03 Metal Smart phone Tripod Mount with Cold Shoe Mount for Microp... https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D4D3XND/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_6.1QCbW99F6GZ

Double ball joint armature from the previous posting:
Zhiyou Mini Magic Arm Friction Articulated Ballhead Arm for Monitors Led Li... https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077HR66X5/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_..1QCbX2EJM66

In conjunction with todays developments, this could get really rather interesting - and handy, to boot.

Today, I was woken, five hours earlier than I wanted to (today's a work day), by the postman. He delivered five Meccano parts from a specialist Meccano parts supplier here in England, imaginatively called "Meccano Spares". These guys are incredible: I ordered on Saturday, expecting maybe to get the bits later this week. They arrived today!

The four yellow plates are p/n 53a "Flat Plate 9x5 UK Yellow Original".

The aluminium doudle edged U bracket is p/n 1019 "Channel Girder 19 hole 1x3x1 Zinc"

The yellow plates are to provide a large surface with which to bolt the underside of the box to the dashboard panelling; the idea is to use these inside the box to spread the load under tension, preventing the box from breaking (it's a plastic case) under the stress of the bolts pulling it against (or certainly towards) the dash top surface. Two of these plates will go in the case. The other two, if needed, will be used underneath the dash, to do the same for the dashboard material (also, to prevent the vents that I'll be threading the bolts through, from being pulled out by mistake!).

Now, the girder came as a tad of a surprise - I thought it would be shorter between the upright 'arms'. In this case, it measures roughly 14mm x 40mm x 240mm. I got my sums wrong, it seems, when I calculated the measurements from the description on the website. Now, it might seem that I'm complaining: Far from it - this size opens out a couple of unexpected options for me.


The idea of the girder was to raise the front of the dash box and get it relatively horizontal, given the dash curves down front to back from the windscreen. I currently have my Amateur Radio control head mounted on the top of the dash console (the only bit of hard surface on the dash, the rest of it being that weird spongy surface that's an utter sod to work on, as can be seen in this photo.

The odd black coloured thing behind the radio head is my temporary phone mount, which slides all over the shop, as it can't get a good grip on the dash (one of the reasons for this project).

I'm now thinking of using the girder not only to fix the front of the Dash Box in place (screwing both edge strips down, one side to the base of the box, the other to the strip of console where the control head currently sits). I'll then, I think, be able to mount both the control head bracket, and the new angle phone bracket (see previous post), to the front of the girder.
This will give me all the space I need on the front panel of the instrument case that will become the Dash Box, for such things as stitches and accessory power sockets (and a car battery voltage monitor), future proofing myself for when I get a front winch and the associated lighting that will be installed at the same time as the winch.

Now, this all hinges on the new height of the front of the dash box (as propped up by the Meccano girder) not obscuring my view to the front of the car. More testing is required, but that won't happen today, as it's a work day.

More to follow, obviously...!

OK, another update on Project Dash Box...

OK, an update on Project Dash Box...

I hit a snag as I was working on the design today. While I no longer need to mount the dash camera to the new box (it's fitted to a bracket mounted on the rear-view mirror now), I still need to find a way to mount the phone to the dash in a way that is a solid mounting, not something that meanders all over the shop every time I go over a pothole. So, mounting it to the top of the dash box seemed to me, to be a good idea.

Uh-uh.

I checked this out today, and the damn thing blocks my view of the road to the nearside (left front), with a good 30 degrees of view completely blocked off, which is obviously unacceptable.

So, mounting the phone on the top of the box is a no-no, then. I can't fix the phone to the window, due to the inexplicable inability of both suction cups and self-adhesive mounting systems to remain attached on the windscreen. Likewise, due to the spongy nature of the dash trim covering, I can't fix either of those types of system to the dash.

So, I'm left with either drilling holes in the dash, or using something to attach the phone mount to the side of the dash box. I *think* I have a solution, and it involves the items in the photo below.

These are camera mounting accessories for tripods and the like; the one on the left is designed to fit larger phones to tripods for photographic or video purposes; the item on the right is a friction dual ball-head articulated armature (hey, don't laugh, this is what the damn thing's called!); both use the de facto standard 1/4"-20 threading standard to camera, tripods and photographic quick release systems.

If I can somehow screw the armature into the side of the dash box, and extend it to the front, the red phone mount will screw into the other ball joint, thus providing a fully articulated mounting for my phone.

That's the plan, anyhow.

I'll look further into this tomorrow, and if it works, I'll add links to these items at that time.

The Dash Box. Oh joy, new problems...

Right, there I was, ready to set-to and sort the box out, and a fresh problem, one I thought I had a fix for, popped up and said "AAAAARGH!"

I have the measurements for the front plate, where I'll be fitting some of the USB power sockets, the switches, and the control head for my Yaesu FT-8900R Amateur Radio transceiver. I thought I had sufficient space to mount my phone atop the box, and still have adequate (room to spare) view to see the bonnet and road to the front left.

No such bloody luck. There's a massive slice of view that's just completely obscured from the drivers seat, and that would be an MoT fail, let alone a common sense safety failure.

So, now I have to figure out where I'm gonna position my phone. Again.

Mutter mutter wibble grumble coffee coffee where's me coffee...!

The Dashtop box: Interim measures...

Dashcam installed, cable management improved

Right, progress :)

I have:

1. Removed the spaghetti junction of cabling in the front dash and centre console area.
2. Installed the dash cam on the Unimount set, attached to the rear view mirror stalk.
3. Replaced the haphazard mess that was accessory cabling into a more tidy and safer temporary installation, pending the installation of a properly (not a bodge job) Dash Top Box.

All in all, not a bad afternoons' work.

The camera installation. Look for the white thing centre top of the windscreen (that's my Payage auto toll dongle thingamibob for use on toll motorways in France). Look slightly left of that and a smidge lower. yep, that's the camera, hanging below the line of the rear view mirror.

Side view of the camera and mounting system. I'd have hung it higher, but the articulation of the Unimount accessory mount just wouldn't let me. That's something to work on later :)

The view out the front. Not perfect, but good enough for the moment.

Vastly (trust me on this) improved cable and accessory management. Note the liberal use of cable ties and self-adhesive mounting platforms. This is a temporary measure, while I work, 'slowtime', on the dash box. Also, I'll add a shout out for a bloody helpful tool, called a "Cable Tie Gun". It does the job of two hands, freeing up one of yours to hold things in place. Normally with cable ties, you tend to find yourself needing three or more arms and hands. Since the Human body does not readily accept such additional accessorises, mechanical tools have to suffice - this one's a doozy. You loosely attach the cable tie where you want it, then stick the free end in the teeth of the cable tie gun, and squeeze the trigger a few times. This tensions the tie, and then cuts it off neatly. My one came from Amazon. It's been an essential tool since I got it.

The plan is to have all the cables coming up into the dash top box via the venting behind the coin tray, over which the box will mount and be secured in place. I'm still working on how that'll be anchored in place.

Oh joy, it's before sparrow fart a.m....

Well, Amazon woke me up this morning, mutter mutter wibble burble before coffee etc. ;-)

So, the Plastikote paint and matt ("clear sealer") rattle can sprays, the new dashcam (A "YI Compact Dash Cam, 1080P Full HD Car Dashboard Camera with 2.7" LCD Screen, 130° WDR Lens, G-Sensor, Night Vision, Loop Recording - Black" Good lord, why do people give things such loooooooong highly specific names, when something like "Yi HiDef DashCam Mk xx" would be a lot easier?), and the Unimount system have arrived.

A word of warning: The adaptor plates on these third party add-on mounting systems are fragile. I broke the one for my new camera in testing it for fit. Luckily, I have a spare from a less capable kit, which uses the same ball joint size for the elbow fitting. Be careful, if you get this kit, folks. It's really handy, but treat it with great care!

The interesting thing here is that I _think_ I might be able to fit this to the rear view mirror. I'll give that a go in a bit, and get back to you.

Now, the raison d'être for the entire project was primarily because the phone and dashcam would not stay in place attached to the windscreen, using either suction cups or adhesive mounts (the adhesives lasted longer, but still gave way).

The new modular Unimount system looks like it might clamp directly onto the rear view mirror stalk, which is this works, takes one item off the dashbox project requirement.

This, if it works as I think it might, will reduce the pressure to finish that project today, and thus gives me more time to do a proper job of the Dash Box, rather than hurry up and maybe bodge it under the self-imposed pressure of getting it all done with the available light before dusk (have you tried working in a car after dark? Trust me, it's no fun at all).

More in a bit...

Further notes on the Dash Box project...

OK, a little planning progress while I await parts from Amazon Prime tomorrow.

My existing Dash Cam is also being replaced (time to upgrade, my current one is five years old, and has the resolution of a dinosaur!), and I've found an excellent way to mount the replacement without using suction cups that regularly fall off the windscreen, and adhesives that lose their stickiness. I'm going to bolt the mounting to the dash box!

I'm going to be using a "Dash Cam Mount, Anumit Universal Car Rear View Mirror Mount Holder with 16 Types, Fits Z-Edge, Old Shark, YI, KDLINKS X1, Falcon Zero F170HD, GoPro Hero and Most Other Dash Cameras/GPS" (Lord, what a mouthful. Let's call it the Universal Mounting, or Unimount, for short. You can find that worthy accessory here.

I'll be using the camera screw mount plate to anchor the unimount to the dash box, the double ball joint, and one of the dashcam plates to mount the new Yi dashcam I have on order. The idea will be to mount it either off the rear of the top of the box, or from the back plate of the box. I suspect it'll be better mounting it to the top of the box (there's more rigidity in the actual casing than the front and rear panels), but we'll see when it arrives. I would have fitted this mounting to the rear view mirror stem for a better view, but the stem is too short, which is a pity.

I also have some rattle can spray paint coming from Amazon with which to paint the box, so as to blend it in with the slightly off-beige (Land Rover call it "Bahama Beige", but that's expensive stuff to buy, so I've gone with Plastikote grey beige, and a matt finishing spray to save from any glare issues whilst driving.) colour of the dash trim. If the colour doesn't work, no worries, I can just spray the thing matt black, if I have to.

More later...

On a brighter note...

...I'm working on a car-related project this weekend.

The amount of cabling running around the dash of my Land Rover Discovery 2 Td5, from both the accessory power socket (Cigarette lighter socket) and the amateur radio installation in the car, is nuts, and gets in the way a fair bit (not in normal driving, but in plugging in the phone, the dash cam, and so on). Also, the darn window mounts for the phone and dash cam for some utterly weird reason aren't holding their grip, and keep falling off. So, it's time for a tidy-up.

At the same time, I'm future-proofing myself for some accessories I hope to install over the next couple of years, such as a winch, and external accessory lighting for such things as off-road driving in low-light or night conditions (it happens).

So, a dash box is the way I'm going. The inspiration for these are such products as the "Mud Pod" from Mud Stuff and the "Discovery Dash Console" from Raptor Engineering.

I'm fairly well trained as an electronics technician, being a Radio Amateur of thirty-plus years experience. I'm also a reasonable hand at vehicle electrical systems and installations, having played around with car electrical bits for many years. So, it seems to me that I can do a custom, future-proofed dash-top case for mounting a radio control head, accessory switch controls, power, and similar.

So that's what I'm planning to do this weekend.

I'm going to run a power lead from the fused accessory line up to the dash top, run it into an instrument case that I bought from Farnell, which will be large enough to mount USB power supply sockets, switches, and my two-way radio control head, securely, and tidily, with room inside for additional accessories over time, such as a Raspberry Pi for amateur radio usage (there are many digital modes that can be accessed using an analogue radio via computer), maybe even a HotSpot for my DMR hand held radio.

I need to get my hands on a few bits of hardware (that's Saturday taken care of!) for this project, but I already have most of the stuff I'll need.

I've managed (with a little help from other Disco owners) to figure out how I'm going to run the cables into the box. They're going to be run UNDER the dash board, up through the vents to the front of the rubberised coin tray, into the new dash box by means of a hole I'll drill in the base of the box. From there, the power wires will go to the 4 x USB power sockets (2 at the front, 2 at the back), the radio remote head control cable will be fed through another hole behind where I'll mount the control head on the front fascia panel of the box, and the external speaker cable will be run to the back of the case, where I'll mount the external speaker. I'm going to have to raise the front of the dash box by about 15mm-20mm, but that's because the dash itself curves down in a pseudo french curve to the front console panel. That's likely going to require some plastic card or similar.

I'm still none too sure where or how I'll be mounting the dash cam and phone mounts; I'm still looking into that.

More to follow!

Thoughts on installing the ham radio gear into the Maroon Monster...

OK... geeky posting, so if this bores the crap out of you, keep on scrolling down the page ;)

Right; I have a rough handle on how I'm going to be fitting my amateur radio gear into the Maroon Monster; there are two main avenues, and a couple of minor ones;

Major Method #1

Mount within the leaf-hand load space storage compartment in the 'boot' area, running the power from the connectors to the accessory socket mounted in the trim panel. The antenna cable would then run around the top of the tail door to the right side of the vehicle.

Major Method 2.

As per #1, but in the right-side , the power running from the fusebox forward of the drivers seat, the cables running along the lower trim into the storage compartment. The antenna cable would run from the radio to its mounting point (see below)

Minor Point #1

The antenna would be mounted via a through-body New Motorola mounting system and a connector converter to the pl-259 VHF connector on the base of the antenna, preserving watertight integrity of the body of the vehicle. A hole would have to be drilled in the bodywork to facilitate the NMO mounting to be fitted.

Minor Point #2

Utilise my existing boot mount, the cable running from the load space storage compartment between the trim and the body panel, to the tail door, onto which the boot mounting would be fitted. Special care would have to be exercised to ensure as water-tight a fitting as possible, given that the antenna cable would be running on top of the door seal strip, presenting a possible ingress point for water leakage.

Minor Point #3

I also have to decide how I'm going to run the remote head extension cable from the radio to the remote head that houses the radio controls; it's a limited length cable (19.7 feet, or 6m), so some intelligent thought has to go into the issue. That might sound a lot, but it's likely got to negotiate some rather odd paths to get to the front of the wagon; in addition, I've already got cable for the dashcam running along the headlining to the top of the left of the windscreen, so that's got to be considered as well. Like I said, I've got some thinking to do!


So...


I'm in two minds about MM 1&2; they both have strong points in favour of either method, so the jury's still out.

However, MP#2 will be the way I go for the antenna mounting. While I do like the idea of a water-tight seal as envisaged with the Motorola mounting system, it is not designed with the loading that would be imparted to it by the mass of the Comet CR-8900 quad-band antenna under wind or impact loadings; it is designed with smaller, sleeker, and infinitely more flexible PMR radio antennas (typically single whips with a small or no loading coils in the base).

The boot lip mounting system from Comet (their K-405 boot-lip mount, one of the units recommended for the CR-8900 antenna) is designed to take the loading that the antenna will exert on it; further, I don't need to drill holes in the body of the Discovery. It has the capability of accepting impact loading from two axes (X- and Y-), thus hopefully helping to preserve the antenna under tree strike conditions. SO, all things considered, it's going to be Minor Point #2 for mounting the antenna.

Now I have to make my mind up about which side of the wagon I mount the radio.

More on this sooner than later...

New wagon... :)

Having been asked what my new wagon looks like by a few folks, here it is Behold: The Maroon Monster

Time for a replacement car...

Well, it's that time again...

The Ford Mondeo I got a little under a year ago was a stop-gap measure to give me breathing room to keep me on the road; it's been a champ, and done exactly that. It's the second of these cars I've owned, and while some curse them, it is, to me, one of the few wagons that Ford got right, straight out of the gate. It's not let me down once, and I put cars to hard use, trust me.

So, time to get a replacement wagon as, sadly, this one's now on it's last legs.

I also own, as some of you might know, a Series 3 (Siii) Land Rover, a former military one, no less. Unfortunately, I haven't really got the skill set to keep that one on the road, so that's going too. It's already sparked interest from a couple of enthusiasts (both known to me), so it'll get a new lease of life with either of them, whoever makes the best offer ;)

To replace both of these wagons, I need a bit of a combination. It's got to have four-wheel drive (4WD) capability, it's got to have the load-carrying capability of the Siii, the ease of use of the Ford, be able to take a few additions/modifications, and above all, be comfortable for long drives (say, to France and back).

After a lot of chat with friends and those much more knowledgeable in mechanical issues than I am (remember: I'm an electronics nut, not a mechanical nut), the conclusion is that I need a Land Rover Discovery Mk 2.

Yes, there are more reliable off-road-capable cars from other manufacturers, but I like the Land Rover marque, so there ;)

But why a "Disco" Mk 2? It is, basically, the same as a Mark 1, but with a little bit of refinement; most of the issues of the Mk 1 were already ironed out, and the Mk 2 took all of these improvements, and added a few more features here and there. The result is a slightly better wagon in many respects, not the least of which of the TD5 engine, a five-cylinder 2.5 Turbo Diesel, that's apparently miles more reliable than earlier engines in the Mk 1.

Add to this that it can be easily upgraded/modified for off-road use, and the parts and accessories for it are plentiful and, in the main, relatively cheap, when compared to similar products for other makes and marques.

So, what do I plan on doing to my new wagon, once I get my mitts on it? Well, here's a non-exhaustive list...

• Phone mounting:
  (easy, not difficult at all, already have the suction mount for the windscreen)
• Additional 12 Vdc accessory outlets cab and load space:
  Easy, socket extenders for both.
• Additional Security:
  Thatcham Steering wheel lock (Disklok) (via Amazon.co.uk)
• Radio Fit:
  Quad-band Amateur Radio transceiver + quad-band antenna, PBR set and antenna (VHF-UHF), poss CB as well (to be decided)
• Dashcam:
  DDPai M6+ GPS, WiFi, Magnetic Mount (Techmoan recommended best cam)
• New Tyres:
  To be all-terrain-capable, not yet specified/sourced
• Light guards for front and rear:
  Not yet sourced
• Snorkel (for deeper water wading):
  To be sourced
• Front bumper and winch kit:
  One of the units from Extreme 4x4
• Strobes/beacons (Yellow):
  To be decided/sourced
• Tree guards:
  To be decided/sourced
• Roll bars:
  To be decided/sourced
• Sump, differential, tank, and other under-body shields/guards
  To be specified/sourced

And the chances are good that I'll add other bits and bobs to the mix, over time, too ;)

The great thing here is that most of these don't need to be added immediately; they can be added in piecemeal fashion, allowing me to spread the cost of obtaining and fitting them over time, which is nice.

In terms of additional specifications for the Disco, I'm looking at the five-seat version, the one without the extra fold-down seats in the load space, as the 5-seat ones come with two very handy light storage bins, which I've already got ideas for ;) Also, the five-seat versions omit the self-levelling air suspension system, which can, in some cases, cause problems. The less to go wrong, the better, after all ;)

I've already identified three Discos that I like the look of (one belongs to a mate, and is tentatively on the market), and I'm going to be looking at the others over the next week or two; there are others, of course, but not as nearby to me.

I'll keep you all posted on how the search progresses :)