Fox889 wrote:

I love these stories, please carry on, addictive reading.
I have a bench in the garage knocked up from spare pieces of wood to clean my mats on or occasionally the use of the outside dustbin..........others have posh metal benches to do their work upon............you sir, on the other hand, have a series one Rolls Royce Silver Shadow? How neat is that!

Good read sir, 'keep calm & carry on'

Than you very much!

Very kind words, the old Roller is a handy table

The old Rangie is a labour of love!

I'll be carrying on!  MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

Tugger wrote:

Great story, you are doing an amazing job bringing the old girl back to life. The interior especially has come up a real treat. Loving your attention to detail and powers of investigation.

Will be following this with huge interest.

Thank you!



Love these old Rangies  MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

Where was I

Oh yes..

The AMP is a genuine Harman unit and they're almost obsolete, however if your're willing to search the web you can find, a bargain..

In my case this AMP is a part that runs in excess of £600 2nd hand!!!

However i found one in NZ for £150 the postage was hilarious though, still cheaper than some!



The unit sits behind the plastic rear paneling..

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The rear interior paneling was refittted, I'd like to do a "how to" but in fairness all P38's react differently.

in my case it took 3 minutes to disassemble, and 3 hours to reassemble!!

Before.




The rear inner wings were also sanded down and repainted all in an effort to stop any rust..

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A little detail this time..

The Gearknob AKA ET's head after brain surgery and the handbrake had worn to a matt finish, they also had scratches on them




I rummaged through my shed and couldn't find any suitable libations to smother on them..

After raiding the shoe care kit i found some "SHOE RESTORER" what could go wrong?

A good coat was put on and left to dry...







And fitted



 MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

The "biggie"

After 2 years of inactivity the BeCM was sent off to a pro to be rebuilt...

He is known as MartyUK on other RR sites and it a Legend in his own right, i sent to BEcm to him on a Monday and i had it back fixed by Thursday!

The hole it has to fill.

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"More interior shenanigans"

The refitting of the plastic trim can commence!

During/before



And the big reveal!!

It smells feels and is an improvement from before, i hope ya'll think so too

Amazing what colour it should be!!

Plastics were refitted with new clips.






A new luggage cover was sourced at great difficulty off of ebay to complete the boot area..




And here she is "semi" complete!



 MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

"electrical"

Next issue was the famous P38 battery drain, i had removed the RF reciever and done a few checks, and after much headache came to the conclusion that the battery was knackered..

A good way to tell is if it is bulging, a charged/good battery won't freeze, a discharged one will and as water expands when frozen the body of the battery usually bulges, which is why batteries fail in the winter

Mine was knackered and only lasted maybe 12hrs before going flat..

Out with the old..



And in with the New NUMAX tractor battery!!



It spins over like a top and doesn't go flat!!

Barely fits in the tray too!!!
result!  MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

I love everything about this thread. And I love everything about this awesome fatty. Invigorating.

My sister had a 1999 ish P38 AB, all black it was, and you just can’t compare to the vibrancy of yours, MonteCarlo. But I loved to drive it on the odd occasion I was allowed back then. She only ever fuelled it to half full because she was embarrassed about the cost when she went to pay. Constantly ran it on the fuel light. I suggested that if she continued with this inexplicable aversion to filling-her-up then to at least do it once and thereafter just refill at 50% (which was probably after 125 miles of driving!!) instead of running near empty, but she never did. She never had another Range Rover. But to this day she says it was the best car she ever owned. L405 P400e Autobiography (MY2020)... Silicon Silver / Espresso

Thanks!! do love the Autobiography's

I understand the fueling predicament, when i bought it in 2017 petrol was 1.45 a litre and LPG was 70ppl

If i filled both tanks from empty it was £140 for the petrol and £60 for the LPG

So £200

Coupled with the fact it was doing 11mpg on petrol and 8mpg on Gas because of lambda and MAF faults made for a very expensive wagon..

She does around 19mpg on both now!

Fuel is a tad cheaper too!!

I was on first name terms with the local Shell cashier!

"you again" was the usual greeting!!  MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

"A step back in time"

If you're like me in any way, you'll be intrigued to find out your cars previous "life"

In my case The V5's of a few owners was left in the service history with the car..

So summoning the GCSE in english I wrote a proper letter to one of the previous owners who had her from 2010-2015

Thinking I wouldn't get a response i posted it....

After a week i got an email from the chap, a gent he is too!!

I got pictures from years ago and a full history!

Turns out he had spent £7000 on maintenance replacing almost everything on the car!!

Here are some piccies from circa 2010














It was a great looking machine at one time

happy wasn't the word!!  MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

Right...

So i was retisant about doing this but i'm gonna skip right to 2020 and miss out most of early 2019 in this update..

Future updates will be filling in the gaps from July 2018 to December 2019..

"MOT PREP"

Up until this point it had sat around doing nothing for up to 2 years ocassionally coming out to free up the brakes, she lives on a farm with plenty of private lanes, however i wasn't expecting miracles in regards the MOT.

Here she is sitting!!



Peeling it off FNARR!!






I threw the terminals back on the battery and turned the key...

She fired into life with a rumble and she was pulled out



Posing shots = PHOTOBOMB!!















Right now thats over and i got the tyres dirty there were a few apparent issues.

Chief among which was the Autobox was stuck in 1st, which is a common issue with the Governor valve in the box, oh and the brakes made a horrific noise.

1st Job was the brakes, i had refreshed these before i bought it "Que old photo of brake disc"

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A long hiatus since last posting!

Anyway continuing along with the brake shield saga.

Off with the Comets, they were treated to a wipe over when removed



This is the state of play for the front NS disk shield, not as bad as the OS but getting there!
And in my opinion these shields only cause issues!!



Removing the disc is the same as the other side, only this side was less of a problem!



In an effort to make the underside look more presentable i attacket the Bran flakes that were falling off the cast steel knuckle when i was clouting the disc with the hammer!!

I ran it over with a course wire wheel and painted some rust cure on it to halt the corrosion.



A coat of paint later and....



looks a good sight better!

The caliper and carrier were also treated to some paint..




once all dry the brakes were reassembled, with a coat of silver on the disk hat!!



looks better "to me" LOL

 MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

This is more of a "back to the future" update as all my pictures are in a jumbled mess and i have a terrible memory!!

Anyway, i'm a sucker for cosmetics on a car and in a few months she's getting MOT'd and having her look good underneath will sure help sway the tester

At the moment she doesnt look too pretty..





Like the chassis, i gave it a wire brush and paint..

The results are hard to picture but it looks a good bit better than it first did!





The shiny finish was in part due to the paint I used which was a glossy enamel chassis paint..
After a while it has lost its sheen, which i'm glad about and it looks more "factory" which i'm happy with.. MY2001 Range Rover P38 Vogue 4.6
MY2005 Jaguar S type 3.0 SE
MY2000 Land Rover Discovery II TD5
MY1987 Bentley Turbo R "project"
MY1977 Rolls Royce Silver shadow. "project"

Next up some more mechanical than cosmetic fettling.

The Transfer box on these is a 2 spd Borg Warner affair, and it a robust unit, however oil services should be kept up to ensure the hideously expensive Morse chain doesn't wear prematurely.

When i bought her back in 2017 I changed all the oils and used an ECP "own brand" Triple qx in it, which i'm not entirely happy with..

So in an effort to extend the life of the box i changed it out for a more premium project..

Mannol is a pretty well known German brand, and their oils are pretty good..



You will also note the syringe which is essential when doing this job..

Both the filler and drain plugs are 1/2 square, i used a small breaker bar to crack them off, the filler being the first!



The drain is around 2 litres, i used an old oil container..

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