Sunday, September 25, 2016

Series Land Rover Door Tops


The door tops on Lump were getting rusty and spewing rust flakes all over the seats and occupants when slamming the doors. As replacements, we purchased Aluminum door tops from Rocky Mountain Products in Vancouver. Jeremy was very helpful both pre and post sales, the doors looked and worked great and the fit was perfect.

Installation was a breeze; undo 2 nuts, lift the old tops off, clean up the capping on the door bottom, lay down the new rubber gasket, drop in the new door top. Easie peasie.

I think the parabolic springs we installed on Lump in 1998 came from this company, but we purchased the springs through a company now out of service.

Before:

I had previously got a spare door(minus glass) from a fellow Rover owner, but when I test installed the door top on my door bottom, it didn't close properly.
I also had previously tried to slow down the march of rust with conventional rust primer, it worked better on the drivers door as can be seen in the photo, but probably should have used POR-15.

After:
 The door tops are anodized and can be left unpainted or painted to match the rover.
 Front window latch, the original door tops had a fixed front window pane.
Rear window latch.

I took off the homemade door panels to check for rust and I found some. The passenger side panel had gotten wet and I was planning on spraying it with bed liner, but it was too far gone. I did spray the drivers's side panel and it looks fine. The panels I had made of lauan plywood and covered with poly, which did not provide enough protection.

Next up I will have to treat any rust areas found and then hit them with POR-15.

Current Blooms:
It's the tail end of the Phlox, Hostas and Summer blooming heaths and heather. The St Michaelmas Daisy is blooming, but we definitely need some more fall blooms around the place.
The vegetable garden is mostly empty except for one squash plant with possibly 2 or 3 more squash. It's a race against the frost, heat came up for the first time today. Garlic will go in the ground soon.
A lavender I planted in the spring didn't make it through the heat wave.
Was pruning a few weeks ago and ran into this. I had tied up a branch and forgot about it.





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