Apologies for the quiet spell. I’ve been very busy playing with a brand new electric car, tackling the annual classic love-fest that is the NEC Classic Car Show and buying unnecessary musical instruments.

After some quite major surgery, the Discovery is very nearly ready for the road once more – with winter about to hurl some entirely expected weather our way. I didn’t own a 4×4 last winter and…things were absolutely ok. There is comfort from all-wheel drive when grip levels begin to plummet though, even if I am not one of those muppets who thinks a bit 4×4 can somehow defy the laws of physics. I still drive for the conditions!

Getting the Discovery back will be pleasing though. It now contains many less holes and boasts actual metal in many new and important places – such as the floor and sills. My welding friend suggested it was only luck that had prevented me falling through the footwell as the strongest part of it appeared to be the carpet.

Driver’s footwell was well ventilated

Dave is a handy fabricator though, and he was soon letting new metal in all over the place. Once he was done, I covered all new metal in zinc-rich primer and then added a top coat. The only paint I had kicking around was a tin of Tobacco Leaf – a delicious, non-PC shade that adorned the Rover P6. Fittingly, these Rovers were built in the same factory as my dear old Disco, so I felt it was fine to use. These sections will be out of sight once the vehicle is back together again, and Tobacco Leaf is pretty much the same colour as mud anyway.

The sills went from this:

Initial ‘Discovery’ of rot

To this:

Tobacco Leaf sills

The welds aren’t neat because they won’t be seen anyway. Spending time grinding them down seemed a bit excessive.

Mind you, some might say that spending £300 on welding up a tired, rusty £450 Land Rover was a bit excessive. They’re probably right, but I find myself becoming rather fond of this clapped out relic. My plan was to buy cheap and fix it if I liked it. It’s a simple plan and like many simple plans, it works and makes me happy. Now I need to try and stop some of the water leaks so the new floor doesn’t go the way of the old one. But stopping a Land Rover from leaking water is like trying to stop the Earth from turning. I feel a challenge coming on.