Am I back in the fold or did I simply fall off the wagon?

[57loboy]

Last time I did this was about 6 years ago and it lasted about a year. Probably closer to falling off the wagon... Nonetheless - I have once again rejoined the Rover crowd with a 2008 Range Rover with 105k miles. Couldn't find a good '95 LWB that wasn't serious $$ and/or a rusty mess. The one I sold in 2013 would have been worth serious $$ now. Anyway, it's good to see this place is as it has always been. Our fleet is now 75% SUV (Honda Pilot, Durango SRT and Range Rover) and 25% go kart (Fiat 500 Sport Turbo). Good thing gas is cheap...

 

[Blueboy]

Nice Rover! Good luck with it.

And yes as also having a 4 vehicle fleet that all use 91 or higher, good gas prices are reasonable. When we recently built our house thought a 3 car garage was sufficient. Hind sight is always 20/20.

 

[Blue]

You fell off the wagon!

 

[p m]

BTW, the clean 95 LWBs are amazingly not that rare in SoCal.

 

[ERover82]

Our garage has evolved to:

2018 MINI Countryman S ALL4
1990 Defender 90 200TDi SW
2015 F150 Crew 4x4

We enjoy them, but the F150 (my DD, kid hauler, camping, hauling) just doesn't feel right. It's a fine vehicle. Excellent in objective qualities, but kind of boring. Not sure what to replace it with though. LR4, LWB RRC, RAM 1500 are tempting. If it weren't for the kids I'd pick up a D130. First world problems.

 

[57loboy]

Yes - I think falling off the wagon is the best characterization and having a Rover does sort of complete things again.

The SRT Durango is my daily (20k miles since late May!) and the Fiat is the wife's daily. She wanted a Rover again as "3rd car" and she said this one was like putting on a favorite pair of jeans. Much better than the prior LWBs. Couple niggles I need to chase down (front door speakers rattle like crazy, weird wind related noise from windshield cowl and the left headlight xenon beam isn't centered - it's too low)

Jimmy already helped me pinpoint the source of the noise, just need to address it, and the speakers are easy. Headlight thing is a bit of a mystery because it all works otherwise. Beam just sits quite a bit too low.

Peter - I would have loved one of the CA '95LWBs if it was more practical for me to get one out here again for less than what this one cost. That said, there IS still room in the driveway...

 

[p m]

Peter - I would have loved one of the CA '95LWBs if it was more practical for me to get one out here again for less than what this one cost. That said, there IS still room in the driveway...

I bought my last 95 LWB in January of the last year for $3k. It was a very well-maintained mechanically, but badly bastardized truck.
This is what it is now -

 

[pinkytoe69]

(...the left headlight xenon beam isn't centered - it's too low)

Headlight thing is a bit of a mystery because it all works otherwise. Beam just sits quite a bit too low.

I have an L320 RRS with that issue and I'm guessing the cause is the same...

Very likely the ball socket for the vertical adjustment arm has broken tabs.

It seems like an extremely cheap part, but I have no idea where to buy more.

Luckily I have a spare headlight from a strange eBay transaction, and the socket is used in 2 other places inside.

So, I may have a spare one for you assuming I don't break one when I try to fix mine.

Haven't done it yet cause you need to bake-remove the lens to replace. Hoping to do it this weekend.

Anyway, let me know if you are interested

 

[pinkytoe69]

You can see the broken socket at the top of the opening.

 

[57loboy]

I bought my last 95 LWB in January of the last year for $3k. It was a very well-maintained mechanically, but badly bastardized truck.
This is what it is now -

OK - yeah, that would have been perfect. Love how that is set up!

 

[57loboy]

Pinkytoe - I suspect that's "exactly" what's up with mine. Let me know how you make out. Would be amazing if the internal parts were common. I may just be interested. Hate to buy a replacement one if some creative disassembly/Lego work will get me there too...

 

[pinkytoe69]

I'll keep you posted.

lemme know if you can find new though...I would rather buy a new one than put an aged one in and have to bake-remove again soon after.

 

[pinkytoe69]

Pinkytoe - I suspect that's "exactly" what's up with mine. Let me know how you make out. Would be amazing if the internal parts were common. I may just be interested. Hate to buy a replacement one if some creative disassembly/Lego work will get me there too...

So I finally got around to doing this last weekend! It's pretty simple, as everything is accessible simply by removing the clear plastic from the headlight.

Put the headlight in the oven at 220 for about 10 minutes. This should be about enough to get the clear part separated...if not just put it back in the oven for another few minutes and try again.

The broken piece will be here (no, you don't have to remove all the innards. I didn't take pictures in the process so I'm showing it on my spare stuff):



It's easy to get out, requires a little bit of careful leverage to get locked back in, but it can be done.

This is the offending piece:


Once done, put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so to get the goo hot so you can scrape it out.

This 3M window weld stuff fits back in the seam perfectly (and I believe is the same compound as the original... apparently the VW guys use it on their headlight reseals ):

https://www.amazon.com/08612-Window-Weld-Round-Ribbon-Sealer/dp/B000CQ4AOO

I got my locally at an advance auto, so you don't necessarily have to wait for Amazon.

That's about it!