Information about the Challenge events we take part in can be found at http://www.manracing.co.uk.

Here are some recent pictures:

We've added some mud.

Breaking the ice, as it were.

And some videos:
Testing the waterproofing
Winch Challenge at Coney Green Farm

The winch holder.

Here it is in place. I perhaps need to come up with a more secure mounting system.

The rear, with finishing strips added.

And here’s a photo to prove it actually moves!

Splash!

Bloody thing still hates water, though.

Bugger.

Let’s start with the exhaust system. The original V8 silencer is too big to fit now, so we used one from a 200TDi Discovery. On the advice of someone from the Internet, we ditched the smaller back box entirely, cut and welded the original rear pipe (with the bend to go over the axle), shortened it at the back and put it all back together.

The rear exhaust

We still had no instruments or dashboard at this point, so, in the interests of saving money, we hacked a big hole in the Tomcat dashboard and fitted the original instrument cluster into it. This took a long time.
As we cut so much out, we had to add some strength to the dashboard, so we bent some ali up and bolted it in place.

Strengthening the dashboard

Then we cut holes for the four additional gauges (oil pressure and temperature (important as we’d ditched the oil coolers) and a voltage meter for each battery) and cut holes for all the switches.

Switch holders (note the lump chopped out of the back to allow the windscreen wipers to work)

Finally, it was time to put some wires into the car. We started at the engine, then made a small tray to hold a bunch of relays in a (hopefully) water-resistant box at the top of the pedal box.

Relay box

We used the original ignition and indicator / light stalks, too.

Ignition wiring

Then the dashboard went on, and all the switches and gauges were wired in. The wires were (mostly) hidden behind the dashboard.

Dashboard wiring. On the left are three cigarette-lighter style power sockets.

Next, we cut the holes for the headlights in the wings with a jigsaw cutter (badly) and used circle cutters to make the holes for the side lights. We also drilled air holes in the front panel – a temporary measure for the transmission radiator behind it. We decided we would never have time before the MOT to build a bespoke front bumper with the Warn winch, so we hacked the bits of the chassis that stuck out, too. Once the front panel was bolted to the wings the whole lot became very rigid.

Wings and front panel

Then (after replacing a faulty relay for the fuel pump) we fired up the engine, which was loud. Still, everything seemed to be working as expected.

The original washer bottle wouldn’t fit, so we bought a small kit-car washer bottle and fitted that in front of the passenger footwell (although the original would have gone on the back of the car quite nicely). We also bolted on the ARB air compressor and made a small battery ‘stand’ out of old desk legs. We ran the axle breathers along with the ARB diff lock lines.

ARB compressor and battery holder

It was time to fit the windscreen. We purchased some Master Bond windscreen sealant from eBay, primed the windscreen and then applied a thick layer of the stuff around the edge.

Applying the windscreen bonding

We held the windscreen in place overnight with a sophisticated tool designed just for the job. If you don’t have one like it I don’t know how you’ll manage, to be honest.

Complicated windscreen-holding tool

Lots of relatively simple things still needed to be done. The bonnet is fixed on with some home-made brackets at the back and some proper bonnet clamps at the front, a dead switch was placed just under the windscreen in front of the passenger and we checked all the lubricants. We also cut and shaped several lengths of right-angled aluminium to finish up the rear of the vehicle.

And then, suddenly, we were done.

Ready!

We tidied up wires and rubbed off all the paint guidelines we had made, added more rivets and siliconed up some gaps in the bodywork. Stickers were stuck, windscreen wipers (some cheap 12″ ones from a local auto shop) and washers were added and then trundled off to the MOT. It failed on one thing, which was the telltale light on the Fog Light switch (which always showed as ‘on’). We fixed that in a matter of minutes, took it back to the MOT station and got ourselves a ticket.

Then we taxed it, and took it through some mud!

Vroom!

We still have bits to do – it needs places for attaching towing shackles and rings to feed the winch through (in case we need to winch upwards, or something), it needs storage for ropes and bits added, storage for the high-lift jack, waffles, spare tyre and ground anchor. It also needs the front winch fitting, which should be much easier using the DIY 8274 winch holder I purchased from D4x4 at Billing (link). It also needs the distributor taking off and waterproofing, as it threw a fit in the water at Billing again.

So, we’re not quite done yet, then…

The flexi wheel arches

I got mine straight from Tomcat Motorsport, but wherever you go, be ready for a smack in the wallet – these chunks of rubber cost around £220!
The wider ones actually come in two parts (one part is more solid rubber and you bolt some less solid rubber to it, as a six-inch lump of ‘floppy’ rubber wouldn’t be strong enough) which you put together yourself.

The front arch.

Then we riveted them to the car.

The rear arch

Meanwhile, my put-upon brother continued sorting out the electrics…

Nearly there!

While the smallest mechanic tested out the newly-fitted passenger seat.

I'm not sure he's got the hang of that spanner...

The water pipes underneath the car. The radiator is directly above them.

The brake lines are finished too, and the brakes are bled and working. Here are all the brake pipe photos.

Here you can see the (nearly) finished rear axle. Note brake pipes.

Also, we’ve got the driver’s seat in! This was a bit of a game as we decided not to use the supplied Tomcat seats, so the mounting points were in the wrong place. So we made up a bracket for the seat runners and bolted it in. We attached the shoulder harnesses directly to the rollcage behind the seat, and the side straps to the rear bolting point for the seat. We’ll find somewhere to attach the last belt next weekend.

Driver's seat with belts fitted

Then we lifted the front up on the ramp, for no real reason.

Whee!

The blue piping is for the rear air locker.

Attached the rear winch:

The rear winch, a Britpart DB9500i

And put the lights in the rear panels. We’ll be attaching them once they’re wired up.

We'll probably end up using something stronger than tape.

Bye!

The rear winch mounts are on, which can probably be best described by some photos:

The angle iron that will eventually hold the rear winch in place

Fitting the winch

Welding the plates in place

Undercoat

And finished

The rest of the day was spent on bodywork (again). We’ve finished up the side panels, and riveted practically everything on.

Riveting stuff (and look - the rad is finally fitted!)

The only bodywork left to fix on is the front wings, rear light panels and bonnet (in so much as that is fixed). We also need to add some metal finishing strips to the rear of the car to cover up some creative bodywork adjustment.

All the external bodywork is on! Note the seat on the right of the picture

We also started to hack the dashboard to bits to make it fit around the wiper motor, with further hacking required to make the original instrument panel fit into it.

And that’s it! We’re not going to do anything else until the 14th June. Still on our “To do” list for the MOT:

• Dashboard
• Electrics
• Battery and air pump box
• Front winch
• Front bumper
• Rad pipes
• Exhaust
• Steering guard
• Diff guard(s)
• Wing mirrors
• Fit windscreen
• Wiper blades
• Windscreen washers
• Front lights
• Rear lights
• Rear brake lines
• Fit bonnet
• Fit front wings
• Rear propshaft
• Fuel lines
• Air intake and snorkel
• Fit Seats and harnesses
• Check fluids
• Start engine!

Six days..?

Some of the mess chopping up fiberglass makes

We were expecting to have to do some modifying because of the number of different ways a Tomcat can be set up, but we ended up hacking huge chunks out of pretty much everything. Nothing is too complicated, but time-consuming.

The line marks one of the cuts for this wing

The side walls, in particular, went on and came off again around fifty times. Still, it’s done now. We’ve lightly rivited the panels on, in case we have to take them off to get wiring in later. We’ll bang some more rivets in closer to the end of the build.

Passenger side

Still, it is starting to look the part!

Driver's Side

A cheap ARB-equipped diff came up for sale on a forum I look at, so that was job one this weekend. Unfortunatly my track rod protector (like this one, but bigger) had to come off first, and that required taking (hammering) a bolt from the radius arms out.

The paint is coming off already. Bah.

Still, now I have front and rear lockers, so that can only be a good thing, and I’ve fitted the front propshaft, so the front running gear is all done (apart from the fact that I lost the diff drain plug somewhere)!

To get the water from the rear of the car to the engine, we’ve used some flexipipe and some exhaust tube to run the water through the cab, next to the driver’s seat.

I'll keep my legs well clear, I think

We’ll cover the tubes in heat wrap and paint them red (as required in the regulations). Now all we have to do is run tubing from the rad through the rear floor to join it all up.

In the midst of all this, we bit the bullet and started to cut up the bodywork. The front offside inner wing (top tip: The rear inner wings are the same, whereas the the front wings are different, and will only fit one way around, depending on which side the pedal box is on) needed cutting to avoid fouling on the roll cage and a power-steering mount on the chassis, and then we rivited it on in two places in case it needed to come off again.

No turning back now...

We fitted the outer wing over the inner one, but we didn’t fix it as we still need to make the holes in it for the lights. It didn’t fit terribly well – hopefully some adjustments to the inner wing will help (we will fit the nearside wings together before mounting them on the car). The outer wing needed cutting to avoid the rollcage, and also the top of the suspension mount.

A quick note about the rear winch – I happen to have some thick angle iron that’s exactly the right size, so I’ll cut some channels into it to avoid the rear rollcage and paint it up. Hopefully that will be quite a quick job!

This may take some sawing...

The rear of the fuel tank

The front brake lines are in, too.

Front brake lines

Finally, oh dear God, we took a look at the electrics. When we removed the wiring loom from the Range Rover we labelled all the wires with strips of masking tape. Since then, the labels have either fallen off or rain has washed the writing on them away.
Great.
So, my brother was lucky enough to have the job of figuring it all out again, which he did by re-wiring as much stuff as he could on the floor of the workshop.

Lots of head-scratching going on here

This would have been easier if (a) I hadn’t ditched a load of the switches along with the body of the Range Rover, and (b) if the Haynes manual had the right colours for the wires in its wiring diagrams.
Still, he got there in the end (re-labelling as he went), but there are two components we don’t recognise.

Mystery Parts

I’ve asked the clever people at the Devon 4×4 Forum what they might be, so no doubt I’ll know soon, and I’ll let you know.

[Update] On the left, the central locking controller, so that can go. On the right, the headlight Dip/Dim controller, which has to stay. Good work, Internet!

1. It’s meant to be mounted at an angle, and my frame is flat
2. Although there is a section built into the rear frame where the tank would fit, it would get in the way of the rear winch.
3. Only very early Range Rovers have locking fuel caps, as the flap locked on the bodywork of all the later ones.

So, we decided to move the existing mounts forward, and mount the tank at (close to) the original angle. We cut the box section away, then welded them back in further up.

Rear of the Tomcat with the box section removed.

Welding the box section back into place

The (grubby) fuel tank, in it's new place. We will use spacers to get the angle right.

We’ll try and grab some rubber mounts for it, but I’m not convinced they’re really needed (if we’re flexing the fuel tank, then we’re flexing the chassis). A Land Rover breakers up the road has a filler neck and locking cap from an old Range Rover, which is mine for £25. The only thing missing is the cap key!

We also mounted the hand brake. We put it right at the back of the transmission tunnel, with some chequerplate mounted underneath to strengthen it.

Viewed from under the car: Making a cardboard template for the chequerplate.

As you might have seen in the early photos, the Range Rover had a Britpart DB9500i on the front (here is a photo) which has been very good, but it has always been very difficult to pull the rope out by hand. This winch is now going on the back, as I have just (literally an hour ago) agreed to take a Warn 8274 off a nice chap’s hands (more on that in the future). So, we decided to take the Britpart winch apart to see if we could spot anything wrong.

Some bits of winch.

It was all fairly straightforward and came apart easily. We cleaned and oiled all the moving parts and put it back together.

Cleaning the winch. Note the gearbox in the foreground.

Cleaning made a big difference, but it’s still not perfect. We have since realised that we didn’t knock the braking mechanism from the inside of the winch drum, so we’ll do that next time we go to the workshop.

Finally, we made some brackets to hold the brake lines to the chassis.

Brake line brackets

Ta-daa!

There’s an engine! And it’s in! Ignore the filthy power steering unit (that will get cleaner as the photo’s go on) if you would. Getting the engine in involved using a hoist to get it halfway in, balancing it on a jack, removing the ropes and then re-attaching them through the windscreen to get the engine back far enough to mount. This may have been easier if not for Big Problem #1: The gearbox is the wrong size.

And the problems begin...

Let me explain. Quite a lot of people swap the high/low ratio transfer boxes out of automatic Range Rovers for one from a manual, which has a driver-selectable central diff lock (rather than an automatic one). I have not, for various reasons, but the people at Tomcat assumed I had, which meant they built the rollcage around a gearbox that is two inches shorter than the one I have. This has caused some problems, ranging from the small (the drum for the handbrake fouled on one of the seat mounts) to the large (the propshafts were the wrong length). I solved the seat mount problem with a hacksaw, but the propshafts had to be sent back to Tomcat (along with the seats, which turned out to be a bit too small for my rather generous backside) to be modified.

The transmission cooler

But anyway – the engine is in, the gearbox(es) are in, the steering is in, the transmission cooling is in, the oil cooling is in (in the bin, we’re just going to blank it off and put a guage on to keep an eye on the temperature). Some of the metal panels have been fitted and the transmission tunnel is in, with the gearsticks fitted.

Spacious, huh?

I’m doing some thinking about the dashboard – ideally I would like to keep the original instument panel, as this would be much easier to wire in, but it won’t fit with the supplied dashboard. However, the dashboard is actually in two bits, so I may remove the driver’s half and fit the instrument panel above the steering column, as in the photo above. The alternative is to cut a gap in the dashboard big enough for the panel to fit into, but that’s a decision for another day.

The rear of the cab, with hole cut for the air to get to the radiator

Finally, I used a nibbler to cut out the hole for the air to get to the radiator. Note the brackets at the top of the picture above for the top pegs of the radiator to fit into. The bottom pegs sit on some box section which isn’t fitted yet.

Next weekend – brakes and fuel!

It finally looks like a car!

Getting the running gear onto the chassis was a case of lowering the chassis onto the axle and seating the springs, holding them in place (so they couldn’t shift backward or forward) with ratchet straps whilst getting the trailing arms / radius arms seated, then compressing the springs and tightening the arm bolts. To compress the springs, you can use spring compresser (obviously), a ratchet strap around the axle and the bodywork, or do what we did and drop a car ramp onto the whole thing.

Compressing the rear springs. Note my important job as a weight.

That was about it this weekend – we did a touch more painting, put the steering wheel together, pressure-washed the engine (again), cleaned up some parts, scratched our heads about where to put the petrol tank and offered the winch bumper to the front to see how much we need to take off the chassis (about eight inches, distressingly).

And we played silly buggers =]

Vroom vroom!

The next job will be getting the engine and gearbox mounted, some time around the end of the month. Stay tuned!

Begone, lumps!

Next, some primer – we stood it on it’s side first to do the underneath, and now that we’re in a nice warm workshop it was dry enough to turn it back the right way up within the space of a cup of coffee. We used an engine hoist when getting it back down again but it’s light enough to do with two of you lifting if you don’t have one. We took the bolts off to make sure we didn’t get paint on them (the box section at the back has to come off to be painted properly anyway).

By the end of this, we were thinking that grey would be a good colour!

I decided to paint it black – my friend told me a red car with black bodywork would look like a ladybird. I’m not convinced he’s right, but the shop was out of red paint, so black it was.

This followed the same procedure as the primer as far as standing it on it’s side was concerned. We’re going to give another coat to the underside and to the bits you can actually see once the body is on (the door frames, window frame, rear cockpit frame and the two bits that come down from the roof to the rear of the car). We painted the rock sliders the same red colour as the propshafts, underbody protection and springs are going to be.

Done!

The next step (after a bit more painting) will be fitting the axles and suspension.

In its new home with the roof and wing tops on

The chassis and rollcage just (just!) fitted into a 4.5′ car trailer.

You can see the pedal box to the left of the car.

Now it’s all back, and (now that it’s clean) into it’s new home, which is drier and has a somewhat higher roof.

The rear floor is just laying in at the moment.

Next step – prime and paint the cage. I’m having a colour dilemma, though – the bodywork is black, and I’d always intended for the rollcage to be black too, with certain bits (the coil springs and underbody protection) being red. Now I’m thinking that the whole rollcage should be red.

Various bits. You can see to top of the seats on the floor.

Hmm…

Work commitments mean I can’t fetch it that early, but on Monday it’s back to Nottingham again.

Well organised, as you can see.

The rollcage should be fitted next week (we saw it when we arrived, it just needs fitting to the chassis) and the bodywork will be in by mid-December.

The loom, as removed by me. With that hammer.

The bodywork will be taped to the frame ready for collection. Paul from Tomcat advises that we bring a sheet to prevent the body panels from blowing off on the way home. I agree.

The old body about to be taken into the scrapyard.

I’ve also picked up my first official Tomcat part – the heated windscreen! The windscreen is specially made to fit a Tomcat, and has a heating element so powerful that Paul advises you to fit a ten-minute timer, as leaving it on for too long will cause the plastic between to glass to melt!

Seat, steering wheel and pedals. All you need for 'pretend car' fun...

Time lag switches are proving rather hard to locate on the Internet. Stay tuned…
(Update – aha, here we are – a heated rear window timed relay.)