Perentie FFR touring build

[perko]

After thinking about a perentie for a few years I finally got myself together and went and bought one.
It's an '89 FFR, one owner since disposal and came with a few things done, not all necessarily to my liking.

The plan for this is to build it into a remote tourer that is capable of getting to anywhere in the country. Basically should be able to pick a spot on a map and drive there with no worries about whether the vehicle is capable or reliable enough to make it there and back.

Things done since I picked it up so far:

- Did a temp repair on the passenger window. It had an altercation with a kangaroo previously which broke the window and dented the door. When I picked it up there was just a piece of perspex tek screwed to the outside of the door. Cut the perspex down to the size of the windows and mounted back in the original tracks so at least it slides now.
I have a spare rear glass section but the U channel I got is too thick to mount in the rail, might try find something thinner at a later date and have at least 1 piece of glass in there.

- Waterproof treatment on the canvas. I already had this in the shed so worthwhile putting a couple of coats on, it rained the other night and there were 1 or 2 drips on the seat but not too bad for a fairly old top.

- UHF fitted. Just a basic Oricom unit but gets the job done.

- Flat steel roof rack mounted onto the original mounts. I ran a pair of bars front to back screwed into the ROPS mounts, then bolted the rack onto those. Seems solid as and has enough space under to bolt the rooftop tent down to it.

I've given the whole thing a bit of a once over and now have a list of what needs to get done next:
- Fit power steering. The steering box is pretty shagged, there's a large amount of slop around the centre which can't be adjusted out. I've got my hands on a 4 bolt box and drag link from a disco 1 so those are going on along with a brand new pump. The disco drag link means easier replacement of ball joints.

- Replace panhard and radius arm bushes. They're looking a bit worn and came in a box with the car so may as well do them now.

- Wire in a dual battery system. I'll probably fit both batteries under the seat to leave the side lockers free for storage.

- Replace the very bent and badly welded coathanger bar with the later type one.

- Fit wider tyres and steel rims. It has sawtooth wheels on it at the moment, I don't hate these but can get my hands on a set of defender steelies with 265/75 on them, then sell the sawtooth's to fund other mods.

Turbo and hard top are probably on the cards at some point, I'm already keeping an eye out for parts for these as they pop up.
My eventual thought is a hard top with the side panels hinged up to keep the access from the sides, I would probably try make it a bolt on/ bolt off type arrangement so I can drive around with soft/no top it I feel the need.

[perko]

Slight update. We're going camping over easter so have done a few more things to get it ready for the trip.
This should be a good chance to test out what works and what doesn't in terms of setup.

Second battery installed and wired. I got a second hand VSR and 120Ah battery from marketplace and installed both under the passenger seat.
It's a tight fit but I even managed to use the original hold down points and just made up a new hold down strap.

Installed some halogen driving lights and relocated the light bar to the  roof.
I've always been a fan of the range you get from halogen vs LED for driving lights, hopefully this gives the best of both worlds with the LED headlights and bar for fill close to the car and the halogens for range.
The light bar is wired to the second batt, I'm planning on using a spdt switch so this can be turned on manually and used either when setting up camp or when off road at night.

As an aside, the previous owner had used a glass type inline fuse for the driving lights which was hanging vertically under the bonnet.
I had a driving light globe fail when I installed them, this popped the fuse which then promptly melted to itself and tried to set the car on fire, I've since replaced with a blade style holder.

[glbest]

I know it is a bit late please consider KMart as they had deep cycle batteries forsale

[perko]

I know it is a bit late please consider KMart as they had deep cycle batteries forsale

Interesting, did a quick google and looked like reasonable pricing though fairly small capacity.

In other news, after almost a month I'm still waiting on hose parts to finish the power steering (thanks Sparesbox) so had a look to see if anything can be improved with the manual box in the meantime.
When I picked it up the steering was extremely heavy and had a huge dead spot in the centre.
A lot of the weight was probably down the fact that it had a return to centre steering damper fitted, thankfully the spring just unbolts to turn it into a regular damper, with the tyres at 40psi it's a bit more manageable when parking.
As for the dead spot, unfortunately the steering box is rooted, if it is adjusted any further then it starts to bind severely on right turns so I've left it as it is for now, the replacement PS box should fix this.

[perko]

Trip over the weekend went fairly successfully. Car ran perfectly all weekend apart from a flat battery caused (I think) by a VSR that didn't disconnect the batteries.
The shocks that are in it seem to work quite well, definitely more comfortable off road than my old discovery 2.

Despite the lack of turbo it actually wasn't as slow as I thought, though some bigger hills on the highway did have me down to 70-80, most of the time was happy at 100-110 depending on how much wind noise we wanted to endure.

[perko]

Fitted power steering over the weekend.
Since I have more time than money I chose not to use one of the kits and instead cobbled it together myself. The basics were:
New 4BD1 pump
Used 4 bolt box from a discovery 1
Discovery 1 drag link and ball joints (this means ball joints are screwed onto the drag link so they're easier to replace, plus I didn't have to remove the drop arm from the box).
200 series AN hose for the high pressure and adapters to use rubber hose for the 1/2" and 5/8" low pressure lines to the res

It wasn't overly difficult, the main issue I ran into was that the threads on the box were full of crud, I had to make a tap out of an old bolt to clear them out, I also failed to get a reservoir bracket so made one with some scrap steel and a hose clamp, it feels very solid so don't think I'll bother changing it.
As a minor aside, the lower 2 bolts that go from the box to the panhard bracket were too long for the new box, I just spaced them with some big nuts but ideally they should be a bit shorter.

Still to do:
- Make a bracket for the steering damper, the disco drag link doesn't have one of these.
- Fix a minor leak on the pump, looks like one of the NPT fittings isn't quite tight enough
- Get some hydraulic hose for the supply line, local parts places didn't have anything in 5/8 other than heater hose, I've used that for now but will get some proper hose and change it

Overall it's excellent, drives 100x better and really wasn't too difficult to install. I'd say all up parts probably cost me about $800.

[Shuber]

Congrats on the FFR! You're making some cool upgrades, like the window repair and waterproofing. Power steering and a dual battery are solid plans. Swapping to wider tires and steel rims is a good call.