Thursday 21 May

Oh boy. This isn't much fun any more - rushing to meet a deadline and bodging things as I go. Wheels are on now and the vent panel and almost the windscreen. As I've said before: I'll have it done but it will go alll the way to the wire.

Sunday 17 May

Long day today. Quite a bit done though I'm going to need more time, possibly in the form of a midweek day off. Rear wheels are on but not finally fixed just in case I get time to paint them before we go. Motors are in and the basic controller circuitry. I remade the panel that goes between the bulkhead and windscreen and routed the lines to represent the vents on it. I'm quite pleased with it if not 100% chuffed. Some of the body capping is on and the tailgate is nearly there. It's going to be a close-run thing but I reckon I can still do it by Friday. Proper Land Rover however is very ill indeed; unable to achieve more than 15mph and even that only lasts 100 yards before it has to stop for a breather. Desperately need that fixed this week. Fingers crossed that AllDrive can come through on that one.

A week to go

Blimey this is slow going. I got the bumper, headlights and indicators on. Not really a big achievement but it's a big win in terms of how the thing looks. I've still so much to do and only 7 days in which to do them.

The motors can't be installed as the chain is too slack. In order to take up the slack I need to raise the motors by 6mm or so. Doing this might mess up other things though.

So, a brief list of outstanding tasks

• Make dashboard


• Make vent panel beneath windscreen


• Make throttle housing and accelerator pedal


• Make backs for dummy door handles


• Paint all of the above


• Make windscreen


• Fit all of the above


• Do all wiring


• Mount wheels


• Mount motors


• Fit tailgate


• Fit seat


• Fit body capping
• Fit radiator grille
• Road test

Easy really. Might need a day off next week at this rate.

T minus eleven

Eleven days before it needs to be finished. Errrr. Put the brakes on yesterday. Hopefully they should just about stop the vehicle but I had to a bit of a bodge to get them to line up correctly. Still have to fit the brake pedal and handbrake lever. Motors to go in Tuesday night hopefully.

Last weekend

Phew - the painting is over. Having incurred vast expense, been sent a pillar drill in place of a compressor, having finally received a compressor minus any connections or hose I've finally got the thing looking green. 1 litre of vile and dangerous thinners later plus a similar amount of Land Rover Deep Bronze Green paint and we are a single 1200 grit rubdown from a finished body.

I also remade the apron that fits at the bottom of the front panel and made the motor closing panel. Next job is brakes.

In a cruel twist of ironic fate my pillar drill broke at the weekend meaning I'm in for some tricky operations when it comes to drilling the axles and motor spindles.

Friday 8 May

I’ve taken the plunge and fitted the swing axle to the body tub. It seems that the steering wheel will be very direct – i.e. that you won’t even get a full turn lock to lock but that is by design it appears.

Also I finally caved in and bought a compressor and spray gun so I’m hoping to get some paint down on the body tub this weekend. After that it’s fitting the electrics.

Bank Holiday Weekend

Progress is edging ahead rather than surging at the moment.
I’ve learned the following over the weekend:
1) Make sure your router bit is securely held in the chuck else you’ll end up ruining something and having to make it again
2) You can’t paint cellulose paint on with a brush as it dries too quickly
3) Inhalation of cellulose thinners can really take it out of you

From this one should infer that I’ve not been as productive as I would hope over the three day break. I made the tailgate frame. You can see it as the unpainted part on the back of the vehicle. It doesn’t look much but it took the best part of an hour and a half. I got rear axle on and have temporarily mounted the wheels. The steering column is in and all the metal parts are now painted in Smoothrite. I also routed out the radiator grille area and backed it with 6mm board.

Having concluded that I am not prepared to ruin the look of something on which I have spent so long I bought a little noddy compressor and spraygun from Machine Mart on Monday. Sadly the paint gun hisses air whether the trigger is pulled or not so that will have to go back for replacement. :-(

Update on that: Machine Mart didn't have a replacement unit available so I got all the money back and I'm going to simply buy some different paint that is more amenable to being brushed on and use that. Another setback - this is like Chop Shop.

Metal parts

So, with all the bits unpacked and the garage newly tidied and decontaminated of MDF dust and sawdust I set about seeing if any of the funky new bits will actually fit the body tub I have built. The steering column fitted after a little fettling with the dremel and some sandpaper. Steering wheel screwed straight on to the column so at least it looks a little more vehicle-like now. The bonnet sits nicely on the wing tops and so I've been able to cut the curve in the top of the radiator panel and now I'll need to remake the apron that goes between the inner wings and also rout out the the holes in the radiator panel. The curved wing tops didn't fit - no surprise there - so I had to cut them down using (of all things) a Stanley knife. I will be glueing these in later and then filling the gaps with P38.

Wheels look cool too.

Wednesday 29 April

High excitement - 7 boxes of bits arrived today including such very heavy things as 5 wheels with tyres and two batteries. I think my idea of having a roof rack on the real Landy with some home made davits mounted on it to hoist the Toylander up for transit is looking a little dubious. I found that I am going to have to dress all the metal work and paint it before I can mount it on the TL. Also I may have bought paint (Cellulose) that I can't apply with a brush - it seems to be for spraying. At least we can get some wheels on it soon!

Sunday 19 April

Had a couple of days of good weather over the weekend so I've been able to make some progress. Since I had to decontaminate the garage of MDF dust a week or so back I have resolved to do no more routing in there at all so I have to do body work outside.
The body is all squared up - as square as it's going to be anyway. The body side panels above the waist are on, the rear wheel arch uppers are on and the optional faux door handle apertures are cut too.

Additionally the dashboard pieces are cut, the seat back, seat base and tailgate basic shape is there too. Moreover, Kath's mooted idea that the boys might not be interested in the little Landy have been dispelled as it seems that even a half-finished bodyshell in raw MDF is something that's worth playing in and indeed even wanting to have your tea in.

Getting started

I bought the plans a few months back from Real Life Toys and what you get is a build manual and six or so large printed plans. I digested the manual as fully as I could, read a lot of advice from the excellent and very supportive forum on Toylander Owners Club and set about getting the material for the body shell.

I decided to everything by the book - no off-piste, I know better type deviance from the plans - just everything as specified. The main material required is 12mm sheet. I opted for moisture resistant MDF over plywood as MDF is easier to work and has a smooth finish which should lend itself better to painting. MRMDF was tricky to find but I got some from Nixon Knowles timber merchants for £25 for two eight by four sheets. The manual also specifies 19mm batten which is an odd size and had to be machined down specially by Nixon Knowles. Credit to them is due for doing this without moaning about it as it was a small, crappy job for £10 of wood.

With the wood and MDF safely back at the house it was time to get cutting.

The floor pan is the single largest component to be cut and is also the first to be cut. The plans for the floor are printed across two sheets of paper and according to the manual you are supposed to join the plans together, fix them to the board and cut out the shape to exactly 1433mm. Having taken advice from the forum I measured the plans and transferred the dimensions directly to the board before cutting out with a circular saw. Next on are the bulkhead and the seat riser. These are both pretty easy as they are just basic quadrilaterals although the bulkhead has a bevelled edge at the top.

The body sides are probably the most tricky shape to get right and, following some forum advice, I decided to make a template and cut both sides using this to ensure symmetry. I used 6mm MDF for the template as it is easier worked than the 12mm stuff. Once I had the shape as right as I was going to get it I clamped the template to the workpiece, cut approximately around it using a jigsaw and then did the final cut with a router using a bearing-guided copy bit. As it turned out I was pretty chuffed with the results. The top edge of the body sides needs to be half rounded along its length so I bought a 12mm radius roundover (or ovolo) bit with a bearing guide and got the right effect in a few minutes. Others had suggested sanding but I don't have the skill, stamina or patience for such a process.

Next to cut were the inner wings and the tailgate. These all came out pretty well by my standards so I was looking forward to seeing how it all fitted together. This is where my first crisis of confidence happened. When all the pieces were offered up to each other it was apparent that the floor was about 12mm longer than it should be. There followed a week of sleepless nights, some ranting on the owners club forum and a lot of good advice, most of which centred around the premise that I would need to be a bit more versatile and open-minded about the dimensions. I also took a visit to eastern Derby to see another Toylander in production to get some ideas. I took Bob with me and we had a good old gander at it and I was quite buoyed up and was ready to just hack the excess off. Then followed a visit from Brian, another Toylander builder, from Rotherham who drove down specially on Easter Sunday to give me some advice. Following that I got the trusty router out and ripped the offending material from the back of the floor pan.

With the surgery out of the way I was able to get on with assembly. This is where I am now.