Getting Ready to Paint 4: Almost There

I have never had a vehicle completely painted before and the fact this is a 15-year old fixer-upper truck places my experience at further distance.  As we get close to the actual painting I am increasingly focussed on details, wantng to make sure I have done everything that should be done first first, and amazed at the number of things that I did not think of that still need to be done.   It was in that spirit that I took the Defender up to Paani the welder after he thought he had seen it for the last time, to adjust the bonnet to accommodate the chequerplate aluminum fender tops that will go on after the painting.   I realized that having to adjust the bonnet and fenders to fit the aluminum plates after  the painting could result in some nasty scratches.  Has to be done first. I also asked Panni to remove the two spare tire carriers, one that was welded to the bonnet frame and another that is attached to the rear door, all because I am trying to take as much off as possible before it is painted in order to reduce that great Ghanaian painters short-cut, the tape around.

The spare tire holder on the rear door poses a bit of a dilemma.  I am not sure I want to keep a tire there at all, since Paani  impressed upon me how carrying a tire on the rear door on rough roads can damage the the door frame.  I don’t like the way the rear door behaves with a big 750/16 tire and wheel on it anyway.   I thought it might be better to carry the spare tire on the bonnet, which the high Land Rover front seat and window makes possible without affecting visibility.

Removing the rear door spare tire carrier

The rear door spare tire carrier consists of a foot square steel plate on the outside of the door, attached to the door itself via 11 bolts into another plate on the inside of the frame with three large three large bolt-like extenders welded to it  that go through the holes in the body and the outer plate to secure the wheel through the bolt holes.  From the perspective of getting ready to paint, the steel plate on the outside  would be difficult to tape around and I would never be able to get the sprayer to remove it.  He would want to take the tape-around short-cut so popular among house and vehicle painters alike here.  Then everything   appears as if  it were “painted around” – not an image I want to convey in this rebuild.  But  for the rear-door wheel carrier  Paani said that it would be too difficult to remove, and upon first inspection it did indeed appear as if the whole thing might be welded to the frame inside the door,  perhaps as a result of the door frame repair that Paani did.   However I could not resist trying to loosen the  11 bolts and to my delight they all came undone quite easily and the interior plate to which the wheel holders are welded to slipped out nicely and the whole unit came out.  With that the exterior body is pretty much stripped, save the rear wheel arches that rim the wheel wells.

With that I have moved to the interior, which was already pretty stripped by Paani during the earlier body work which included the door work and filling of some random bolt holes here and there.   The roof liner, the door panels , and the rear cargo bay bench seats are all gone.  But when you look at it through a spray painters eyes you realize how much is still left to take out.   Seat belts for example.  Seat belts are secured by bolts through the frame in two places.   I spent a couple of hours after work this week to try to get them out, but was only partially successful, frustrated by limited tool choices.   Nuts that have been on bolts on the bottom exterior for fifteen years are not easily removed despite any amount of WD40.  I was able to get one end of the belts free on both sides, but I could only loosen the two that are directly bolted into the chassis frame enough so the seat belt rollers come away from the interior body enough to expose the surface underneath for painting and can be wrapped to keep the paint off them.  Better than taping, but not much. The good news story is the the “cubby” box between the front seats.  This was surprisingly easy to get out, four bolts that thread through 2×2, the only wood in the whole vehicle, into threaded holes right in the frame.

I was also able to remove the front passenger seat quite easily (need to leave the drivers seat in to be able to drive to the sprayer!) – my nemesis was the back seats.   There are no fewer than 12 bolts that secure the simple bench seats  through the floor into the frame.  The nuts underneath have not been touched for 15 years and are EXTREMELY stiff and rusted.   I was able to loosen and remove a couple, but stripped two of the nuts quite badly and decided to stop and review alternatives.  Francis just happened to come by to drop off the refinished front grill as I was struggling with these in our yard and he came to my rescue with an invite to his shop where he has access to an arc welder that can cut them off.

Today I left work early to beat traffic and drove out to the Kaneshie district where Francis has his shop.  He had one of his boys take me over to another place, down a side street,  off onto a dirt track that wound through some houses into an industrial yard that led to a fair-sized machine shop that was retooling various pieces of machinery and gears from transmissions and the like.  The yard smelled seriously of waste,  there must have been an open sewer, a not-uncommon phenomenon in Accra, behind the  adjacent wall.

I was welcomed by a couple of fellows to whom the boy did the explaining in Twi, upon which they pulled out their tools and went to work.  They were able to get three of the twelve bolts out intact.  The other nine were removed with a hacksaw or smashed with a large three foot chisel and a sledge hammer, not tools I have in my kit, but against which a ½“ bolt is no match.  The electric welder on standby was never called upon, brute force prevailed.  The back seats are now out,  and I am (only) 30 cedis (20 dollars) poorer for the labour and the tools.  Francis has someone getting nuts and bolts to replace the ones that were lost to the process.

Finally got the back seats out, the cargo bay bench seats have been out for months. The ride like this is anything but quiet.
Cubby box and passenger seat gone, the last lonely ride for the old driver's seat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, that was not the last thing to take out.  There are also plastic covers over the back seat catches, and the foam and fabric liner around the front seat boxes, which is glued down and leaves annoying strips of foam behind on the metal that has to be scraped off.  Then there is the a piece of interior liner above the rear door that had escaped Paani’s removal campaign, and the seat belts in the front.  There don’t seem to have ever been any seat belts in the back seat.

I don’t think there is any good reason to delay painting any more.   I know as soon as it is painted it will start to get nicks and scratches and that creates  some degree of inertia, but I can get touch-up paint and the work here is very good and not expensive.   Once the paint is on we can proceed to finish the interior off with the new cushions and seat covers that are sitting in our storeroom, put the soundproofing and carpet in and put back all the interior fittings.  None of that will take very long, soon we will be able to focus on the expedition prep.  But painting is next.

 

Getting Ready to Paint 3, Francis the Fixer and the underbody

When I bought this Defender almost nine months ago I remember crawling underneath it in the yard to see what went where and having to put on glasses to prevent the thick coat of dirt from sprinkling into my eyes .   It was a real mess.   All the work that has been done since has knocked much of the accumulated mud and dirt off, but it is still a mess.  Opere talked about sending it to a washer before painting later, but  he has not taken any initiative to organize that and Francis has again stepped in to fill the gap.   Francis has consistently come through on a number of fronts and is more than anyone else playing the role of “fixer” in the Land Rover project.

I was introduced to Francis through colleagues at the High Commission.  He has been the CHC mechanic for a very long time, not quite since independence but almost that long.  The first time I met him he was in the office of a colleague, with one hand heavily bandaged and was recounting the story of how he had been caught in an attempted robbery in a “shared-taxi” .    As the name suggests, shared taxis are multi-passenger  vehicles, not the larger van-type “tro-tros” that carry 10-12 but regular sedans which carry one to three passengers in non-air-conditioned discomfort who are going in the same general direction and are prepared to share the space and accept a less than direct ride in exchange for a savings on the fare.  The other downside of shared taxis is the personal security risk that comes with getting into a vehicle that is already carrying more than one person, and Francis had just gotten caught in a situation where he  was asked by the driver and passenger to hand over all his money.   They got more than they bargained for , when Francis, who must be well into his sixties but as a former soldier knows something about hand-to-hand combat, gave the would-be robbers a run for his money.  He first dealt with the other “passenger”  ,  who he took into some sort of headlock  and was able to throw out of the car as they went around a corner in the shanty district of Nima.  He then turned his attention on the driver and wrestled him for the wheel until they smashed the car into a pole not too far from the Nima Police station.  The “driver” abandoned the vehicle, leaving Francis to report the attempted robbery at the nearby police post ,  with the abandoned taxi as evidence.   He sustained some ligament damage to his arm, but escaped with his  money, and his pride, intact.

Francis dropped in on his way home from a funeral to leave the repaired griill. He has a beer in one hand and a Ghanaian High Life music CD in the other. The grill is poised on the bonnet

Francis has done the work on our Subaru and while he is not a precision mechanic, he has impressed  with his sense of customer service and his pro-active aptitude for finishing a job.   So far his involvement with the Defender project has been limited to serving as a reference to other specialists to provide quotes on work as diverse as body work, electrical, air conditioning  and carpeting and  upholstery.    He has also gotten the plastic grill repaired that was broken at Opere’s and he is the one that he also stepped in to get another part of the project where others have fallen  down – the steps below each of the doors.  (separate post  coming on “Queen Vic’s Carriage Steps”).

I had approached Francis to get a quote on paint and in the process we got talking about the underbody.   I liked the methodology he talked about: getting under with a pressure washer and soap and scrub brushes , then going through the underbody with sandpaper to get any the rust out, then going through with the soap and pressure washer again.  We both agreed it would be foolhardy to leave it to  the sprayer to do the underbodyprep work, it would be too easy to just paint over the parts that were too difficult to clean and who would know.

This led to Francis bringing a couple of his “boys” to the house a couple of weeks ago.  We took the Defender to a good washing bay for a thorough cleaning with a pressure washer (the second time I have done this)  and then back to the house.   Three people spent six hours under the vehicle with petrol and sandpaper, then we took it back to the pressure washer.  The result  was amazing.  The wheel wells that were previously caked with dirt are now down to clean, shiny aluminum.  I can read the Land Rover symbol on the muffler.   The whole tailpipe is shining and the frame is clean black metal.   There were still some spots of dirt around, but another visit to the pressure washer fixed most of that.  There are still spots of dirt in nooks and crannies in the frame here and there and I am thinking of another more supervised visit to the washer, but that might be bordering on obsession.  We broke the back of the underbody cleaning challenge.   While they were here they also cleaned up the roof rack and took off the plastic wheel well arches that I was not able to figure out how to get off (plastic pins that worked like concrete anchors for screws) .  It cost me almost $100, half for labour and half for sandpaper and petrol.

The tragegy of the common. In true Ghanaian fashion, we cleaned the underbody in a public areait
Spotless Wheelwell and steering linkages. New Biltstein heavy duty shocks are visible in the coil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picking the undercoat  is turning out to be almost as much of a challenge as picking the body colour.   My research leads to a dizzying array of products, ranging from cheap enamel to high-tech plasticized products that sound as if they would do just fine on the underside of the Space Shuttle, with prices to match.  There are actually  three parts of the underside:  the frame, the mechanical gear and the body.   The sprayer wants to use something called Terason Underbody on all these.   I could not find this on the internet when I googled it, instead Terrason came up, which suggests that perhaps the product here is a cheap copy of the internationally  recognized one.  Francis knows  Terason and thinks it is a  good product.  I am going to get him to do the frame and maybe the underbody, but not the  tailpipe, which is looking so good, or the front wheels wells.  Later if I can get my hands on some spray or brush- on liquid sound dampener I will add a couple of coats to the underside of the body and the wheel wells to reduce noise and provide additional protection.  I will have to bring that in, no-one seems to know it here.

We are still not quite ready to paint yet.    Bernard the sprayer at Sikkens will have to wait a little longer.

 

Sound Reduction Puzzle

In the process of perusing the seemingly endless Land Rover restoration sites we could see that (so-called) “soundproofing” was a common step in most projects.   The term is a bit optimistic, one can never eliminate sound in a vehicle, so “sound reduction” is a more appropriate term.

All vehicles have some degree of soundproofing, it is the stuff under the carpet on your floor and the trunk/boot.  The thick piece of silver lined foam under the hood/bonnet is also soundproofing.  Depending on the vehicle and/or the preferences of the owner there can be any number of products and combinations thereof used throughout, including in the doors and roof.  People who are restoring older vehicles, whether they are 50s roadsters, 60s muscle cars, or 90s Defenders, will at some point likely decide to reduce noise by installing additional soundproofing materials.   Land Rovers are no exception as the various threads in Land Rover Forums show.

Defenders and other Land Rovers of their era were built as big utility vehicles and because of this and the large areas of the aluminum body they are probably among the noisier vehicles on the road.  Ours is absolutely utilitarian, and has only bare metal on the floors and walls.  The doors do have small patches of  sound dampening materials on the inside of the door panels, this would have been part of the factory production process.  The roof has quite a good piece of hard plastic liner behind the interior roof fabric, but that is not going to do much against the vast areas of bare aluminum.

We decided it was worth looking at sound reduction, but had no idea of where to start.   I started scanning for what materials worked best and learned a lot about  the science of sound reduction.  Obviously there is a huge sound reduction industry, but I was surprised to learn how much of it is devoted to vehicles.  I learn that there are two separate steps involved in sound reduction: the first is referred to as “dampening” or “deadening”.  This addresses noise generated or amplified by the body panels themselves and involves the installation of some sort of very heavy rubber/butyl material, lead is sometimes used to add weight.  The dampener is added to directly to the metal surface and transforms the sound waves into heat.  Thus an integral part of a good sound dampener is a layer of metal foil that helps keep the heat from entering the vehicle.

The second key function is sound absorption, a barrier to collect the sound waves that are generated both inside and outside the vehicle.   This is what is done by the  baffles one sees on the ceilings of in orchestral halls.  Baffles are not terribly practical in your car, so this function is usually performed by a light, open cell foam.  This is applied on top of the dampener.  And that is about it.  That is most certainly an overly simplistic description of the basics of vehicle soundproofing, but it helps to set the stage for the story of our product scanning and  eventual selection of a product.  There is a great variety of products available, some which perform one or other of the functions, or perhaps combine them both.  All the sellers say more than one layer is better, which no doubt helps to sell sound proofing material.

The first supplier that we became aware of is the aptly named Noisekiller(NK) of Great Britain.  www.noisekiller.co.uk/vehicle_soundproofing_products.asp.   NK makes sound reduction materials for every imaginable application, including but certainly not limited to vehicles.  I became aware of them because they happen to produce custom “soundproofing” kits for Land Rovers.  The product is highly recommended by many others.  Thinking this might be the way to go last May I exchanged emails with Andy, my contact at Famous Four, who said he could get NK to send them a kit which they could send on to me as part of  my star-crossed third shipment (see separate “Customs Shock” post).

However, at this point I encountered the problem that would make getting sound proofing to Ghana a real challenge: the weight.  The stuff is  expensive enough to begin with, but it weights as much as 1 pound per square foot, which rather renders international shipping costs prohibitive.   The NK Defender kit costs 280 British Pounds, or about $450, to buy, but the weight of that kit is 50 kilos!   Andy said he could get a 5% price reduction from NK to cover the cost of getting it to Famous Four, but for them to send it on to Ghana would be an additional (gulp) 430 British Pounds, or almost seven hundred dollars just for shipping, for a total cost of more than $1,200.   That is very expensive quiet.  I told Andy thanks, but I would have to pass.

That began a long search thither and yon for a less expensive noise reduction option.  Some Land Rover forums have people talking about assorted construction materials that are usually readily available in North American or European hardware/building supply companies, for example the ashphalt paper that goes under roof shingling, but that sort of thing is not necessarily available in Ghana, and would be very difficult for me to locate.  My local search did lead me to Ghana Rubber Products, which I thought might produce some sort of heavy rubber that would work.  They produce sheets of rubber of varying sizes for shoe soles (ie. flip flops)  This led to a Saturday morning meeting with the owner at the GRP plant in Accra, who showed me what they had.  They identified a 3 mm thick but not very heavy rubber that I thought might at least serve as a sound barrier for 30 cedies  ($20 dollars) for a 4×6 sheet.  At that price we could do the whole Defender for about $100.   I went back a week later and spoke to his brother who, incredibly,  happens to own a Land Rover Defender and had actually purchased NoiseKiller.   He knew something about  sound reduction and recommended Noisekiller, he was not confident the product I had been looking at would do too much, but he identified a slightly lighter material.  I bought four sheets worth of his flip flop sole material thinking I could use it as sound absorber for some areas, but left knowing I was still in the market for sound reduction material.

Other options I found included Genesis of South Africa and Second Skin or Dynamat from the US.      I spent a lot of time looking at Genesis  www.genesisacoustics.co.za,  because it seemed to be a good product reasonably priced.  They also have a liquid paint on product that one can apply inside or outside the vehicle, which extends the area that one can apply it to.  However, when  I eventually measured and got a quote on the material and shipping it was only marginally less than the NoiseKiller from Great Britain.

In the course of surfing the web for more ideas and sources I stumbled upon a company called B-Quiet  www.b-quiet.com, which sold dampener, absorbers, and combinations thereof and billed themselves as  “the affordable sound deadening solution”.   One of the things I noticed was their website gave prices in US and CAN dollars and I assumed they were an American company selling into Canada.  The $C=US$ exchange rate they gave was rather  unfavourable to the Canadian dollar, which would make an American product more expensive to Canadians, so in a patriotic mood I sent them an email to say as much.  I received a prompt reply saying they in fact were a Canadian company located in Alberta and they thought their exchange rate was just fine thank you.  Of course, if they are producing in Canada and selling to the States the low exchange rate only makes them more competitive with American products like Dynamat.  Brilliant.

I looked at this product more carefully and judging from reviews their quality was good and the price gave credence to their website billing as the “affordable sound deadening solution”.   I looked at something called  B-Quiet Ultimate, a sound dampening material, and V-Comp, a combination sound dampening and absorbing material.   They also produce B-Quiet Hiliner, a thicker aluminum lined acoustic foam for under the bonnet.  Similar materials  are available from Genesis or from Noise Killer, but the Canadian company’s price was much more reasonable.   I was able to get a quote  of $500 for an coverage area larger than NK or Genesis, delivered to Ottawa.

The Ottawa delivery is where the real beauty of this Canadian- sourced option plays out.   I have an annual mailing allowance from Canada of one hundred pounds, which might not go far if you have a large family or get lots of magazines, but this year Laura and I have only used 25 lbs.  It is now October and we have more than 75 lbs of  shipping we have to use before the end of December.     As it turns out the weight of two 50 sq. ft rolls of B-Quiet Ultimate and two 15 sq. ft. rolls of V-Comp is about seventy pounds – the Hiliner only weighs another pound.   I could use more V-Comp but if we go over our weight it will just be held in Ottawa till next year.  I can order more then if I really need it.  I am planning to combine the B-Quiet Ultimate deadener with the V-Comp in the particularly vulnerable areas in the front of the cabin until the V-Comp runs out and  and then use pieces of the Ultimate  in combination with the flip-flop sole material from Ghana Rubber Products for less vulnerable areas.

B-Quiet products purchased: 30 sq. ft. of V-Comp barrier (1 of 2 rolls on the floor – 18 lbs); 100 sq. ft. Ultimate, (1 of two rolls on the table – 17lbs); and a 4×6 sheet of Hiliner for under the bonnet (silver on the right – 1 lb

It only took about two weeks to get here, and with this in hand I am ahead of the game because we can’t install it until after the painting is done, which won’t be for a couple of weeks yet.    With this material installed and covered by carpeting our  Defender will hopefully be elevated from clangy utility vehicle to relatively quiet cruiser.

Phase I Electrical

Why more than one phase of electrical?  Because I want to focus first on the basic things every vehicle requires to run and for basic safety and roadworthyness certification.  Headlights, horn, signal lights etc.  The basic stuff.  There are other systems required to support expeditioning, but that can come later – in Phase II.

I drafted up a list of the items to do in Phase I and II and got a couple of quotes on Phase I.  The low bidder, by a wide margin, was Eric from Opere’s shop under the tree so I asked him to do the work while we were in Egypt.   The work is now done and it is amazing how much you appreciate little things.  There was not very much right about the basic electrical when I first bought this vehicle.   Most seriously the the alternator did not work, a problem that was corrected when a new-to-me alternator was installed with the motor.   The front windshield wipers wiped, the rear did not.  Only a couple of the signal lights worked, the brake lights did not, nor did the headlights, nor the horn.   Up till now whenever I have pulled up to the high, solid, windowless gate outside our house I have had to rev the engine so the guard knows I am there to let me in rather than honk as one normally does. Fortunately the engine makes lots of noise.   The horn now works, as do all the lights.  He also did the rear windshield wiper motor and the windscreen washer fluid pump.   He charged me GHC 300, or about CAD 200

Eric’s  price includes a number of things that cannot be done until the painting is complete.  This includes installation of  all the new exterior light fixtures that I bought on Opere’s recommendation that the 15 year old ones that don’t look too bad now will look terribly old against a new paint job.  Eric has also bought me a large interior cabin light for the rear cargo area and will instal this and the front cabin light that has been stripped out (along with pretty much everything else) in anticipation of the interior painting.   My only real regret with respect to the electrical is that I have not yet had time to sit down with Eric and go throught the electrical system so I can learn about the circuits, fuses etc.   There are also still a number of old wires hanging about from the earlier A/V system that EPA used to support its public education programs in the field and that I decided would not be of any particular use to us.   I was going to do this when we came back from Egypt but about that time poor Eric was passing between two parked cars when one of them backed up and pinned him, causing some ill defined damage to his internal organs and putting him out of action for awhile.   He seems OK, but I don’t want to bother him while he is convalescing.  It can wait.

That is Phase I.   Phase II is the electrical required for expedition outfitting and it will be more complicated.   A dual battery system to support a fridge, lights and circuits to support other interior and exterior accessories, together with a solar power back-up system will be the main elements of the Phase II work.   The big question is whether Eric, or anyone here, will be able to handle this.  Half the Land Rovers in South Africa have a dual battery system but here no one seems to know about it.  I may have to teach myself about the fine points of dual battery systems and solar power back-up to get this done.   I have already purchased  the isolator kit for the  dual battery system, actually we have purchased two.  One  Laura bought at Canadian Tire when she wen to Canada in August, and another I bought from OffRoad Egypt when we were there in October.   Neither were terribly costly and I don’t mind having a couple of choices to increase our chances of getting this operational.  I will do a separate post on Phase II of the electrical after the painting is done and I can focus more on that.

Getting Ready to Paint 2: Picking a Sprayer

Getting my 15-year old Land Rover Defender painted is proving to be full of challenges, one of them is identifying  a “sprayer”.  Identifying and contacting a painter has been more difficult than for any of the other specialists that I have dealt with.   Opere has  been my first reference for specialists ranging from mechanics, bodywork and electrical , but  the painting is in a different order because, obviously, there is no paint oven under Opere’s  tree.   Over the course of the past few months whenever I have broached the subject of painting with him to try to nail down that phase of the project he never seemed very interested.   Strange because there are frequently one or two Defenders in his yard that look like they are just about to go for painting or have just come back from painting.   It was only when he realized I had found the Sikkens shop and had gotten a price he focussed.   As he always does,  he stressed the importance of ensuring I was going somewhere that would do a good job, but did not promote anyone he knew.   When I told him who I was talking to and how much they had quoted  he seemed to relax, either because he was satisfied that this was a good place, or that he could not beat the price and still take a cut that would make it worth his effort.

My former colleague Stephan had recommended  Sikkens, a name which is well-known for paint around the world, as a place that had done a very good job for him at a reasonable price.  He said he had his Defender painted “at Sikkens”, so  assumed was a business somewhere in Accra.  I saw his Defender and it looked great.  Since then everyone, including Opere, has  recommended that I use Sikkens Autobase paint, but  is clear they are not recommending any one place. Rather they each seemed to have their own favourite “sprayer”, all of whom may use Sikkens paint.    I was left wondering if “Sikkens” was a place in Accra as Stephane has led me to believe,  or just a brand of paint.

To enlighten myself I turned to Google and searched “Sikkens in Ghana” – there were about a dozen auto paint shops that come up.   I noticed that one of these, “Kolours”,  was located not too far away from where I live so I went by to have a look and talk to them.     The first thing I noticed when I pulled up was that the name “Kolours” did not appear anywhere on the front of the seemingly small storefront operation,   rather it featured “SIKKENS”, as if that was the name of the shop.   I sent an email to Stephane with description of the location and he confirmed that this was in fact where he had had his vehicle painted.  So there is no one “Sikkens” it is rather a network of places that happen to distribute Sikkens paint, and which probably have to undergo certain training and maintain certain quality standards  in exchange for the name.

The manager of “Kolours” is Bernard, a personable Ghanaian who each time I go back to look at colours, or ask questions, he says, “I’m ready”,  his subtle way of reminding me that it has been well over a month since I first spoke to him and said I was going to bring it in for the paint.  The problem is I keep finding reasons to delay, I am not really ready to paint yet.

 

I have had three informal quotes on painting,  Opere and Francis have cited numbers, but without the benefit of any close look at the details of what it is I want to do (Iie. everything has to come off before painting, two colours outside, one inside and bottom paint).  I have only given those details to Bernard, and his price is the same or only marginally higher than the quick quotes I got from Francis and Opere.  What also swings it in Bernard’s favour is that I know one satisfied customer, and the Kolours shop looks very clean and well run.   I will use them, but follow Stephane’s advice to monitor the work closely myself. But we are not ready to paint yet, there is still an undercarriage to clean up, and a few niggly pre-paint details.

Ghana Customs Shock

To date, apart from a few things procured locally, the primary source of parts to rebuild our 1995 Landrover Defender has been two shipments from Famous Four http://www.famousfour.co.uk/ in England.     This is how we got almost all the brakes and  clutch parts, the rear half axles, the wheel bearings, the tie rod ends, the door seals,  the aluminum chequerplate panels, the heavy duty shocks, etc.   Those shipments came into Ghana with greater ease and speed than I had expected in March and April, delivered to the front door of the embassy within two weeks of sending from the source.

I started compiling a list of things for a third shipment in June to cover a few mechanical pieces that I had missed in the earlier shipments, as well as some interior and exterior finishing pieces.  The third shipment is relatively small and includes relatively  inexpensive, yet vital  pieces that are not available or are very expensive locally.  It includes:  the fuel sender (the piece in the tank which which measures the fuel level for the fuel gauge which I discovered had been removed from this vehicle at some point); the bonnet release cable and device;  a handbrake cable that is too expensive here; a new set of floor screws,  tie rod ends (that I should have ordered the first time);  and some mechanical pieces like bushings for the rear A-frame that were not part of the bushing kit I got in the first shipment. more body pieces  (aluminum chequerplate for the hood, screws to tighten up some of the body plates, new exterior lights to replace the old ones that might work and look OK now but will look really old when we repaint the body.   I also bought new front seat foams and covers from Exmoor Trim in England (www.exmoortrim.co.uk) .   One of the reasons why I wanted to do our own vehicle is that I did not like the way they did the interiors here, the seats were particularly frightening.   However, this shipment did not  include any soundproofing even though much of the delay in finalizing the order resulted from my own indecision about the various options for the stuff.  In the end I concluded that all things considered England would not be the optimal choice for soundproofing for us(see separate “sound reduction puzzle” post).

This shipment has demonstrated how the reliance on externally-sourced parts makes my schedule vulnerable to delays beyond my control.   There were already delays due to my own indecision and effort to include as much as possible in this shipment before finally finalizing the order in late  July.   When mid-August came and I had not heard anything I went back to Famous Four to ask for a sitrep.  The next day I received a phone call from TNT in Ghana to say the shipment had arrived in Ghana but was being held in at the airport by the Customs and Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and that I would need to present myself at the airport in order to clear it.    This had not part of the process in any of the previous shpments,  neither of the two  Famous Four shipments or the early investment in outfitting gear we had shipped back from South Africa last December incl. a mobile fridge before we even owned the vehicle.    I have to wonder how long the things had been in Ghana before TNT deemed to phone me, perhaps prompted by a call from Famous Four.  As it turns out this was just the beginning of series of problems with both TNT and CEPS that would combine to seriously delay the delivery of this shipment.

I took a morning off work to go to the airport cargo area and on arrival at the entrance was besieged by people asking where I was going, one fellow just got into my front seat uninvited and said he would show me where TNT was.  It turns out everyone there is looking for  a cut in the process.   When I got to the TNT office I was informed that I had to pay a “handling charges”, even though my shipping fees with Famous Four were to take it to the door.    DHL, who had handled the two previous shipments, had on both occasions delivered the goods no problem to the High Commission without delay.    I declined paying the handling fees and left the airport and sent a message to Famous Four to seek clarification about shipping/handling costs.  The next day I got a phone call from a manager at the local TNT office (with a strong British accent) to apologize for the confusion, there would be no handling fee, but I still needed to clear Customs.

A couple of days later I went back to the airport and went through the same process of having someone jump into the front seat.  This time I was well received at TNT by the same person who had asked me for the handling fee the previous occasion,  who this time just escorted me to the small office of a CEPS officer at the end of the warehouse.   Despite the modest office the CEPs officer had an air of assurance and authority and people around certainly deferred to him.   After we were introduced he looked at the documents the TNT person had given him and asked if these car parts were for official purposes or  my personal use.   I decided it would be tough to convince him these were official auto parts and indicated it was for my personal vehicle.  He said that even though I was a diplomat entitled to duty-free import of personal possessions,  how did he know I did not have a Ghanaian girlfriend I was bringing in car parts for?   I said I did not appreciate being accussed of abusing my diplomatic privilege,  that I was obliged to respect laws and  protocol, just CEPS was obliged to respect the Geneva Convention.   He said that since this was for personal not official use I would have  seek the approval of Ghana’s the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  I was  not sure  that was true but it did not seem totally improbable and I decided there was nothing to be gained from challenging him and said I would be pleased  of course to follow any required procedures.   While he was telling me about the procedure I had to follow, he also wanted to  impress upon me  how long the procedure could take,  as if I had some choice.

The reason for his making the point about how long the process could take became clear only after I had agreed to go for MFA clearance and left his small office at the end of a warehouse and was walking acrosss the yard.  As I neared my car  I  was approached by a fellow I had noticed in the  warehouse when I first came in.  He repeated the Customs agent’s refrain that it could take a long time to obtain the clearance, but that he thought I could get the goods that day if I was prepared to pay the duty.   I asked if he knew how much the duty would be.  He said  250 cedis, the equivalent of about $170.   I don’t think my shipment  was worth that much, and the fact that I was having this conversation in the parking lot with a fellow in jeans and T-shirt, who also asked me how much I wantd for my Subaru Legacy that we were standing beside, helped me realize that I had just been asked for a bribe.

For better or worse, I have had a long-standing personal and professional commitment against paying bribes.  In my experience this has been the position of  Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAIT) and of CIDA where I work, and I am no stranger to waiting out delays required to clear our personal effects upon arrival in other postings because we don’t pay bribes.   I declined the offer of paying the “duty”, saying I preferred to do it properly.   Interestingly, about the same time as we were trying to clear this shipment newly-arrived diplomatic staff at the High Commission were also being subjected by CEPS to unusually long delays in processing their personal effects at the  Tema Port,  in at least one instance there had been an approach that sounded like a request for a special payment.   Despite Ghana’s relatively positive governance image when compared to other African countries, corruption remains a significant development challenge.   Certainly corruption persists within CEPS.

Later that day when I spoke to CHC Admin they said indeed it was not out of order for CEPS to ask for MFA clearance and this was part of CHC Admin’s duties.  It would take a couple of weeks to get it.  Fortunately CHC has the knowledge of the process and people to facilitate this and I was hoping to get my hands on the goods just before Laura and I were scheduled to depart for a two-week Egyptian vacation.  We got the clearance about three weeks later and  TNT came to the CHC to pick up the formal approval MFA and presented it to the CEPS officer at the agent.  By  7PM on the Friday of the weekend we were scheduled to leave it was delivered to our house.   On Saturday I was able to get the parts and vehicle to Opere’s shop under the tree where he, Paani the “welder”, and Eric the electrician were able to work on their respective pieces while we were out of the country.

The implications of the problems that I had with this shipment are not limited to the delay of more than a month.   I now have a much more cautious attitude toward any future shipments and will be more willing to source second hand or more expensive new parts locally rather than importing and risking having to deal with CEPS again.   Fortunately the only offshore things we still need are a few items for expedition outfitting.   I was able to get some from Offroad Egypt(separate post coming), and we should be able to pick up most of the rest of what we need on a shopping trip planned to South Africa at Christmas and bring it back with us.

As I write all the mechanical parts have now finally been installed, Phase I of the electrical work is underway (separate post coming) and Paani has finished the pre-paint body work.

Getting Ready to Paint 1 Picking a Colour

Defenders are basically trucks and usually coloured appropriately truckish.  Maybe it is the military origins honed by years of utilitarian uses.   That is reflected in the LRs one sees around Accra.  Dark Grey, Dark Blue. Dark Green.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, in Ghana lately the most popular colour for the rebuilds coming out of Opere’s shop seems to be white.  That may well have been inspired by my colleague Stephane who had his Defender done that colour last year and it generated a great deal of positive comment.   It makes for a very pretty truck.  However, we are looking for something a bit less pretty, more truckish.  Somehow the idea of touring the Sahel region of Africa in a bright white truck that stands out from everything else does not quite seem appropriate.

A great many of Opere’s rebuilds end up white

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After  looking at lots of choices, reviewing colours on-line and going by paint shops to see what they offer  we  shifted our preference a few times.  We hovered on white for a fair bit, shifted to burgundy for a short bit, and then finally settled on  what the Land Rover official colour scheme calls NATO Lightstone.  Right in the military tradition.   In more common terms one might call it Tan, or Caramel.   Some chips we have seen call this Sand, but that is misleading.  The vehicle already seems pretty sand-coloured.   We have chosen, or at least we hope we have chosen,  something darker and more vivid.   This choice was inspired because we saw one drive by (without our camera in hand).  With a white roof and white wheels it will look very sharp, but not so sharp it will look terribly out of place in Ougaudougou or Timbuctu.   We have no photos yet, but here is a neat site that we used to test colours.  Try the Desert Sands in the bottom left-hand corner of the chart, on the 90/110.   https://paintman.co.uk/shop/nato-light-stone-satin/     That is the only way you get to see the colour now because we do not have any examples

                                          

Every tow truck one sees in Ghana is an old Series Land Rover 

 

 

Picking a colour is the easy part.  In Ghana even getting a vehicle painted comes equiped with its own socio-cultural nuances.  I have a “welder” who does the body work and who is responsible for getting the vehicle ready, but only up to a point.  The “sprayer” does more than just paint, but it is really tricky to figure out where the welder’s responsibility ends and the “sprayer’s” responsibility begins.   During the bodywork the welder (Paani – see separate post) went through the vehicle and straightened crooked pieces, replaced rusted parts, punched out and filled dents and sealed any unwanted screw holes.  But when he finished he left the fill sections a bit rough on purpose.   That,  I learn has to be done by the sprayer just before the paint goes on, so it is clean and there is no water that has penetrated the filler.  That makes sense once you learn it, but you have to learn it.  There is a lot to learn, I have never had a vehicle fully painted before and that fact that it is a fixer-upper truck that I want to convert to something comfortable and attractive means I cannot count on everyone else to bring the attention to detail, I have to do that myself.

 

Air Conditioning

Ghana is a hot humid country in the tropics, so air conditioning is not an optional feature, we have to have it.  The EPA Land Rover is equipped for air conditioning, but after 15 years it is not in great shape.  Opere does not do A/C and does not seem to want to recommend someone.  I got Francis to put me in touch with someone, Ben from Big-Ben Air Conditioning.

In the process of getting a quote I encouraged Ben to re-use any of the parts, but both he and Francis were quite insistent that to work properly and last the compressor, condenser, evaporator, and hoses should all be replaced. Opere also confirmed that much, so I will bite the bullet.   In this case I did not even go to the trouble of getting two quotes; instead I perused the web as a source of wisdom and prices for parts.  Ben’s quote was really only a fraction of the price of bringing in new parts: GHC 550 (CAD 300) for a reconditioned air conditioning system – new hoses all round, a new fan belt and the reconditioned compressor, condenser and evaporator – gassed up and ready to go.  At that price, we signed a contract with 50%  down and 50% on delivery, with a 3 month guarantee.  I tried for a hold-back but Ben was not buying that.

When delivered a week later the system seemed to work well, but there were a couple of problems. There was a fair bit of condensation on distribution system in the cabin, and  I also noticed that the belt seemed to be fraying on one edge.  Then when I was out to see Opere on something else he pointed out that the thermostat had been mounted in the wrong place under the bonnet, up high in front of the fuel filter so that it would not be possible to change the filter without removing the whole housing from the frame.

With those problems obviously I had to call Ben to test the worth of the guarantee I had secured without the benefit of the holdback.  It took him a few days to return my call, and when he did finally come by he was not easily convinced the thermostat had been misplaced.  However, when I explained the placement Opere had shown me he agreed to relocate it.  On the condensation he said that was normal, but could be reduced by the installation of some foam around the interior distribution system for another GHC 30.  I offered to deliver the vehicle  to his shop, which is located near Kaneshie market.   It was interesting to see that this is not a “shop-under-a-tree, he has a whole fenced yard with a gate and a building.  I drop it off on a Saturday and grab one of Accra’s dilapidated but affordable taxis  back across town through the late Saturday afternoon traffic.

Ben brought the Defender back to me on Tuesday.   It is working quite well and the drive is much more comfortable.  In addition to re-situating the thermostat and replacing one of the interior vent housings that had been broken before I gave it to him, , he also also insulated the simple, rather bulky interior A/C distribution system for the GHC30 (CDN 20) cost of the foam.  We really appreciate the greater comfort this offers, although the effectiveness of the new A/C is temporarily limited by the fact that all the door seals and panels are all off because of the body work in progress so the cool air does not stay in for too long.  That will be corrected after we paint and can finish the interior.   I do not have unlimited confidence in the reconditioned parts that were sourced from god-only-knows-where, but at least the cost was low enough we can  replace a few parts before we get close to the cost of new parts.   The additional work of the belt-driven compressor seems to make the engine run hotter, which is no great surprise, and  suggests I should also look carefully at the cooling system to mitigate the risk of overheating.   But in addition to being more comfortable, the whole vehicle seems to run more quietly, even when the A/C is not activated.      Need to get focused on painting, soundproofing and interior upholstery next.

Completion of Phase I of the Body Work

After reviewing a couple of other options I signed a  GHC 300 contract with Paani the “welder” for the body work,which included removal and replacement of all the rusted door and floor pieces, removal  of the electrical plugs along the roof gutter, repair of the door hinges and loose windows, and straightening/filling/adjusting of the body dents.   It was a big job and the contract I did up gave him 3 weeks to complete the work but he had it done in less than two.

Stripped down to gain access to bulkhead and footwells
New footwell on passenger side, note A/C distributor is out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some before and after pictures are particularly instructive in this case.  The one immediately below is of the footwell on the passenger side which was so rusted I could see the road through the left hand side under my feet as I drove.  When it rained my feet got wet.  I had purchased replacements for both the right and left had side footwells  from Famous Four in the UK and had Paani install these.  I learned after I had imported mine that Paani also makes these, but the material cost would have been about the same.  I think Paani would have preferred I not buy my own because they are harder to install, but they fit well and are a heavier grade of galvanized aluminum than what he has.

New driver's side footwell, in the proces of being installed
Driver side footwell, before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big part of what Paani had to do was restore the bottom of the door frames.  A classic issue with Land Rovers is rust that appears where the aluminum body sheets come into contact with the steel door frames, especially at the bottom because that is more exposed to wet conditions.  He cut out the entire bottom of all the door frames and replaced this with galvanized pieces he makes.

Paani the welder with a restored door, note the new metal at the bottom

The rear “safari door” got special treatment.  Paani advised me that where the spare tire is mounted on the rear door it is not uncommon for the door frame to bend or break, particularly if the vehicle has been driven on lots of bad roads.  Ours is a good example of this, when the rear door closed with the tire on it shook as if it were going to fall off.  Not any more, Paani repaired and re-inforced the door and it now closes very smoothly.

Repaired and reinforced rear safari door

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door work included taking all the doors off and remounting them.   Paani showed me if you open a door and stand at the end and move the door up and down you can notice a bit of wiggle, which indicates wear in the hings and mountings. That wiggle is now gone.  He also replaced all the exterior door hinge screws, using a replacement set I had imported with my second shipment from  Famous Four in the UK.  This is as much appearance as anything, it will pay off when it comes time for repainting as many of the screw heads were showing signs of rust.

One of the delights of this phase of the restoration has been working with Paani  He fulfilled all the terms of his contract and surpassed these in several ways.  Our contract did say he had to replace all rusted metal, but when I wrote that I did not realize how much there was to replace and which I only notice as I go around and see all the new metal in the bulkhead, doors and elsewhere he has put in.  He also straightened a bend in the front bumper that I had not even noticed until he showed me he had straightened it.  He also reseated the side door sills that 15 years of abuse had left a bit loose and  off-kilter.  Not in the contract at all was the removal of all the door panels and roof lining that he had to do to complete the work.  He has all the pieces neatly stored in a corner of a shed at Opere’s Shop under the tree; perhaps I should be nervous something is going to get lost, but I’m not.   Paani is a charming, consientious young man who takes great pride in his work.  It is a pleasure to work with him and he is certainly going to benefit from a good “dash” for the work he has done for me.

The fender the elephant must have sat on
Dent hammered out and filled, before sanding
So all the basic metal work and external body work is done.   The reference in the title of this post to “Phase I” of the body work is less a reflection of a pre-conceived multi-phase plan than it is the simple recognition that there is still more body work to do.  Paani still has to fill the holes in the cargo bay as per contract before I can pay him his holdback, and there is also the not-so-minor matter of cutting out the rear wheel wells to allow installation of rear seats from a Land Rover Discovery to make the back seat more comfortable (I hope to do a separate post on this).  I am also discussing with Paani the options for the door “steps” which also deserve a separate post.   Then there are a few other details that will come back after painting, like the installation of the 3mm aluminum chequerplate on the fenders and bonnet, and perhaps a few 2mm decorative sheets in places like the sills and bumper tops.  But that all needs to be kept on the back burner for now, first I have to organize a few electrical touches and the painting of course.

Pre-Restoration Condition of the Body

Now that the basic mechanical work is done it is time to shift attention to the body.  I have now had plenty of time to  sit in, climb over and think about the vehicle to develop some ideas of what  to do and how to do it.

The body is certainly in worse-than-average- condition for a Land Rover this age.  There is a terrific amount of rust on the driver side footwell, and at the bottom of a couple of the doors.   There are dents in most of the doors and panels that need to be knocked out and/or filled, although these are not serious.  All the doors and windows are functional, if a bit sticky.  The front fenders look like an elephant sat on them,  after taking a roll in the mud.

The Fender the Elephant Sat on
Drivers side footwell, rust and all  These will be completely replaced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interior is pretty trashed, the front seats have little or no cover left, the rear cargo space seats are bent and soiled, there are seemingly random holes drilled in the floor that no doubt served some purpose in support of the public education/awareness-raising that this purpose-built vehicle was supporting.  The windows rattle.  What really impresses me is how much dirt there is. In every nook and cranny of the body, the dash the engine compartment, there seems to be 15 years of accumulated dust and grime. I have started to clean the dash but the dirt just keeps on coming.

Cargo Bay Will Become Focal Point for Outfitting for the overland trip

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opere refers to his body person  as  “the welder”,  which led to some misunderstanding at first.  He kept saying I had to come back when the welder was there to talk about the body work.   Not the first application I associate with that trade, but of course Defender bodies are (were) all aluminum, there is absolutely no fibreglass in this vehicle at all.

The idea is now to strip the body completely inside and out, remove or cut away all parts that show any rust (lower portions of the metal door frames and the footwells) and replace these with new galvanized metal, then straightening and filling dents,  before priming and repainting.  This is work that in North America or Europe would be too expensive for me to even contemplate, if I could find someone who could do the work.  In Ghana they are so accustomed to keeping old vehicles on the road that the skills are in abundance, and they are affordable.  I have quotes on the body that are so low I am embarrased to repeat them.

Here is a first general list of the things that need to be done to the body, exclusive of any soundproofing/cosmetics/expedition prep:

  • Removal of all seats and interior fittings
  • Removal of exterior fittings
  • Removal and replacement of rusted metal (doors, footwells, bulkhead)
  • Removal of most of the six electrical outlets located along the side of the roof
  • Removal and/or Fill of all dents and scratches
  • Filling of all drill holes left in cargo bay by previous owner
  • Primer, interior and exterior
  • Painting, interior and exterior
  • Re-installation of interior and exterior fittings
  • Replacement of all door hinge screws
  • Installation of aluminum chequerplate on fender tops and bonnet
  • Installation of new door seals
  • Removal of electrical box in rear wheel well. This was a feature I initially found potentially useful, but all we will need is a couple of good lights on the roof rack, I can better use the wheel well space for additional fuel and water storage.
  • Replacement of all interior and exterior fittings

Opere has a bodywork person (the “welder”) within his stable of specialists (Paani) that I have a quote from on the above that is so reasonable as to beggar belief.  GHC 550, or  about CAD 363.  I have obtained a quote from another fellow who seems quite professional but is a much more costly (GHC 1200).  I have seen a lot of the work that Paani has done and it is seems a good result, and I have watched him work.  He is very good, why risk a higher price on an unknown bidder, when I know the low bidder does quality work?  Of course these quotes do not include painting, that is done by someone else.  It is typical of Ghana (of Africa?) that everyone specializes and it is difficult to find people who will quote you a price on a multi-component task.  At one point I thought Opere would play this role because he hires these people to do work for him, but he seems to prefer that I deal with them directly.  At least this cuts out the middleman, but I have to be careful I am not being given inflated  quotes because I am percieved as a dumb foreigner that does not know the market.  (a rather accurate perception, actually).   I am obtaining two or more quotes for just about everything – painting, body work, interior upholstery, etc) and when the suppliers see me responding to good prices that will help to encourage reasonable pricing for future things.

I am gradually accumulating some body parts for this part of the restoration.  I brought in new galvanized aluminum footwells from Famous Four, and as a first investment in the soundproofing I purchased new seals for all the doors.  Looking ahead to the expedition prep I have ordered galvanized aluminum fender tops, knowing from our South Africa experience we will spend a fair bit of time clambering up to gain access to the roof rack.  Installation of all these latter pieces will come later, after all the other body work is done.