#11 Florida vs Stetson Softball Game Highlights 3 22 2023

Hello everyone, and welcome to Venture Forward. This week I have some tinkering to do with my 1991 Land Rover Defender 110. Over the past few weeks since I've had it home, the truck's mostly been sitting in the garage neglected. I don't want it to fall by the wayside. It's in rough condition, but it's really not far from being trail ready, and I want to take it out into the field as soon as possible. But first, there's a small assortment of odds and ends that I have to one of which is this driver's side door. I've owned the truck for a little over a year now, and every time I use this door, I pull it shut, and the door panel breaks off a little bit more, the lock is broken, the handle pulls off. I'm not looking for this to be a pristine restoration, because this is going to be a trail vehicle. It's going to be out in the field, it's going to get dirty, and on occasion I am going to put it in harm's way. But I want to fix what's broken, and I want it to be as solid and reliable as possible, and I also want it to be comfortable. Window crank works, although the window itself is a little bit loose, and I also need to guide it into place with my finger as it goes up. The door panel itself, while it's intact, is in pretty poor condition. The top corner is pulling away. From what I can tell, most of these fasteners aren't original, and some are missing. The biggest thing I noticed is the door panel has these black plastic Christmas tree clips, and there's one, two, three, and the rest are missing. Some are broken beyond repair, but if I replace as many as I can, particularly this top row, it should seat a lot better. While the mechanical window works fine, when it's down it flops around a lot. It's as if a track or a guide is missing, and I'd really like to fix that because I know when I drive down bumpy roads that's going to be flopping all over the place. All right, I know I need a bunch of these little plastic fasteners and also one of these plastic door lock assemblies. For this stuff I'm going to turn to Rovers North, and my channel Venture Forward is in no way affiliated with Rovers North. They're just one of the go-to suppliers for Land Rover Defender parts in the U.S. Go to their website and Defender. Bear with me here. Body, interior, door panels, front. All right, I'm looking for these fasteners first, and Rovers North makes it really easy. They provide a diagram with numbered parts. This is actually a lot easier than the parts counter at the Jeep dealer for R&G. I do need to research this, and that is Land Rover Defender window channels and glass regulator. It looked like there are some channels that go down the front and back sides of the sliding windows, so part 4 is $11 for the front channel and part 6 is $11 for the rear channel. That might be what I need, but I'm not 100% sure since I don't seem to have channels already, so I'm going to call Rovers North about the channels and also about the door lock, but I know that they have these plastic clips that I need. All right, hopefully I'm not opening a can of worms, but I want to see what is behind here because I might need to get behind here to repair the window channel. Whenever things get complicated, I start taking pictures of the disassembly process so I know what fasteners to use putting it back together. Okay, there it is. There's a channel here that doesn't seem to be doing very much, and there are no channels here. In fact, this edge of the door looks very bad. The door is looking rough, and it clearly has a history. While I'd love to overhaul it properly, good enough is going to have to be good enough. This is the first time I've lived anywhere in six years, so my selection of tools is limited to a bag of hand tools that I take in the field with me. Anyway, the door is dismantled. I want to make a run to the hardware store for assorted fasteners, and since I recorded that one scene, I've received my order of replacement parts from Rovers North. All right, we have new plastic tree fasteners for the door panel, a new bezel for the interior door lock and the plastic plate that the bezel mounts to, and I have new plastic door channels that I hope to mount inside the door cavity. Although, I'll be honest, I have no idea how these attach. With the addition of that front channel alone, it feels a lot better, so I think that's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to add this piece here, and there was nothing here before it. I should be able to poke a sheet metal screw through there, and then up top hold this piece in with double-sided 3M trim tape. All right, I just got back from a fastener run at the hardware store. I got one bag, two bags, and that should help make up for the deficiency in the doors, and I got a strip of air conditioner weather seal for six bucks. I don't know, I thought it might come in handy. The interior door handle is affixed to this surface here, and on multiple occasions, these threaded plastic clips would strip and the handle would pop out. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to remove these clips entirely using a machine screw and a fender washer. I'm going to insert that from the other side, and then the handle will get installed like that with a washer and a nyloc nut. Now this is just a mock-up without the plastic door cover, so this will all be seated and flush, but once I'm done, that'll be nice and sturdy, and it'll take a lot to rip these door handles off. I just need to get a screw. You just need to hold for a second. Hold for a second. I need a screw. It's all coming together fairly well. The thing that gave me the most trouble was the door latch. It wasn't hard, it was just tedious because the linkages sandwich between the window pane and this metal panel. Although the whole project has been more relaxing than frustrating, making improvements to beat up old vehicles is therapeutic. For just a little bit of extra rattle dampening, I'm taking this air conditioner weather seal. I cut off a little over an inch of foam, and I'm going to stick it right here against the edge of the door. It's not much, but it's a little bit extra to keep things in place. Might do nothing at all. I'm happy. It's not perfect, but it is a huge improvement. It feels much more solid, and I think the biggest win was attaching the inside door handles with machine screws and nyloc nuts. Now I can give the handle a good hearty tug, and I don't have to worry about it going anywhere. I spent around $75 total to get the job done. A bunch of small parts from Rover's North, and fasteners from the hardware store. That's good for now. That's a decent step toward getting the Land Rover ready for adventure. I hope you enjoyed watching me tinker with the truck. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next week!