J Reg 200Tdi Auto Discovery - Full Dakar build.
Completed 4^th February 2006.

This five door 200 Tdi Discovery had been purchased on behalf of a customer and to their specific requirements, Automatic, 200Tdi with Beige interior and a reasonable mileage.

The interior Mk1 Discovery dash sits much lower than on later 300Tdi models and it remains to be seen at this stage if we will use the original or modified Dakar roll cage to house it.

We have done so many of these now we're pretty sure we can get the roof off a Discovery or Range Rover quicker than the fire brigade.

One thing we do recommend is protecting the dash board whilst you are cutting through the roof support posts.

The rear body is completely stripped off from immediately behind the front seats exposing the fuel tank and rear axle A-Frame assembly.

Removing the body and side sills revealed some rust on the floor plan, but nothing serious. This will be cut out and patched prior to fitting the Dakar's side frames and roll cage.

The fuel tank has been removed and the rear chassis overhang cut off just behind the anti roll bar mounting.

Primed and painted we are now ready to start assembling the roll cage onto the donor.

The angle bar seen here welded to the chassis is to support the rear floor and the Dakar's fuel tank.

The Dakar's fuel tank has been specially made to accept the Discovery's sender unit/fuel pump assembly which is simply unscrewed from the old fuel tank and screwed into the new one.

As you probably spotted from the fuel tank picture, we now have the roll cage fitted and the rear floor that sits beneath the tank itself. We are now preparing to fit the colour coded fibre glass side panels to the side frames of the roll cage. We use a sikaflex type of adhesive to bond this into place and leave it clamped in place overnight to cure.

The clamps at the bottom hold the side panel tight up against the lower frame box section using metal plates to spread the load. Whilst the masking tape at the top keeps the edge flush with the frame in order to ensure the body shell will still be able to fit snugly over this when lowered into place.

Once the side frames have been left overnight for the bonding agent to fully harden, the fixing clamps and tape can be removed and the body shell can be fitted. This is a minimum of a two person job and we strongly recommend that the main roll over hoops be protected with bubble wrap or similar during the fitting process to allow you to rest the shell against whilst achieving a good fit.

A good indication that the body is correctly positioned and not twisted is to get an equal gap between the bottom of the rear body and the protruding rear chassis legs.

The 200Tdi engine is a lovely compact engine when compared to the Rover V8, providing ample room for maintenance in the engine compartment.

The seats have now been re-fitted and sit perfectly between the transmission tunnel and the body sides. Each end of the dash that is exposed will be covered by the A-Posts that are part of our door kit, so don't panic at the gaping holes in this picture.

We have re-located the number plate from the lower chassis area to the rear wheel arch in order to accommodate the rear winch tray that has been bolted in place between the chassis arms. A Land Rover NAS specification rear brake light has also been fitted in addition to the normal array of rear lights to act as an eye level brake light in the centre of the spare wheel.

The front of this Dakar is also going to play host to a Winch and so we've opted for mounting the number plate on the bonnet's leading edge.

The more air we can get to flow through the intercooler on this 2.5 lite Diesel engined Dakar, the better - thus we've fitted additional vents both in the lower front bodywork and the top of the grille as this picture shows.

As the number plate now lives on the leading edge of the bonnet we've omitted the top rail from the nudge bar to ensure it remains visible. We  are now awaiting a visit by the glass man to get the windscreen fitted.

Part of the off road specifications was for a snorkel to be fitted to aid deep water wading and to also help bring cooler air into the engine. We designed and built a raised air intake to follow the passenger 'A' post out of 2.5inch diameter steel pipework, entering the rear edge of the wingtop as can be seen here.

The air filter housing for the snorkel is mounted on the passenger side of the engine bay, fed in from the snorkel through a hole cut into the wing. This picture also shows how well the 200Tdi diesel unit sits in the Dakar engine bay.

The finished snorkel can be seen here, we kept it as tight up against the 'A' post as possible in order to maintain as much visibility from inside the Dakar as possible, In fact from the drivers seat you cannot even see it! These snorkels are now available as standard parts, please get in touch if you would like one for your Dakar. The vent top is available in either the scoop variety seen here or the more traditional swirl pot head.

Finished and awaiting collection. The final specification included our solid door kit and a two piece hard top roof. The keen eyed amongst you may note this hard top has been further developed with a flat, rather than peeked top.