Buick Videos

Custom Car Seat Mounts

Since the Land Rover Disco 2 does not have a good way to mount car seats, we had to take matters into our own hands...

"Eye Nut" from the best hardware store in the world, McMaster-Carr. Low profile ARP (www.arp-bolts.com) 3/8 stainless bolt is threaded through a huge fender washer in the wheel arch and up into the wheel nut. That way there is not a stud poking down towards the tire. Then used a good 2 inch ratchet strap and removed the short strap end on this side to get the ratchet where i wanted it when the seat is in place.

Took the back seat out of the truck (wow was that hard to handle!) and pulled the seat apart. Removed the stock seat belt latch bolt and ran it through a carabiner to allow the other ratchet straps to be connected. The carabiner can also be pushed back out of the way when it is not needed.

Did the same on the other side. Now that the 6 year old is in a booster, we got her a great set of cutom 5-point harnesses from our friends at Wesco Performance. They are the best! http://www.wescoperformance.com/ They made the belts in the length I wanted and made the lap belts reversed so I can pull up on them to strap her in, instead of trying to pull down. The belts work perfectly with a basic booster bottom.

Other side of the 5-point, with another eye-nut.

The whole setup, without seats. The center seat is usually strapped in on top of the center arm rest, it fits a little better that way. The seats can now be put in extremely tight in under 5 minutes flat!

Suited up and ready for action (or a hair brush, Day 3 of Mojave Road does that to you!)

Storage Finally Done!

Here it is, only took like 2 years with everything else in life getting in the way. Still need to make a couple of stops in the back of everything to keep things a little quieter, but overall I am very happy with it. Based on a slightly modified Tuffy box for a Jeep. Added cladding, built the mini storage compartment which holds 4(!) folding chairs. Then built the custom pull out shelf using slides from McMaster plus lots of aluminum and stainless fasteners. Finished it off with the different latches to hold things closed, and open. Really a stupid amount of work, but that's the way it goes.

Ridiculously cool Mac's Custom Tie Downs from Expedition Exchange

Custom door made from bits from McMaster Carr

The Fridge.

Stuff.

Custom made baby changing table.

The Dude. (Did you think I was kidding about the changing table?)

Lock to keep the shelf open when parked on a hill.

Lock to keep it from moving around while wheelin'

Close up.

The End.

More truck pics

New Roll Cage & Headliner for the Super Rover

So, after many months of thinking about doing this, and being somewhat discouraged about what I have seen out there, I decided to take the plunge. I am posting this stuff in case there is anyone else out there that wants to tackle this, or if I can answer any questions for anyone crazy enough to go down this road.A huge THANK YOU goes out to my buddy Brian Smith, Fabricator Extraordinaire, who if he never sees another Rover in his whole life, it will be too soon. I think he might listen to me a little closer next time when I tell him how cramped something is. This started as a trade because he owed me a small favor, now I owe him a huge one.The whole cage is 1 3/4 .120 wall 4130 chromoly. We used almost 90 feet total. The cage is fully tig welded around all of the joints, and wherever possible, stitched to the body itself, so it won't rattle. We really wanted to make sure that anything we did didn't impede the already ridiculously tight openings in the truck, or make it any less civilized. After pulling the whole truck apart, Brian was able to fit most of the cage behind the headliner, including the gussets.Since the headliner was falling down when we started, it seemed like a good time to fix that too. Special Thanks to Eric Thorsen from the Upholstery Shop for fixing up the headliner, which was also way more work than it should have been. Not to mention the scavenger hunt to find the perfect material, and enough of it.Start to finish was 3 ½ weeks total.Anyway, here is a link to the pics with a couple of notes.

Pics-a-Plenty...

Front window, showing the "Brinks" bar

Other side


Close up of the curved windshield bar. It's good to have friends with nicer tools than you.

Top left gusset

Top right gusset

Super secret corner gusset plate in front of the dash

Front bar disappearing into the dash

Left side front main hoop, through dash and plated to lower a-pillar

Right side...

Roof, a-pillar & b-pillar area, in progress...

2nd row area, a little later on (seats are back in) Shows b-pillar and c-pillar (main hoop) area. Notice extra bars in roof to keep the kids safe.

Rear shot of c-pillar and d-pillar (another complete hoop)

Rear shot, a little earlier on in the build

Super sexy b-pillar bar. No blockage to getting in and out of the truck, or adjusting the seats

Kids seat belt bar, ready for 5 points (once they are out of their car seats)

Minor modification for sunroof drain tube

From the back cargo door

Back quarter, with part of the interior back in

Front passenger seat belt bar, still allows the seats to go almost all the way back

From the back

The whole shebang

The whole shebang, with new skin

Had to trim the a-pillar plastic to make the bars fit right, so they got wrapped too

Front roof section, obviously

Back roof section with plastics back in

Close up of rear bar. It couldn't be totally hidden, but I think it worked out OK

Front to back, from the front door

That's all!