Outono
Well-known member
This is my 1998 Discovery LE. It's my second Rover, my 6th build, and the first vehicle I bought at auction. I call it Casper.
So why the Copart auction? Prices for these vehicles have become crazy and since I knew i'd be restoring the truck either way, I figured i'd be better off buying at the lowest possible price than something inflated in roughly the same condition. But i've got to admit, this whole process has not been easy and its full of fees. Despite winning the auction for just $1,200, I paid another $1,200 in fees and waited almost 7 weeks to get the paperwork from my broker: A Better Bid.
In the state of California, only dealers, wreckers, or other authorized parties get an actual clean / salvage title from Copart upon winning an auction. Everyone else gets a Reg 262, also known as a Bill of Acquisition. That form can be converted into a Salvage Title once you go through smog, a brake & light inspection, and a CHP road-worthiness inspection; doesn't matter if it had a clean title at auction or not. It's a scam, but if you're looking to save a buck, it's worth it. Or at least that's what I tell myself...
The truck is rather unique. The Carfax shows just a single owner its whole life and it was dealer serviced for nearly 25 years. To me, that's worth the risk.
If you're curious, here are the photos from the auction. Who wouldn't take a crack at winning it?
When the vehicle arrived, the only thing wrong with it was a busted front driveshaft so it was replaced with a Tom Woods shaft. Of course, with such an old vehicle (and one that had been sitting a couple years), there was bound to be problems: the steering was crap, the brakes were shot, the tires have dry rot, and the list goes on...
For the first order of business, I decided to address the leaking steering gear. There was so much muck in the area it was hard to tell what was leaking and what wasn't. So erring on the side of caution, I pulled the entire power steering setup all together - pump, lines, gear, and reservoir. While this is a one-person job, it was knocked out in no time with the help of my good friend.
Mmmmm, greasy...
Fluids of all sorts had been dripping for a long time. This was after I mopped up a good amount on the ball joint and track rods. This is so much easier with 2 people.
After pulling the gear, I rented an Autozone heavy duty pitman puller to knock the pitman arm off. Made short work of it with my impact gun. After a good drain, I boxed it up and sent it off to Straight Line Steering in San Jose for a rebuild. I initially asked Red-Head Steering to do it (they're well known in the Land Cruiser world), but they pointed me to SLS instead. I figure it'd probably be a better option than going with a rebuilt import.
That same day, I decided to tackle the tailgate, which couldn't be opened due to something going on with the lock.
The mechanism looked intimidating at first, but it really wasn't hard to tear apart and reinstall. The FSM is of little use though so make sure you take photos along the way to recall where each rod goes.
Turns out a tiny little spring in the locking mechanism was all that it took to get it back to normal. The spring set I used was from Ebay and worked perfectly.
Next step will be the brakes, wheel bearings, and ball joints - then onto inspection to get a proper title. The truck blows a noticeable amount of white smoke while idling, but my coolant and oil look just fine. The exhaust doesn't smell sweet and my ScanGauge shows no codes, but there is definitely lifter noise so we'll see how many miles ill get on the engine before a rebuild.
So why the Copart auction? Prices for these vehicles have become crazy and since I knew i'd be restoring the truck either way, I figured i'd be better off buying at the lowest possible price than something inflated in roughly the same condition. But i've got to admit, this whole process has not been easy and its full of fees. Despite winning the auction for just $1,200, I paid another $1,200 in fees and waited almost 7 weeks to get the paperwork from my broker: A Better Bid.
In the state of California, only dealers, wreckers, or other authorized parties get an actual clean / salvage title from Copart upon winning an auction. Everyone else gets a Reg 262, also known as a Bill of Acquisition. That form can be converted into a Salvage Title once you go through smog, a brake & light inspection, and a CHP road-worthiness inspection; doesn't matter if it had a clean title at auction or not. It's a scam, but if you're looking to save a buck, it's worth it. Or at least that's what I tell myself...
The truck is rather unique. The Carfax shows just a single owner its whole life and it was dealer serviced for nearly 25 years. To me, that's worth the risk.
If you're curious, here are the photos from the auction. Who wouldn't take a crack at winning it?
When the vehicle arrived, the only thing wrong with it was a busted front driveshaft so it was replaced with a Tom Woods shaft. Of course, with such an old vehicle (and one that had been sitting a couple years), there was bound to be problems: the steering was crap, the brakes were shot, the tires have dry rot, and the list goes on...
For the first order of business, I decided to address the leaking steering gear. There was so much muck in the area it was hard to tell what was leaking and what wasn't. So erring on the side of caution, I pulled the entire power steering setup all together - pump, lines, gear, and reservoir. While this is a one-person job, it was knocked out in no time with the help of my good friend.
Mmmmm, greasy...
Fluids of all sorts had been dripping for a long time. This was after I mopped up a good amount on the ball joint and track rods. This is so much easier with 2 people.
After pulling the gear, I rented an Autozone heavy duty pitman puller to knock the pitman arm off. Made short work of it with my impact gun. After a good drain, I boxed it up and sent it off to Straight Line Steering in San Jose for a rebuild. I initially asked Red-Head Steering to do it (they're well known in the Land Cruiser world), but they pointed me to SLS instead. I figure it'd probably be a better option than going with a rebuilt import.
That same day, I decided to tackle the tailgate, which couldn't be opened due to something going on with the lock.
The mechanism looked intimidating at first, but it really wasn't hard to tear apart and reinstall. The FSM is of little use though so make sure you take photos along the way to recall where each rod goes.
Turns out a tiny little spring in the locking mechanism was all that it took to get it back to normal. The spring set I used was from Ebay and worked perfectly.
Next step will be the brakes, wheel bearings, and ball joints - then onto inspection to get a proper title. The truck blows a noticeable amount of white smoke while idling, but my coolant and oil look just fine. The exhaust doesn't smell sweet and my ScanGauge shows no codes, but there is definitely lifter noise so we'll see how many miles ill get on the engine before a rebuild.
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