Sandringham 6x6

[sako243]

£260. Considering I paid half that for a plate of 20mm steel that would have made about 2/3rds of them and that was before all the big price hikes I don't think it's bad. Almost all that cost was the materials not the time.

I didn't rush then it was an as and when and Mark just slotted it in because he had an opportunity to.

 

[sako243]

If I'd had enough steel I could have dropped it off and they'd have just charged half an hour or so to cut it out.

 

[sako243]

Oopsie

 

[8ob]

Good! LD28`s are a boat anchor

Bob

 

[sako243]

Maybe I'll make it into a twin engined 6x6 and turn the LD28 into a gennie / welder unit on the back. People would think it's a slight overkill but it was so pathetic in it's current tune...

 

[sako243]

Must be something about me working on engines and it snowing. Last time I was fixing some bent pushrods it was in 3" of snow in the Scottish highlands. The irony the plastering in the new workshop isn't quite finished yet and the weather's been decent so just decided to do the engine swap outside. And it started snowing today

 

[addjunkie]

That looks awful posh for a workshop, whats the black coating on the wood?

 

[Migmac]

That looks awful posh for a workshop, whats the black coating on the wood?

He’s already got a Sandringham, might as well have another palace as a workshop

 

[sako243]

That looks awful posh for a workshop

Wait until you see the house...


That barn was originally a stables / coach-house for the main house so those arches were, I think, hay racks for the horses. I've been trying to be sympathetic and keeping as many of the old original features but still make it usable. The floor used to be large slabs of slate and tiled but wasn't really going to work for a machine shop. The bricks were behind the old lime plaster so rather than cover them up again decided to make a feature of them. A friend has suggested I should put my "trophies" from stuff I've broken on the Land Rover in them as a display (given I snapped two crankshafts in the Defender's engine).

Here's what it looked like after the old first floor and stables were ripped out. I was going to try and keep the old curved timber framework of the stables since it looked like it was mostly original but the moment you touched it it crumbled to dust as it was riddled with wood worm.

You can see the alcolves in the back - when I bought the place there were two large stables because a previous owner used to have a racehorse so I think converted the three smaller stables into two larger ones (hence why the middle alcolve is blocked in in this photo).

For example I didn't need to do the arch but thought it was more in-keeping with the building to add one. It's got large horizontal lintels behind it that take the main weight of the wall so the arch is purely decorative but makes it look a lot nicer.

whats the black coating on the wood?

Good old fashioned creosote as we can still buy it.

I was only going to creosote the timbers used for the wall plates but left the icecream tub I was using ontop of the stack of timber overnight. The creosote dissolved the icecream tub and that shows how effective it is at soaking through timber because some of those 12x2s were 2ft lower down in the pile and it soaked through all 10 or so joists deep to get there.

 

[sako243]

This explains the oopsie with the creosote better.

Icecream tub is where it leaked and you can see how far down through the joists it soaked.

 

[addjunkie]

Wait until you see the house...


That barn was originally a stables / coach-house for the main house so those arches were, I think, hay racks for the horses. I've been trying to be sympathetic and keeping as many of the old original features but still make it usable. The floor used to be large slabs of slate and tiled but wasn't really going to work for a machine shop. The bricks were behind the old lime plaster so rather than cover them up again decided to make a feature of them. A friend has suggested I should put my "trophies" from stuff I've broken on the Land Rover in them as a display (given I snapped two crankshafts in the Defender's engine).

Here's what it looked like after the old first floor and stables were ripped out. I was going to try and keep the old curved timber framework of the stables since it looked like it was mostly original but the moment you touched it it crumbled to dust as it was riddled with wood worm.

You can see the alcolves in the back - when I bought the place there were two large stables because a previous owner used to have a racehorse so I think converted the three smaller stables into two larger ones (hence why the middle alcolve is blocked in in this photo).
View attachment 283018
For example I didn't need to do the arch but thought it was more in-keeping with the building to add one. It's got large horizontal lintels behind it that take the main weight of the wall so the arch is purely decorative but makes it look a lot nicer.
View attachment 283023

Good old fashioned creosote as we can still buy it.

I was only going to creosote the timbers used for the wall plates but left the icecream tub I was using ontop of the stack of timber overnight. The creosote dissolved the icecream tub and that shows how effective it is at soaking through timber because some of those 12x2s were 2ft lower down in the pile and it soaked through all 10 or so joists deep to get there.

Thanks for that, it make sense now. The arches look the part and I agree with the sympathetic restoration, I did think about putting arches in to my barns when I refurbished then, but from the old pictures I could find, theyd never been arches. And they would have been a nightmare for window / door fames. So used a stone gate post over one opening and got stone lintels cut for the other two.

Has that also been rendered at some point. Did you reclaim the big slates in the floor, or concrete over them?

 

[sako243]

That doorway did have an arch previously because you could see where it had been blocked in. My theory is that it started failing for some reason and rather than fix the issue in the original way they shoved a couple of I-beams across and then bricked up above it. It was big enough (just) to fit a Defender in but since acquiring the 2CX which didn't quite fit the decision was made not only to reinstate the arch but raise the lintel higher. Some "technical" difficulties by the builders used at the time but basically a half-depth cast in-situ lintel was done where the old joists went into the wall. That allowed some strongboys and acros to be shoved in to support the stonework above whilst three reinforced concrete lintels were installed underneath the cast one. Once the lintels were done then the arch formed just a decorative facade (on the second attempt, first was a shocker so told them to knock it down). Much to @8ob's chargrin there's a roller door installed behind the arch (which unfortunately doesn't quite tuck up all the way behind the arch when retracted) but it's insulated and easy to open etc. I may at some point make some nice timber doors to sit in front but for the moment that's a luxury purely for aesthetics.

The inside was originally lath and plaster (still is upstairs) but where the stables / horsey bits were the lower bit (perhaps later on) was replaced with a potash based render which was bloody tough and hard to get off. All the slate slabs have been saved (although a couple were fractured and subsequently broke). Similarly all the bricks which form the "cobbles" have been saved as well. Some bits of the slate (although I don't think any from the floor) have been used for the lintels to form a flat shelf in each of the arches. Outside I'm not sure whether it's been rendered or just yet another botched job at trying to patch up something (I'm discovering more and more on the house in the background of which you can see roughly half of it). Once I've "finished" downstairs enough and made a decent start on the house I'll rake out the motar and repoint the outside.

Then I can make a start on the blacksmiths (with an old forge) that's off to the right (where the engine crane can be seen in the door).

A lifetime of projects...

 

[addjunkie]

A lifetime of projects...

Thats what happens when you buy old houses. Takes a certain kind of person, espescially if you havent got super deep pockets.

 

[sako243]

Takes a certain kind of person

Idiotic ones, yes I know.


I bought it mainly for the views and the potential workshops, the 7-9 bedrooms were an added bonus

 

[addjunkie]

Idiotic ones, yes I know.


I bought it mainly for the views and the potential workshops, the 7-9 bedrooms were an added bonus

Think how many spare landrover parts you can store in all those bedrooms

 

[sako243]

Think how many spare landrover parts you can store in all those bedrooms

I think I've managed to keep all Land Rover parts out of the bedrooms so far...


There's a set of P38 leather seats in the cellar if anyone wants them.

 

[Cobbler]

I think I've managed to keep all Land Rover parts out of the bedrooms so far...


There's a set of P38 leather seats in the cellar if anyone wants them.

Is it P38 seats people fit in 110’s Sako?

 

[stuvy]

Is it P38 seats people fit in 110’s Sako?

Yep they really suit it too and I’m sure Ed has wired them in too

 

[Cobbler]

Yep they really suit it too and I’m sure Ed has wired them in too

I’ve passed it on to my son for his v8, haven’t heard back, thanks.

 

[sako243]

I've got L322 seats (2004MY specifically from a Td6 I think it was) in mine so not the same as a P38. Even more comfortable but even bigger. Although they are now sitting on a quickly fabricated custom seat base so even more comfortable than when @stuvy saw them as its dropped the fronts down a bit.

I think the P38 ones would be easier to fit actually being slightly less chunky but you can't really have a bulkhead behind them. I looked at them for the Sandringham but won't work unless the cab is lengthened a bit.

I'm not sure about whether other people have fitted P38 ones, I know a few with Freelander seats, Civic, Discovery and so on but not P38 and I'm not sure I know of another Defender with a full set from an L322 like mine.