ECR ROX Project: DISCOTECH


Frequent visitors to the ECR web site will know that once a year we try to build up a project that may be on the minds of our readers. As the fast approaching winter slowly tightens its grip on New England our thoughts once again turn to building up a project Rover during the long winter nights. This time, as promised a few months back, it will be a Discovery Series I. The broad strokes of this project are roughly the same as the past ECR Project vehicles:
Build a well balanced, dual sport (emphasis on the off road, as it should be) Land-Rover that is at home on the interstate as it is on your favorite trail. A Rover that your spouse can drive to pick up the kids at the soccer game, and that you can have a blast on the weekends with on the toughest trails you can find.
A truck that offers performance, reliability and longevity. A Rover that will be able to tackle trails with confidence, knowing that nothing will fail prematurely. A Discovery that will drive across country or on your next trek with ease.
A Land-Rover that... well, that basically kicks butt!
We hope you enjoy the build up process!!
ECR ROX Discotech
The basis for this build up is this 1996 Discovery Series I. It is currently a 4.0 EFI V8 with a 5 speed gearbox. It has 54,000 miles and is a pretty bare bones model, having clothe seats and not too many options other than dual sunroofs and jump seats. That fits our build up like a glove, the simpler the better in our opinion, We still like the Air. Cond. and the power windows for those long cross country trips, but the fewer computers to fail if we end up shoulder deep in a stream the better.
OK, by now you already have questions:
My Disco has a lot of bolt ons, just how does ECR plan to go one better?
Deep water.. hah! My EFI Disco flips out in heavy rain!
We know you have doubts, and questions. That is why we do these projects, to show you just what ECR is capable of with a Disco I, and just what our thoughts on the subject are. So how do we get to reliability, economy and performance? We do that by installing one of Rover's most capable powerplants, and combine that with the best products that have proven themselves to work.


The Broad Strokes:


1996 NAS Discovery
300 Tdi (turbo diesel) engine (no EFI computers, no sensors!) For more Tdi info. go here!
R380 5 speed gearbox
LT230 full time 4x4 transfer case 1.22 ratio
Safari Gard Stage II suspension (with Fox racing shocks and all the tricks)
Safari Gard Front bumper with skid plate
Warn 9000 winch
Safari Gard wrap around rear bumper with fuel tank skid plate
4.11 ring and pinions (we decided to go this route rather than install a 1.4 transfer case. So we are keeping the 1.22 transfer case and going with the 4.11s to get the Tdi gearing right and get a better low range crawl ratio as an added benefit.)
ARB Air Lockers front and rear
ECR ROX Disco wheel flares
ECR ROX Disco rear spoiler
HD steel wheels, (NATO style steel units)
Good-Year MTR radials
Safety Devices full roof rack

Plus all the ECR ROX upgrades:
Steering stabilizer relocation kit
Full tie rod guard
Front differential guard
ECR ROX sliders

and other great upgrades such as:
3 Hella 4000s driving lights
Heavy duty floor mats front and rear
Waterproof seat cover for the rear seat
Mantec raised air intake
Rear spoiler
...and much more

PHASE 1: Paint and body



This image shows our nice Discovery as it came into our shop. Perfectly acceptable as a daily driver, probably seen a lot of soccer games in its 54,000 miles and 5 years out on the roadway, but all that is about to change. We'll be pulling the entire drive train to make room for the 300Tdi, and gutting the electrical system of all its EFI sensors!
Anybody want to buy a complete 4.0 EFI drivetrain?

This image shows the engine bay when the Disco arrived. A little dirty, but mechanically in very sound shape.

The stock interior needs a few things, like a new clock and a new rear view mirror, and some trinkets, but overall it is in great shape. We will be changing little in this area other than an upgraded Eclipse CD sound system, heavy duty floor mats and such, plus we do have a dog around ECR so we'll be covering the rear seat with a waterproof seat cover.

The body is very good. A few minor parking lot dents, but that is to be expected. The paint however was showing its age, and looked "dull", and we can't go through all the trouble of making a truly trick Disco without having it look good too, so we decided to freshen the paint with a new paint job in the original color and a number of coats of PPG clear. More on that later.
Oh yeah, and somebody get those running board off the Discotech! Now!!

One of the first things we need to address is getting rid of any rust or corrosion in the Disco, and this Rover, like most, suffers from some rust issues. In this image you can see the very typical rust around the LH rear door catch has been fully cut away. We'll weld in new steel and epoxy prime the area and then paint it and fully undercoat the area on both sides so that it won't happen again.

In this image you can see that we have replaced the rusty bits with all new steel and tig welded it in place. This makes a correct long lasting repair to the area and no body or filler is ever used in any of our rust repairs. Now that the rust has been removed the area is ready for primer and seam sealing.

The paint prep on the Discotech located all the flaws on the entire body. There was some slight bubbles under the taillights, so we removed all the exterior bolt ons and went over everything by hand to get ready for the new paint. Here you can see that the dings and dents have received some attention and now we are ready to fully prep the Discotech for the new paint. You will also notice that the bumpers have been removed . We'll be replacing those parts with Safari Gard units so they have been eliminated.
Will someone PLEASE get those running boards off!!

This image shows the project nearly ready for the paint booth, a little more bodywork and a lot more taping and well be ready to spray.

The last thing to do before the paintwork is to install our new fender flares. As those of you with Discos know, the wheel opening isn't very large and it really limits tire size you can use. The solution is to trim the body away and install wheel flares to make a larger wheel opening, therefore allowing for larger tires and a wider offset rim. The wider the offset that you can run the less your turning radius will be adversely affected by wider tires, so the flares serve a lot of purposes. The image above show the rear door of the Discotech with some of the required trimming done. We've also removed the door side guards, we'll put those back on after the flares are installed, and after the paintwork.

Here you can see the front section of the rear flare installed temporarily. We'll remove it again to prime and paint all the new edges we've exposed by trimming the body, and then paint the flares to match the truck. As you can see the flares give you a nice aggressive look as well as a larger and wider wheel opening. Next step is to trim the rear body and remove the inner fender well. Our rough guess is that we'll easily be able to run 34 inch tires without rubbing on anything. Who knows, maybe even bigger, we'll have to see when the Stage II suspension goes in.
And for those of you keeping track... thankfully we did finally get the running board off the Discotech.

Just how much will our flares open up the wheel wells? The image above shows the front fender flare held up to the stock body so that you can see the stock wheel opening underneath. We'll definitely be able to stuff some really nice size rubber into that opening, and with the flares painted the same as the body, it will give a really nice finished look to the Discotech, without looking "carved up".

Here you can see the final body line of the front fender, with the fender skin cut away to accept the flare, a nice opening that will look great with the new flares and be functional as well.

This image shows the rear fender opening after modification. Notice that we've also cut away the rear body section to allow for the wrap around Safari Gard rear bumper, that way all the body modifications will be fully primed and painted for a long life without corrosion. We also had to modify the Safari Gard rear bumper because of our large wheel openings, but we'll forward that design to SG so that if you do the same job they'll be able to set you up with a bumper that doesn't need any modifications.

At this point we have moved the Rover into our spray booth and will now finish covering it and wipe it down for the first coat of PPG epoxy primer/surfacer. Next time you see the Discotech it will be wearing new paint and the new flares.

OK, we couldn't resist a picture after we pulled the tape off the Discotech. We have yet to install the flares, and we will also be blacking out the hood in Camel Trophy style, but wanted to show off the beautiful new base coat/ clear coat paint work on the project. It looks great, now on to installing the flares and then gutting the drivetrain.

The last body trick we'll do to the Discotech is to install this trick rear spoiler. Shown here just setting in place. We'll paint it to match and be installing it in a few days. The unit is functional and adds a different look to the project, as we want the Discotech to stand out in the sea of Green Discos in the USA, but with the flares, the spoiler and all the other tricks we have up our sleeves, we doubt we'll have a hard time finding it in the parking lot.

While the hood was removed for the Tdi conversion, we took the opportunity to paint on the Camel Trophy style black out. Done with PPG 9300 paint it will be easy on the eyes due to lack of sun reflection, and it will last a long time, and we think it looks cool to boot. The hood will now get the "Land Rover" decal on the front edge and be installed on the Discotech once the engine is in place.
In the background you can also see our new NATO heavy duty steel rims all painted up in ECR 4 grey, and ready for tires.

OK back to the flares... a very popular topic with the people calling ECR.

In this image you can see one of the rear flares now painted, and in place. The flares we sell are longer than this unit shown. We trimmed ours to match the Safari Gard rear bumper lines better. They normally go down to the bottom line of the stock rear quarter panel.

This image shows the extent of the trimming needed to the rear doors. Both inner and outer door panels are cut away. All door and window functions remain in tact. A new outer door seal is included with the kit to make up for the one that has been removed. The flares are not for the faint of heart, but they will allow you more offset (better turning radius) and larger meats.

Here you can see the extent of the cutting for the inner wheel well. This is done so that larger tires can be installed. The inner door seal remains as seen in the photo.

The flares extend about 1.5" out from where the stock body work would have been. That means you can go an extra 1.5" on rim offset and still keep the tires covered in case the local police want to look your Discovery over. In most states it is illegal to run tires that stick out past the bodywork.

This image shows the cutting needed to fit the front flares. The fronts are simple and easy to both cut and install.

Once installed the rear flares cover all the cut areas nicely and give a great finished look. All the door functions remain the same, even the safety lock for keeping the kids in the car remains unaltered and in the stock location. This image shows the completed rear flare install on the rear door.

A new outer door seal is also included in the kit and keeps the road debris out of the door area just as the factory unit did.


Discotech is now back in the ECR paint shop to finish up the paint on the inner doors and to get the flares installed and put the fender skin back on. We've been held up by back ordered parts needed for the Tdi conversion, so we thought we'd take care of all the paint and bodywork now while we wait for the back ordered parts to become available.

The flares have now been installed, as have the new door side trims. Painted to match these flares look great and are really functional too.

They also give the Discotech a more aggressive look and are certainly different than anything else out there.

The rear spoiler has also been installed. Please excuse the tape on the roof just in front of the spoiler, it was needed to gauge the spoiler install for the Safety Devices roof rack (same unit as used on the Disco XDs) that will be installed later.

We've also installed the left front fender and done all the final trim around the raised air intake. Now it is starting to look like an ECR project.

Here you can see that we have completed the majority of the engine install and have installed the hood. The hood looks great with its Camel Trophy style black out, and we stuck on a new "Land Rover" decal for good measure.

The new grill and lower fascia pieces have now been painted are are awaiting install (the old ones were cracked and broken) and we'll finish up the body work once the front suspension is completed.

Now that the front bumper, winch and front body trims have been installed it is time to finish up the last big job on the basic body of the Discotech. As is common with the Disco Is, the front of our dash panel has lifted away due to a factory production error (no glue under there). In the image above you can see that we have removed the windscreen (as it was pitted and needed to be changed anyway) and now we'll fix the dash pad once and for all.

Here you can see the typical Disco I dash problem, but with the windscreen out its a great time to take care of this problem. Then we'll install a new windscreen and get the Discotech back on the road.

A little industrial grade epoxy and a huge improvised clamp will cure the Discotech's lifting dash forever without the need for screws or odd looking bits on the vehcile's dash. Next it gets the new factory windscreen and then the Paint and Body section of this ECR ROX project will be done.

Here you can see the new windscreen in place, and you'll notice that our dashboard looks great. Once we get all the details done we'll post some final images of the body work here in this page, but for now it is on to other aspects of the Discotech.

If you have any special requests or questions about anything on your Disco or our Discotech project, feel free to email.
We'll be more than happy to help.

PHASE 2: 300 Tdi and 5 speed install (also includes bumpers, etc)
PHASE 3: Stage II Suspension, wheels and tires
PHASE 4: Differentials, ARB lockers, etc
PHASE 5: Seat covers, roof rack and the rest


Back to the Disco Section
Back to the Tdi Section




East Coast Rover Co.
21 Tolman Road
Warren, ME 04864
email: ecrover@midcoast.com