We’ve never been completely happy with the glass sunroof on the 90. Apart from the fact it leaks (don’t they all !) we probably don’t want a sun roof in for Australia. As well as the obvious problems of heat there’s also the fact that it’s quite vulnerable, especially when Pam is doing her roof tent monkey act. A number of times she’s stepped on the sun roof, albeit only lightly, but inevitably one day it’s going to shatter.

The solution was to buy the military version of the sun roof that was fitted to military Defenders and termed an escape hatch. Essentially this is identical to a normal sunroof and fits in exactly the same way but the glass panel is replaced with a substantial aluminium panel. Being military the outside is painted in matt green but that will get sorted when the weather warms up a bit. The aluminium panel also lifts out completely if required, allowing you to exit the vehicle that way or access the roof.

It only took an hour to get the old sunroof out and the new escape hatch in, it then rained and, fortunately no leaks, even with the hose pipe on it.

Another job completed today was to replace the factory spare wheel carrier with a Mantec one. This will transfer most of the weight of the spare wheel down to the chassis rather than relying on the door and door hinges, hopefully preventing the door from disintegrating on the Australian washboard road surfaces.