UPDATE: 8th December 2016
Sadly due to an increasing number of abusive comments and spam, on top of the ongoing image theft issues, I have taken the sad decision to close this blog.
It seems that there is a growing percentage of the public that think they can say and do what they like while online, from stealing content to leaving verbal abuse and foul language. Sadly this minority ruin things for all.
It is not just abusive comments. I have had literally hundreds of my photos or even blog text stolen by people who pin things on Pinterest or post them on Facebook, Tumblr or forums. My site made it very clear that content was not to be copied without my permission but it seems far too many people just don’t care about copyright law.
I’ve put up with it for five years but at the end of the day I have better things to do with my life than moderate ‘free speech’ and battle theft of my original content.
Thank you to all my followers for your fantastic support over the years and best wishes to you all. I have left comments available on this page so that if you need to contact me you can leave a message and I will get back to you.
Really sorry to see you close the blog. I only found your blogs a few months ago and have really enjoyed them. Actually looked in tonight as I was looking for an image of your diesel engine bay to see how the battery carrier/clamp was compared to a petrol. My diesel has a petrol battery and support and is struggling with the colder weather. Picked up a diesel frame yesterday but not sure how it will fit with series 2a headlights.
Good luck, Andrew
Thank you Andrew. I have emailed you about the battery.
Dear Ian, very sad to hear that you have had to close the blog – difficult to conceive how people could abuse you. We had not manifested ourselves yet, but I have been helping my 14 yr old son to restore a 1958 series 2 here in Dubai ( he appeared on the projects page of LRM in the summer) and as it is a first for me also we found your axle sections very useful – came for a check before putting the bearings in and hubs back on and horror of horrors it was gone – I guess we will muddle along! Anyway, thank you, we enjoyed the blog and i hope you will continue to enjoy your collection. All the best, Jono and Monty Prior.
Thank you. Best wishes for your restoration.
Ian,
Sorry to hear of your understandab;e decision. Your site has been a big help to me and I appreciate all your work in making the Series Land Rover hobby worthwhile. I hope that despite going offline, you are able to still enjoy it. Unfortunately, there are some out there who seem determined to spoil everyone’s enjoyment by belittling, critisizing and generally complaining about people’s efforts. I’m sure that the very same people make no contribution to the hobby and are at best “internet warriors”, which I think says it all. For those of us who used your site as a fantastic resource, both technical and insight,, I thank you.
All the best,
PM
Thanks for the kind words Phil.
What a terrible shame. I am rebuilding my Series 3 and found your information extremely helpful. All the Best.
Thank you Ian
GAH! I just found you site (recommended for reading about putting Defender door seals on a Series IIA. is there anywhere this info is secretly archived? Thanks-
Josh
And I apologize for all the bad humans out there.
Hi Josh, sadly I don’t have the articles in any other form at the moment. As soon as I have time I will migrate the information to a new hosted environment where I can make it available to a limited number of users.
Sad Times, I often checked this blog out.
Yes, I’m quite sad to have to close the blog but it was becoming too depressing having to moderate so many negative comments.
Dear Ian
Im so sad to see that it has come to this. As a photographer I can surely understand you concern regarding image theft.
However your fantastic blog will be missed. It has providded much inspiration over the years and is by far my favorite landy blog.
You spoke about moving away from WP and starting fresh, I’m guessing this is out of the question now.
I hope you will consider publishing a book so all your greet content its not lost.
Best regards Niels
Thank you Niels. I am still planning to move the blog elsewhere. However it will not be a public site. I have been told that if I mandate a membership subscription then it would prevent a lot of the abuse because members would not so readily risk losing their subscription. However I am not convinced that my blog has any content that people would be prepared to pay for. I am trying to come up with a better solution that can allow the blog content to remain but to minimise abuse.
What a sad day Ian, I just dropped by as I often do to see what you’ve been up to and see this news. It’s no exaggeration to say that your blog has inspired me more than anything else to get back into Land Rovers. Your knowledge, skills, ingenuity, resourcefulness, writing style and your generosity in sharing it all have given me so much help and I will miss it immensely.
I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve suffered any form of abuse for all your hard work and hope that it hasn’t left you feeling too disillusioned. The kind of people who do this sort of thing generally have nothing positive to offer.
I wish you and your lovely family good fortune and thank you for your words of encouragement through my own poor efforts of creating my first blog.
With sincere best wishes
Nigel
Hi Nigel, thank you for the kind words.
I am very disillusioned at the moment. I am so fed up with being called a moron, idiot or worse for simply blogging about doing mundane tasks on a Series Land Rover.
Honestly, if you saw some of the abusive comments that I had to delete you would have thought I’d blogged that Hitler was great or something. To be told (repeatedly) that I’m an idiot for rebuilding a 2.25 diesel instead of putting a 200TDi in is really annoying. I happen to like the 2.25d and I find it a reliable and reasonably economical little engine that has a character all of its own. It is part of the character and charm of a Series Land Rover. Sure I could stick a powerful modern engine in but I don’t want to. Sadly it seems some people just can’t accept that. Worse still is being told I’m a moron for suggesting that Annies brakes work well because the commenter had never experienced a Series Land Rover with good brakes; being told I’m an idiot for posting how to setup a brake vacuum butterfly because the commenter thought they were crap design and using a Peugeot vac pump was more sensible; getting dozens of abusive comments about my soundproofing findings or my suggestion that Exmoor acoustic matting is a waste of money etc, etc. Many of the comments are left by people that have not even read the post properly let alone read anything else on the blog. It is really depressing. I’ve put up with it for nearly 6 years but just don’t feel up to it any more.
Mud – Very sorry to hear that you have decided to end your excellent Landrover blog. I have enjoyed it for several years as Landrover folks are pretty scarce on our side of the pond. I am hoping to get started on restoring one of the two series 2a rovers that I have at the farm. Both are huge projects, but reading a blog like yours encouraged me to think that maybe I can do it. Good luck in your future endeavers. Sincerely, Dave Lamppert, Burton, Ohio
Thank you David, best wishes for your restorations.
So sorry to hear you’ve had to take it down. I’ve found your articles very useful during my own rebuild. Are you still planning to migrate to your own site / away from wordpress? or have you thrown in the towel with blogging completely? Are you still planning on opening a restoration garage / keeping classic landis going home?
Either way I wish you the best, and hopefully I’ll get mine finished some time soon and I’ll get to meet you / your Landi’s in person.
Hi Tim, yes I’m still considering moving the content somewhere else. I just need to find time to do that and in a form that is not so public. Regards, Ian
So sorry to see that you had to close the blog, I for one will miss it. You have my email Ian keep in touch,
Happy Christmas and have a fantastic new year,
Dave
Thanks Dave, have a wonderful Christmas yourself.
Such a shame. I found the articles open and informative.
Thank you for all your time and all the best for your next project.
Thank you
Ian,
So sorry to hear that it’s come to this for you, I found your site last year and now i have finally got to own a land rover myself and need to do some work on the engine i natural headed straight for here ….
Your information was brilliantly described and wonderfully clear it will be a great loss to the LR community if it disappears for ever.
Please please consider making a closed forum where membership has to be applied for, i’m sure there are plenty of us who would gladly help you moderate such a forum.
Chin up mate.
Seasons greetings
Simon in Switzerland
Thank you for the kind words Simon.
Sad news Ian. I usually check in once a week to see what you’ve been up to. Such a shame to let all this useful and valuable information to be hidden. 2.25d’s will become more popular again as the values of Series Land Rovers rise. I’ve kept mine in and I also bought a spare low mileage 2.25d engine from Catweazle (forum) for future use.
I hope to somehow hear of your progress and projects but in the meantime wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas.
Best regards,
Phil
Thank you Phil. I’m very sad to take the blog down. This is the second time, the first time was down to a massive spate of photo and content theft a few years ago.
I got that largely under control for a while by ‘destroying’ photos by putting huge watermarks on them. Sadly the watermarks were ruining the photos so I started making them less obtrusive and positioned top or bottom. Of course this has meant the thefts are on the rise again as people copy the photo, trim off the watermark and then post the image on tumblr, Facebook etc.
There has also been a growing problem with Pinterest which is basically a photo stealing website. Their T&C’s (like fb and tumblr) state that you must have permission to post or pin a photo but they never make that clear to their users. If anybody pins a photo of mine they are committing a crime as I have not given permission to anybody to use my photos.
Sadly the general public seem quite happy to support copyright theft. You’ll even find thieves on Facebook getting more likes on a stolen picture than the original user who owned the photo. Now sure I can get these stolen images removed, I do regularly, however it is a tedious process and many of these sites insist on me providing my personal details as part of the copyright claim which they then pass on to the thieves!!! This leads to even more stress when I get horrible emails from the thieves complaining that I’ve got them banned. Usually accompanied by some sob story about them being unemployed, disabled, beaten as a child (ok slight exageration) suggesting that this allows them to steal other peoples work. Pinterest is the worst. Anybody that pins one of my photos basically copies that photo to pinterests server where it gets higher billing on google searches. It is infuriating to find my stolen pictures on Pinterest higher up the search results than the original on my blog!
I put in alot of effort in my blog posts. Often spending ages cleaning up parts to look good in photos, getting good lighting, editing photos to show them at their best and finally hours writing up about a topic. To see this effort being stolen regularly is soul destroying. In many ways having my photos stolen is worse than receiving abusive comments. At least I can handle them by clicking ‘delete’ 😉
I’m struggling to see how the ‘free’ internet can survive long term if the public continue to abuse it in the way they do. I can’t be the only creator of original content who has reached the end of their tether with copyright theft and abuse. If all the original content vanishes what will be left? I suspect in 10 years time we may face an internet where original content is only available on paid membership sites. I don’t want to go down that route. Hopefully they’ll come up with a technology that makes stealing content much harder. It would help if sites like Pinterest where banned or at the very least their ranking should be lower than the original content that they stole from!
I will send an email to all my followers as soon as I have a long term solution even if it just an invite to a private blog. I tried that before but it was alot of work to maintain two blogs. Might be easier with just one wholly private blog I guess.
All the best to you and your family.
Ian
I have been a regular follower of your blog and have been greatly impressed by its well-documented and well-illustrated content.
I am rebuilding a Series III 109, currently doing the brakes and fitting a brake booster, and have gained much encouragement from your blog, both to start and then to persist and finish. I see methodical purpose and planning, attention to detail throughout, patience and humility in doing the work, honesty and integrity when mistakes become apparent, and a determination to carry tasks through to completion. These are all noble qualities, shining out from every page, and the mark of a craftsman, a teacher and a leader.
I trust you will derive and enjoy a well-deserved and lifelong satisfaction from these past efforts, for which I belatedly thank you, and offer my support and best wishes for future endeavours.
John, South Africa
John, thank you so much for those wonderful kind words, they are greatly appreciated.
I will try my best to come up with a solution to the abuse/theft issues so that the content may be placed online again. I will keep everybody notified with an email if I find an alternate hosting solution.
Regards,
Ian
Hello Ian I’m sorry to hear your news. We’ve very much enjoyed reading your website. I come across copyright issues regularly as part of my job (I’m a lawyer) and understand your concerns. An invitation only site may be the answer as you say. You have my email address – please do keep in touch. All the best and of course happy Christmas and new year, Will
Thank you Will and a happy Christmas to you too.
Ian, I will miss your advice. I have found your site a great help in restoring my own vehicle and saved me from more than a few blunders and mistakes. Thanks. Peter
Thank you Peter.
Hello Ian. I really hope you can continue your blog in some form, it has been a pleasure to follow and truly helpful as I am also working on a 109 series 3. Best regards and a Merry Christmas from Björn in Finland
Hi Bjorn, thank you for the kind words and Merry Christmas to you too.
Sorry you have gone, I copied what you did when I rebuilt my front axle
Hope everything is working out fine with the change in life direction
Best wishes for Christmas and the new year
Andrew G
Thank you Andrew. I am really enjoying life after the rat race. The work I am doing now is in a completely different field to that which I did previously for 20 years. I finally have time to play with and learn about new technology and I am working at a pace that suits me. It has been great fun.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Sorry that you will not be posting anymore, I have enjoyed seeing your progress with restorations over the last few years.
Hope you have a fantastic xmas and new year.
Iain
Thank you Iain
Real shame as your blog was one of the best found, perhaps one of your regulars would volunteer to be moderator?
Whatever way it goes, Happy new year!!!
Really great info and resource, it will I’m sure be missed !!!
Iain.
Thank you Iain and happy new year! 🙂
…..perhaps a membership closed site, as your blog was of real use!!??? …
I am investigating options at the moment. I will let everybody know once I have a solution.
I’m so sorry to hear this news, your blog gave me the boost to buy a series Land Rover as a project. I’ve now been made redundant and find myself with some time on my hands but my preferred bible is no more!!!
Please reinstate something quickly to share your knowledge, I personally would pay a subscription.
Thanks Andrew. Sorry to hear you have been made redundant. Best wishes for your project.
I bought a Series 2A in a big part because of the inspiration from your site. Many thanks for the years of good work. I too would be happy to subscribe to a closed site.
Cheers,
Ewan
Thank you Ewan.
I am really sorry that you have had to close you blog due to abuse. I’ve been popping in for about a year or so and have found your writings really informative. The dash refurb was of interest as mine is in a similar condition. I tried mine without the foam layer and it hasn’t gone too well! The glue seems to have let go around the edges and I had some proper trouble getting the creases out of the curvy bits. I think I may give it to a re upholsterer to do.
Hi Mark,
Sorry to hear you had problems with your dash. I don’t remember having too many problems but one point to note is that I did mine on a hot summers day. The vinyl when warm shapes more easily than when cold. Also it could be that that materials are different quality? Not sure what you mean by coming away from edges? There should be dozens of little clips holding the material around the edges?
Thats a real, real shame! Understandable but man, a total shame and a complete loss to the entire Series LR community, those of us who admire your work, thoughts and your hints and especially, those of us just embarking on Series ownership. I just popped in to get a handle on your approach to water pump refurb / replace and low and behold… 404!! All the best though and hopefully, you can find another way to share your knowledge! Cheers, Tom (1971 ex NZ Army S2a 88″ Skippy)
Thank you Tom. I have a plan for a new host for the blog, just don’t have time to set it up at the moment. Give me a few months and hopefully I can get it moved.
Hello and thank you for all your inspirational narratives and pictures. I for one bought a project S3 after seeing what can be done with effort and patience.
It is a shame that there always seems to be a minority lacking basic civility.
Looking forward to hearing from you again on a new platform.
Thank you James. I’ve been using Microsoft Azure web hosting as part of my work. I’d like to create my own personal website on Azure along with a database however it would cost me £60+ per month (depending on the power of the servers I choose and where they are located) so would have to charge a subscription. I guess subscription would be about £2 a year. I need time to write a web app so it will be a while away yet though. It would not be a blog, it would be a web application with messaging functionality, forums, parts database, how to guides and member galleries etc.
It would also allow me to put in place technology that protects my content and make stealing photographs much more difficult than it is on a public word press blog.
Ian, I have been out of action for a little while and only just found out about the closing of your blog. Like many others I found your blog when looking around for Landrover stuff and it was not only useful, but it was you who inspired me to start my own blog about Lulu and then include some of my photography.
I am really sorry it’s come to this, but you are doing the right thing in my view.
Thanks for all your work.
PS
Hopefully this year I might catch up with you at “Leafers” All the best to you and Mrs Mud
Steve
Thank you Steve. I hope to have an engine fitted to Ciggy this summer so there is a chance we can take both Series to LATP. Fingers crossed.
Hi mate, sad to see this happen as your page was partly the inspiration for Autoadrenaline! Where about’s are you based? My mate and I have set up a Youtube channel called Club86 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChztyrABiAS_lcX5E4LZYVA) and we’d love to feature your vehicles. I’ve given up on Autoadrenaline and will be making a new blog, guess I’ll have to watermark the sh*t out of all the photos! Best of luck mate and thanks for the painstaking work you put into mud4fun. Cheers, Fred.
Hi Fred, thank you for the kind words. Loved the video of the turbo upgrade 🙂 We are in North Lincolnshire, you?
HI Ian – was wondering about you and how your business was going. How are things and how is your garden growing? 🙂 Such a shame about your pics, people are so sneaky. And frankly, I really can’t understand why someone would feel the need to be abusive on a site about lovely Landies!
Thanks M. Really sorry for the length of time in replying to this. I never received any notification that you had left a comment. Business is fine but taking up so much time (as usual). Garden is looking good but I really do need to get out and do some hard landscaping next year. We urgently need more raised vegetable beds.
Twas a brilliant blog, I referred to it any number of times. A shame that human behaviour all to often sinks to the lowest common denominator. Many thanks for sharing your knowledge.
All the best, Graham
Thank you Graham. I am closer to finding a new hosting solution for the blog. I’ve been very busy recently with work but I have been designing a new website and will put up all the old content when I can afford the time and hosting 🙂
Glad to hear you may have a solution as your site has been a great help over the years.
Thanks Simon.
I have a solution. It is a cloud based web server with decent SQL server database behind it. I can give users access to various parts of the system based on membership status.
A certain status would grant access to all the full sized non watermarked photos, parts lists and pricing plus a facility to ‘build’ your vehicle up in parts to record what part was fitted where, which is essential on old vehicles that have modern parts retrofitted. It would make it easy to order replacement parts. I can store parts list in database and build picking lists of parts for certain jobs based on vehicle type and even modifications. Also thinking of a calendar for managing your classic fleet with mot/tax due dates, service history, reminders and maintenance planning.
Basic users would just get basic blog posts with small watermarked images.
Having my own server and web application would mean I can apply security techniques to images that I can’t do on wordpress.
Sadly this solution is costly, minimum £100 a month so I would have to have a membership cost. I never wanted to go down that route as I never believed my efforts were worth anything and I didn’t have the time to manage it all. However I have been thinking of some ideas that could warrant a membership cost and/or attract sponsorship from Land Rover related suppliers. Now I just need the time!!! 🙂
Regards,
Ian