One thing I have learned over the last year, is that nothing on the Land Rover is easy. Nothing! A simple light change turned into a fight with the housing not too long ago, and since then I take nothing for granted.

So when Dave suggested we take out the 2nd row seats – the 3rd are already long gone – as it would make more room for camping supplies, I agreed. It is a temporary change, I do want the 2nd row back upon our return. (More on that subject later)

The first task was locating the bolts to take the seats out. That was the easy part. They are torx bolts, and neither of us had a bit large enough for the task. So a trip to B&Q, then Halfords, found us with the right tools.

Three out of the four bolts at the front came out without an issue. The last one was less co-operative. A crack echoed and then the bolt just seemed to wiggle about in place. Wiggling under the car confirmed that the weld that held the bolt in place had snapped and here was no way to get the thing out. We tried all manner of spanner, wrench and gizmo to get it out but alas, there was either not enough room under the car, or enough strength to keep it in place. Bolt cutters were also too large to get in the gap too.

The other part of removing the seats was folding them forward, undoing more torx bolts and wiggling the seats out – this was done relatively quickly.

Another thing I have come to accept with old Land Rover ownership is that one task done throws up at least 2 more. My additional tasks are:

1 – get underneath, wirebrush the old waxoyl off and retreat for rust – there are more flakes under there than I first anticipated

2 – Scrub off the surface rust that showed up under the carpet and treat it before holes appear in the floor.

Lucky me! It’s a good job some dry days are on the horizon…