Land Rover Rustorashun and other shit

[richardthestag]

last part for tonight

Fitted up the sideframes and windscreen rail to the bulkhead and chassis

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all needs to come off repeatedly to weld but this is essential to get things in the right place. happy so far

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finishing up the a-post - all this effort was really to save the complete and intact rubber seal channel which is tricky to replicate. I have done it but it is a ballsacre. anyway sheet steel is cheaper than repair sections so...

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A tinsy bit of distortion ijn the bottom corner, but until I am ready to weld this to the sill it will stay like this. When I weld it may need a small slice with the 1mm cutting disc and a reweld.

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B post on the passenger side back to factory with rot and bodges cut out. Not seen one this good in a while

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starting to build up the complex structure as per factory.

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Attached back onto chassis, a-post I am happy with. I just need to weld in the tubes for the door hinge bolts

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until next time

loads more on the channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuPaTT ... _4ypXxY0lQ

[paulplom]

Top graft.
I wish I had the space, time, money and skills of course, to do something like this.

[Hooli]

Impressive work as always.

[Hooli]

No idea if this is any use to you old chap but JLR are doing classic RR panels with 15% off this week.

https://parts.jaguarlandroverclassic.co ... sic-panels

[richardthestag]

Cheers Hooli, I'll have a gander, repro new JLR front and rear wings do not fit though, fucking expensive too. BUT doors and stuff I am interested in

[richardthestag]

Right, been a while, have a new workshop closer to home. If we can ever shake this kung flu shit (thank you communist party of China and Corrupt World Health Organisation. Cunts) I will end up working 3 weeks near home and maybe a 1 week catching up in Devon.

Anyway enough of that, onwards.

Project Bobtail is no longer a bobtail and still in Devon. It is provisionally sold but I have invested quite a lot in it and because of cunting covidz my customer has yet been able to see me and hand over the first stage payment.

Anyway, it is on hold until 7 Dec when I will prep it for transport up to wycombe

This is the passenger a-post back to rude health, needs a bit of finishing but it is getting there

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B post is quite complex but largely flat steel and right angles. quite easy to knock up the repairs

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wip

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Fitting it to the car, bulkhead is 99%, sill is mounted to the chassis. Side frame (A and B posts) weld to the sill. I need to be sure that the gap between the a and b post is good. else it will be like a pair of lop sided tits with cross eyed nipples. You know, like a really bad boob job.

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stripped down the passenger door to get it light enough that I could man handle it and load it onto the a post to check alignment. Alas when I stripped the car down I cut the hinge off for some reason.

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No worries though because, and this is unheard of, the countersunk bolts undid. no fuss, no pain

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This stag belongs to a mate, alas he has been struck down with the dreaded C hammer, started out Bowel but upon investigation found to be in his lungs as well. He started this renovation of his stag ages ago, cut off the cover sill and was getting ready to have a new sill welded on when all this kicked off. His local welder is not available so me and a few mates are getting it on the road by this weekend so at least he can enjoy driving it.

The car is challenged though, with no sill attached and the roll over t bar disconnected the gap at the top of the door is wider than at the bottom of the door!! Getting it solid and road legal is the challenge, I drew the welding straw and did this a couple of weekends ago.

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Bit like an MGB the outer sill panel goes up behind the rear and front wings. The owner went a bit mad cutting panels off, I would probably have used 50% of the repair panels and cut much lower. But it is what it is.

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Bit disappointed that lower rear wing panel did not go right up to the b-post. I used this as an opportunity to create so nicer door gaps

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This is my bit of the job done, really unhappy with the front wing, but having left home 8am saturday and find myself at near 6pm sunday and a 3h drive to get home I rushed it. Wish I hadnt now

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More to come

[richardthestag]

next up

Got another 2 door LHD range rover project to convert to RHD for the cust. it is a 1991 car from Portugal. My usual uos chap had a donor car just in with terminal rust but almost exactly the same spec and age. It was a 4 door, all 4 doors are in good shape so I sniped them for the big L95 (daily driver) resto, if that ever happens.

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My chum has managed to do 450miles in his stag with the engine that I built. I did an oil change, retorqued the heads and reset the carbs. He can now enjoy 4k rpm for the next 500 miles.

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The next project then arrives, 2.5VM - 4 headed monster - drives but feels gutless, more on that.

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All the dash, heater and loom come out, needs a little welding to the footwells but otherwise is in good order!

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These bits will go back on, along with the steering wheel, dash top and heater. The rest is LHD specific

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Huge pile of used old stock stuff that I will fit once the footwells are fixed

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Fits inside, more space outside. May need to get me some dolly rollers so I can shift stuff around inside.

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This stuff is some sort of dual charge system for the towball electrics, it was all live but the bare wires were laying on the boot floor !

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Common fault with these plastic expansion tanks, this one may be leaking at the seam

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more to come

[richardthestag]

last part this time

Not too long to get it to this stage, all the carpet and sound deadening was damp and honked like a wet dog

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rh footwell after a little prodding, all this rot had come from inside to outside. Once a small hole happens then the underlay gets wet and it just escalates. This is an easy fix with no dash in place.

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LH footwell looks just as bad, 90% of this is just surface rust. Similar area as the RH footwell will need cutting out

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This is before I get busy with mr tappy

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decided to chop all the rot out of the RH footwell and then butt weld in patches, the profile is odd and I don't have my deepthroat shear nor my folder.

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Ok so a bit of grinding back but this is all solid now

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Went into the unit on Saturday to finish the welding, alas power was off. I have been borrowing power off a neighbour, Neighbour changed their mind and cut me off, no notice. Be back on Monday they said. It wasn't, called the big boss man from the neighbour business. He was unavailable so I left polite message asking for him to call me. In the meantime I chased up the local spark to get me connected up to my own supply. This finished over night Wednesday/Thursday, Spark is mega busy so I am very grateful. In the meantime neighbour had come back and said that I could have the supply, alas they had gone through it with an axe by the look of things. I opted to hold out for mr Spark to give me my own supply. Better off not being in someone elses pocket eh.

3 days of spanning using battery lamps and daylight through the open door. Both front hubs needs stripping down and switching for RHD parts. Alas both CV joints fucked, waiting for parts before I reassemble.

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Turbo is fucked, intercooler pipe is dripping with engine oil, shaft is wobbly. Also found that the engine breather was hanging down the side of the block and dangling over the front axle, soaked in oil. This engine may not be that healthy. 180k miles on the speedo. I also think that someone in Portugal had been here before as turbo fixings etc were loose as was the engine oil filter, needs to be removed to get the turbo off.

Lastly the viscous cooling fan is also fucked, couldn't get it off the threaded stub on the water pump so removed the whole lot to work on the bench.

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Bits for refurb/replacement, must have been 1/2 pint of oil in the intercooler, recon this wasn't far off a diesel runaway

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see ya soon

[richardthestag]

I really should update this more frequently, mind you I cannot believe that the days are getting longer again! wtf happened to November?

1991 2 door Portuguese Range Rover, has rusty footwells but no rust anywhere else. Alas all rust has occurred because of wet carpets and sound deadening. Insides of sill sections spotless and still in factory paint.

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sections were stitched in a square at the time because the rot would have used up the best part of a 600x300mm sheet of steel with a ton of wastage

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All welds were butt welded, epoxy paint and seam seal to follow

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passenger footwell, thought this was the lot of it, but then noticed that the top edge of the sill was very thin. rather than it rot out and have to be welded next year etc

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finally finished welding a car that looked like it had a couple of 4" local repairs needed.

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headlight boxes are typical of the condition of the rest of this car, cleaned back and then dynax s50'd which pleasingly is a good paint match

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VM engined Range Rovers have been hit big time with the NLA stick at Land Rover, throttle cable is one of those items, I need to be creative with a 200tdi throttle cable

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Heater motor was very very sluggish, stripped the box down, motor on verge of meltdown. Matrix is plugged up with rusty water.

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More on that project later, headed down to Devon and celebrated my return with a pint of gin, or two

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part 2 of 4 coming right up

[richardthestag]

part 2 on the Covid express

This Devon trip was to get as much onto the 1971 chassis as poss before trailering it home to HW workshed.

Day one to get anti crush tubes into the a-post and fit door, then weld a and b posts to the sill section. Finally welded together new floor, curtain and arch for the nearside rear inner wing.

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Day 2 was to extend the a and b posts down to the sill and screw them in place, it will need to come apart again for repair panels to be knocked up. Then welded together the 3 sections of the offside inner wing

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Day 3 was to straighten the goalpost (surround for the twin tailgates) out, it aint pretty, fix it to the rear inner wings and then fix the rear inner wings to the rear cross member. Last job for the day was to liberate the d posts from the wreckage of the bobtail abortion. These were fitted to the top of the inner wings and goalpost.

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measured and measured again, the rear crossmember is just 4mm too far forwards, I can deal with this later. It will need to be fixed else the bottom tailgate will not fit

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My treasure arrived up from Bodmin, bartered a day of my time to install a v8 into a customer project in exchange for booty from his parts car. complete dash, roof panel, pair of seats and a heater unit trial fit, just to make it look more like a car

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roof panel dropped straight into place, mm perfect, held it down with a dozen 10mm selftapping bolts into the original spire clips, these work way better than the original machine screws so will almost certainly be used in projects like this moving forwards. The roof panel might look shite but there is not one single dent or crease on it

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Celebrated success with a trice of pints and of course a substantial meal.

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parts 3 coming