Practically Classics Forum

Today's good weather has got to me too! It was a little damp yesterday, so I didn't even thing of taking the tub off.

Yesterday's efforts were limited to sorting out the handbrake on next door's ride on (three cable ties to compress a spring and a job the bloke had sworn at for a couple of hours was done). However, I came home with a blade's bearing housing (I should never have spun the shaft!) and retaining bolt to sort out (my press came in useful for the first time this year!). I have some time off - the bearings haven't been ordered yet!

The dog had a bad night last night, so I was pretty shattered this morning! I managed to get started by eleven and, first job was to get my two lifting slings out so I could lift the hardtop. I spent an hour looking for the one in the tractor shed, gave up and had lunch and walked the dog. Then spent half an hour looking again - no luck. So it was out with some ropes and the other lifting sling from their "storage" hook in the garage.



Yes, the loader does clear the roof nicely (though the tractor was almost touching the Landy). The top came off without too many problems and revealed the contents of the tub:



Nothing exciting - just the black plastic sheet that was in when I bought the Landy - with something under it

The tub came off easily enough (by hand) and was carefully dragged across the lawn and out of harm's way (though I suspect the mower will find it!)



Note the tractor wheel mark (brown line to RH of rear cross-member) - yes, I want to do some more draining next year!

I'm more than a little sure the chassis is ex-military - the shocker mounts and back axle (like LWB ones) and removable gearbox cross-member are two non-standard features:



And yes, the exhaust does blow where the (second) flexi joins tby the cross-member - it is pretty obvious when moving the Landy without the tub!

It's nearly a week since the Landy was put in the shed for a day or two! Time flies - and other duties (like next door's ride-on mower) take priority.

I put the Landy in the garage this morning and took the n/s shock absorber off. It was a lot easier than the other side, partly because I had bought a decent long-reach 6-point socket for the nuts on the U-bolts. There again, there was no tub to get in the way either - it does make a difference!

I went back to it in the afternoon and cut the shock absorber mount off - the "plate" across the front was someone's codge - they had put a plate on the top of the chassis and bent it to go up the front of the mounting! It was more or less an afternoon's work sorting that out! With luck, the welder will be busy tomorrow but I'll get the second new shock absorber mount made first; I cut some box section for it during the week, so I just need to clean the "pin" and bush off the old mounting and drill a hole through the new box section and I can weld that up while the welder is working.

I got a nice surprise at lunchtime. I'd just shut the garage doors and was about to take the dog for her walk when a City Link man rang the bell. He had a large box from Welsh Wales - the new exhaust has arrived (ahead of schedule). It looks a lot better than the old one did, so I hope it releases the power from the Prima engine as it is supposed to do!



Oh yes, the mop is a vital and highly technical accessory: it's holding the back of the exhaust up. Whoever rebuilt the Landy had bolted a rubber strap to the tub floor and not used any proper Land Rover clamps anywhere!

One disadvantage of ordering stuff before you strip the machine down is that you discover that your machine is not "standard" - or is of a different type

I had a sudden realisation this morning that the "new" fuel tank (that I sand blasted and primed with weld-through primer) won't actually fit the military chassis! A quick scrabble on the floor with the new tank confirmed it! To add to my annoyance, I have a nice new set of hoses, a front chassis leg and fitting kit for a standard tank!

With luck, a proper military tank will fit and need the chassis leg and fitting kit (but not the hoses). The annoying thing is that, having spent the weekend welding patches and new shock absorber mounts, I was hoping to get the old plastic tank out, put the new one in place and get the new chassis leg (needed for the new tank) welded up!

No, I haven't got photos of the patches before the mounts were welded on - the welding isn't exactly pretty (welding to rust is an art, welding through rust and underseal is slightly more interesting). Similarly, welding the mounts on has produced some "interesting" welds - or some crows managed to get in the garage and relieved themselves.

On the plus side - I'm better off than Terry: my Metabo angle grinder is still working - it's done a heck of a lot of work since I bought it and has been worth the extra cost. It still sounds as if it's about to blow up - that "smooth" sound that usually comes before the smoke and flames appear - but it's a bit like my Bosch drill compared to my old B&D ones - a well designed smooth motored machine. That's especially noticeable when I use the cheapo 9" grinder...

It has been sunny and hot for the last couple of days, so some progress has been made: I helped the neighbour lift 42 fence panels out for "painting" this afternoon!

The Landy is now on four wheels, with nice new shockers on the back. Welding was interesting to say the least - more a matter of making holes and filling up again! I think I got two good welds (one on each mounting) on the first attempt and the second pass (after grinding) made things a bit stronger. I've done something I swore I would never do again about twenty years ago: sprayed underseal over the mountings! This does have one major advantage: the lad who does the MOT will see the underseal, touch it and realise it is very thick and sticky, so won't actually pull on the mountings!

Note the fuel tank (plastic thing) and how close it is to the cross-member - and that the back spring is mounted to the same cross-member. There is a much wider gap between the back of the seatbox and the cross-member on the civvy version, that is also where the filler tube goes (behind the seat) - so the civvy tank is about four inches too long to fit! I've found a used military tank (£75 - about the same as a new civvy one). I had a quote of £270 for a new military one (with tank unit and so on) - luckily, "pub talk" found the used one!



I cleaned up the top of the back crossmember and gave it a good coat of Weld-through primer (Bilt Hamber stuff) with a brush, so a coat of stone-chip and some black paint will sort that out (there'll be a lot of stone-chip to spray later on).



The next job was to start stripping the cab floor out so I can get the exhaust and the "new" gearbox fitted. What the seller thought was an S3 box is actually an S2 one (the clutch is a giveaway if nothing else), so I might just try to change the selectors etc rather than the whole box: mine just sticks in reverse and the stick needs a lot of wiggling to get it out of gear. That might annoy the MOT man (though he knows about it)!

It took two afternoons to get the sill supports out - using my newly repaired "Powerfile" to grind the bolt heads down! I managed to get a fair bit of rust out of the two box sections (2"x1"x37"):



Another little job involved the n/s door stay, which needed a new bracket on the A pillar. I found a bracket somewhere (might have been on eBay) and almost lost it in the clutter, so I thought I would fit the thing before I did lose it! Yes, not being able to open the door fully was a dashed nuisance when I took the sill supports off!

I've ordered some box section and have some plate, so I will make some new sill supports rather than spend money on eBay (they are expensive for two bits of box section!). The originals ones, being military ones, don't have holes for the sills' fixings, so that's something I will have to fudge - perhaps I'll go and see MOT Man and measure up his S2a!

I've found an oil leak (perhaps two)! The front hub seal is leaking onto the "CV joint". Oh well, I haven't reached the front yet, so I won't worry for a while!

A little more progress over the last day or so and I am about done with stripping things for now! There is a temptation to do the rewiring while it is in bits - something I'm trying hard to resist as it would be nice to get it through an MOT next month and I suspect it will take that long to get it back together!

I had hoped that I could get some money back for the plastic fuel tank - it looked a useful item when it was in position and the metal cover was in place (under the seat). However, as soon as I took the cover off, I realised that it was another of the botch jobs that the silicone-mad "restorer" had done:



I don't think it would sell as a caravan water tank - or a diesel can - now!

I have got the cab floor and seat base out - though more silicone was holding it in place (and one or two assorted fixings). It all looks rather bare, but the chassis looks a lot better now. I then removed the exhaust and one or two other odds and ends - the rear fog lamp switch and wiring being one PITA! The seller said it needed a lamp for the MOT - which I seem to remember was the case for post 1980 vehicles (but not 1971 ones). If the MOT place was so thorough, how did they miss the illegal seat belts, blowing exhaust, bad shock absorber mounts, lack of rear reflectors ...



Note the lack of an exhaust - and the Plus Gas can!

I was a bit surprised at how easily the exhaust came off. The "Restorer" has a habit of using rather long bolts and the rear hanger was held on by one M8x50mm bolt. The underseal had kept the threads nice and clean and I have a nice shiny metric bolt now! The "Restorer" had an interesting method of making two more mounts for exhaust straps - welded a 100mm (or even 150mm) set screw to the cross-members - you can see the silver bit of one on the left of the cross-member below the Pus Gas can. The other (on the gearbox cross-member) snapped off where the thread joins the head (it's in an earlier photo). Why he didn't use a shorter bolt and move the clamp is beyond me!

After much soaking with penetrating oil, plus gas and, eventually, the shock and release, all three downpipe nuts came off. Well, two did, the whole stud came out of the third one. That's two more than I hoped would come off without stripping or breaking anything! The exhaust had already decided to split at one of the flexi-hoses (too much heat when welding!), so it was easy to take it out - and then I noticed the front flexi has suffered from excessive welding and has a split too!

Here's "Oops corner" - the S3 gearbox that's actually S2a, the fuel tank (nicely sprayed in weld-through primer) and the exhaust that is a real mixed bag of original LR, stainless steel, Monetgo (downpipe bit) and flexi pipe. The new two-inch pipe should be a lot quieter and help the engine breathe much more freely (hopefully, the turbo lag will be almost gone).



Note the two lifting straps hanging on the wall (the air hoses are stopping them both being on "their" hook).

Oh yes, the wiring:



This is the tidy bit! I saw the taped end of a twin core cable sticking out of the bottom of the instrument panel while I was taking the rear fog lamp bits off. I carefully felt along the wire for a foot to see where it was connected: it wasn't - it was a foot long length of wire connected to nothing at either end! The fog lamp switch was in where the wiper switch should go, so I got the "new" switch (an eBay purchase as it was the only place I could get the right "serrated" knob) and fitted it in the right place. I'll wire it up later on and take the after-market lever switch out, which will make it look a bit neater, I'd have done it this morning, but I wanted to get the exhaust off (and I needed the multimeter that's in the "electronics" workshop - back bedroom).

The neighbour is busy washing the green stuff off the fence panels. He's using my pressure washer as his lacks pressure (it's much older than mine and, while higher spec professional machine, it has lower pressure and flow than my "top of the domestic range ten years ago" machine). I don't mind - I would only have pushed the Landy out and cleaned the chassis and garage floor if I had the washer handy!

I was interrupted twice yesterday - both times by my heating engineer friend (yet another Phil!). So it took about an hour before he went away with a box of self tappers and my Powerfile and about half an hour before he went away after fetching the stuff (less one screw) back! That meant my plans were thwarted, though I did take the cover off the gearbox and discovered that the selectors, detents, springs and so on are in good order. We even shoved my "flexi camera" into the box to check that reverse selector did slide the gear in and out properly. It was only when I put the gear lever back on that I realised that a nylon bush had been worn away! A quick look on eBay produced a used gear lever for £40 (it's probably still there) and a look on Paddock's site found a new one for about £18.00 +VAT.

Today's first job was to dig out my nylon rod from the shed and do a bit of lathe turning. I soon produced a bush with a 1/2" hole in the middle (and 0.67 od) that could be persuaded to go over the 17/32" end of the lever and be a tight fit. Then I noticed the pin in the side of the base. It was rather loose and somewhat thinner than the 1/4" that the other end was (it screws into the housing). A bit of fun with the lathe produced a pin that fitted nicely in the slot in the gear lever - slack enough to move easily, but not too slack. I managed to screw it into the housing and, after stripping and repainting the gear lever, put it all together. I now have a gear-change that could almost rival the Golf! I also have that spare gearbox Terry recommended somewhat earlier in the thread as the "new" one shouldn't be needed for a while Even better - I have a repaired gear lever that cost peanuts to fix (the nylon is left over from another job) .

I was so chuffed, that I almost started to fit the exhaust. Then I remembered that the brackets for one of the tub's supports (pressed steel cross-members) were mere stubs sticking out of the main chassis just behind the nice new shock absorber mountings - you can just about see them on the photo of the RH shocker in my previous post. I found one of my aborted attempts for a shock absorber mount, sliced it in half and had two nice brackets with supports. A bit of cleaning off and five minutes swearing with a welding torch in one or other hand produced two reasonably neat brackets and a third repaired. I remembered that the back exhaust bracket was a codge job ten minutes after cleaning up. I suspect it will have an extension bolted to it before too long: I don't really want another welding session just yet - though there are two new "sill supports" to make before I can put the seat box and floors back.

It might seem daft to do something minor like tub brackets when there's a nice new exhaust to play with. However, one of the new brackets is within range of the exhaust mounting - and I know where the hot bracket would fall when my first tack welds failed!

I would have taken pics of the gear lever, but I was too keen to try it out to come in and get the camera. As for the brackets - they are now covered in underseal and as black as the rest of the chassis, so a photo won't really help!

Good news, bad news. The military fuel tank has arrived - it's actually the same size as the normal one, so won't fit either!

I recycled the cracked windscreen and shockers this morning and the place will take the old exhaust (it's a council-run place and have strict rules - but great people working there!). I forgot to take the gallon of waste oil though. The recycling place is near the vet's and I had to go for more tablets for the dog, so it wasn't a special journey!

I test fitted the exhaust and am glad I didn't modify the rear hanger - it's in the wrong place! The exhaust will soon go together properly and, apart from the back mount (and the bend in the pipe where it goes behind the wheel - thanks to my LWB spring mounts), it is a good and neat system - it goes over the gearbox cross-member, so is well tucked up and out of harm's way.

Having test fitted the exhaust, I think I found the solution for the fuel tank - mount the military one crossways between the silencer and the back cross-member! It may seem daft, but there are good reasons - one being that a smaller tank won't be a great idea in a Land Rover! Once the exhaust is in place, I will take some more exact a few measurements - and more cutting and welding!

One step forward - the exhaust is fitted and sounds a lot nicer than the old one.

Two back: I saw a bit of rough stuff in the passenger foot-well and it is now a 2-3" square hole! A new foot-well is winging it's way from somewhere and will be chopped up to save me having to take the engine and gearbox out so weld a complete one in place. A new windscreen washer bottle is on its way too - now I realise the the old one was held in by a self tapper through the wing and into the top of the bottle! The fact that the bottle had "Vloov" - or something similar - moulded into it wasn't the main reason for changing it!

I have made the "Sill supports" and they are ready to fit (though need some stone-chip paint before I fit them). That has been delayed until I get the foot-well sorted and do the job I was doing when I saw the rust: plating the bottoms of the door pillars. The last inch or so on the outside of each pillar (behind the sills) had filler in them. I cut the rot out this morning and was going to patch the foot-well until I saw it from the wheelarch - it was already patched (badly) and no metal or rust was removed!

I have, at long last, found where the LWB back chassis joins the SWB front! The underseal had hidden the join well - as had the fuel tank. Once I had the garage doors open on a sunny day, the join was obvious - and had a lot of weld on it in places. It has obviously been done for a while, so I suspect it's strong enough to last me out!

As there are a lot more bits coming soon, I did my shopping online and the Tesco van arrived this afternoon. It took the lad a while to tear himself away! He has a nice late 60's S2a (petrol), but says he isn't a great mechanic - someone does the work for him! He must be sad - he carries photos of his Land Rover on his phone!!

i carry pics of my old van,mr2 & tipper on my phone as well as hundreds of pics of the kids

I look at threads like this (and other Landrover/ Range Rover threads) and thank my lucky stars that my Discovery has spent its entire life living in a desert - it's rot-free! All the plastic stuff on the outside has gone brittle in the sunshine, though, and is falling apart. It's always swings and roundabout