22.7.08 Bulkhead off

Firstly i had to remove the body brace sill things that run between the bulkhead and rear tub. The passanger side came off with no problems, i just sheared the bolt heads off. The last bolt on the drivers side was a different story though. It had been to rounded to get a socket on so i ended up giving it 5 minutes of hell with the cold chisel. The bulkhead was heavy but two people could easily lift it of over the rear of the vehical.

21.7.08 Preping for bulkhead removal

As the pictures show i spent the 21st removing the rad, rad panel, draining the engine and disconecting everything ready to get the bulkhead off.

20.7.08 Body off

I got back from Lrm Billing at 4.30Pm on the 20th (July). I couldnt resist getting on with the land rover so i soon got cracking. My neighbour came round to help me and by 7Pm we had removed the roof, tub and wings!

Hello all! I'm back again!

Well once again I'v been neglecting the blog but i have a good excuse... i've been pretty busy on the land rover, You will see what i have done in the following posts.

stripping her down

Well im at that stage were i need to start thinking about undoing and loosening as many nuts and bolts and fasters as possible before i remove the body work.

As i want to keep the land rover fully assembled until the 22nd of july when i hope to lift the body work off i am removing as many bolts as possible but leaving enough to hold the body together.

I have the wings being held on by 4 bolts, the rear tub by 8 and then those along the top of the windscrean that is literaly it!

I have removed the seat box which was a bit of a job but its out now and will be under repair soon. I found a nice suprise when i took the transmition tunnel off, my gearbox appears to be a factory rebuilt unit, Probably to Suffix D or E spec which is the latest series box. For this reason i will put this box back in and hopefully its gear changing problems will be sorted with a new clutch.

Hear is a picture of the land rover now. There's not much change as i havent removed much just loosed everything. There is no seat box, floor or transmition tunnel tough...

Change of mind

More thinking and I am now pretty sure i will go for a 200Di instead of 200Tdi, in other words remove the turbo from the 200Tdi. This means that there wont be as much power as would have been produced by the turbo but to be honest a series 3 is just not designed not travel at the speed a 200Tdi could propell it at and the temptation would be to strong to just put the foot down + its braking abilities are limited. There would also always be the worry of destroying my gearbox, diff and halfshafts.

I will be keeping the disco rad, intercooler, oilcooler and turbo so that if one day i feel the urge to fit them i can. This is an interesting link... http://www.glencoyne.co.uk/200di2.htm .

200tdi here we come!!

Well, I'v been discusing it with a few people now and i am probably going to fit a 200Tdi or 200Di(remove the turbo)... Im quite tempted to go for the first option!

I am hoping to buy an MOT failed Land Rover discovery that i will break. I will keep the Engine, engine electrics, inter-cooler, rad etc. and sell the rest.

The 2.5L 200tdi produces 111 BHP as opposed to my current 2.25nad wich produces 62 BHP.... thats quite a large difference and I cant wait!!

This isnt for sure yet but im 95% sure so it looks like it will happen.

Sprocket puller

Its not directly to do with the rebuild but i thought i would share it with you any way.I didnt want to by the tool as they looked pretty simple but cost a bit, so i decided to make one myself. It is a spocket puller for the timing chain sprockets. You bolt it onto the sprocket through the 2 slots and then tighten the centre bolt which is tapped into the puller, this then pulls the sprocket off... pretty simple really. Oh and it actually works!

A few pictures:

Td5 Bulkhead

I have now bought a bulkhead from a Td5 2001 defender, It is actually very similar to the series 3 bulkhead and only needs footwells replacing, transmition tunnel size increasing and the series 3 type windscrean hinges welding on, Which is quite amazing considering the Td5 bulkhead is just over 20 years new than my land rover.

Sorry about not updating in ages... im back now!

Sorry for not updating in a while but i'v had exams and have been pretty busy, I can get back to the land rover now though.

just preping stuff to be fitted in the summer 20-04-08

I'm at a stage were im just getting stuff cleaned up to be fitted to the Land rover when i rebuild in the summer.

On todays list was clean up and repaint the heating radiator box thing.

I Attached the garden hose to it and it pushed out sum very strange coloured muck an rust, so I stupidly decided to attacched the air compressor to the radiator and consiquently covered my self in sludge but i dont think there will be much rubish left in there.

The casing had previously been painted silver a bit over enthusiastically and had paint drips all over it so looked a bit tatty.

I scraped most of the silver paint of and painted it in black. I also need to paint the heater fan at some stage.

Some pictures:

!!MY CHASSIS HAS ARRIVED!! 18-04-08

Due to issues with the trailor my dad and I were going to borrow we could not collect the chassis from 'Richards Chassis' our selves so we had them deliver it.

We unloaded my chassis, it is pretty easy for 3 people to carry but it becomes a bit of a mission when you have to turn it on its side to get through the gate.

Once done Alisdair came inside to discuss Land Rovers and the best way of fitting my new chassis along with lining up the body and all that stuff.

He had a quick sneak around my landy and gave some useful hints and was soon of to deliver the final chassis of the day to someone just 4 miles down the road from me.

There are photos to come but they're stuck on a phone at the moment...

Got both wings on now 28/29-03-08

Thought i may as well get the other wing on as well to get it out of the way. This one also needed trimming down a bit. It was also a bit tatty so i rivited a bit of the old panel on to stengthen it up, probably not needed but did it any way. For some reason there was no heater fan air intake so i had to fit that too. While i was at it i put some new mesh in the intake.

Fitting new wing 26-03-08

My new wings were taking up a bit too much space in the garage so i dicided to fit the drivers side wing.

I didn't have much trouble removing the old wing as I had loosened most off the fixings a few months ago.



wing off:


New wing didn't fit... im not sure why? but it was pretty easy to change, just measured up the old one and took a few cuts with the jig saw.

Before meating the jig saw:


After meating the jig saw:


finished:

Putting new tyres and rims on 25-03-08

At the Finmere clearout I was not able to get the 235 85 r16 tyres i was looking for. I did manage to get a set of 205 80 r16 tyres for a good price.

I had the tyres put on my new 8 spoke rims and then set to work fitting them to the landy.

The rims are going to be painted limestone white soon.

Some before and after pictures are bellow...

Before from back:

After from rear:

Before front wing:

After front wing:

Finmere clear-out 22-03-08

As Old Sodbury sortout has been relocated and changed to May a clearout was organised at Finmere market.

I wanted to get a set of tyres, replacement front wing and a rear door for my new hard top.

I managed to get the tyres at a good price, they have been used but still have about 8mm of tread on them. They are Goodyear Wranglers.

I only wanted the drivers side wing but I found a pair complete with lights, checker plating and light protectors. The bowl behind the light has also been replaced with a plastic version.

I was looking for a series rear door, there were a few but none were in great condition. There were loads of defender back doors but i only found out they can be fitted to series vehicles this evening. I should be able to get one soon though.

new steering wheel and advancing injector pump 19-03-08

Firstly I removed the steering wheel which was just a case of lots of oil and a good tug, It looks so much better with a new style wheel on there! see before and after pics.

Second task of the day was advacing the injector pump, it was pretty strait forward but didn't actualy reduce the idle smoke, I have been advised that this is probably because the timing belt is stretched and not tight, this means the top is trying to catch up with the bottom. I will replace the chain and tentioner when I have the engine out.

old steering wheel:

new steering wheel:

working on injector pump:

roof goes on! 18-03-08

Today when i got back from school and saw my new roof sitting in the garage i just had to start "re-roofing". I was originally going to just loosen all of the bolts on the truck cab and do the rest tomorow but before i knew it the cab was off and i began bolting the new side panels and roof on. Because the chassis is twisted it was a bit of a job lining everything up but i got there.

It may sound a bit silly fitting the new roof just a few months before the rebuild, but it was taking to much space up in the garage.

before:

After:

A van full of parts! 16-3-08

A few weeks ago I posted a wanted advertisement on http://www.landrovernet.com/ for a roof and any other parts for a series 3. A few people replyed but some one called Grahan gave me a good offer for a roof with sliding windows, bulkhead with dash windscreen etc, gearbox and a galvinised front panel. The stuff was in Manchester and I'm in Oxfordshire but it seemed i was getting a good deal so this morning we left early in a hire van and arived in Manchester at 10.00Am.The van was only just big enough as you can see. Graham was very reasonable and threw a set of 8 spoke rims in which I was keen on but would not have been able to afford.

This picture show Graham, his son and myself discusing Land Rovers, you can see his nicely kept series 2 petrol in the photo.

These are the rims:

Gearbox:

Pictures of the rest of the stuff to come.