Project Land Rover resto - new project and Sandy p25

[Guest Hooli]

Looks a nice coffee table.

[richardthestag]

Last task for the fvcked block was to work out what was blocking the lower starter motor hole on the engine plate. ah a lump of broken tap. this shit is tough to remove. I was lucky. maybe this engine wants to run again.

 

I decided on the above to strip down the SD1 engine that came with the car and I know to be a runner. the issue is that the dog drive securing the crank pulley is 1 5/16" deep socket which is too expensive for my taste. fret not 34mm deep works

 

timing cover came off no bother, chain is baggy but aint they all?

 

heads didnt take too long to whizz off, see earlier in the thread for me sticking them on to see if the engun was a runner

 

clutch all came apart fine, cover is in good shape, plate is .5mm off slipping. = fucked

 

cannot strap to engine rack 'cos threads is 3/8 UNC rather than nice metric on other v8. arch.. no studs long enough here but easily fixed

 

diverted attention to rocker shafts which look nice

 

and the shaft seems more than serviceable. no ridging here

 

but a few of the shoes have some serious wear. wotch these space

 

to be continued

[richardthestag]

YooToob of the low compression engine clean and assessment

 

 

YooToob of rods and fucking piston assessment

 

[richardthestag]

last couple of days have seen engine #2 stripped. suspension a frame painted ready for assembly tomorrow and finishing work started on the bulkhead. The engine blocks and cranks are coming home with me next week for engineering shop visit.

 

Got three more days down here, want to concentrate on bulkhead and body frames. need to start getting on with this thing.

 

Engine #2  first, this is the engine that came with the car when I bought it. Originally SD1. Check post #2 in this fred for it starting up.

 

Had issues attaching it to the engine frame because threads in the back end are UNC and not Metric like they were on Engine #1. Had to order up some unc threaded rod to get it attached

 

Engine crane made short work of getting it onto the rotating stand. I removed the sump first while it was still the right way up. this would stop any dregs left in the sump from dribbling back up through the block if tipped upside down. 

 

turned out to be a wise move

 

this is most of the way through the engine block strip, pistons are AE oversized, the rings are fairly new as are the big end bearings. Big end and main bearings are also reground

 

Bare block ready for cleanage

 

Big 10 x 4foot bench soon fills up with crap!

 

cleaning main bearing caps, though they were not too grubby

 

Baffle and oil pickup are next, oil pickup ahd some nasty lumps of burnt oil stuck to it, right over the pick up pipe. this had caused the gauze to split. I wonder if this engine had struggled with oil pressure also.

 

there is quite a big hole in the gauze, oil filter does a good job of only sending clean oil to bearings n stuff. The gauze stops the oil pump from getting buggered by shrapnel. this gauze is a dead un.

 

Turned my attention to the sump, "hmmmmmmm sludge!"

 

Sump and block enjoying the sun after a deep cleanse

 

The bores look like a light hone is all that is required, there is a broken stud on the front of the block - circled in red pen on one helicoil on the Left side of the block that is proud of the surface ! circled

 

and the front camshaft bearing is down to copper. see what the machine shop says

 

[richardthestag]

main work on suspension was on the rear axle a frame

 

The a frame pivot sits on top of the back axle. the arms bolt to the chassis.

 

on the left is the gearbox cross member, other bits are the two a frame arms and pivot housing. stripped paint and given them a rust treatment

 

this is the boge self levelling unit. sits between the a frame pivot and chassis. allows for soft springs at the back of the car, given a clean and rust treatment. Lick of paint will follow

 

Bought this POR15 tester kit ages ago. Time to use it because I left the 1-2-1 chassis paint at home 

 

clean/degrease, prep and then paint 2 coats. This is at the prep stage

 

Paint might be too glossy, should be tough though

 

shoved chassis out into the sunshine to make some space

 

nice day today

 

Attaching the boge top ball joint into housing which is fixed to the chassis

 

bead blasting the engine bay side of the bulkhead

 

cam up real nice, bead blasting the tight arease and wire cup on angle grinder for everything else

 

planning to epoxy prime this tomorrow. 

 

 

[richardthestag]

good progress today, fitted a frame, rear calipers and made up back axle brake lines. Also filled and seam sealed bulkead and one inner wing ready for paint tomorrow

 

First is to fit the huge fuck off ball joint that connects the a frame to the axle. I am always wary of the amount and quality of grease that is fitted in any balljoint I buy, so first thing I always do is slip off the rubber boot and check it. This seems to be full of vaseline. Wiped most out and fitted axle grease

 

Then lined up the joint in the pivot with a couple of bolts

 

gave it 3 tonnes and it slipped in like... well you make you your own rude joke here

 

next fitted the Boge balljoint

 

And attached the freshly painted Used old stock but fully functional Boge self levelling unit 

 

Both the top end attached hanging it in place and nipping up the bolts is heavy but easy

 

Snuck the other a frame arm on and knocked the bolts through using my trusty nylon hammer followed by the 3lb hammer

 

Nipped all the bolts up to the correct torque and done

 

Light surface filler to tidy the bulkhead and then seam sealed it ready for paint, now worried that the rubberised seam sealer cannot be painted over

 

and one of the new inner wings

 

Bump stops next

 

Dead easy to fit

 

Except where the previous owner has bodged the rear axle nearside bumpstop mount

 

checking why I hadnt realised this earlier and before powder coating, previous owner had hacked 3cm off the Bright orange poly pump stop... Gah. so option 1 is to paint orange bump stop black, option 2 is to cut the bracket off the chassis and weld the fucker back into the right place.... arse 

 

distracted myself from dissapoint by making up new brake lines for the back axle

 

done and happy

 

tomorrow is paint and front axle brake lines

[Asimo]

Epic. What a lot of work.

 

Old cars are enough of a puzzle without the extra comedy errors of previous incompetent maintainers.

[richardthestag]

sup' shittrz?

 

Paintz and brakez today

 

Firstly I have to commit that nothing* is going back onto the chassis if it need to come off again. I need to concentrate my efforts on assembly rather than assembly, disassembly, paint, dissabelz etc etc 

 

it needs to stop.

 

So..

 

rustbuster epoxy 421 primer to front inners and lower exposed part of bulkhead

 

 

 

 

making up brake lines for front axle has 2 issues, tight bends and I forgot to bring the unions that sit on top of the swivels with me... yeah I know, doh etc

 

All I could do was make up lengths that I could finish next time I am down here

 

 

 

One of the caliper bolts has a rounded head, need to order another, not fitted n/s caliper yet.

 

Tomorrow paint exposed section of bulkead and inner wings white and fit to chassis so I can line up rest of brake pipes

 

[colnerov]

 Hi, Excellent work so far, I regret getting rid of mine now.  A word of caution ordinary grease can attack the Nylon in the balljoints, you need a 'nylon friendly' grease.

 

 Colin

[richardthestag]

Another good day, well for me anyway.

 

Bulkhead fitted straight back to chassis. I wanted to check it for alignment before seam sealing and painting the inside

 

front inner wing bolts up, giant mecanno

 

front panel fitted, aligned nice. and then hung indicators old headlamps and grill in place to check alignment

 

I want to get the brake lines fitted up from master - this is the pedal box with throttle and clutch pedal. pretty mucky and rusty. so needs stripping down and painting

 

this is it all stripped back. Clutch and Brake pedals are twins

 

Attacked the pedal box with POR15

 

and the pedals. I am hoping that POR15 will be tough enough to keep the pedals looking clean

 

I want to refit the master and servo, the master strip and rebuild is coming, servo today. split the unit easily. Looks horrible on the outside but sparkly on the inside.

 

Gave the back of the canister some knot wire brush action on the old angle grinder. Got all the surface rust off

 

but found a hole. on the back. less critical to servo function but will be tickled with a blob of weld

 

All stripped, ready for rust converting. 

 

I think it will work

 

home again tomorrow. I miss the Mrs and the lads

 

taking some bits to fix at home and engine block, pistons, crank etc for engineering summary, brake master and some other bits

 

Next trip down here 2 maybe 3 weeks, need to check with Mrs Thestag. 

 

Then I ideally want to build up an engine and start the bugger. Finish priming the bulkhead and it the weather is good top coat it. Then fit up brakes from master to front axle. If I get time I hope to refit loom also.

 

Gearbox strip and clean is on the critical path to getting engine back in again.

 

Fun that is cheaper than therapy

 

 

[richardthestag]

working on the project all week. 

 

day one stoneguard and top coat bulkhead and front inner wings.

 

inner wings have already been painted with rust.co.uk 4to1 epoxy primer. no commercial interest just pleased with the results. I will let you know in a decade if it works, stoneguard was rattlecanned onto the underside

 

 

topcoat was rattlecanned onto the primer, kind of wish that I had flatted the primer but then it might look to shiny

 

 

the field is my paint bake oven today

 

 

 

[Guest Hooli]

Should be ready just in time for next winter's salt?

[richardthestag]

bulkhead and fitting up

 

this is the top of the bulkhead looking from inside the car towards the passenger side. the top of the bulkhead has drain holes that allow any water that gets under the bulkhead deck panel to drain out. into a water trap... I will areldite some hose so that it clears the inner wing rails

 

the hole drilled was then tickled with the welder and sealed up with epoxy primer

 

 

paint was drying very quick today for some reason

 

this lot is not coming off again!

 

In other news, I have been sorting out the pedal box, the steering column bracket and the front lower radiator surround for fitment later this week.

 

Tomorrow starting on the drivers side frame. should be able to bolt this up to the chassis maybe tomorrow.

 

Want to get the body frame together this week, then I can start working on wiring loom and brakes

 

 

 

[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

Half of me is thinking - what a place to be working on my old crocs......

the other half is thinking - I'd never get a sodding thing done as I'd sit n chill out with that view......

 

Wish any one of my projects was coming along at this pace. Well fondled sir, looks fantastic.

[richardthestag]

it sure is a beautiful part of the world. spent most of today raining while the rest of the country was moaning about sunburn etc.

 

I love it here, Mrs thestag loves me being here go home again on Saturday, maybe sunday morning.

 

Anyway Day #2

 

As promised drivers side frame has been worked on prepping to fit to the chassis, never to be removed again*

 

I like how the side frame stands up all by itself. heavy but not beyond the boundaries of two blokes

 

had to finish a bit of welding to the bottom of the a and b post. then an hour of grinding back welds over the whole panel and cleaning stuff up ready for paint.

 

next is a thick brush coating of rust buster 421 epoxy primer

 

drying, tomorrow seam seal and then white stoneguard, this will be enough for me to fit the side frame back to the chassis and forget it** it will need plenty of wax, dinitrol protecshun annually

 

next up, finish pedal box and stuff

 

this lump braces between the pedal box and the platform that the dash pod bolts to. The steering column fits to it

 

pedal box, cleaned, painted and reassembled

 

servo all sorted and bolted up too. Just need a brake master cylinder 

 

so if I am to fit up pedal box and working on it not needing to come off again I needed to finish off the inside of the bulkhead.rather than spending a smoll fortune on rover paint I did this with halfords enamel white.I can overcoat selectively if I need to but this lot will be covered up

 

 

cleaned up surface rust and loose paint on dash top, then primed and dusted with paint, again nothing fancy as it will be covered up with the dash top.

 

last job today, steering column. The inner column is in two parts, the outer column is just one big chunk. Took it apart because of play in the inner column bushes

 

this load is the top column bush, a thrust washer, some shims and a spring. the silver tube in the middle contains a very cheap bearing... which is not available separately.... and the silver tube is unobtainium. Am going to reassemble, check shims and then maybe visit the bearing shop in Wycombe for something that might replace it

 

painted outer tube, it will be staying

 

just back from the pub and a pair of beers. now planning tomorrow

 

 

[richardthestag]

theres fackin Doones in them valleys

 

day #3

good day, weather held out, finished up with a bonfire of all the boxes and crap in the barn including lots of oil contaminated waste that the local tip charges to drop off.

 

5 litres of old engine oil saw it roaring. 10 mins later all fucking gone.

 

anyway enough of the pyromania

 

steering column was irritating me because of unobtainium of components. I reckon that there are standard bearing sizes involved. stripped it, cleaned it and lubed it all up

 

Then assembled, checked tolerances and it is bang on and with no play. lube helps.. Fnarr

 

drivers side frame was shutz'd with white stoneguard

 

then bolted up to bulkhead and chassis, note... topside still needs paint. 

 

did have to break rule #1 and remove front inner wing. arse

 

but that was only 3 bolts, and it went back on quick enough

 

while waiting for shutz to dry and before fitting to chassis ^ I had a go with my new throat-less shear. fucking love it

 

on left is raw cut, on right is ready for paint unobtainium (until now )front axle brake hose bracket

 

then went looking for the other side of the body frame

 

checked dash top panel fitted, of course it will. wanted to see what bits of the body frame you can see around it though

 

finished welding and cleaning up welds. this was the corner I started on. I can see improvement in my ability throughout this project

 

epoxy primed the critical areas i.e. those that I cannot access when I fit without breaking my already broken rule of not removing shite I just fitted

 

tomorrow seam seal, shutz the underside and fit to chassis.

 

I need also to look at the rear goalpost - the square that the two tailgates attach too. An area that I have yet to work on

[richardthestag]

Day 4

 

had a great day today

 

seam sealed the lower and under bits of the passenger frame

 

while drying I went around the drivers side frame with Mr Seamsealer

 

flipped the frame over and did the bits that I couldnt access first time around. Did all this using a shutz gun. neat and tidy

 

after near 2 hours it was dry enough to fit to the chassis. I had to remove the front inner wing first

 

much easier to drop it onto the chassis - sill mount points

 

 

bolted it up to the side of the bulkhead

[richardthestag]

windscreen top rail first. 

 

This one is pretty good but needs a good clean and rust converter

 

this is the top of the drivers side A post - right up at the top of the windscreen

 

inside is less pretty, passenger side had no issues at all

 

ready to weld in the outer bit

 

it will do

 

is hidden under the roof. will make sure it is properly primed and protected

 

 

windscreen top frame fits nice, I need to check that the screen still fits but it is the same height both sides

 

temporarily refitted the boot floor, rear heel-board, rear floor and gearbox cover. all fits nicely

 

 

 

3 back ends

 

this is the rear floor, not pretty but I can save it. that nasty patch was nothing to do with me. I can do it justice

 

 

Heel-board on the right here is in good shape. rear floor on the left needs work. as does the gearbox cover

 

Tomorrow, day off trip out to see a trimmer for seats, floor coverings and stuff

[Guest Hooli]

Bloody hell it looks like a car already!

[John F]

This is one of the very best threads on Autoshite.

[richardthestag]

yesterday was supplier finding mission.

 

Main objective was to see Nationwide trim, famous in Range Rover circles

 

After lots of Devon lanes we are on the A361

 

Which can haz be close because of nasty accident but more nice Exmoor Devon / Somerset border roads

 

Rover P4 Guild "we haz us a convoy"

 

Redditch and nationwide trim with lots of interesting neighbours. 

 

Including 20 10 engineering - where I want to be at

 

M5 Grockle traffic jamz

 

A361 still closed - arse

 

Pub to celebrate getting home. 325 mile round trip. average 10.3mpg on LPG ouch

 

This pint is well worth it

[Guest Hooli]

Liked for the pub

[richardthestag]

today much was achieved day #6 ..... #5 on project

 

First job, drivers side rear inner wind pressing doesnt include hole to access rear light wiring as per early 1970s Range Rover

 

Fortunately I hung onto a chunk of the original inner wing, lined it up

 

traced out the holes

 

step drill is useful at big holes at the right'ish radius

 

Angel grinder cuts between holes

 

pliers folds metal back to give a lip and flap disc smooths everything out nice

 

Next is to deal with rust at tail end of rear slidey windows

 

two sections, flat bit

 

and zig zaggy bit. done

[Guest Hooli]

All the little clamps & things used to hold stuff to weld it look dead handy. Bet they make the difference between a good job & something that looks like I did it too.

[richardthestag]

next up today

 

My Nemesis, well my biggest worry

 

Rear wing shield for fuel filler. The original item was cut from wing before repair and after an hour of fucking around I realised the the horizontal face is not a mirror of the verical.

 

Messing with mr Shrinker/stretcher got me to this point which I was very very pleased with

 

original bodge with my reproduced replacement. Not yet welded in because I want to savour this repair panel for a while longer

 

Rear goal post next - ties the two side frames together and supports the roof. Not as nasty as I recall!

 

Tailgate seal is easy to remove, guaranteed to be a cnut to replace

 

This is the remains of the lip on the top edge of the frame, stops* water from getting past the top tailgate. Anyone who knows Range Rovers will know that the aerodynamics of this car ensure that you drag anything that goes over the top or underneath the car back in through the back tailgate. Later cars have a warning sticker to not drive with rear tailgate open. unless you like exhaust gases 

 

these two bits of the original lip I saved to reproduce next time

 

underneath the lip even though terminally rusty was very clean. the car is fighting to live again

 

Lines up and it does. Held roughly in place with tie wraps because it needs to come off again for my flappy disc and paint

 

home again tomorrow. loom and heater are going with me for refurb because they are next to be fitted

[richardthestag]

video summary for where I am at

 

pretty much me talking through everything that is ^ there

 

https://youtu.be/dLk9H8iSMJg

[richardthestag]

a day of huge expenditure today

 

two more big bills will be coming interior trim and paint.

 

gah

 

I love it really

 

CKM engineering called to say two rover v8 blocks and cranks are ready. yay

 

bill = 1 bag + vat. fucksticks

 

never mind v8 double the expense double the fun.

 

in a nutshell

 

scrap blue block that had seized.

verdict was that it had standard bores and standard crank.

It now has +010 thou grind on big end and main bearings... yeah I know even though it seized the machine shop executed magic

and +020 thou rebore, the minimum overbore for Rover v8. sizes are +020 +040 and +060

 

the SD1 spec engine that was in the car

had +010th big ends and mains and responded well to a polish

had +020th bores and responded well to a light hone

 

ironically the old ex-seized blue block is in better shape in that the bores are std +020thou whereas the SD1 block which I just had honed is still within tolerance for +020 pistons but started out at 020th oversized and now has lost a few more thou off that also. If fact it is just shy of +040 but will be a nice loose and powerful engine when built

 

Plan is to build up the SD1 engine proper. get it running on the rig and sell it to replen the coffers.

 

pair of bare blocks, cleaned, ready for paint and rebuild

 

The SD1 block details

 

the ex seized blue block details

 

new cam bearings on both blocks - that alone was £275 +vat

 

pair of beautiful cranks

 

Next steps gearbox rebuild though. so this lots is being wrapped up in broadsheet newspaper and stored until the summer

 

[Guest Hooli]

Mmmm v8 porn

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[Fathathestag]

Very good wondered what was happening in my barn as I ferried over beers and cooked dinners!

[richardthestag]

Very good wondered what was happening in my barn as I ferried over beers and cooked dinners!

 

good grief Fathathestag has made it in. must have been bored.

 

I reckon 50% of the costs so far are in consumables. cutting discs, welding gas, gin and beer