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Land Rover resto - new project and Sandy p25


richardthestag

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project update for the last week has also had ups and downs

 

This is the edge where the door seal fits, it should have a round profile to tidy it up. you can see the original profile at the top of the pic. the part is unobatium.

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copper pipe adapts quite easily and is areldite'd into place

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then painted. happy with that

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Next up is to clean up the stainless runners for the rear side windows.

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The channel on the bottom of the sliding window is rusty, because the glass is held in place with spongy foam.

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rear side window is done for now, I am still exploring options for the rubber flap that covers the joint with the outer wing. watch this space

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my brothers doggy

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we went for a walk up the field. my boots leak

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Heater is mostly fitted. needs a gasket and bushes for the mounts, later this week. Dash top is now fixed in place

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There are panels that cover holes in the inner wing on these early cars. mine are rusty. new items cut from sheet steel.

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Trial fitted column controls, 

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Mr Fedex bought me presents

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clutch kit

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one of the pistons, I have a full set of low compression

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can now fit new seals to the original master cylinder

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In place, the tag is to remind me to adjust the clutch pedal stop bolt when it is all connected up

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took the scruffy holed boot floor out while I was checking brake lines and getting ready to install the petrol tank. Oh the new shiny boot floor still wrapped up doesnt look as big

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fuck it! bought it last year. No flippin come back now. I have another at home but just ... bollocks

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next cock up I was pulling all the bits together for the engine rebuild. New hydraulic tappets, rusty, bought two years ago. no wax paper, no protection. rubbish, weren't even that cheap either

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still engine block is on the stand and cleaned up nicely

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engine shells and other bits arriving wednesday, so would have the engine installed and running on Thursday had I not left the flywheel at home. arghhhh

 

 

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My rad was leaking in the same place as yours, amongst one or two other spots. The system was also losing pressure from a knackered expansion cap seal, which is shared with god knows how many other cars, including Saabs, as a scrapyard tour taught me. Worth a check - mine had the consistency and appearance of a used johnny.

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next cock up I was pulling all the bits together for the engine rebuild. New hydraulic tappets, rusty, bought two years ago. no wax paper, no protection. rubbish, weren't even that cheap either

attachicon.gif20181210_170604.jpg

 

Pfft, just wazz it off with a bit of green scourer and some wd40(other shite aerosol stuff is available).

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That's a bugger on the boot floor too, it's not even a small measuring error is it? I wonder if it's a Disco floor as I think they are shorter at the back?

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this week blackdog 4 me 6 so fro blackdog

 

loads of bit arrived so it means I can get some jobs finished, like fitting brake squeal shims and pins. oh and dampers - except the mfr doesnt thing to include the m10 20tpi nut that secures the bottom to the axle. arghhhhh

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I did however manage to secure the boot floor crossmembers and get the side frames in the right place. Troubling me for weeks but a EUREKA moment got me to the solution

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now that I have the engine bits thought I would build it up. however Crank wouldnt fit. when mains are ground the thrust face on the middle main should also be taken out. New centre main was 14thou wider than the very fecked old main. bearing journal was ground 10thou. tolerance for end float is 3-something thou. strapped new centre main with a tiewrap and then used 800grade to flat it off evenly

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until 3 thou of endfloat was achieved. do not worry there is a lot of excess "meat" on the thrust face of these bearings. probably for this exact purpose.

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crank in and turns easily and smoothly. result

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day was at an end and it was getting very cold so popped in the freeze/core plugs 

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next day pistons. loads of stuff to check, first top and second compression piston rings need to be removed from pistons and the gap checked in the cylinder

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then piston ring to gap checks. for all 8 pistons

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then to find a way to safely push in the piston gudgeon pin. it is a tight fit to the piston but interference fit to the con rod. sculped wood and old gurgeon pin with a champher was the way to go 

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maximum success

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next

 

all pistons in and turns easily by hand. result

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time gear, cam and heads on. still turn by hand

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rebuilt rocker shafts bolted up and not within tolerance, shims ordered. this took me 2 days! 2 days to build an engine up! not my most productive week :(

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today was good. measured out the plot.

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it arrived and I still had to should out "oi geeza" despite instruction it is right in front of the church

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after a world of hydraulic - mainly electric issues

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container arrived

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racks courtesy of bigdug - no prestretched t-shirt was included :(

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filled the bastard though. have a van load arriving next week that needs to go in here to.

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watch this space.....

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van trip this week was a long un. large brand new Sprinter from Enterprise was my carriage.

 

Wednesday started out like this in High Wycombe, Mattyboy (#1 son) riding shotgun

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Trip via Banbury to pick up keys to the unit from previous owner and then oop North. Lunch was scoffed

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This is about 1/2 of the stuff that needs to be relocated to Devon. looks like a right load of old shit but there is treasure in here. 

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shifted all the loose stuff out of the 4 cars I bought which are being shipley'd to Devon early in the new year. Matt wants to know why someone would chop up a Range Rover to offroad it :D

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Fours cars now free of all the bits which might litter the 300 mile M62/M18/M1/M42/M5 route to Devon. Just need to ratshit strap the bonnets closed and tie wrap the doors frame to the b-post and they are go go go. That will wait until Jan when I revisit

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Because I needed most of my smoll straps to hold this lot in place. Van was more or less exactly the right size

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I promised Matt a slap up feast ;) and Gloucester Services did not disappoint. 

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after a 5h drive to N Devon I damn well needed this. and I had another after it and then a couple of beers

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Van was too big to fit into the field so we had to use the 88 IIa to ferry some of the heavy stuff. Like this complete and functioning 1974 LT95 gearbox. I told you, treasure!

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container loaded up and we just need to do the 180 mile stroll back to HW to return the trusty steed.

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So after a 700mile round trip and just over £100 of heavy oil what do I have?

 

  • The LT95 obviously
  • another 4 passenger doors (one is perfect save a scuff to the skin)
  • 1 drivers door
  • 4 front wings
  • 5 new michelin tyres
  • another 5 dead tyres with early rims
  • 1 very good lower tailgate
  • 2 not so good lower tailgates, but good for parts and patterns
  • 1 brand new top tailgate with a spare early tail gate glass
  • 1 early front bumper with some bullbar effort (it is straight though and the holes can be welded up
  • 5 back seats
  • 6 front seats
  • 3 boot floors, one is from the bobtail. hoping to be able to cut n' shut the floors I have to make up 3 maybe 4 full length floors. Just need to work out how to weld them
  • Inlet manifold with SU Carbs
  • 4 new road springs and another 4 very good
  • 8 brand new brake discs
  • 2 very good inner front wings
  • 1 heater unit
  • 1 bonnet in pretty good shape
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in other news this week

 

I bought an untested used Facet fuel pump from ebay for buttons. predictably it didnt work

post-3439-0-93095000-1545480987_thumb.jpg

 

But I was able to salvage bits to complete the restoration of my Facet pump, I call that a result

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These brackets support the rear seat back to the side frames of the car, just need a quick blast then rust treatment and paint. 

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Ah that will be why the compressor is using/loosing so much air then! tried tightening the connector and it just didnt feel right. Must have taken a bit of a knock .. gaaaaagh! pleasingly a complete new manifold for this is £20 inc vat, In the mean time the compressor will not reach pressure so I cannot really use it for more than a few mins at the time as it runs continuously, providing about 100psi. Not sure I fancy that coupler and pipe shooting across the workshop when it completely fails

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never mind eh, plenty of other shite to do between 5 mins sessions in the blast cabinet and rest time for the compressor.

 

These are ignition coil and ballast resistor (because 6v coil) and the vacuum switch for diff lock

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gunk and steel wool later, I prefer to use this used old stock stuff rather than new repro just because

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switch responded to a lick from a wire brush and then a dab of paint. bulb still works and vacuum switch is now free from crud and works fine also

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By this time I had a wedge of steel bits blasted clean from paint and rust. all need rust treatment before paint

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a series of blast cabinet, wire disc on my drill, wire brush, steel wool and clear satin lacquer got me to this point. 

 

These are the carb elbows that connect carbs to air filter

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tops of the fuel filter, you are not seeing double I just wanted to do one for the store as well, the bowl for the filter is blue, these are being painted seperately

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and the front timing cover and water pump housing. I used a clear engine lacquer for this, maybe it can deal with slightly higher temperatures. we will see eh.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Collection of cars starts 4am tomorrow morning with me driving up to Yorkshite to coordinate with Shipley Chappy and get two of the cars on their merry way to Devon.

 

I have nobody riding shotgun this time around so updates will be sparse-ish 

 

If all goes well we should arrive Devonshite early afternoon tomorrow for unloadage which should be fun with no brakes nor running engines

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in other news this week

 

I bought an untested used Facet fuel pump from ebay for buttons. predictably it didnt work

attachicon.gif20181218_105107.jpg

 

But I was able to salvage bits to complete the restoration of my Facet pump, I call that a result

attachicon.gif20181218_110116.jpg

A repair kit might get your spares pump going again, depending on what has actually failed:

https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/facet-silver-top-fuel-pump-service-kit-fpa920

 

EDIT - I forgot to say what a great job you're doing, both with the restoration and the thread for our benefit!

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Right folks, so yesterday was an epic one. two cars are delivered and 2 are on the way. I had to be on site in Yorkshite to prep all 4 for shipping, the seller kindly stepped in to see the 2nd two off today.

 

Oh Lord what have I done !

 

this was 7:30 yesterday morning, no sign of the sun

 

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abandoned the pair in the field and then helped shipley chappy to fix his trailer leckies because he forgot to disconnect before shifting the trailer, doh

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then went to the pub, needed that 2 pairs of pints I can tell you.

 

This morning looked like this

 

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my car abandoned where I left it

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And now the next two are on their way for delivery around 9pm tonight.

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Anyone on M62/M18/M1s/A42/M42/M5/A316/A399 can give them a wave on their way here

 

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so what have I bought?

 

two 1971 cars and 2 1972

 

The bobtail is the most interesting for a number of reasons. So lets detail that one first.

 

Chassis number is within the first 1600 production cars off the line, so it is a J reg, both axles are within the correct range for a car of this era. Gearbox while LT95 is from a slightly newer date 1973ish. Early boxes were not great so likely swapped out by factory.

 

Engine is also A suffix but need to lift it out to establish exactly what I have. Inlet manifold is dated to 1971 also.

 

In a nutshell despite being a complete shed it has a lot going for it

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One of the previous owners who did the butchery probably is responsible for it's survival which is some kind of paradox I am sure. Comedy tyres give the car a huge turning circle but also make it a complete arse to manoeuvre as it is so heavy

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Dash has holes in it which is a shame but the speedo pod is undamaged which is a proper rarity. the lip on these things is made from the same stuff as mondeo bumpers

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huge back bumper replaced the more delicate original. the goalposts are in good shape, will need a new bottom cross member. BUT the biggest issue is the crash damage to the top rail. I think it will pull out ok.

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why use pop rivets for the checkaplate when you can use 10mm self tapping bolts

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Both doors show promise, passenger door has early glass and quarterlight rubbers. 

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Engine is seized. plugs out, lobbed oil and diesel into each cylinder. will repeat regularly until I get around to stripping this down.

 

I took the precaution of knocking out a coreplug to make sure the cooling system was empty which it is.

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top cover is missing from gearbox, but all gears select. from what I could see of first gear the teeth look in good shape. Covered it up to prevent any more crap from getting into the box. I will strip it right down anyway when I get to it.

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Drivers a-post is really clean! like unbelieveable

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as is the drivers b-post. The door opens and closes with a kerlunk

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similar situation on the passenger side. the outside edge of the a-post is a nasty mess of pigeon shite, but I reckon that this surface can be saved

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b-post I can work with

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both doors are mega early flat face doors, i.e. there is no strengthening ribbing on the shut edges. 

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I reckon that I can save both of these, the skins are even something that I think I can work with.

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first job was to swap out the huge front tyres with standard size so at least I can move it about. note extra heavy duty springs. reckon when this was on the road it would have shaken fillings out of your teeth

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that's better

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interesting logo on sides of deck panel

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bolts a bonnet on which is resting on the top of the engine just to keep rain off

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Plan is to put this back to standard. brand new chassis at a standard length can be had and falls into DVLA points scoring system. side frames can be easily extended back to standard length and I have the inner front wings from this car which are not butchered. It was Tuscan Blue when new, that is the light blue colour that you see, chances are that it will go back to this.

 

tyres, rims, bumper and bullbar will be recycled into the OLLI crowd

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The green car is within 4000 from start of production. it is a 1972 car.

 

while it might look a lot better it is just as much of a shed as the bobtail.

 

Axles and gearbox are within number range of chassis plate. It is more complete but modified in other ways.

 

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dash is totally unmessed with, very clean and original

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lots of early 1970s range rover bits still on this one, most of the glass dates to 1972.

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a post very clean, less so the nearside sill!

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b post is also really good

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drivers a post is almost perfect, sill again is fooked but I know how to do those. Door is a mess. oh good another fucked drivers door. I have like 8 spare passenger doors in various states and 1 drivers door. going to make templates for a passenger door and reverse it to see if that might work for drivers door repair

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just small rust on drivers b post

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any of you chaps know what engine this is?

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authentic molegrips holding something together for what looks like a very long time

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annoyingly engine mounts have been cut off the chassis and different mounts welded in. I will cut mounts off the scrap bobtail chassis before it gets weighed

 

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I have followed your Range Rover Restoration with the greatest interest, as many of the problems you have come up against would have defeated me You always seem to come up with elegant solutions to the problem and just move on to the next one. Very impressive. But with so many projects on the go, you need to watch out that the sheer scale of completing so much work will sap your motivation. Are you planning to move to Devon so you can be on site more? Looks a lovely spot to live, if you are planning a move.

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