Series III Rebuild
MOT Passed!
Well she has an MOT. Passed without any advisories at all, although my drive to the MOT centre was ‘interesting’, having never driven a Series Land Rover before! Now the little non-essential jobs can begin. Things like servicing the engine, finding and installing some door tops, bit more paint here and there. Here she joins [...]
Pre-MOT Final Jobs
A few jobs remain to sort out before MOT time. Mounting the rear door was relatively painless. Seemed to line up without any problems, which is better than I’d hoped for. The dirty roof really shows here, was the only panel I didn’t get a chance to pressure-wash. Will have to do it next time [...]
Seating and Yet More Damn Bodywork!
Lots done in this entry, so it’s a bit long I’m afraid. Thing is, when one gets to this stage things tend to advance quickly. You can go from a bulkhead, seatbox and a rear tub to full vehicle in just a day. The body panels are all very easy to fit and reasonably light, [...]
Rear Tub On and Even More Bodywork
There are a lot of panels on Land Rovers. And this is only an 88″! After much wiggling, the rear tub is now bolted on. Got some more lights coming (that indicator was the only salvageable one at the back), and all the wiring is there ready to go once they arrive. Also getting busier [...]
More Body Panels and Dash
Fitted the dashboard, which I had to source entirely due to the vehicle not coming with one bar a bit of 5/16″ ply! Also put the front radiator panel and radiator on the chassis. This is a replacement panel, due to the original being rusted out in the same place they always are, at the [...]
Bulkhead and Front Brake Lines
After months of searching I have a bulkhead which means I can progress. Proper Series III one, in reasonably good condition. Only actual rust is on the passenger footwell, where there’s a hole. The top area is pretty good, with only minor surface rust which should clean up ok. Once the footwells were replaced (awful [...]
Engine and Gearbox In
Installed the engine and gearbox to the chassis. New engine and transmission mounts of course. I’ve also run the brake lines for the rear axle, not the chassis-bound one yet but the ones attatched to the axle itself, which link the T-piece on the diff to the wheel cylinders. Bulkhead is the next job, sourcing [...]
Building a Rolling Chassis
With my new chassis present, the axles done, and the new Rocky Mountain suspension system in ‘stock’, it was time to start the rebuild proper. This is a big turning point as it marks the start of what I would call ‘major construction’ after what seems like months of deconstruction, cleaning, painting, assembling fiddly bits [...]
The New Chassis Arrives
After a couple of problems with Richards Chassis, namely several delays and then their attempt to deliver the wrong item, I finally got my new galvanised chassis. Complete with a bolt-in gearbox cross member to facilitate easier removal/refitting of the transmission in the future if when required. Springs have arrived too, so with any luck [...]
Rebuilding the Axles – Part 2
Once the rear axle had been completed my attention turned to the front. The stripped-down casing was cleaned up and painted, the diff left in this time as it required no work. The swivel housings had already been prepared and repainted so with my box of new parts at hand I set about re-building the [...]
Rebuilding the Axles – Part 1
This is a messy and time consuming job, but the results at the end are very much worth it. The first job (once the axles are off the chassis) is to strip everything down to component parts. I laid out my bits on cardboard to make it easier to identify them when re-assembling. Then comes [...]
Removing Engine/Transmission
Rigged up a block and tackle in the workshop (with a couple of acro-props to support the roof beam better) and set about removing the major units from the rolling chassis. All fairly basic stuff, just unbolt and lift. I also took the opportunity to give the aformentioned units a quick wash before while they [...]
Bodywork Deconstruction
The last couple of days in the workshop have been spent mainly just removing bodywork from the vehicle. This can be a very time-consuming job on a vehicle of this age due to the inevitable presence of rusted bolts/fixings. Nearly every bolt we undid was corroded, and a lot of them simply sheared off after [...]
Getting the Engine Running
So the first job was to get the engine to show some signs of life. Once I knew it was healthy and a runner I could progress more with the dissasembly. I believe the engine is the original 2.25 litre, 3 main bearing, four cylinder petrol, however it appears to have had a Weber 34ICH [...]
Finally Moved In
After having had the truck for a while now, I have finally managed to get the thing into the workshop so I can get started on it. Unfortunately we have had some very heavy snow over the past week, and this delayed things slightly, but with much digging and effort we managed to pull the [...]
So it begins…
I was recently made an offer I couldn’t refuse. I enquired about an early Land Rover Series III which I had seen whilst driving home, and I was told that if I wanted it I could have it for scrap value…ie. not a lot. After about 30 seconds of thought I bought it and a [...]
