My series 3 rebuild

Hello I'm Graham, I have a 1972 series 3 88" petrol SWB landrover.
I have been considering changing the engine over to a 200 TDI for a while.
Then i found & won this on ebay Discovery for £420 :
It wan't worth saving as there was a lot of rust in the normal places.
Rear floor, both arches & both sillls.
All the mechanical parts were useable including the engine as it had has only done 84K!
It starts & runs on the button.

As i picked it up.


Starting to strip it down. ( Revealing all the rusty areas! )




Now down to the chassis




Starting to strip my Series 3 down.


This was what i found when the engine & gearbox were separated!




I wanted to fit the power steering from the Discovery,so i cut out the front cross member & trial fitted the steering box prior to mounting it correctly on the chassis leg.


This shows the front chassis now adapted to take the power steering.


The plan wasn't to completely strip down the landy at the beginning, but at this stage i changed my mind & started to remove the rear.


It was then that i noticed the the rear chassis was worse than i expected!
The rear spring hangers had been replaced at some point & had been welded on twisted! Also the under side from the mid cross member back was plated, in some places 3 patches deep!!




So after all the work adapting the front end, i decided to cut my loses & buy a new galvanised chassis.


This is my new galvanised chassis bought from Richards chassis's. They can supply a chassis already adapted to take the power steering from a Discover or Defender.


Starting to rebuild on new chassis.


Engine & gearbox now fitted.




Trial fitted front end.






I've still a bit more to do yet, but hope to have it back on the road in the next month or so. (Maybe!)

very tidy project you got there, selling the disco chassis and axles will help fund new bits I presume

great job and pics!

cracking project well done

regards Paul

joe27979 said:

very tidy project you got there, selling the disco chassis and axles will help fund new bits I presume

great job and pics!

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Well when i got the Discovery home i realized that it was still taxed!
I got £140 back

Then i sold some parts & cut up the body to be weighed it in for scrap.
So the engine, diffs & all the other bits needed from the Discovery cost me about £150 ish.

Good work, What did you paint the engine with? Looks tidy

As the chassis is not as standard, will it not affect it where dvla are concerned, I've read you can't alter it?

excellent work, you seem to have done a lot in a short time or have you been at it a while?

Before you get the wings fitted get some sound proofing on the bulkhead or like me you will be struggling to fit it are you going full tdi ?
Have left mine without turbo and with hi ratio transfer box on a swb pulls ok.

aaronmorris said:

Good work, What did you paint the engine with? Looks tidy

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I just used hammerite smooth gold. Don't know if it will stay on with the heat though?

honolulujoe said:

excellent work, you seem to have done a lot in a short time or have you been at it a while?

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Started about April & still going now.

Blackburn said:

Before you get the wings fitted get some sound proofing on the bulkhead or like me you will be struggling to fit it are you going full tdi ?
Have left mine without turbo and with hi ratio transfer box on a swb pulls ok.

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I'm not putting sound proofing on now, maybe later I'll see how it sounds without it.
Yes with turbo, but undecided about intercooler though. I have changed the difs to the discovery ones to.

Starting to put the dash & wiring in now

It's alive!
See video below, this is the first turn of the key

You appear to have square engine mounts at the front I recommend you change them for OEM defender ones available from Glencoyne engineering they are softer and reduce the engine vibrations . Have them ion my 200DI engine.

Blackburn said:

You appear to have square engine mounts at the front I recommend you change them for OEM defender ones available from Glencoyne engineering they are softer and reduce the engine vibrations . Have them ion my 200DI engine.

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Ok thanks, I'll have a look.

Here's some more pics of the progress:

Snorkel from ebay.







Passed MOT first time & this is the first trip out over Lulworth way.

excellent

Great work!

Looking good! How do you fit the steering column and linkage? Does it just bolt in or is there some fabricating involved. Any pictures of the steering column/bulkhead to relay would be appreciated

That's some good work there! I need to do something similar.