Series 3 1975 S3 Rebuild

Bought this back in August and have only just got round to the chassis work in the past month or so, so no real progress until recently, it's a 1975 diesil Series 3, ex RUC/ police I've been told, with a bullt hole in the bulkhed in the lower dash area, patched areas in the hardtop and the battleship grey underneath the red would support this too, anybody know of a way to find out if this is true at all? It's turned out to be a bit more of a bundle than first thought, needing two front dumb irons, three outriggers, and two new footwells, as well as patching on the rear crossmenber, the gearbox crossmember (may just replace altogether), and the front axle will be rebuild, with the possibility of the rear being done too, but it's definately better than any of the others we looked at at the time within our budget. Everything about the car is a mess, with quite a few unoriginal modifications/ farmers botches, hoping to put everything back to factory spec as much as possible, with as few "quirks" as possible.
First thing that had to be done was to clear a space for it to live, originally built this a year or two ago to keep a tractor, but needs must, plus its nice and snug for a series!

Getting it delivered, came with plenty of spares, enough to build another full Landy, two wings, a deluxe bonnet, truck cab and windscreen and a complete tub, (caked in concrete?) with beaten up tailgate. I'm planning to build on good one out of what I have, with parts like the truck cab going up for sale.


Once unloaded I had a good look under the bonnet, some very rash wiring and the whole bay was a mess and completely unorganised, that will have to change.


Few pictures now of the inside/ around the car

Strip down then began, with parts being bagged up and where possible bolts put back into holes/ parts, have now ended up with a small room full of labelled bags though. Most of the bolts on the outside of the body had to be cut with a grinder, as they would either not budge at all, even with copious amounts of penetrating fluid, or the bolt heads would simply round and the only way to remove them would be to cut them,. You can see the extent of the rust damage to the bulkhead, with the classic repair of riveting plates over rust patches and trapping moisture, making it rust away quicker. During this process I found that despite looking very straight, most of the wings, bulkhead and door bottoms were made up mainly of body filler, with golfball sized holes on the wings being filled, something that should have been expected considering the times it went through over here with the troubles etc.

Not sure on finding out the history but it is on an Irish plate (i.e. an irish vehicle re-registered for UK), my dads 110 has a similar plate

Thanks, I'm from/ live in Northern Ireland, I'll try the DVLA and see if they can help, I've got the original tax box anyway to go off

what was that thing on the top, a home made rack or some form of platform?

Nice project, I used plastic (ABS) outer wing skins rather than sort badly damaged originals. End result is very good although they do shudder around a bit when the old diesel is on slow tick over. A small price to pay for the time saving compared to filling. I get over to Hollywood in county Down three or four times a year, lovely country you have there.

Thanks, plenty to keep busy with at least. As for the wing skins, I did look at the ABS, but wasn't really sold on them because not only did I have a set of pretty good, complete aluminium spares, but I do want to try and stay original as possible. You're right, I'm on the Antrim/ Down border, and if it wasnt for the weather it would be perfect, next time you're over go to the top of the likes of Slieve Divis, or Slieve Croob, both will give you a great sight out over Belfast and a bit of the docks.
The rack was used for shooting, theres a big hole cut in the roof with a latching cover that you slide off and put inside, then pop up and rest your gun on the rack, something added after its police life for shoots, the first thing to come off when it arrived

Poor old Girl! Great to hear that shes going to be restored and not broken for spares like some have been! Too good for that AND she has History! Good luck and keep the pics coming
Chris

Looks very original, looking forward to seeing the progress