1975 series 3 rebuild ongoing (lots of photos)

Ok i really wish i started this thread when i started work, then i could have grabbed some help as i went along.

I was very fortunate to pick up a 1975 series 3 2.25d for Free. It had been stood for around 10 years, got chatting to the owner who was moving out and needed to shift it. So took the offer.

Towed it home and tinkered about for a bit, being a diesel it went without too much effort. Took a while to free the clutch and get it moving, but it just about moved back and forth.
This was in april.

everything looked not too bad on top, but to be sure decided to go for a near complete strip down to make sure.

Am now at the point of finishing the chassis and building back up with an aim to being on the road by the end of summer.

Here's some photos
On tow


After a wash


Fairly clean inside

Dash and ignition were smashed off in a break in which is the only reason it was off the road

I wired most of the dash up to check it all out, mostly working


Getting in and out was making the rotton doortop fall off so replaced both early on.


First drive


Started the take down


rear tub off


got a tent up so i could work through this british summer


Cleaned up metal


Primer


Decided the tool box was beyond repair so got a new one


Paint on to the back


Treasure in the dash


And the front of the chassis


Front axle off, fitting rocky mountain parabolics


a little bit seized up


Started to build up a new bulkhead i picked up


front springs on


And the back



That's about where i'm up to now. I've never done this before so i'm happy about where ive got to in this time.
The chassis still needs some welding, but in time i've had, i ended up painting first. Will be replacing the rear xmember as someone's welded some handles on to cover some rot and they fowl the tailgate hinge

One thing is i haven't planned on painting the body yet, the original paint work is appalling and i'm adding some new bits too.
Should i stop what im doing and get them painted first or will it be easy enough to paint once it's built up?

Looks really good. Post more when you have the time.

Looking good mate will watch with interest, do like a good resto thread

cheers guys, good to hear!

finished the springs last night, but after driving all the way to paddocks the other week i forgot to buy the extra shock bolts i needed after cutting the rear ones off.

Just spent the evening rebuilding the seat box and painting a few little bits like the pedals and fuel tank, loving the weather today!

Pedal boxes


Seat box


tool box and side panel fitted



tomorrow will be finishing the other seat box side and making a start on the brake lines (any tips?)

I love that feeling of brand new bits!

new brake pipes and flexible hoses.



also i managed to pick up an overdrive, hopefully in good order, late night drunken ebaying mean it got it for £200 with no linkage

Teeth seem fine no chips and its spins easily. not really sure what else to look for in one of these, could have been ripped off



does anyone know how i can find out if this is up to scratch without fitting it?
and also where can i get an linkage and lever apart from watching ebay?

looks good but its the layshat gears wear an spline on input

Nice one, well done

I bet the Postman has fun climbing over that lot, or does he throw the post at the door and hope for the best??

mad git said:

Nice one, well done

I bet the Postman has fun climbing over that lot, or does he throw the post at the door and hope for the best??

Click to expand...

I've been waiting for the morning when it's covered in broken milk bottles and shredded letters!

It's actually on the move tomorrow (fingers crossed) off to a neighbours garage so it can go on the ramps for welding, and hopefully after that be built back up.

Need to get the painting done very quickly!

Ha ha...Yeah paint it quick......winter is coming

It's probably been asked a thousand times, but what's a good time frame and cost to expect when painting the panels in bits.

I can get hold of a compressor and buy a spray gun, some of the wing panels are nearly bare metal what's the cheapest way to prime these?

Alocrom, Anodise or Acid etch primer at a pinch

Looks great

for some strange reason i seem to have quite a soft spot for the series at the moment

bit of an update, I've got some proper garage space for a few weeks, so i'm making a start on the chassis welding, that i've needed to do for a long time.




Had a few practise welds on some scrap and i've got someone keeping an eye on things so i don't make a hash of the whole thing.

This bit is my main concern, do i just cut away the old metal and patch some new into place? or is it worse than that and it might need a new section?





there's a couple of other chassis patches needed but they should be simpler.

Based on advice unless i become amazing at welding in a short space of time, i'm going to look at hiring someone to weld the new rear xmember for me.

are those scaff tubes on the rear crossmember if so where they on when you bought her as i likes them i does

johnny curt 1 said:

are those scaff tubes on the rear crossmember if so where they on when you bought her as i likes them i does

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Yup, and i like them a lot, but they're a pain in the arse.

the fowl the tailgate hinge massively, i looked into cutting them off and angling them down but i've realised now that they're possibly there to cover a lot of rot, or that them being there has caused lots of rot behind them.

I don't mind them, but I want to have a clean back and it will look awful if i cut them off and patch over.

you can have them when i'm done if you want, they're solid, but it's the metal behind that's rotten

onecelledcreature said:

Yup, and i like them a lot, but they're a pain in the arse.

the fowl the tailgate hinge massively, i looked into cutting them off and angling them down but i've realised now that they're possibly there to cover a lot of rot, or that them being there has caused lots of rot behind them.

I don't mind them, but I want to have a clean back and it will look awful if i cut them off and patch over.

you can have them when i'm done if you want, they're solid, but it's the metal behind that's rotten

Click to expand...

if your gonna replace the rear crossmember and you wanna keep the buggers what i would do is cut them as neatly as poss off the old crossmember when removed
then weld plates to the back of the handles to bolt onto the new one so if i did fancy a change at a later date they can be removed at will

why i asked if they were scaff tubes is ive got a fair few tubes at my disposal and was gonna basicaly copy them but make em bolt on

Make sure that you use an ETCH Primer before painting to ensure that the final coat will adhere to the bare metal. I've just finished painting my 88" SIII (brush painted with coach enamel) and it came out better than hoped for.
Good Luck and keep us posted.

Lovely paint job on that

I haven't kept my promise of keeping this up to date.

there's been some good progress, I've been far too busy to do as much as i wanted to.

since last time,
- 70% refitted the brake pipes
- Got some paint on some smaller panels and tarted up some of the other bits and peices.
- repaired all of the chassis, including new rear crossmember.

it's coming out of the garage this week and back onto a driveway.
next big jobs will be getting the bulkhead and rear tub painted and fitted properly, then the big rebuild can get going, hopefully before the winter comes.

Pictures explain it better.

Cutting the rust out


This was my first attempt at patching this bit.


Didn't go with that in the end


This is the first bit of welding i did, took far too long, but was ok in the end


Got some primer onto the bonnet and some other parts



Also got the first bit of proper paint onto the small body panels. Its going to be battleship grey, hopefully with a black tilt

Needs re-doing


Replaced some of the brake pipes. there's a few cylinders that have pipe ends sized in so i'm not quite there yet




Finally got it up on the ramps, wish i had these at home


Cut the back end off.


Getting the new one lined up


used the tup to set the position




Got a bit of help with the welding




thats about it for now, will be moving later this week, then the rebuild can get going proper