1982 Range Rover V8 2 Door.

Hi guys!
Its been a long time coming, but I have finally decided to restore/do up my Rangie 2 door, with my dad.
Had the vehicle for a few years, and made some terrible decisions and false starts and stops along the way, but at long last we are going for it!
It will take a while, as work will be carried out during evenings, weekends and free time, between me and dad.
We stripped the vehicle about 5 years ago, and then ridiculous hybrid ideas (shudder), financial situations, and babys and life in general seem to of got in the way. However, its a go from now (fingers crossed).
Will upload pics of progress when I can and hopefully someone out there will find it interesting!! Cheers!

A few pics of the strip down....

Rear Floor removed, working on the transmission tunnel bolts


Unearthing a shockingly bodged loom, wires cut and spliced into for the lpg kit. No wonder the indicators and lights had a mind of their own!!

Lower dash removed, more cut wires found....









Finding bodged footwell 'repairs', and holey sills where the A pillar meets



Transmission tunnel finally free!!

Engine out next, the twin Strombergs are past their best, and it could do with a new cam and followers as it is very 'tappety' sounding, and im unsure of service history. We will also replace the core plugs and dizzy, for an electrical one, giving more reliability and, hopefully economy. I have bought and Idlebrock inlet manifold and Weber/Edlebrock 500cfm carb, so that should be fun!

Rad and grill removed, I love how much access you have in these old engine bays!


Out she comes.....

Gearbox out next...

A very well concealed bodge 'repair' with filler, upon closer inspection where the floor edge joins the rear wheel arch and infact all along the top of the arch, corrosion has taken a strong hold, and actually in the end we found it to be so bad that i have bought replacement arch panels.

Starting to take the outer body panels off now


Whilst I know that there are many inner wing panels that look much more frightening than this, they really aren't the best and could do with being repaired or replaced. As you can see on the lower A post looks a bit suspect....

Fairly obvious, but, drivers side wing assembly completely removed

Please excuse the black modulars, Insa tyres and rubbish terrifirma springs and shocks...just one of my 23 year old selfs duff ideas, and something else to be obviously changed along the way...

Both front wing assemblies off, and more A post corrosion more apparent! Doh!

A bit of loom labeling....we might reuse it, although I have a feeling it will be easier to simply replace





Showing a bit of detail on the scuttle panel, this isn't in bad shape at all, but will still require some work...

Showing close up of corrosion to drivers side A post and footwell


Showing corrosion to passenger side footwell/bulkhead.




Drivers side bulkhead

Showing corrosion to front drivers side body mount



And the body mount passenger


This is the passenger side lower A post, a well documented rust trap, I think I will buy both side lower replacement A post repair panels, and then we can repair the tops ourselves (if anyone knows of full A post sections please let me know). Also showing bodged, masticy (if thats a word) passenger footwell.

The shell looking a bit naked now!

So that's all the pics for now. We have removed the shell from the chassis, and the next step will be taking the chassis to be shot blasted (sand blasted probably) hopefully in the next few weeks. We can then properly inspect the chassis for any corrosion and damage, and repair as necessary. Fingers crossed the chassis will be pretty straight and solid!
Ill post more pics of progress when theres anything interesting!

Interesting indeed.

To think the other day I was thinking perhaps a classic Range Rover might be something for me. I'm not so sure now!

Rust.

Stretch said:

Interesting indeed.

To think the other day I was thinking perhaps a classic Range Rover might be something for me. I'm not so sure now!

Rust.

Click to expand...

haha, yes i know what you mean! I brought mine and it looked like a minter to start with, it had been very well bodged on the internal body and this only reared its ugly head when we went to repair the fuel tank x member, we traced rust everywhere, and now i have bought virtually every panel that you can for the repair, hence the big delay in making my mind up!

I think if you went for a later 4 door, that had been garaged and waxoiled from the off you might have some luck, although I would say expect to have to tackle rust at some point down the line! I do LOVE a good rangie though!