79 109 hartop camper build .

I will drop this link here to hook up with what brought me to this thread.

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/project-planning.364216/

Determined to find some thing , like most folk keen on a prject I jumped in , despite knowing better , but some times we just cany help ourselves.

My plan is to restore a savable 109 and convert it to a useable camper to replace or supplement my T2 VW which is kinda limited to its use .

Any way I located a "suitable" project base and for whatever reasons, parted with the cash and had the heap deposited in the drive a few days later . Just waiting for the V5 to appear before I spend any cash so in the meantime its just a case of assessing the extent of the damage time and elements and a lot of neglect has ravaged on the old work horse .

So far at least the chassis number tallys with what the vehicle actually is and the year suffix on the reg plate. plus it a 3 bearing engine so as far as the numbers go it kinda stacks up.. Fingers xd the V5 appears .

Despite what I was told by the seller that the car was running and driving , after having a good look at it, there wasn't much going in its favor that suggested it had been running recently . The carb float bowl was dry and furry , th jets were blocked, and the pump was dry .

Not deterred I invested in a new battery , plugs, oil filter and a couple of gallons of fresh oil.
The oil in the sump was well used and pretty thin being diluted with petrol , perhaps the result of efforts to get it to run and keep it running by feeding the carb by pouring petrol straight down its throat?

Any ways , opf drained and sump off for a quick check and a clean , stripped carb and gave it a good clean discovering in the process a ruptured accelarator diaphram , lookd to me like the carb top had never been off in its history . Lid was stuck fast so definately hadnt been off recently . Likewise all the jets looked factory fresh, ie no bad fitting screw driver damage ..

With the carb rebuilt and fresh oil and filter fitted the battery was connected a gallon of fuel secured to the front bumper and the fuel pump primed ..

First turn of the key and it offered , second turn it run until the key was released and it died. Turns out there was no continuous live to the coil through the switch . so lashed up a bridge wire from battery live , gave it a crank and it fired up and run sweet . despite the temporary carb clean and reassembly.

Some white "smoke" from the exhaust but this was mainly condensation, that soon cleared and a wee rev did show evidence of a little blue smoke , Im putting that down to the thin oil contamination pre oil change and the fact the motor has probably sat for at least 15 years .. ( given there is no on line MOT history) .Fingers crossed the rings re seat and do there thing.
Im amazed how quiet these old engines are .. sounds really sweet.

With that done it was time to see if it moved under its own steam, that went well with forward and reverse motion for a short distance up and down the drive .. I didnt venture out into the street as there isnt a foot brake .. and the fuel can was a bit loose .. Oh and no rad or coolant ..

With that taken care of and a wee bit more confidence , I made a start to pulling the front wings, that went beter than expected and all the bolts and nuts come out without braking . The massively thick underseal probably helped, had to dig most of the bolt heads from under the bitumen covering.

There was a bit of rot on the inner wing covers but not to concerned with that .. With the wings off I got a good look at the front chassis legs. All is good nothing untoward .

Thats pretty much it for now..

The plan is to continue braking it down so I can get it in the garage and maake a start to refurbishing the chassis.. Pics to follow .. inspired by some great rebuilds on here .

Looking forward to seeing your ideas with the camper, but in the meantime good luck with the chassis refurb.

Resumed the strip down today, top off, sides off, back door off, front bumper off, front wings were off yesterday, undid all the bolts for the rear tub and hope to get that off on Tuesday weather permitting . I also have to nip over to see the fella with a stash of series 3 parts ..

Looks like all I got in my purchase was a decent chassis , full running gear a good bulkhead and good rear sides.. All 3 doors need work but easy enough repairs one door top needs replaced, not much else to them really. Wire loom is good, not to messed with .

Plan to have the rolling chassis in the garage before the week end and start scraping the bitumen off if.. In some ways it seems a shame but some of it has dried and some has already been scraped off , so might as well do it properly , get it back to black and get on with what are really localised repairs. Im not planning on buying any chassis repair pieces .. The poorly / partially installed rear crossmember will come out, get dressed up a bit and go back in ..

Im waiting on parts arriving for my Model A , axles out of that at the minute and its taking up space . So while thats being held up, the plan is to crack on with the Landy chassis . I've got a couple of other jobs in the pipeline but I would like to see good progress on the chassis by the end of the month ..

Pics man we need pics Please

Good luck sounds like 1 to watch

J

I promise to get organised with some , really should have taken some already but just cracking on..

pics to follow

Just a wee update , With the help of GSF who forwarded me a link from Gum tree, I secured a pretty much unused rear tub for a series 3 , that will save the cleaning and repairs on the other .. Bit of a cop out but time waits for no man. and would prefer to make some swift progress when I get started .. The back story on the bed is that a farm bought the landrover back in the day, and promptly removed the bed to fit a sprayer . Bed sat in the barn unloved untill Monday . Got a great deal so had to have it ..
I must have stepped in something becuase I had a wee bit more good fortune . I went to the fella I spoke to last week who had a pile of series 3 spares . I had arranged to collect a bonnet and left him with a wee list to see what he had . He had looked out 2 good wings, a good deluxe bonnet, a good front valance, a pair of headlight trims, and an air cleaner .

We got chatting and looking at his other stuff and as it turned out we had met before .. It transpired he was looking for some Model A bits for a vintage car gear box conversion . I just happen to have all the parts he needs.. so the grand price for the landy parts was a swap for the model A parts .. and £20 I told him about the bed deal and he asked about my old bed ( I was wondering where I was going to store it .) He was looking for a replacement floor for a short wheel base .. so I told him he could have mine .. as all the component parts were really sound .

the deal for that was a servo brake pedal assembly, a grille, a couple of good straight wheels ,and a pair of free wheeling hubs .. A plan comes together. We also agreed on a swap, his tin top with no glass for my tin top with glass.

Just got to get the chassis in the garage and get fired in now.

Now about those pics .. they are coming .. camera is on charge and looked out the card thingy ..

Love swapping parts as You both get something out of the deal.

Sounds like you stepped in it and came out smelling good

Sounds like some good deals for both

J

Bed is off, chassis still looking good. Will get the chassis driven into the garage on Thursday. and start the scraping . Hope to borrow a trailer from my buddy to drop the old bed and roof off at the old fella I got my wings and things from, then heading off to Stirling to collect the new replacement .

So far during the tear down Ive sheared 4 X 7/16 bolts cant be bad .. Hopefully a pattern that will continue .. , not the bolt shearing but the ease by which its coming apart .. Will probably pull the parts from the chassis that wont be reused like the shocks and brake lines etc .. then give it a good power wash and scrape ..

No, didnt get any pics today , but promise to start. Im more focusses on getting it to its base state and starting the build up / resto thread from there, with pics , warts and all..

In the meantime, broke my own rules again and spent money on new tyres , seemed like a good price for a set of 5 decent make , 5x TOYO A/T 235X85X16
£406 . sensible all terrain tread , was looking at loads of tread patterns, some of them were a bit to aggressive and even some of the A/T were more like mud pluggers .. and to be honest just a bit to expensive averaging £120 a tyre .. for what I was looking for .. I fully appreciate that 750 is the absolute correct size . I had a wander through the village and looked at a 110 with 235s and a 90 with 750s .. and chose the 235s for the better aesthetic ( and they happened to be pretty much the best of the cheapest )

Just deciding waht to do with the doors, spend the time on repairs , plus the work to prep them for paint, allowing for stripping at least 3 colours, keying and painting or spending £70 more that the cost of the repair channels and buying a new door, clean as a whistle, scotch bright and paint .. saved 4 hours per door ? but hardly restoration... but a real saving on time and speeds up progress .. and its progress Im interested in making.

Still awaiting the V5 .. only been a week but its usually 4 days doing it electronically , although he did say he "sent" it in.. .. fingers crossed it arrives soon ..

You may regret not taking pics when taking it apart when it comes to putting it back together when you have that box of bits and suddenly it dont look like it fits anywhere

Dont start a new thread just keep it going in this 1.
Looking forward to pics

J

Its just at the stage now where pics would be handy with pipe routing but other wise, so far its just been nuts n bolts and big chunks. I usually take pics more for posterity and proof of restoration rather than reminders, although on more busy restorations I have taken pics of areas to remind me .. or even taken pics of similar cars which are more complete to show where things might fit and route , but with the landy, there isnt much fancy stuff to worry about which is probably why I havent cracked the camera out earlier .. probably a mistake on reflection..

Always have the camera... As I don’t trust a wiring diagram On older cars.

but hey if you get stuck you find a LWB thread & have a look/ask

Drove the chassis into the garage Looks bloody HUGE, will have a bit more spatial space once the cowl is off but leaving that for the short term so I can keep the chassis driving and steering for a bit ..

Gave the whole thing a decent power was and it come up pretty decent .. Will get some pics tonight for sure .. and start scraping the remaining underseal and crap off the frame and if I get a chance, template the replacement rear chassis extensions to replace the botch up. Plan to make a start to the chassis repairs at the weekend .. best make sure I have some 2mm plate or pick a sheet up while I have the trailer ..

Collected a trailer from my buddy and loaded the bed and tin top thats heading to my new best friend with the landy spares hope to get that to him on Friday and head off to Stirling to collect the replacement .. PHEW !

So, today, took the old bed and roof cap to my new friend Pete with the stash of landy parts. He was surprised how good the one I was giving him was .. and was really happy with the roof cap too.
I was against the gun a wee bit as I wanted to get to Stirling to collect the replacement bed , so didnt hang around to long at Pets, While there there he offered me a Fairley overdrive .. ( he has 3) we didnt discuss any prices, but I said I would be interested .

I then shot off to Stirling where I got lost a couple of times before finding the fellas place by accident ..

Loaded the bed which turned out to be better than expected .. as in .. as good as new on the underside ..

Got back and unloaded and loaded the memory card in to the camera ..

so at last a few pics .

chassis is mostly sound . The worst bits are the areas someone has tried to repair previously. one out rigger will have to come off and the rear X member will have to be re done but other than that its all reasonably straight forward ..

ordered up new shocks , waiting on tyres being delivered .. but other than that , Im at a point where I can make a start to the clean up and repairs ..

Going to be working on my buddies 30 Ford hot rod next week , swapping a quick change rear axle in place of the old 10 bolt .. So probably only going to be clean up stuff for the first push ..

Attached some pics showing general chassis condition..

And here is the effort someone made to fit the rear X member .. Thank fully they didnt manage to destroy any more of the chassis , just the rear X member and one outrigger .

and the new bed which is pretty good

Story behind the bed was that it come off a new series 3 that was converted to a flat bed .. The bed was left in a barn unloved for the next 40 years .. My thanks go to GSF on this here forum , who sent me a link to the gum tree add . Perfect timing .. Thanks Mitch .

Here’s a helpful link.very helpful people
https://yrmit.co.uk/product-category/series-2-3-swb/

may help with the bulkhead corners( I can see trouble starting behind the windscreen bracket & door hinge)

Spent a bit of time scraping the old undersealant off the rear section of the chassis , when you get going most of it chips right off leaving the shiny paint beneath. Small areas are still well adhered to the surface but it still comes off without to much of a fight. Still nothing untoward hidden under the surface ..

Had a good dig around in the A posts down low by the lower hinge and under the windscreen bracket on the upper cowl. Had a good root around through the drain hole and zero sign of any rot , really solid clean metal. The stain looks like it could have been rust bleeding through but its just paint staining with no underlying problem.

So far so good .

Gave the rear axle a scrape and checked the back end to see what's what :

Rear Brakes: O/S one wheel cylinder siezed solid , crusty brake pipe and ratty flexi. Rivited Shoes worn and what appears to be some rear end oil residue on the hub, nothing drippy just a light coating . Drums are service able with no significant scoring .
Rear Brakes : N/S New Girling wheel cylinder fitted and still free, looks like t was straight out the box. New brake pipes fitted , bonded shoes, look new. Drum in good used condition with light scoring .

Looks like somebody started replacing the brakes and never finished the job. .. I will redo them , might save the drums .. well see..

Axle casing is nice and clean with very minor pitting, no apparent leaks, Diff cover solid no dents.
Shox were knackered, nuts and bolts undid easily and shox binned ( replacements on there way )
Axle end UJ worn, spline on drive shaft slider worn with a fair bit of sloppiness , forward prop UJ worn.
N/S rear wheel bearing feels a bit notchy.
O/S rear wheel bearing fine .

Rear tyres knackered , new tyres on route.

Rear spring bushes : will check properly when the springs are removed, slackened the shackle nuts in preparation, bolts are turning so fingers crossed the bolts arent siezed to the metal tube in the bush .. doesn't feel like it but will find out . Sping packs need stripped cleaned and greased or teflon strips laid between the leafs to let them flex ..

So back end parts list :

new tyres,
new shoes and cylinders
rear wheel bearing
brake lines and flexi
prop shaft UJ
check splines in prop slider
new shox
fresh lube
clean and paint .
check spring bushes
strip , clean and lube spring leafs .

Rear chassis :
redo rear X member
redo outrigger
repair outrigger
de rust surface treat and paint ..

Hope to get a fair bit of that done next week cash and time permitting ..

If I can get the entire back end done I will get the bed back on and focus on the front .