79 109 hartop camper build .

Cracking work rate! Well done.
It'll be finished for Christmas.

Cheers,, Just plodin along Took the tyres off today and dropped them along with the props, springs and spring clamps and a few other bits at the blaster , so hope to get those back next week, he mentioned next Friday which suits me, That will give me time to clean up and maybee paint the axles and make a start to prepping the chassis for paint .. Wil get the axles fully cleaned up on Friday , and let them dry for primer and paint .. Order up new spring bushes and bolts, strip the old doors and get the bits im not using in the scrap.. keeping the work space free as much as possible. Get some paint ordered for the wheels and order up some new inner tubes .

OK Doke, speaking of inner tubes, looking for ones with stubby valves so they dont poke through the hole in the rim to much. The valve hole in the rim is pretty big. Ive seen small plastic bushes fitted in the lare holes to reduce them to suit the tall skinny valves .. Any ideas ?

Got the inner tubes with the fat valves off ebay,, also found the reducer grommets I mentioned.. I dont need those for the landy now I got the fat valve inner tubes but I gdo need them for the hot rod wheels ( big holes, skinny inner tube valves) As a matter of interest, I found the tubes first, but If I saw the grommets I could have sourced inner tubes with skinny valves for £4 each cheaper and saved £20.. that would have bought a new indicator switch ...

Got the front brake shoes delivered today , Ordered a new clutch from the local factors, cheaper than on line , 3 piece Borg and Beck so hopefully decent quality .

Folded up the new front outriggers, might weld the lower filler pieces in tonight, and sorted through the junk that come off the car, tossed out the junk and the old doors, did consider holding onto them, but then, been there done that with bits in the past and only ended up taking up space before they were eventually thrown out .. got t be ruthless sometimes.. Stripped off the bits I needed like top trim and door catches and dropped the old door off at the scrappy along with the old tyres..

Soaked the front axle with degreaser and gave it a scrape and wire brush before power washing it, came up pretty decent , a few small areas to get cleaned up before giving it a good check over .

Cleaned up the rear axle with a twist knot cup for the grinder .. Debated whether to buy a set of 4 off ebay that were only £5.. took a punt and bought 2 ( 8 twist knots) £10 delivered , arrived in 2 days and 100% identical to one I paid £7 for a while back .. Gave the axle a good going over with the "cheap" twist knot and worked great without spitting out wire shrapnel all over the place ..

Glad I decided to chop the front outriggers off. Inside the original was 2lbs of damp mud and crap and a bit of corrosion on the main chassis that would have went unchecked ..

The side that had been replaced by a previous owner wasnt difficult to remove , and as known there was a big old hole in the chassis where the old outrigger had been cut off .. Removing that to do it properly was a no brainer .. Saved a bit of cash by making up my own in 2mm , will turn down some solid and bore a hole in and weld the bungs into the new outriggers.. Job done ..

That will leave one large repair left to do to the chassis under the front left bump stop, Trying to work out how to flip this chassis on my own .. weighs a blooming ton.. Gave the rusty areas a good clean out with the twist knot , they work really good without removing material from the chassis ..

If things go well and I can get myself organised I might get the axles painted up and the chassis repairs completed over the weekend ..

Hoping to get the replacement sprng bushes before the springs are ready for collection.. Any tips for removing the old bushes from the spring eyes ?

Set fire to the bushes.. the rubber burns then push the middle part out & hacksaw/chisel the outer

Cool, will get them smokin ...

More scraping and degreasing front and rear axles, and gave the engine and box another once over , then had a tidy up. Need to do that constantly as the garage is a bit small for a land rover build .. Flipped the chassis with the help of the engine hoist, Went well without any injuries .. Got it scrapped clean and uncovered a couple of small areas of rot that will need attention, nothing major, just small localised areas .. Well I say that but one side will need a bit of work with removal of the bump stop platform . Also got the outriggers welded up, should have done them on Friday but got a bit sidetracked .. will finish them off on Sunday If I get my finger out ..Could do with finishing up the welding and getting the chassis into paint , and give it a good week to harden before moving forward ..

pretty much got the front chassis leg repaired, cut out a much larger section than really needed but made the repair simpler and neater.
Still have a few wee bits to do to finish it off but its getting there . Doing a bit of project juggling just now to maintain some progress on them all . Cut out some 10mm rear axle brackets for suspension hairpins and tig welded the drive shaft coupler on my own coupe .. Every little helps Discovered the coupe is still insured and the weather hasnt been to bad .. might manage another run before the end of the year

Got a call from the chap with the stash of used landy parts. Lock down is soon to be upon us, stage 3 so going by the book I shouldn't go to his as he is in a stage 2 area , when they go to stage 3 it will be fine though !! WTF .. Any way, going to collect a few bits from him on Thursday .. Hope to have the wheels back on Friday ..

Did some work on the hot rod to fill in some time and let me get things shifted around .. onward and upward.

Looking at the bushes in the chassis front and rear , are they the same as the spring bushes ? and whats the difference between the bushes for a SWB and LWB? find it hard to believe Landrover made different bushes for each model .. ?

Went past the blaster today so nipped in to see if he had managed to do the wheels and parts.. Unfortunately not , so a wee delay ahead . Got my inner tubes and collected the servo pedal assembly and a grille from the fella with the landy parts. Also took a run in his 200tdi 5 speed series 3 .. great going vehicle drove as good as a discovery , smooth and surprisingly quick. Having thoughts about an engine and gearbox swap now ..

Hope to get the chassis buttoned up ( repairs and prep ) on Friday.. will get it in primer ready for paint come |Sunday .. fingers xd for wheels and springs next week and get the frame back up and rolling .. with a desision on the engine and trans by the end of the month .

Whats the general consensus running the 200 TDI with the Defender 5 speed to the Salisbury rear end .. ? should I consider fitting the lighter rear end and discovery diffs ?

There are a few threads in here with the conversion into SWB landrovers. Is basically the same as all the engines/gearboxes will mount in the same places just you have a longer rear prop.
Also unsure of constant drive going to the front axle from the 5speed box.

It seems to be fine in the fellas Landy I was in the other day. he is running rover axles front and rear with early discovery diffs.

I was thinking of sparing the cash and useing the axles I have , they being Rover front with stock diff and salisbury rear. ( ratio currently not checked) one 235, 85 16s .

Having looked at other info since asking the question if the salisbury will be overkill, it looks as though its actually a preferred option in a lot of cases , ? Imstll picking my way through the landrover mix and matches ..

I keep reading more about the 200TDI in the series, easy enough swap but most stick to the series box and fit an overdrive and also retain the 4.7 diffs and sacrafice the top end speed for the benefit of the low ratio box .. it all get a bit brain numbing sifting through the combinations . especially when you throw the transfer box final drive ratio into the mix .

The way Im looking at this project is as a daily driver, doesnt do high mileage, my current daily often doesn't turn a wheel for a week at a time and if i take a trip down the dual carriageway I sit at 60 .. so if it does 55 60 and gets more than 25 mpg its all good .. So looking at the combinations and seeking to keep it as simple and straightforward as possible I m aiming for the following.

200tdi
standard series 4 speed, ex mod so apparenty higher geared transfer ? stock front diff , stock rear diff ( salisbury) 4.7:1 and maybe a fairly and some free wheeling hubs . stock wheels and 235 85 16 tyres on all terrain type treads . upgrading the brakes with new shoes and cylinders and fitting a servo and dual circuit for safety since the wife might drive it ..

As I have read it and if I understand it, that combination should be OK with a good all round drivability that might be a little revy at the top end but will still allow good gearing in the low ratio ( or is it the high ratio I get confused ) box.. Just trying to keep it simple, increase the drivability, keep the costs realistic and useable.

I think im jumping the gun as a Landrover novice getting to ahead of myself with gearbox swaps and rear end changes etc .. The budget would be blown apart if I went aead with that at this stage .. I need to be getting it built with a firm plan .

Ive been offered a good running 200 tdi from a discovery and an early defender LT 77 and transfer box for £500. from the fella thats been supplying me parts recently.

His series is running a 200 tdi with defender box and discovery diffs and parabolics all round , and it drove like a modern car and sat comfortably at 60 and 70 with decent acceleration. With regards to the box he was saying that the defender transfer box has its own differential so lock up isn't an issue, thats over my head a bit as im not familiar with the parts as yet. I was impressed with the way it drove though..

I was also reading that using the defender box results in a crap park brake and 1st gear is a bit useless .. maybee the first gear issue was relating to the series box .. some times its difficult to work it all out lol..

I would welcome any feedback and guidance on the various combinations .. The ultimate goal for the build is to use it as an adventure camper , so some off road but nothing drastic, im talking un paved or loose rutted back woods type stuff , not muddy wading and impossible rock hopping and extreme off roading .. call it access to a bit of wild camping

Over the past few days Ive completed the chassis refurb and got it in paint, axles are painted wheels are primered ready for paint, debating whether to strip the springs but might be wise.Having had them blasted there is a good chance there will be some grit between the leaves, a good clean and grease wont go amiss.. Hope to get the axles on and have the chassis rolling by next weekend , Have to make a decision on the engine , would like to get that along with the gearbox back in.. so diesel or petrol ? Just going to stick with the 4 speed and the stock axles for now , saving time and money and maybe spend the saving on an overdrive and some free wheeling hubs.

just knocking off one job at a time .. even if its just one job a day, its progress

Also started the rebuild on my 28 roadster, when one project just isnt enough ..

You're flying through this. Brilliant.
I was going to do more this weekend but so far house chores, son's homework, walking next doors dogs, supermarket shop, lawn mowing etc etc etc have taken over. It's always the same.

Same here , visit my old fella , do the housework, make the tea, have a rest . Im retired so its a bonus I have all day every day and I also do a lot of work at night. Usually in the garage untill 11pm .. Always trying to get something done .. as long as it moves things forward .. Plan for today on the landy is to get the back axle and the wheels painted . Chassis bushes were supposed to be here on Friday, but no show , and projected plan is to get the chassis up and rolling by next weekend .. and have most of the body back on by the following week .. At least thats the plan and its flexible lol..

Just remembered I also need to get the old bushes out of the springs so that will be added to list of todays jobs ..

Fantastic progress, looking forward to the rest of the build.

Just typed a reply and lost the lot,, so instead of trying to remember what I typed here is a wee you tube link to the type of roof im aiming for . a few improvements can be incorporated but for my needs this would be the ideal set up for the roof . The interior is a bit spartan but I had planned an aluminium profile with rivited construction long the same lines as the layout in my VW but in ali light weight construction to save weight .. Got it all going on in my head and virtual pin board

Looks great, and will suit the age of the vehicle. It’s almost a combination of a roof tent and Pop-Up roof. Are you fabricating it yourself, or have you found a used roof?

Wheels painted, tyres fitted, springs stripped, de rusted , zink primed, greased and reassembled minus the second and 3rd last leaves , all bushes replaced and springs refitted, axles fitted, rear shox fitted and the chassis is rolling again. .The springs actually provide some bounce, before I stripped cleaned and greased then they were totally rigid.. Now they have a good firm compliance ..hopefully they will be nice on the road ..

Next step, rear brake rebuild , new brake pipes , new flexis new fuel tank, re run wire loom through frame, and consider which route to pursue with the engine and box ..and in the interim prepare the rear buck underside and throw it on the chassis all going well I could have the body back on before Christmas and be thinking about sorting out the wiring .. also considering an upgrade to dual circuit with the servo upgrade ..

Will try and remember to add some pics

As your good with metal work..make the gearbox cross member removable. This will help if you change your mind with engine/gearbox change.

there are a few post/threads on the forum on how to fit servo( but hey you do old fords)