My Series rebuild

Well I picked up my Series 3 today and I've started work on it.

Today I managed to take off the soft top frame (not a big job at all but still every little helps,)poke out all the rotten bits, gonna angle grind these out on monday when my new one arrives, and I managed to start to dismantle the truck cab, those bolts that hold the roof on are a right bastard to take out with no power tools when they're rusted solid.
Took me a good hour and a bit to get out the bolts never mind the screws on the sides, had to jam a size 10 / 11 spanner into the ridge and use a pair of vice grips to take some of them out they were that rusted.

Bit more welding to do that I had anticipated but hey ho I guess thats part of the deal with these old beasties.

From what I can see following a full investigation with a crowbar and hammer it needs the following welded


Front and rear outrigger on passenger side (front one is totally ****ed so gonna have to attempt to fabricate or buy one) and front one on driver side

Rear chassis rails on the underside and sides near the back and the rail in the middle (small to medium ish bits)

Front chassis leg on drivers side

[got 3mm steel for all this]

Passenger side bump stop is missing so that needs the mount replacing

Passenger side and driver side bulkhead tops only but only the front pieces not the full box, so I'm going to just cut it all out and put a single 1mm piece of steel over it with no vents as they're useless IMO

Driver side top of wheel arch literally a 4 inch by 1 inch strip so just gonna patch that over

Passenger door bottom needs doing so I'm just gonna aluminium plate it


Anyway here are some preliminary pics, I'll take more as I progress.

As an update to the rust problem parts of the chassis rails are ****ed so I'm gonna go get some 3mm box section to weld into place as well as a couple of extra bits

Also on further inspection the top of the passenger footwell is a bit holy so that needs a 1mm plate putting over it

Anyway, the roof came off today as well as the rest of the cab, and I almost got the rear tub off

Just to make sure I've got all the bolts out for removal;

rear crossmember
mounts on the chassis on both sides
bolts at the bottom of the doors and running up the internal bulkhead behind the seats

Am I missing any ?

might be just as well to fit a new footwell as patch an old 'un. They int much

Yeah I just looked about £30 delivered so I might, I just thought it would be easier to cut and patch as its not too big a hole

I'll put some new pics up tomorrow, theres a nice bit of destruction on the passenger side body mount as my angle grinder hasn't arrived yet so I had to rip it up with a vice grip, crowbar, cold chisel and mini sledge hammer


Should hopefully get the rear tub off tomorrow and then the real work can begin

didnt look too bad on the surface, looking forward to reading your updates and pictures of progress. good luck

Well the power was off today so I couldn't do as much as I had planned to.

Got my mate over who's gonna be welding this with me and he took measurements for the pieces needed. Anyway heres the pics from the last 2 days, hopefully the power will be back on tomorrow so I can take the rear tub off.

As you can see the rust is fairly bad as is the passenger body mount after I did battle with it

Any suggestions on repairing the front portion would be useful, my plan was to just chop and weld on a flat sheet thus removing the useless air vents and making the front watertight.

Also tuning the carbs ? Range Rover produces 130bhp stock 109 only 91bhp, how do I tune it to get that missing 40

Well today I took off the rear tub (hard job when its just you and no rafters to lift up with rope or a hi-lift jack

Also cut off the old exhaust as it was rusted through and took off that body mount that i destroyed

Looks like youve got a good start made on it, The bulkhead is the awkward bit, have you looked for one off ebay, nice pics keep em coming

Thanks, I'll be starting to strip the paint off the rear tub tomorrow and wash the underside

Next week my mate is coming over to help with the welding so it should hopefully be off to the MOT centre after that

I have looked on ebay for some repair panels and they're around £20, just trying to find another outrigger to replace the one I mangled

bulkhead looks worse than mine, was going to attempt to fix but picked up a near perfect replacement for £150. big part of me budget gone but well worth it. more rust than decent parts by the looks, you and mate got your work cut out. wish you well and keep the updates and pics coming

Well I've put in an offer on a new one but I might just see about getting some small patches to put over it using a standard replacement panel and some sheet metal

Its only the top thats rotted so I can get a new piece made at the fabricators

****ing bastard bodged repairs

Took the bulkhead apart with a hammer and crowbar to find it was stuffed with bog roll, so tomorrow I'm going to get some new pieces of sheet metal bent to shape so I can weld the thing back together

Today off came the drivers side wing and I have started grinding off the rust as prep before welding

Also got some angle iron coming to repair the windscreen bottom

All new formed metal parts ordered yesterday for welding on sunday, monday and tuesday

New outriggers arrived yesterday as did the door lock and I've got bulkhead tops on the way too, after the welding I just need to fabricate a new dash for the inside as it was a bit rotten so I just ripped it out.
Just really need the bit that holds the speedo and another to hold the radio then a box section to use as storage for passengers **** etc

Got my new truck stack exhausts £20 for the pair

3 inch bore straight thru pipes

What does everyone reckon ?

Truck stacks put behind the cab or under the cab as side exits ?

Need to choose but not too sure what one looks better

stacks, the clue's in the title...

niether

still stacks, the clues in the title