SIII - Fix it or flog it?

Decisions chaps, hoping someone can help me make my mind up.

I got the Series III (88", 2 1/4 petrol, 1980, pretend defender front end) off my Father in Law. Brother-in-law was going to help me weld the various holes in the chassis - the short of it he didn't have time in the end.

So the mechanic who was next gonna weld it prevaricated for several months, at which time I turned to another welder - but it turned out he was flogging his SIIa which, being a diesel with a sorted chassis, was too good to turn down - so I bought it.

So I'm stuck with the SIII and need to make a decision.

Apart from the chassis, it needs the clutch looking at (I think it's the slave cylinder that's rotted), new indicator relay and a battery for an mot - the rest seems fine and it starts/drives fine.

So do I pay the welder guy (who now hates working on landys lol) to fix it, learn to weld (which I'm gonna realistically need to do to keep my SIIa going no doubt) and fix it myself, or do I sell it as a 'project'?

So
a) pay to fix it and get it mot'd for selling hoping it will sell for at least the same price as it would as-is plus the fixing costs
b) try and learn welding and fix it myself - which could take months considering I'm learning everything as I go whilst doing stuff on my SIIa of which there is plenty more to do
c) sell it on as-is as a project?

Advice, suggestions or general ****-taking please.

take the silly pretender front off and learn to weld

ask us a difficult question next time

Buy a welder, practice and DIY ..

BTW, Where are you, how much do you want for it? We want a next-to-no-cost project for my son who's 17 in three months time ..

Sean said:

take the silly pretender front off and learn to weld

ask us a difficult question next time

Click to expand...

Succinct answer - cheers.

PaulD said:

BTW, Where are you, how much do you want for it? We want a next-to-no-cost project for my son who's 17 in three months time ..

Click to expand...

Haddington, about 20 miles east of Edinburgh. Bit far away!

LOL, no worries ... Have fun ...

If the chassis is badly fu***ed and you've got the space it might be a good idea to keep the SIII for spares. If you think it'll take months to fix the SIII and your not keeping it I can't see the point of wasting time on it - you could probably earn more money doing some overtime than the extra money you'd make on spending all that time fixing the SIII. I reckon it would be better to put your efforts into keeping the IIA tip-top.

Yeah I see what your saying - got lots to do to the SIIa and I am learning as I go so it's not like I currently possess all the skills needed to fix up the SIII - which means learning as I go which takes longer etc.

The missus takes the view learning to weld would be a good thing considering the SIIa will probably need some at some point.

Of course, if I flogged it for a few quid to someone who will fix it (I'd hate to see it go to the great scrapyard in the sky) I could use the money to invest in a welder/tools to help keep my SIIa on the road. hmm.

I need to weigh it up hence my asking for peoples views - thanks for yours.

I'd definitely recommend learning to weld, but Land-Rover chassis welding is awkward and not very nice. As a first welding project it would be much more enjoyable to make something new and weld it up from scratch - like a trailer or something.

If you are learning to weld in say a collage work shop, with nice new shiney mild steel.
Anybody can be a master welder. (in some cases). BUT get underneath a chassis thats like a brown digestive biscuit, coverd in black goo, its a very different story. If you are lucky you may end up with some of the original chassis leftover. Most of the time is taken up by cutting the plates and making it all clean. By the time you have sorted it, you think back "dont those galvanised ones look oh sooo sexy". Good luck keep the 2a

The only good thing about lying in the dirt under a Land-Rover doing chassis repairs is that it keeps ear hair under control - because when molten blobs of metal inevitably fall into your ears they will set fire to it.

Food for thought especially re welding - thanks guys. Keep it coming.

yes keeps most hairs in trim, the blindness is a bit awkward though. Welding is only a stop gap until the bit you didnt weld rots away.