Station wagon to rag top

I’m looking to purchase a series 2A or 3 LR as soon as I find the perfect candidate. So new to the LR scene and could do with some advice.

There are obviously a lot of variations with stations wagon, soft top, petrol, diesel etc.

Is it possible to convert a station wagon body to a rag top?

If so, I’d want to make it look original. I’ve seen you can purchase a half height swing door to replace the full height door but I wouldn’t be interested in going for this option.
I would want to install a proper drop down tail gate and ideally remove any traces of its original station wagon door.

Thanks

Yes, but why bother to hide what it was?
You might want to swap back at sometime.
You might have to fit some cleats and tie downs if the tub hasn't got any.
Also consider seatbelts, you can buy a seatbelt bar to go on the tub.

WelshJeepster said:

Is it possible to convert a station wagon body to a rag top

Click to expand...

Original SW in good condition are valuable. Also, a CSW has 4 doors so do you mean a double cab with a small rag top over the loading area? Better looking for a 109” 3 door. The canvas cover and the hood sticks will set you back £500-750 and a folding tailgate £100+ trawl the web for the set up you require and buy a good one.

Hi there - just completed the same change a few months back on a SWB S3 standard hardtop. I'm not sure what your definition of a SW is but if you mean a proper "County" style SW then I think you are choosing an expensive base for your conversion. As someone mentioned above, a decent original SW (with safari roof and roof windows, vents headlining etc) is one of the more sought after models. Also, not sure if there is a kit and hood available for a four door LWB Series SW - the only ones I can see are for the standard 109 two door models. (see comments from Doritz above).
Probably better to start with a more basic hardtop (some of these also had side windows, generally fitted by previous owners) as you are then simply removing a very basic metal roof structure and replacing with a canvas hood. Its pretty straightforward - four or six bolts holding the hardtop to the main body and several smaller bolts securing it to the windscreen rail. Have a look at Exmoor trim website for the kit of hoops and the various bits of metalwork needed to go on the header rail and around the doors and the various hood options (other suppliers are available!!). The kit will come with some extra cleats and tiedowns but how many you need will depend on what was originally fitted to your base vehicle - on my S3 I only needed the two rear tie down loops from the kit as all the side cleats were already in place but there seems to be a huge variation in what's provided depending on exact original spec for your particular vehicle.
As for the rear door, if it has the more standard full height side hinged door it's a simple bolt off job - beware loosing the springs and ball bearing that form part of each hinge when you lift it off. I found a second hand tailgate locally and just made my own chains to fit - the bottom hinges and the Antiluce catches were handily already installed on my tub but if not, are readily available. You'll also need to either but new rubber door seals for the window frames or recycle the ones from your hardtop and use a bracket or rail to take your top seatbelt mounts - I used the ones shown in the picture which also fit with the hardtop on.

Hope that helps....Ian

Somebody does do a full soft top conversion for the 109 Station Wagon, I can remember seeing one, but only online, not in the metal as it were.
Not cheap, about £2,500 for the kit IIRC, plus there's some engineering work to do I think.
Not sure if the rear door posts have to be cut off at waist height.
And then to do a really impressive job you would need to convert the rear doors to bolt on door tops like the front ones.
Probably beyond the capability of most DIY enthusiasts, but not impossible.
Popular in Africa apparently, which seems a little strange, as there are plenty of wild animals out there that could get through the canvas in seconds.

I did exactly this last year. When I bought my 88" station wagon it looked like this;

and now it looks like this:

Mine was not a genuine County though, someone had added the decals later and I am not entirely convinced that it even started life as a station wagon, I think it was originally a hardtop.

The conversion was actually very easy and needed only spanners, a drill and a rivet gun. The back door has been replaced with a drop-down tail gate and the front seatbelts have been attached directly to the rear bulkhead which does make them slightly awkward if you are tall but as I am only 5'6" it is not a problem for me. The hood and sticks cost around £900 from Exmoor trim and I was able to sell the rear door and sides for about £100, still stuck with the bloody roof though . I had to buy the antiluce catches and some new hinges for the tailgate but fitting took less than 45 mins. The rear door was really easy to remove and the roof and sides were simple but time consuming due to rusted bolts, removing the roof and sides took about two hours.

Fitting the soft top was very simple and the kit came with full instructions and all the fittings needed. I was lucky that my Landy was already fitted with the six rope hooks on the rear tub and the two horseshoe hoops at the back. if you need to buy these they are not expensive and the instructions with the hood frame show you where to rivet them on. I just needed to rivet on the front hooks by the front door and the rear staples for the hood straps but these were included in the frame kit. The top rail was easy to fit it, just bolts and rivets on but fitting it properly so it doesn't leak requires drilling the top of the windscreen frame and riveting the rail on. Some people skip the riveting to be able to easily remove the rail and not leave any holes in the windscreen frame but this can lead to the rail pulling away from the frame causing leaks and a baggy hood. I have not had any leaks at all from mine as it is riveted. Fitting the hood frame took about 3 hours which was slightly longer than expected as I spent an hour removing brown sticky residue from the hood frame as Exmoor Trim had taped all the pieces together with brown parcel tape which was a pain in the arse to get off.

Fitting the canvas was very easy. If you have ever put up a canvas frame tent you will have no problems at all. After fitting the hood it is a good idea to give it a good soaking several times before rolling the back and sides up for any period of time as the canvas shrinks slightly as it dries the first few times and if it isn't securely fastened as it dries it can shrink too much and not fit properly.

One other thing to note is that the hood frame does not come with any weather seals so I would suggest buying a length of rubber door seal before fitting the frame. You can try and reuse the seals from the original roof and sides but they don't fit very well as I have found, however leaking door seals are fairly standard on series Land Rovers and mine have a 3mm gap all around the top half of the door.

After fitting the rear tailgate I had to move the spare wheel to the bonnet. I was lucky in that my bonnet was the type designed to carry the wheel and all I needed was the bolts and hooks to secure it. Some bonnets are not designed to carry the wheel though and the spare has to be attached to the rear bulkhead inside which may mean buying and fitting the bracket to secure the wheel.