Our Series 2A project

New on here, so hi

Bought an ex-military 1963 Series 2a - also known as "Red" at the beginning of the year. Took it off the road to give it an MOT and oh dear, what a mess! Had to replace nearly all the outriggers, rear 1/4 chassis, D post, brakelines, footwells etc etc. A lot of the repairs to the chassis had either been done with silicon (and undersealed voer to look like weld, I kid you not) or on the other hand were so weak (in one case causing the chassis to crack most of the way round) that you could prize them off with a screwdriver.

So it has been a bit of a welding marathon to say the least!

Just a few pics for you...there are loads more at The Rusty Rhinos - Saharan Rally 2009 - the vehicle if anyone is interested

How it looked when we bought it...



Yum yum silicon welding



And then soon it was looking like this...oh dear!...



New rear end welded on...new shocks/springs/shackles/leafs/painted axle/new shoes/cylinders



Not much of a D Post left!



new footwell and D post:




When the cardboard cut-outs come out, you know its serious business



Yum Yum....jsut one of the bad bits...this time a good crack due to a previous poor repair...



How he sits at the moment (note new drivers footwell too!)



Jobs left to do...modify seatbox to take Astra GTE seats, change drivers door bottom, replace master cylinder, make battery tray for 2 batteries (going split charge and bigger alternator), replace all door seals. And then for the MOT. Not that much to do I guess considering what has been done so far!

Regards

Alex

nice

dunt look like theres much thickness left on that chassis - looked at one the other day and no holes but it had lost about 50% of the thickness is plenty of places so probably not a good idea to treat it rough

Ah, it will be fine! Replaced all the thin bits now!

Ear, those welding goggles look a bit light duty!

Those are strictly for grinding only! You are a bunch of negative sods lol

Sorted out the double battery tray. Jobs a goodun

Found the chassis was a bit bent where the front leaf spring goes through the body (looks like someone had been hitting it with a very heavy hammer!). But fear not, home-brewed-from-bits of scrap chassis puller tool was created and in no time problem was solved. Also works as a bush extraction/fitment tool too, so will be keeping it!





Front suspension put together, wings and new steering box guard fitted and a whole list of other jobs done, and finally she is on own 4 wheels (been about 6 months now!)





Still alot to do. I am keeping my fingers crossed I will get the time to get it on the road before the Peterborough show. Hmm, I said that about Manby though!

dont ya just luv it when yo neighbours gorra front gardin like tha?

Yup, they probably all hate us, our noisy vehicles and the noise we make...but they havn't made complaints for many years . Only people that knock on the door are pikeys or "scrap dealers" suggesting very kindly that they could take any of our cars for free!

I ****in' 'ate pikeys! Not much for the colour though.

You don't like the red then?

nowt wrong with a red landy!

nice pic's, hope it goes alright!

red ones dont go up hills to well.

LOL why do they not go up hills well? Extra wight of the paint?

Damnit bleeding brakes is one of those things that can either take 5 minutes or 5 blodey hours with a series landie!

Wiring nightmare. Thought I would find out where the odd wires that I kept finding led to. Wish I hadn't in some ways! Started by having a quick peek behind the dash.

My god I have never seen so many wires on a Series! What the heck is going on! There is some seriously heavy duty stuff back there....spade connectors about an inch wide...what on earth is that about? Lots of wires that are not going anywhere too...just coiled up and taped over. There are some live wires just hanging about too...some of which have created some localised scorching. Nice!



The engine bay was the same scenario...all sorts of odd stuff...like a Diesel cut off switch, marked on a bit of tape (mines petrol) and again some wire and terminals with some serious intentions!



So it's all come out and I am going to have to start from scratch. This loom is obv not intended for my landie at all! Ah well.

We kidna expected the door frame to look like this...



But had one that came spare with the landie...other than a bit of welding on a couple of cracks its pretty solid so painted that up and swapped the skins over.



Me, stepdad and the cat contemplating on how to mount the jerry cans and make an bull bar. Perhaps if we stare at it long enough it will fabricate itself!

Your wiring job looks nearly as good as mine! It was converted from the military 12 volt positive earth to 12 volt negative earth. Looks like it was a 6th grade physical science project, none of the wires were changed, they just moved them to different contacts and stuff... Black wires that are positive, red wires that are negative. Good thing I keep a crimping tool and a multimeter handy. Its a god damn nightmare.

Sorry for the rant....

I like the red a lot, but shouldn't the top be white? A can of white house paint would have that looking stock in no time.

Sounds like you have had the same sort of fun I have had then!

Didn't think about the roof colour to be honest. Its prob not an original colour anyway (I know for certain some of it is Nissan Red)

Slowly getting there with the wiring...when you consider what it looked like before in the engine bay...trying to keep things nice and tidy and manageable. Good news that in the first since January we have now got him running



Whilst prodding about found that the exhaust manifold had a crack in it. Oh dear!