Steve's unexpected Series 3 rebuild.

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i wouldnt say expert but it was 40 years ago i started rebuilding landy gear boxes ,my dad had a series 3 wasnt that old but gear box failed bought a recon from paddocks but that was as bad ,that was my start,rebuilt it and it was fixed much to my dads surprise
Bet he was happy ;)

Gearboxes seem to be the pain in my arse at the moment!!
 
Another minor detail. The heater inlet was another manky mess. The mesh looked like it had been painted without washing the mud off first.
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After much scrubbing, scraping and paint stripper it looks much better.
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The elbow from the air filter to the carb had a big dent in it. Happened before my time and quite how they managed to do it I don't know.
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First job was to hammer out the dent. I rounded over the end of a piece of bar, stuck it inside and tapped it out. This worked quite well but it split the seam open.
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This meant breaking out the welder so I thought while I was going to this much trouble I should try to recreate the seam a bit.
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The 1mm disc on the grinder worked better than I thought it would and was surprisingly controllable. Now prime and fill.
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The filler is isopon P38 and it's very thick and rough. When you see the shows on tv and they are filling the stuff they have looks lovely and smooth as it goes on. I think before I tackle an big bodywork I had better get some better stuff.
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After a bit of fettling it turned out alright. I've put some cheap shelving in the corner of the spare room and it's getting loaded up with refurbed bits. I'll be glad to start fitting some of them back on.
 
I have spent a lot of time recently refurbing lots of small bits which is all very well but as they say round here that won't get the baby a new apron. It's time to get serious and sort all the bodywork out including the rotten old bulkhead. I didn't expect this to be easy but equally I didn't expect it to be the nightmare it's becoming. I started by getting the roof out of the shed. This had been put away about 6 years ago and forgotten about. I have a strange way of imagining these things are better than they are. In my mind it was in quite nice order and wouldn't need much work.
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It looks ok from a distance but I can tell you it isn't. Now my brother in law and me took that off easily in just a few minutes all those years ago but due to social distancing he wasn't going to be able to help this time. This leaves myself, my wife with her her slipped discs and my skinny but very willing 12 yr old lad.
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So we struggled it round to the garage and got it lifted into place. It started to look good and briefly I was encouraged. Then I squeezed the windscreen into place.
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Look at that gap at the top. Now I don't remember that being there when I took it to pieces but as I haven't altered anything that would cause it I suppose it must have been.
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It doesn't look too bad if you don't look too close and squint a bit.
The only solution I can find to this is to raise the bulkhead on one side.
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Now that solves a lot of problems but creates another.
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The bolt hole in the bulkhead foot is now a mile out. It's got to be replaced so I can move it a bit but as we'll see later i've got more problems.
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Where the support comes from the chassis to the footwell you can only just see the bolt holes. The footwells need to be replaced as well but it's still well out.
The other thing is that i'm sorting one problem out but I have no idea if i'm creating more for later.
 
has your chassis had out riggers and much work on it
Evening. I'm afraid it has. I haven't had to move any mounting points at all but have done loads of patching.
Before my time it has had both bulkhead outriggers replaced. It looks like a really neat job, certainly the best of the previous repairs but I do think the passenger side is lower than the drivers side. I don't know which I trust less, me with my lack of knowledge or the previous repairs.
 
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