Steve's unexpected Series 3 rebuild.

Got my V5 back from DVLA today. Officially changed to a historic vehicle.

LincolnSteve said:

Got my V5 back from DVLA today. Officially changed to a historic vehicle.

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[May be I've missed something but]

Did you have to ask for this?

OK - OK - I'm English and should know - but here in Holland it happens automatically.

Why the frig would you have to ask the DVLA when they've already got the information? Haven't they heard of a computer system?

Oh by the way that bulkhead trouble looks like something that's a common problem for Land Rovers. I'm no expert but I plan to tackle that problem with spirit levels and bits of string in the traditional bloke in a shed styleee...

...I found shims on / under the rear tub on mine but nothing like that on the bulkhead.

Stretch said:

[May be I've missed something but]

Did you have to ask for this?

OK - OK - I'm English and should know - but here in Holland it happens automatically.

Why the frig would you have to ask the DVLA when they've already got the information? Haven't they heard of a computer system?

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You have to go to the post office and fill out a couple of forms. Easy enough. Wouldn't be the DVLA without a few forms to fill in.

Work continues on the bulkhead but i'm still doing other bits as well. The air filter was next.

Grimy as usual but not too awful.

I had always taken great care to keep this thing upright since I removed it all those years ago because I didn't want to spill the oil inside. I needn't have worried.



Not a drop of oil and loads of dried mud. Again the most neglected land rover in the world and I didn't spot any of this when I bought it.

I've just noticed in that picture of me holding the mud you can see my wedding ring. Looks like been prospecting and struck gold.

A superb job you're doing!

The air filter looks rather crispy!

I didn't think I would be able to get the metal filter element clean enough but I had a go. I jabbed at it with an old screwdriver to loosen it up before tapping it on the bench. Loads of muck fell out so I just kept going. I got the hoover on it, then blew it through with the airline. Then to really finish it off I got a few quids worth of diesel and gave it a really good soaking and flush through. It came up much better than I expected. I gave the other part of the filter the same treatment and even hooked up the leaf blower to it to really blast it through. Forgot to get any pictures of that. Amazing what you can do with bin bags and gaffer tape.

LincolnSteve said:

I didn't think I would be able to get the metal filter element clean enough but I had a go. I jabbed at it with an old screwdriver to loosen it up before tapping it on the bench. Loads of muck fell out so I just kept going. I got the hoover on it, then blew it through with the airline. Then to really finish it off I got a few quids worth of diesel and gave it a really good soaking and flush through. It came up much better than I expected. I gave the other part of the filter the same treatment and even hooked up the leaf blower to it to really blast it through. Forgot to get any pictures of that. Amazing what you can do with bin bags and gaffer tape.
View attachment 216244
View attachment 216245

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thats come up well

jamesmartin said:

thats come up well

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When I first opened it up I was sure it was a goner. It was horrible being up to the elbows in diesel when I was flushing it through but I think its good enough.

LincolnSteve said:

When I first opened it up I was sure it was a goner. It was horrible being up to the elbows in diesel when I was flushing it through but I think its good enough.

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it is and will be like new once painted

I then found a few little pinholes in the bottom of the filter. You remember when you were a kid and your mum would tell you to not keep picking at things. Well I kept picking.

I'm sure that these things don't usually rust like this because they are usually full of oil. It's very thin metal even before it's weakened with rust but I had a crack at it with the welder.
I clamped a bit of brass inside and just tried to fill in the holes. Really difficult to do and I made some of them worse before I managed to fill them in.
The big hole at the bottom was by far the worst so I made a little plate to sit inside and welded the edges of the hole to the plate.

That filled in all the holes but there was still a lot of pitting so I tried an experiment. I've used a thin skim of JB weld like body filler. This was particularly good over the welds. It even squished through a tiny hole that I couldn't see and filled it a treat. I smoothed it where you will see it but left it thicker on the bottom. After it was all dry I filled it with water and there aren't any leaks. We'll have to see if it keeps the oil in long term.




New seal and a coat of satin black.


I did the same to the top piece. This was a real faff to do because of all the vent holes but with a dremmel you can get it back to the metal. A good soaking in the Bilt Hamber rust remover also helped. I forgot to get a picture of the finished thing but you get the idea.

There's a house in the woods round the corner from us where a couple of series 2's live. I've always been interested in who they belong to but never met them. Then recently because of being at home more because i'm working from home I finally bumped into the owners. A lovely retired couple with a series 2 each. They have been into their land rovers for years and used to be involved with the clubs and trialling. I was on the drive doing some fettling and we got talking about the more difficult jobs. I told him about my battle with the steering relay and the tool I made. He said that he had always wanted to have a go at making the special puller for the drop arm on the steering box. When I said that my steering box was standing in the corner of the garage waiting for just such a thing he said that he would have a go and let me try it once it was done. Also he said that he had been lent a new defender van while his range rover was in for a service and did I want to have a look! It was the poshest van I have ever seen. Full leather interior and all the bells and whistles. Couldn't be much further removed from the old defender.

Anyway a bit of time passed and I heard nothing so I thought he had maybe forgotten or thought better of it. Then one Saturday he turned up at the house with what you see below.

Another ebay purchase.

A bit mucky and with some damage to one of the switch holes but cheap.

This crack was not mentioned in the description though and is a bit more serious.

I gave it a double whammy of glues. First lovely thin superglue to get right inside the crack and bond the faces together then a load of araldite over the top like a big weld. Cleaned up ok in the end.

That’s a lovely surprise off the neighbour and well made too!
did you open up the vent holes on the air filter top , they look a bit more open than on mine

You find people are a lot friendlier and willing to help you out once they find out you're not trying to buy their own pride and joy off 'em There's a bloke around the corner from me who's had people banging on his door at 3am asking if he wants to sell his

steve2286w said:

That’s a lovely surprise off the neighbour and well made too!
did you open up the vent holes on the air filter top , they look a bit more open than on mine

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Yeah. A huge stroke of luck. I believe that removing the arm without the proper puller can be a real nightmare.
Those vent holes and in fact the whole top was pretty dented. I just tried to get them smoothed out a bit and even. One was bigger than the other so I wasn't even sure which, if either, was right.

Right. Back to the main problem in my life at the moment. The bulkhead.

I have been hoping that the nice new panels would fit and that they would make sense of all the wonky bodywork but they don't. I think i've been expecting a bit too much of my abilities, replacement panels and the integrity of whats left of the poor old landy.

So new plan. It's only bits of metal and I know where it needs to go so i'm just going to bloody well make it fit whether it likes it or not. New panels will have to be cut and altered and i've got to have the confidence to get on and do it. I've been worrying far too much about trying to achieve some sort of perfection that just isn't going to happen.

Stage one is the bulkhead foot. We've already established that it isn't just going to bolt in place so I drilled out all the spot welds and removed it. Then I jiggled the bulk head around until stuff did line up. Now all i've got to do is make the foot fit to where the door pillar has moved to.

So to make that happen the center of the hole needs to be where that pencilled cross is. Now this is where the self doubt really comes in. Can a replacement panel really be that far out? Am I making a disastrous cock up that will ruin any chance of getting the rest of the bodywork to fit? Quite possibly. Crack on.

Too late to worry now. I got some new tube from ebay and started offering it up.

It lines up with the hole in the outrigger.
New bit of tube with the big bolt through it to keep it in place.
Now tack that in place while it's all bolted tight.
So that's it. The first piece of the puzzle is in place now all the other bits need to follow.

Nice job

With the foot in place I offered the door up. This was getting more and more complicated as there were less attached bits. Clamps, mole grips and improvisation but it all looked ok. Door pillar next.




Not too bad in there considering. I've certainly seen people on the forum dealing with a lot worse.