Series 3 1972 ongoing renovation

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 25, 2020

So, although I’ve been on here several times, mostly to ask for advice, I thought I should try and at least start recording my fettling on a 1972 Series 3. I bought her from a lad who lived on a beach and used ‘Lucy’ To drag boats to and from the water. I needed a workhorse that could easily be swept out at the end of a day and really didn’t fancy getting a modern pick up type car. So took the plunge on Lucy. Let me just say, I no very little about cars, although being a techie type engineering bloke, I thought / hoped I could learn as I go. So, here is Lucy at the start, last July at an undisclosed beach somewhere in the North East.

Turboman · Feb 25, 2020

Highlander in Yorkshire said:
View attachment 201548 So, although I’ve been on here several times, mostly to ask for advice, I thought I should try and at least start recording my fettling on a 1972 Series 3. I bought her from a lad who lived on a beach and used ‘Lucy’ To drag boats to and from the water. I needed a workhorse that could easily be swept out at the end of a day and really didn’t fancy getting a modern pick up type car. So took the plunge on Lucy. Let me just say, I no very little about cars, although being a techie type engineering bloke, I thought / hoped I could learn as I go. So, here is Lucy at the start, last July at an undisclosed beach somewhere in the North East.

That looks like a really nice old motor!

However, as salt water is a real destroyer of all kinds of metals, I would give it a very thorough pressure wash all over, followed by careful inspection of the chassis, especially the rear part that tends to get dipped in when launching boats.
Followed by coatings as appropriate if needed.

Best of Luck!

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 25, 2020

So, this was some time ago and she wasn’t looking so sprite when I got her. She wasn’t road worthy, gears were present (I presume) but not selectable. She was stuck in four wheel drive and pretty much every engine attachment needed replacing. Doors were rotten and generally, she looked like she lived her life on a beach. I had a small pot of money and put her in a garage. The money ran out and we had her on the back of a truck to be delivered to her new home in Yorkshire, she would start fine, cant get a gear at all.
When we had a wee look inside the gear selector area, it seemed that the gear-lever ferul had disappeared some time ago and had been replaced with electrical tape. This tape in turn had disintegrated. So, couldn’t be arsed trying to fettle this we just stuck a new gear lever in and hey presto...... she moves. Bought lots of gaskets etc to cover the drive selectors etc and put the floors back in. We had a working car.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 25, 2020

Turboman said:
That looks like a really nice old motor!

However, as salt water is a real destroyer of all kinds of metals, I would give it a very thorough pressure wash all over, followed by careful inspection of the chassis, especially the rear part that tends to get dipped in when launching boats.
Followed by coatings as appropriate if needed.

Best of Luck!

Cheers Turboman...... totally agree. The reason we opted for this old girl was she had a galvanised chassis and the previous owner was so paranoid about rust etc that he had it stripped bare to get the jet wash at every bit. However, do have some bulkhead work to do but not too serious.

tottot · Feb 26, 2020

I used to run my old 2a without sills for the same reason, Good luck with restore.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 26, 2020

tottot said:
I used to run my old 2a without sills for the same reason, Good luck with restore.

Yup.. got the sills (some of them) in the garage..... may fit them one day.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 26, 2020

So after a bit of money spent, got something that ran..... well for a day or so anyway. Driving back home from the shops and suddenly, lots of smoke. Thankfully was close to the house so quickly parked up and wrenched the positive clip off the battery. Seems the wiring was not done as well as I’d hoped when I got the new radiator housing fitted...no grommets fitted etc. My first car electrical fire was a bit scary so I quickly ripped out all affected wires and replaced them with new (not the right colours mind you.. just stuck with red for + and black for -). Where wires went through panels I wrapped heavy duty heat shrink around the cables and tie wrapped them in place. Although most of the damage was at the passenger headlight area, some burn out happened under the dash. Learning from my scare, I installed an emergency power off thing that went onto the battery terminal, that I’ve since found deadly handy when checking electricals.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 26, 2020

With the front end wiring sorted, had a look at the back. No damage done here but it was untidy. I decided to mount some waterproof boxes and have a tidy. Before and after.

tottot · Feb 26, 2020

It's not unusual to see wires like that on a series,

Great idea those terminal box's, whole lot better than the original bent bit of ally.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 26, 2020

While I was looking at the electrics/wiring I thought I would have a check and see why the temperature gauge wasn’t working. Change the sender… No difference. I decided there and then to swap it out for a capillary gauge so I could read the actual temperature. It wasn’t until ages later that I realised the petrol gauge was Intermittent. So, thinking temperature gauge and fuel gauge dodgy, it must be the voltage regulator (found a series 3 wiring diagram online). On testing it it appeared duff so replaced it… Still no fuel gauge reading. Only after much mucking about I found a dodgy connection at the fuse box under the steering column, the connector that supplied the voltage regulator was manky. But, it was a good experience, helping to get confident with fault finding. I
Just surface mounted the gauge using a bracket; I have plans for the dash centre console bit (3 pre cut holes). Fitting the new Capillary gauge was a doddle… Had to use plenty PTFE tape though.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 26, 2020

With the weather turning I fancied a wee job that I could do indoors. So I decided to re-furb the vents in the roof; they were well rusted up and inoperable. As soon as I touched them the brackets just fell off, all rivets were rotten and the vents were barely attached to the roof at all. So, I had to remove the roof lining at which point I find lots of wet insulation fibre stuff. So, seriously leaky roof. It was at this point I decided to remove the tropical roof completely… But that’s a story for another day. Back to the vents.

steve2286w · Feb 26, 2020

The 52mm cutouts are good I’ve got an ammeter and oil pressure gauge in , I used an adapter so I still have the oil light and measure pressure with capilliary, I’d have kept the electric sender and capilliary temp gauge together as back up

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 27, 2020

Gave the vents a good sanding and blitzed off the external paint (limestone) with an angle grinder brush. Made new foam gaskets (old ones were rotten and full of Aluminium oxide dust) and then used some sealant adhesive stuff between roof - gasket and gasket - vent.... belt and braces type thing. While we were at it decided to bin the wet dog hair type insulation and go for some self adhesive foam... super sticky stuff. All I’ve left to do on that is cut some foam shapes to go round the front vents.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 27, 2020

Oh yeah.... and while we were at it, we took off the tropical roof..... it was well scabby looking and someone had tried to paint the actual roof and made a mess of it. So, in for penny in for pound. Took most of the paint with a heat gun a scraper and when I could do that, used the angle grinder with a brush..... right back metal. Coat of hammerite special metals primer and then two coat of rollered enamel. I’m really surprised how well this came out although time will tell how well it lasts. If found that leaving the paint for ten minutes after rolling then rolling again with the lightest touch (and quite speedy - long roller strokes) got rid of all bubbles and blemishes. PS. The paint I used was £20 including delivery... a lot cheaper that some other suppliers out there and it went on better... in my humble opinion.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Feb 27, 2020

I’ve scraped and sanded the main roof as best I can. just waiting for warmer weather before getting that painted. It won’t be perfect but it’ll be better than what it was. Oh, you can see here the front vents refitted. It got water tested by some serious rain and seemed ok (wanted to make sure it was leak free before putting in the new foam insulation).

Highlander in Yorkshire · Mar 2, 2020

View attachment 202055 Over Christmas I really wanted to sort out the rear window guides, which were totally shot to bits. A quick google and I found Rocky Mountain Spare so ordered a set of rear windrow tracks. Looking on some forums found several people extolling TeriAnn’s fitting guide at http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/LRsideWindow.htm.
So with the help of my father in law, we got cracking. All I will say is that we decided to leave the bottom tracks slight short, to allow easier draining of water to the drain channel below. Before and after shots of course.

View attachment 202050

Highlander in Yorkshire · Mar 2, 2020

Entered in error..... eek... how do you delete it?

Huddy84 · Mar 3, 2020

Nice rolling project, we can feel the love

Highlander in Yorkshire · Mar 11, 2020

Well the weather has been a bit unpredictable to say the least so painting is on hold right now. But, doesn’t mean to say I can’t take some bits inside while the wife is away with work. So, wheels off, let’s get cracking. Used a brush attached to an angle grinder for the most part, although a bit dangerous, even with goggles, mask and ear defenders on.... I had to pull one wire strand from my chin with pliers. Used hammerite direct to rust metal paint, smooth cream. I chose this because it so close to the limestone colour of the roof but I wanted something harder for the wheels. I think she looks the better for it. At the time of writing this, just one wheel to go. Time will tell how long it lasts.

Highlander in Yorkshire · Mar 11, 2020

A while back, someone pulled out on me because I had yet again left the indicator on..... I can’t see the indicator bulbs because of the steering wheel. So decided to do some wiring. While I was at it, added a few other bits and bobs. First thing was internal lights. Wired straight from battery through fuse, so I can have it on at any time, I have two strip LED lights with a ‘on’ lamp indicator.

Next was a reverse light (just an old spotlight) wired through ignition, again via a fuse. This time it has an ‘on light and buzzer’, so I don’t leave it on accidentally. Lastly, hazards. Wired into existing indicator wires but using several in line blocker diodes so the indicators still work properly. Currently I have ‘on lamp and buzzer’ but going to install an extra wee switch so I can mute buzzer when hazards are on. After all this, I remembered why i started this so wired my indicator lamps with a parallel buzzer so, a buzzer sounds in time with the indicators. Last but not least, fitted a relay that ‘sounded’ when I turned ignition off with my lights on... a lights on warning type thing.

Series 3 1972 ongoing renovation

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