Disco Bobtail home build

Hi All
As the title says its another disco 1 bobtail build
Before i start i would like to say a HUGE thanks to Matt Baxter and the Green Hornet (aka ian).
without there help i wouldnt have even thought about doing this as they are the brains and i just do as im told
Hopefully if any of you have any techy questions either matt or ian will jump in and answer them
Right,story so far.....
Bought my disco 1 some time ago for off roading and must say am really enjoying the whole driving/chatting/fixing and do manage to get through most places the defenders do but at a cost,the usaul big bang as the massive rear over hang hits the deck
Anyway,mot ran out sat night and i new the disco needed some welding etc for mot and after a chat on sunday with Matt we decided were gonna go for the bobtail,i know some of you dont like em,some of you love em but each to their own
anyway time for some pics,this was started mon night but due to grinder noise we can only use a grinder up until 8pm and as we not hme from work til 6 not alot of time

this was the disco at 6pm mon night

we started by taking rear interior out and folding rear seats forward,thats matt and ian looking busy

once the interior was removed it was time to start measuring and cutting


once the intial cuts where done its time to lift the back end off





and this is how we left it mon night,remeber tho,only 2 hours with grinder and another 2 hours titting about and scratching our chins

tue and wed night i was unable to work on the disco altho my brother (matt Bax) couldnt resist popping out to his workshop and doing abit of rust remedy for me
before

and after

anyway back at it on thur night another couple of hours trimming and cutting and this how we left it

obviously we have more trimming to do before the final fit which hopefully will be finished tonight (fri)
we will then remove back to give access to rear chassis rails etc.
we are still discussing the final configuration of fuel tank,bumper etc as i want to try and avoid having a fuel tank in whats left of the boot and would like to try and keep it under the car.
i will upload pics as we go but am hoping to have removed about 12 inches from the car when weve finished as want to keep a very slight overhang.
am hoping to replace side windows with proper glass altho the alpine windows will be perspex.

looking good mate b nice to see it finished

So tonight we we did some more final trimming of sides and sorted some more of the other rust on the disco.doesnt look like much done but the back is basically ready to be put back on once the chassis rails etc have been dealt with.
heres a few more pics of the welding etc tonight

With any luck we will have all the rot sorted tomorrow.
There are a some repairs to sort in the rear arches and the boot floor.

we can make up the rear cross member from a nice bit of box with built in tow/recovery point

Reckon i could save the rear body mounts?:Cry:

Yep lets hope we get a good jump on it tomorrow
Think the body mounts have had there day

u selling the tank gaurd u have removed?

Sorry Discowayne,already gone.

cheers anyways pal and looking good with the build

Looking good, some amount of work done in the time youve had.

Today was all about more trimming of back end and cutting the chassis to length.
the back end is now tack welded in place to allow for heating and beating to get final lines straight,all of which line up reasonably well
the chassis has now got its new cross member installed which will have another 60x120 box section seam welded to front ready for the 100x50 box section that will go on top to make up the new bumper,it will be angled up at corners like the defender or atleast thats the plan
the tow/nato hitch will be going on the lower piece of 120x60 and the exhaust should exit through the bumper
anyway heres some more pics altho none will show the welding inside the car as it was my first attempt to weld today and as u can imagine it needs my brothers magic touch before i can let you all see it :baby:




this is the cross member in place which will have the other 120x60 box seam welded across front including enclosing the chassis ends

and this should be the final overhang at the back,minus the bumper.

Coming along nice mate. Good job

Cheers all : )

Just been and had a look a the welding and its fine imo:smokin:
all things considered its going alright init





panel gaps are pretty good as well so they won't take long to weld up, just need to get me self a better mask eh

Any good cheap ally welders near fleet,got a couple of little panels to weld : )

Well we got abit more done today,although the welder broke down and cost us a good few hours,many thanks to Matt for turning my pile of freshly bought steel into a nice heavy duty rear bumper and ian for ali welding panels

this is the bumper in its early stages complete with hi-lift points and a steel threaded plate welded inside bumper to take nato hitch,propped up on wood lol

this is the bumper abit further on after matt has worked his magic on it,this is the rear prior to tidying up hi lift points etc,the mid section in rear is stitch welded and as you can see from other photo the front is fully welded.

this is the rear box that goes behind original bumper which was pretty much all rust,as you can see,new and shiney
Still plenty to do lol

i hope your mounting the rear bumper higher up than in the test fit pic?

I will be a little higher but not by much tbh,
its got a 2" body lift aswell
The bumper is as high as the lower edge of the chassis if that makes sense!

Matt Baxter said:

I will be a little higher but not by much tbh,
its got a 2" body lift aswell
The bumper is as high as the lower edge of the chassis if that makes sense!

Click to expand...

could u not get it any higher? u dont wanna lose any departure angle,this is how mine finishes

wiltshire landyman said:

could u not get it any higher? u dont wanna lose any departure angle,this is how mine finishes

Click to expand...

is yours mounted to the body? any better pics from straight on from the back?

it could go as high as the lower edge of the boot door but we are going to try and get a smaller fuel tank in the original space 40l approx.

Matt Baxter said:

is yours mounted to the body? any better pics from straight on from the back?

it could go as high as the lower edge of the boot door but we are going to try and get a smaller fuel tank in the original space 40l approx.

Click to expand...

the bumper is mounted to the body and the chassis we turned the chassis legs upwards to give a higher mounting for the bumper if that makes sense