Ex-army 90 FFR Rebuild

Well with the series pretty much done, its now time to be looking at my brothers 90. Its a 1986 (I think IIRC) FFR with all the gear stripped out. Has a bit of history as this went out in the first gulf war apparantly, underneath the green you can still see the sand coloured paint. Bulkhead needs some work (door pillars are pretty shot) and footwells need replacing but all in all its not too bad. Plan is to swap the rear axle to the spare discovery one we have to make it discs all round. The engine in it is a 12J 2.5N/A diesel (same as mine), no plans yet for an upgrade. Right time for some pictures














The rotten pillar





Doors also need a bit of work doing to them



The interior









Aftermarket ignition barrel which needs replacing









First thing was to take off the spare wheel, this reveals quite a bit of the sand paint







The mighty 2.5 diesel



Bonnet will be replaced as we have sourced a good spare. The military fittings will just be swapped over



The bonnet stay was unbolted at the wing end and the bonnet was lifted up out of the rubbers (you have to lift it past the normal open position to do this)



The front plastic grill was removed as was the horn bracket that was inside



Next, the lights and light fittings were all removed





The army side light fittings have a couple of screws and then they should just pull out allowing you to disconnect the wires



Back of the light fitting





We then started to strip the front end down







The wheel and arches were taken off to get better access for taking the wing off





The crossmember piece in front of the rad was taken off first





Various brackets had to be unbolted before lifting the wing off



The plan was to fetch the inner wing and outer wing off seperately but then we ended up taking it all off in one go





Drivers side wing was then taken off



Next job was to take the doors and roof off. The roof has a row of bolta on top of the windscreen as well as a bolt in each corner and a bracket in the middle of the tub sides on top of the capping





Floor was the next thing to come off, a lot of the phillips heads had been rounded so had to be ground off







Next was the turn of the seatbox, theres a row of bolts at the back and along the sill panel as well a couple at the front. All were 10mm (M6)





We could then make a start on getting the tub off by unbolting the brackets, its easier to do than the one on my 88"











Took it out for a jetwash in the garden and this is where we're up to now





Now for Dad to make his appearance on film driving it back into the garage

Nice, Look forward to reading this, I likes a good build thread

someone else with plenty of work on the horizon.. Good luck.

Excellent, will keep an eye on this thread! Good one!

You going to repaint it in The sand colour ?

Spent 9 years in those while in the forces, awesome landys top work

You keeping it FFR spec (as close as anyway)?? nothing I like more than a landy with a bt of history behind it

I'm trying to persuade my brother to get it back to sand colour as its different to the normal green ones but we shall see

Luckily he wants to keep it military looking so we'll fit the boxes and ariels but not sure about the radio rack inside due to the affect on rear visibility, so maybe we make an easily removable one for shows and such

I would go sand, so many are one type of green or another, not enough sand ones on the roads, or compromise and do the sand and green camo

Another cracking thread mate, I'm gonna enjoy this as much as I did the S3 one - superb!

Right then an update at last Was on hold whilst my brother had his exams and stuff (it is his after all)

The rear section of exhaust was removed first. As you can see, the cross member has been replaced at some point and it wasnt welded all the way across at the top (a lot of the welds were like pigeon s**t too




Front section of exhaust (better condition than the back half) also came off



The back axle was the next thing to come off. This will be swapped with the axle off our old discovery 1 so it will have disk brakes all round

The old diff pan had rusted through



The prop shaft was the first thing to come off





Then my brother took the torsion bars off (i think thats what they're called)



Interestingly, my Dad compared these to the ones off his TD5 defender and they're much thicker! Did MoD 90s have heavy duty versions fitted or something?

The A bar was also unbolted off the chassis



The shocks were removed, the springs compressed and the chassis was put on axles stands before wheeling the axle out of the garage






The chassis without the axle in place





Few pics of the pigeon s**t of a weld



We've got the history of the vehicle as it comae from my dads boss and this was done by a professional garage supposedly!



My Dad soon sorted that out when he was off work Done a great job on it, looks like a proper job now! He also cut off the bar that had been welded across as a sort of jig as it no longer served any purpose





Stay tuned for more updates! It should come along now my brothers finished his exams

Also I bought my Dad a new needle gun for fathers day, much better than a grinder as it doesnt blow all the dust in the air

Much better that rear x-member.

I am deeply mistrustful of 'professionals' and 'land rover specialists' - I am sure they charge more and have a poorer standard of work than a greasy village garage!

Ahh G90's..........have fun in the wet

Dr_evil said:

Ahh G90's..........have fun in the wet

Click to expand...

Especially if the backs are pumped up hard!!

They're getting swapped for ATs Keeping them for off road stuff though

flat said:

Especially if the backs are pumped up hard!!

Click to expand...

My G90's are 35psi all round........not had the balls to boot it round a corner in the 88 yet though


However I did last night in the 109 and that kicked its arse out big time! Not on G90's.......think they're a deestone copy pattern

Bump: Not been much happening to this due to working on the s3 and other stuff in the house as well as my brother doing A-levels (its his 90 and im reluctant to just dive in without him as much as id like to)

Jobs done since the last update:
Rear axle from a disco has been fitted after swapping the drive shafts and diffs from the 90 axle
Front axle has been cleaned up and painted and new shocks have been fitted

Will get some pics later

As promised, pictures!
General shot of painted crossmember (Wilkos black gloss radiator paint)


Shot showing the white painted diff pan, the convoy light gets reflected off this


Rear disks, just got to fit callipers and mud shields to the rear



New rear shocks



New polybushes have been fitted all round, here is a shot of the panhard rod bush



New shocks and turrets for the front



General shot of the front, next project will be the bulkhead, lots of welding to be done on this one

Keep going! Good to see it stripped and coming back together!

Looking good

Forgot about this thread really, tdci bulkhead has been fitted along with rebuilt 2.5na and old gearbox and the ub is back on, will get pics on the weekend