Steve's unexpected Series 3 rebuild.

Bobsticle said:

Make sure you blather them in petroleum jelly or pink grease or they’ll dry out and fall to bits

EVA is a great material. The only issue is it wouldn’t joint well for such a job. You’d have to cover it in one piece.

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Those de-mister things already look a bit dried out in the photo. Maybe why they're cheap.

I've been looking at big sheets of the EVA. Still thinking about it. Going to wait until i'm ready for fitting it for final decisions. As it stands the dash is another piece that's in storage in the spare room. My missus is going to do her nut if I don't soon start refitting some of this stuff.

Here's something a bit off topic. Been to the Notts county show today at the Newark showground and got a look an the Ineos Grenadier for the first time in the flesh.






I really like it. Don't get me wrong I have no need for one and couldn't begin to afford one any way but if those lottery numbers come up I could properly fancy one of these.

LincolnSteve said:

Here's something a bit off topic. Been to the Notts county show today at the Newark showground and got a look an the Ineos Grenadier for the first time in the flesh.
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I really like it. Don't get me wrong I have no need for one and couldn't begin to afford one any way but if those lottery numbers come up I could properly fancy one of these.

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Being completely honest, Steve, I think your Series has more class than the Grenadier.
Grenadier is just factory made steel and plastic, your Series is a real Land Rover, and also it is what you have made it.

I was talking to the chap on the stand for a while and we both agreed that you can't beat an old series landy.

LincolnSteve said:

Here's something a bit off topic. Been to the Notts county show today at the Newark showground and got a look an the Ineos Grenadier for the first time in the flesh.
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I really like it. Don't get me wrong I have no need for one and couldn't begin to afford one any way but if those lottery numbers come up I could properly fancy one of these.

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I like the fact that there is now some competition in the market - whether I'd have one ? - I don't know..

The Massey 6S-190 behind has more interest TBH - and is more use ..

I’m going to be controversial here, but in my opinion, I think the Grenadier is what the new defender should have been. I can’t deny the defender is a top product, but it’s no longer the workhorse the old one was. It shows that JLR are pushing their products further upmarket and further away from their roots, which is a real shame. I don’t think I will ever be able to buy a new shape defender, looking at the used prices. As for the Grenadier, the farming market, some utilities, charity organisations etc will, I’m sure be interested in investing in them, which is historically a Land Rover strong sales area. It’s also a shame that Ineos decided to build it abroad, when the Welsh factory fell through.
Anyway, my old S3 which is almost the same age as me, will continue to keep me busy I’m sure!

I suppose the luxury end of the market is where the money is but it's sad that land rover no longer make the kind of vehicles that made the company in the first place. Also talking to the chap the other day he was saying he had to take a new defender to the JLR dealership for a plug in and reset of a light on the dash after some work and got relieved of £180 for two minutes work. Furthermore as he was leaving there were three AA trucks in the car park bringing in almost new, very expensive vehicles in disgrace. Could have been sales talk by the fella but I doubt it. He knew I wasn't buying so didn't need to impress me.

I suspect JLR are focusing only on premium products where the money is, which is a real shame as a Landrover fan .
That’s another factor that the Grenadier will be judged against and compared to JLR products - reliability. Having watched the videos of the design, build and testing of the Grenadier presented by Mark Evans, I suspect that it is likely to be more reliable than the current JLR products. Given the main suppliers used in the Grenadier (BMW,ZF,Carraro etc) plus the fact there are less complex electronics to go wrong, it may be a winner on the reliability front. Guess I will have to wait until prices drop before I can access one anyway.
Time to get tackling my rusty front panel……

Its not just JLR who have decided not to build to their roots, look at Porsche..............

LincolnSteve said:

I suppose the luxury end of the market is where the money is but it's sad that land rover no longer make the kind of vehicles that made the company in the first place. Also talking to the chap the other day he was saying he had to take a new defender to the JLR dealership for a plug in and reset of a light on the dash after some work and got relieved of £180 for two minutes work. Furthermore as he was leaving there were three AA trucks in the car park bringing in almost new, very expensive vehicles in disgrace. Could have been sales talk by the fella but I doubt it. He knew I wasn't buying so didn't need to impress me.

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Very little progress. Here's what there is. All the weld seams sealed over with Puraflex 40. That stuff is becoming my first choice for fixing everything.


Not pretty but it is effective. Then primed all over with hammerite special metals primer solely because the lid of the tin was going rusty and it needed using up before I lost the lot.

I've now started coating it all in black smoothrite again because i've got a can left over. In fact that can could be from when I restored my MG. I was about 19 then. Just turned 52 this month. Time it was used up.

Bodywork is hard and tedious. The bulkhead behind the seats is my next target. It's had a bit of a pasting in the past and looks like loads in the rear tub may not always have been as secure as they should have been. Given the overall state of the bodywork I mustn't get carried away with trying to make it super smooth. This will never be a show car. Having said that getting carried away is what I do. It's also tricky when you will end up seeing both sides of a panel. Hammering back a dent in one side just makes a problem for the other side. Compromises need to be made. There are plenty of places that can't be accessed with a hammer so that's that. The rest will just have to be the best I can do. Initially I got it to this stage.

Didn't look too bad overall. Only a few dents that would need filling. I thought I would get away with most of that. I'm going to rattle can the etch primer on before properly spraying the high build primer and top coat like I did on the bulkhead. Etch primer looks like this.

In the garage there it looked ok. Obviously some bumps and ripples but ok. A day or two later I got it into the daylight and found that it looked really rough and the primer had reacted in a few small places. So back a few steps to here.

Etch again and it is much better.

Still a few bits that you can't see on the photo. It was really hot and the filler (Isopon P38) went off in seconds so i've got a few holes and scratches. I tried a squirt of rattle can high build primer and might as well not have bothered. I'm getting some of that 'Big Boy' fine filler from Toolstation to go over the last bits. Moral of the story is just to be more thorough in the first place or you'll have to do it all again. Or I could just stop being such a fuss-arse but that's never going to happen.

Here's another oddity that I spotted at Fir Park wings and wheels yesterday. It's near Market Rasen and there's another one in August. Nice little show. Free entry, they just ask for donations for the air ambulance. Maybe if I spent a bit less time at shows and a bit more time on mine it would be finished by now. What do you make of this?

LincolnSteve said:

Here's another oddity that I spotted at Fir Park wings and wheels yesterday. It's near Market Rasen and there's another one in August. Nice little show. Free entry, they just ask for donations for the air ambulance. Maybe if I spent a bit less time at shows and a bit more time on mine it would be finished by now. What do you make of this?
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Very innovative. Did it arrive & leave under its own power I wonder, or was it on a trailer?

I didn't see. Already there when we arrived and still in situ as we left. I hope they didn't have a long drive home.

LincolnSteve said:

I didn't see. Already there when we arrived and still in situ as we left. I hope they didn't have a long drive home.

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Did it leave oil stains where it was parked???

Almost certainly.

So it's been six weeks or so since I posted anything. Must have made tons of progress in that time eh? Don't be daft! I got more or less bugger all done. So much going on at home. It's been the end of my son's first year of GCSE's so I was helping him with revision most nights. Still faffing about decorating and tiling the kitchen and now it looks like i've got a job coming up over and above the day job that's going to take all my spare time in September or October or maybe both. Add to that holidays in August and i'm in danger of 2023 having passed me by without making any real headway with this infernal vehicle. Here goes with what I have got done recently.

This thing that looks like an exhibit straight out of Tate Modern is the end result of trying to get a semi flat surface to paint on. We've got grey etch primer, white filler, yellow primer filler spray (about as much use as tap water), the original green and even a bit of bare aluminium. This is now a bit more grey but I haven't got a picture of that. And it's still not anywhere near flat. Was it worth the bother?

The dash is painted inside and out in smoothrite. It's actually a better finish than it looks in that photo. I never used to like smoothrite but it went on really well, covered nicely and left a tough looking coating. Plus the fumes got me nice and high for a bit at no extra cost. Need to cut the heater vent holes and of course cover it in foam and vinyl. Can't wait to bugger that up.


This side of the tub must been damaged and replaced at some time as it's full of rivets where there should be spot welds. A real ugly job by some previous owner. So what to do about them when you're trying to prepare for paint? Lots of the rivet heads have been sanded and hacked about in the past and you can't sand the body round them without faffing about for ages so i'm drilling them out a few at a time, doing the prep and replacing them as I go.


That big gouge goes under the capping so won't be seen. The difference between a 'nice' rivet and a manky one.
I wish I could just learn to live with slight imperfections like that then I might actually make progress.

I had convinced myself that I wouldn't go bonkers with filler and just accept that it's a battered old Land Rover but I can't help it.

Doesn't look too bad like that but those darker coloured low spots would stick out like a sore thumb when the primer went on let alone top coat.

The puraflex 40 sealer got another chance to do it's stuff. I'm going to try and seal as many places as I can as it goes back together.

Next I started to trial fit stuff in the cab area. Petrol tank back in. I sorted this out not long ago so I know it fits.


If you cast your minds back years you might remember that I repaired/remade the side rail, sill/floor support things. I was really pleased with them as I had got them right back to the original shape, all good and strong. I shouldn't have done this as when I came to offer up the drivers side one it didn't fit well. I've made this mistake a lot. I've been stuck for something to get on with so i've found a part and repaired it, got it primed and painted then found that because something else has changed position a bit it no longer fits. You need to wait until it's all going back together and repair all the parts then. It's no use making things the way they were when everything has been apart. So it had to be hacked to bits again.




In the end I have managed to get both sides to fit but I have struggled like mad to get the nuts and bolts to fix this end to the bulkhead foot into place. Originally it would have been two captive bolts on a plate coming backwards from the bulkhead foot but on the drivers side I can't get enough room to even get a nut on between the bulkhead foot and the bulkhead outrigger. It's nearly as bad on the passenger side. Are they usually that much of a cow or have I got something wrong with the new bulkhead feet? After hours of offering and fettling.


This did genuinely take hours and hours to achieve. Offering up super gently so as not to damage paintwork only to need more fettling so off it comes again for the hundredth time.