Stick orTwist

I’d say get a galvy chassis fitted. As said, you will know the truck and won’t be getting someone else’s problems or shortcuts. Our local Indy fits Richards and says he has no issues with them.

Def90man said:

If you’re doing the swap yourself, it’s only the price of the chassis and various nuts, bolts and washers

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I completely agree with the sentiment here and everyone else, definitely better the devil you know. I would disagree with the additional cost being JUST some nuts, bolts and washers. I would budget another couple of thousand for additional parts, In theory you should be able to reuse everything but in reality you will need new bushes, new brake/clutch pipes, potentially new fuel line as well, and there will then be other things you encounter while it apart. You will need a few hundred in paint to properly do the inside and outside of the chassis which I would highly recommend doing while it is a bare chassis rather than trying to do it later one when everything is fitted as I am doing now to mine. As @kevstar said when everything is apart and youhave a brand new chassis you begin to not want to refit old and tired items witout first refubinshing them or replacing.

seanlandy said:

Hmm! I have heard mixed reports on the fitting of a Richards one, but I suppose at nearly a £1000 cheaper is worth considering, lol

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I have a richards on mine and and very happy with it. At the time I fitted mine they were made of heavier gauge steel, and also gave different options so you could have the original rear crossmember rather than the newer td5 version. Not sure if things have changed as this was a few years ago now. Also a lot of the issues as mentioned on this thread tend to be tolerance issues and land rover did not have the best tolerance out of the factory let alone after 25 years of use, so i would not expect any manufacturer to have a truly fit first time product for a vehicle like this.

Thanks for all the information and words of wisdom, chaps. I can see your points. Your suugestion of taking some measurements and comparing the Richards one is a very good one. They are not a million miles from me and besides, I would be going to fetch the chassis myself which would make a check more convenient.
I can see that once I get into it, one would no doubt be upgrading replacing etc. whatever needs doing in order to get a viable 90 at the end of it all. Would it be worth it monetarily? Maybe not, but like most have said. It would be the devil I know.

seanlandy said:

Thanks for all the information and words of wisdom, chaps. I can see your points. Your suugestion of taking some measurements and comparing the Richards one is a very good one. They are not a million miles from me and besides, I would be going to fetch the chassis myself which would make a check more convenient.
I can see that once I get into it, one would no doubt be upgrading replacing etc. whatever needs doing in order to get a viable 90 at the end of it all. Would it be worth it monetarily? Maybe not, but like most have said. It would be the devil I know.

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I think they're good chassis, but after my issue I read of others with similar dimension differences. It sounds like you're in a good position to check one, so jobs a goodun!

seanlandy said:

Thanks for all the information and words of wisdom, chaps. I can see your points. Your suugestion of taking some measurements and comparing the Richards one is a very good one. They are not a million miles from me and besides, I would be going to fetch the chassis myself which would make a check more convenient.
I can see that once I get into it, one would no doubt be upgrading replacing etc. whatever needs doing in order to get a viable 90 at the end of it all. Would it be worth it monetarily? Maybe not, but like most have said. It would be the devil I know.

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I think part of the decision needs to be how long you keep the truck. If its going to be with you for a while then doing additional work due to having things already stripped is likely going to save lots of time in the future. Also being able to fit corrosion resistant parts or clean and protect what you have will give you peace of mind in the future.

As has been said previously, it would seem like a wasted opportunity not to do the brake pipes etc

Also look into electrolysis rust removal. If you are removing parts, especially if you are fitting new bushes, it's a good time to this. I have a 200ltr barrel for this and have done lots of parts - hockey sticks, hubs, stub axles, A-frame parts, brake shields, tow bar components etc - I even did my rear axle case (one side at a time).