G0d@mn this is cool as fu$k

Cheers, its a sort of combination of this current flirtation with land rovers, and crossing over to the long time obsession with hot rods.. also doing it on a super tight budget .. Got £1500 in total .. probably got through half of that now ..
 
So, went back in the shed , youll never learn or achieve anything watching what is classed as entertainment on the TV total garbage.
used the cardboard that protects the ali sheet to make templates for the bulkhead and footwells . thats the hard bit done, just got to finesse the templates when there transferred to steel. then just minor tweeks before welding them together into one bullet proof firewall . Will probably do some lightening holes in the bulkhead framework to offset a wee bit of the excess weight of the 2mm sheet ( what was I thinking ) It will probably outlast me lol.. There wont be any sound deadening or fancy door panels in this one :)

will be using the gauges that came out of the P4 in a panel that will look a bit like the series 1 panel but bigger :) also plan to use the junction boxes and wire loom from the P4 as well.. managed to recover most of it from the P4 . Measuring up the screen Im thinking a 5 inch chop will give it a better proportion ;) Well see how it pans out .

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Managed to get the gearbox chassis mount fabricated , still to fully weld everything but looking like it will all be fine .Still working on the gearbox moint bracket.. tricky wee bugger ..

Also managed to get the bulkhead marked up, cut out and folded ..Must have paid close attention to my measuring its just a bit tight to fit but its looking decent ..Its not properly located in the pics just dropped in for a quick eyeball to check it was in the ball park .. Its all back out just now but hope to move forward and piece it all together over the next few days ..

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Managed to get the gearbox chassis mount fabricated , still to fully weld everything but looking like it will all be fine .Still working on the gearbox moint bracket.. tricky wee bugger ..

Also managed to get the bulkhead marked up, cut out and folded ..Must have paid close attention to my measuring its just a bit tight to fit but its looking decent ..Its not properly located in the pics just dropped in for a quick eyeball to check it was in the ball park .. Its all back out just now but hope to move forward and piece it all together over the next few days ..

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I like this, superb :cool::cool: Nice job old chap.
 
I went to all that trouble with the gearbox mount because the doenut was one off the old engine mounts and I didnt want to buy the proper mounts for the MGB box.. there wasnt room to fit them anyway. Just using what I have and trying not to spend any doe .. Time is just time , its better than watching the TV.. :)

PS the piece of ally my finger is keeping in place at the gear box mount is just a template . I like to use bits of scrap ali sheet as it cuts easy, bend easy and keeps its shape better than card for stuff like this :)
 
Stop press: wife's just told me she's off work on Friday and Saturday .. I guess my fun will be curtailed :( looks like rain on Friday though, so might be off the hook LOL..
 
Wives always stop the fun stuff by making us do ‘essentials’ like mowing the lawn, emptying the bins etc.

I don’t understand why they don’t understand that welding up your Land Rover chassis _is_ essential!
 
That welding looks great, makes me wanna go out and buy a tig.

Col

Cheers , it could be neater but the inside of my welding mask steams up and it gets tricky to see what your doing , Have to hold my breath most of the time to stop things steaming up.. The tig does produce a pretty weld though . better still if you pay attention to prep before welding. Some of the steel is hot rolled and has a scale on it , better if thats cleaned off but works fine with it on, just more contamination to contend with ..
 
priced up front and rear shox, new front discs and pads , flexis, suitable radiator , oil cooler and oil pipes , exhaust down pipe and a set of tyres . can manage all that for just a tad over £800, so still well within budget,
 
Trimmed, tweaked and trail fitted the bulkhead , made sure the wheels cleared the toe board before welding thigs in place , will ned to come out again to complete the fabrication but so far so good :) Hoped the P4 gearbox cover would work but the starter bulge is on the wrong side and further back its nt deep enough to cover the gearbox so at least it can go in the scrap pile now ..

Also got sections of the frame work welded up , one door hinge welded on, materials looked out to make a couple of new lower hinges, B post and b post support tacked in and slung the rear body side on for a quick look ..

Messe d around with some ideas and considering making a louvred belly pan . Might look cool , if you one of them folk that look under as well as looking at stuff :)

Also looks like I might be able to use the P4 bench seat . I thought the gearbox might have come back to far to allow its use but mocking up a seat ( breeze block and a lump of wood) it looks like it could be OK .. will give it a trail fit on Sunday ..

Today is a loss , got to take the wife out for an airing :)

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Took the VW camper for a spin barely turned a wheel last year , She likes that, so much so the suggestion that I should sell it wont be raised again LOL .

We passed places today that she mentioned we would get to in the land rover that we cant reach in the Van.. That was why the original idea was to convert the landrover to a camper .. will get around to it eventually ..

Dont really know why I started to build this "thing" lol seemed like a good idea but the effort going into it I could have built the Roadster Hot Rod or actually converted the land rover :) This "thing" is a bit of fun though .. bit of a break from the usual and more like the stuff I used to play around with when I was but a lad ..
 
So after a wee break on Saturday it was straight back in the shed for a wee catch up

made a pair of lower hinges, trimmed the lower sub rails behind the B posts, fitted the passenger side B post , marked up, cut and welded in the A panels into place and welded the substructure to the bulkhead frame. Decided to buy a new plasma cutter having sold my old one a wee while ago. The new gear is tiny by comparison to the old one, cheaper and more efficient .. hopefully it will arrive PDQ from Poland :)

other stuff on the cards , shift the spring pads on the rear axle , and make a list of the stuff I need to buy to make this thing roadworthy .

I was going to convert to dual circuit brakes and remote servo , but working out the bore size and buying a new dual circuit servo to suit is
A. to much working out and Im to thick
B. Likely to be expensive ..
So will stick with a replacement single circuit master .. Mind you, they can be expensive too.

So the next stage will be to have a look at fabricating the front floors and gearbox tunnel Might have a wee bit of fun with this area , will do then in aluminium. Having had a good think about the seats , I dropped in the P4 bench and well it would have worked with some modification, but by the time the frame was modified I would still have a scabby seat that still didn't really work that well . So rethink on that and might as well make a new seat riser and use the old seat base and backs from the series 3 left overs .

Not to many update pics to show but here are a couple of minor updates :)

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cut the floors and seat riser from a sheet of 2mm ally , managed to get most of it from a sheet of 6 x 3 . Trans tunnel will be from 1.6 mm made a start to templating it and will probably spend Tuesday working it out and hopefully getting it done .

pics are rubbish but here are a couple of the floor and seat riser ..

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What do you do about registering this? Is it just staying on the rover reg or does it need Q playing or what?

this is so cool
 
Currently burying my head in the sand over spectre of registration . Technically its no different to "repairing" a tired landrover chassis using a new front and rear section and adding new outriggers , but legally any deviation from original chassis spec renders the project liable to BIVA . So plan is to build it to roadworthy spec then decide what route to take , I was planning to build in some aspects of the BIVA as I go , The bits that make it easier to do at this stage rather than try to do them retrospectively . so things like seat belt anchors and positions, head restraints, dual circuit brakes and brake fluid warning lights and collapsible steering Colum. among other things ,, but right now , im blocking it out and just getting on with the build.. sounds daft but well see how it goes ..

There isnt any issue with a straight forward body swap, some of the things ive done to position the body arent permitted but they are only temporary to set the position of the frame work and allow me to build it square .. the body will bolt on when its further along ..
 
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Bought myself a new plasma cutter , had one for years but they took up to much space in the shed so flogged them when I hadn't used it for a while ..Any ways, I've found that between the 109 and this thing project I could have done with a replacement . I didn't want to spend a fortune so looked around for the best that would suit infrequent use , cut up to 10mm thick material ( rarely) not take up much space and be affordable .. Also had to be able to get it local just in case it ever needs to go back for warranty stuff ..

Looked at a couple and settled on a Draper Expert 40 amp unit. Now I will freely admit I am a tool snob and have had mixed experiences with Draper tools , but recently Clarke have overtaken draper in the ****e stakes .. I took the plunge with the draper as it actually ticked all the boxes and at £299 plus vat it was in the price range I was prepared to pay.

On getting it home it took a wee bit of assembly but once wired up ( 32 amp plug) it worked a treat.. set it at 20 amps and it sliced it was with ease and a very clean cut through 2mm plate . At that amperage its good for an 80% duty cycle so plenty juice to make decent cuts and unlikely to overheat on the jobs I have planned for it .

stepped it up to 5 mm plate and 30 amps and once again a good clean cut . So far so good :)

Unfortunately I had to take my old fella to the doctors today, result there is that from the doctors surgery I had to take him straight to hospital where he is currently in the coronary care unit , with a heart rate of 24 bpm , Fingers crossed he will respond to medication and if so they will be fitting a pace maker .. So I guess I will shelve the projects for a bit and pay him more needed attention f.. but I will be looking in and working away on stuff when I can .. Cheers for now ..
 
Following from Portugal and as a fellow Scot with a P6 resto of my own and a S2 for a customer along with my 101 tinkering...best wishes for your auld man...
 

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