Vehicle Builds

The Solent And District Land Rover Club

That won't cost much!    PART ONE.

By Jez Bell

Earlier this year I got a call from a mate of mine, “ I might have found you that project you were looking for” he said, “it’s a Series 3 swb with a good chassis but a dead engine” he said, “and it needs a bit of welding on the footwells” he said, £400 he said, “great!” I said.

I was looking for a project, as my Range Rover bobtail that I had been using for my green lanes and playdays, could no longer take passengers on the back seats, because in a moment of madness I had decided to turn it into a pickup.

Well I didn’t really decide to do it, it just kind of ended up that way after an incident with an air hacksaw.

So now I needed something with seats in the back for the kids.

    Also something for towing.

    Also something easy and cheap to maintain.

    The Series sounded ideal!

What made the deal even better is that in my shed I had a 2 ¼ petrol engine from an early 90 with an unleaded head, Webber carb and Zeus timing gears, with less than 1000 miles on it since a full rebuild. I bought it a couple of years ago for £80 pounds from a mate who was putting in a V8 instead.  Also in my shed are the remains of a few old landies I use for spares now and again.

It turned out that the Series was a diesel, was 30 miles away and needed collecting a.s.a.p. Because the farmer wanted it out of his way.  So after a quick ring round, my mate Bob was drafted in with his 88” 4.0 litre hybrid to do the towing duties, I borrowed my dads car trailer and we set off to fetch my new project.

When we arrived at the farm I saw this blue truckcab series 3, sat forlornly at the end of a silage heap.  Bugger! It’s a truck cab! That’s going to be a bit windy for the kids. Oh well! I will have to sort that out later. With its dead engine the little landy was going to have to be winched onto the trailer, time to test out my new towbar mounted winch I bought on ebay for £35.  The winch struggled but finally hauled the landy up on to the trailer, where it was strapped down ready for the return journey.

Back at home I started to have a good look at what I had just bought.

What I found went like this: -

Dead Engine.

Fist sized hole in passenger footwell.

Four or five 50p sized holes in driver’s footwell.

Large gash in passenger side front wing.

Large dent/crease in drivers side front wing.

Bent and split driver’s side rear corner capping and light surround.

Rusted Exhaust.

Very rusty front panel

It’s a truckcab!

Not a good start for what is supposed to be a cheap and easy project.

So far I have sorted it like this: -

Spare engine from shed £0

Passenger footwell from paddocks spares £17

Drivers footwell from paddocks spares £17

Spare wing from shed £0

Spare wing from shed £0

Spare capping from shed and a bit of panel beating £0

Complete exhaust from paddock spares £36

Spare front panel from shed £0

Hard top from breaker £40

Replacing the footwells was a straightforward job, as I only cut out the rusted parts and then cut the footwells to suit, see pictures below.

DRIVERS’ FOOT WELL REPLACED!                          PASSENGER FOOTWELL REPLACED 

It’s a lot easier with the wings, front panel and engine removed!

While they were removed I took the opportunity to wax oil the front of the chassis.

Next it was time to prep the engine for fitting into the vehicle.

First I went to change over the thermostat housing, this needed shorter bolts than were in the 90 housing, not a problem I’ll use the series ones, OOPS wrong thread, solution cut and re-tap 90 bolts.  Sorted!

Next fit pressed steel fan from series, OOPS bolt holes in fan too small, solution drill to correct size.  Sorted! 

Next I went to fit engine mounting brackets, I had to buy all new fixing bolt’s as they are all metric on the 90 block, OOPS more expense. Fitted engine-mounting rubbers.

Fitted clutch assembly, new friction plate and thrust bearing whilst I had it apart, I had to buy new clutch mounting bolt’s as they are metric. OOPS!

With the footwells welded and rust proofed it was time to put the engine in.

It went in surprisingly easily with Bob and Marks help.

With the engine now in I started to change over the fittings for the heater pipes and control valve. The threads on these are still the same, thank god! Then with all the pipes and hoses done it was time to fit the throttle cable. The carb is a Webber from a 90 and so uses a different cable from the diesel one fitted, but with a minor modification to a Range Rover throttle cable it all worked smoothly.

Next item to be refitted was the driver’s side front wing a straightforward job with no hassles involved.

This meant that I could now fit the front slam panel and radiator and plumb it in.

IT LEAKED LIKE A SIEVE! So did the heater control valve and the heater matrix, OOP’s!

Replaced the radiator with another I had spare, bought a new control valve and replaced the heater matrix with another one I had in stock. So far they haven’t leaked this time.

Extra expenses/work was as follows: -

Cut & re-tapped Thermostat housing bolts

Engine mounting bracket bolts 100% replaced £3.00 approx.

New engine mount rubbers £7.10

New clutch mounting bolts £1.50 approx.

New heater control valve £14.60

Replacement radiator £0.00

Replacement heater matrix £0.00

So that’s the story so far, more work and expense than was at first thought but isn’t that always the way with Land Rovers!

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