county wagon converted to ute

[triso]

G'day all

I'm looking for a county ute (3.9 isuzu) but as you know they are quite hard to come by in good condition, so i'm wondering if any one knows anything about taking the shell of a wagon and puting a ute cab on?


Also did they make any county utes with the 4bd1t? (that would be awesome)

any infomation would be grate

cheers
Tristan :)

[JDNSW]

Firstly, "County" is the trim level of the pre-Defender 110 wagons. While the wagon is the most common in Australia, they were sold as both a cab/chassis and a full length hardtop. I don't remember seeing any utility bodies but they may have existed. As far as I know, they were sold ONLY with the 4BD1 engine. None had "County" trim level. Most if not all of the cab/chassis ones had a chassis extension welded in to increase the wheelbase to 120".

Conversion from wagon to cab/chassis is a simple bolt and nut job - except that the required cab roof is probably going to be hard to find. The rear wall of the cab is somewhat easier, as the parts are interchangeable if not identical from Series 2 onwards.

Hope this helps

John

[triso]

Thanks john

Now i have to find a county wagon in decent condition. Know any one with one?:D

Tristan

[rar110]

There has been about 3 110/120 4BD1 Isuzu utes on ebay recently. The last went for about $5100. It was the last of them being a 1990 model.

I effectively converted from a soft top ute to a wagon. Put simply you take off the roof, the b & c pillar frame and tub (with side walls/windows) and the seat box. You have to disconnect the handbrake cable. You then install the rear turet (ute cab back wall) and sills, the rear window set up, the ute seat belts (longer belt I believe) and roof. You need to do things like remove/replace the floor, trans tunnel, and seat base etc. Remember that a 4 speed transmission tunnel, a 5 speed transmission tunnel and 5 speed 300 tdi transmission tunnel are not inter changeable.

Not that big a job. However, look for a ute first if that is what you want.

regards

Peter