Madness?

Madness???
No way,, not when it's the family backing you :D How cool is that ;)

Gee, I am glad your madness is not catching. I have some wrecks in the paddock in order to supply parts for my currently running Range Rover and disco.

But I am not sure I would ever want to restore these to pristine condition, but as parts cars they are great.

Reality is that for me a lot of work will be farmed out. The body particularly. Have a panel shop in mind guy sounds just what is needed. I could buy a new Hyundai mid size SUV for the budget but it wouldn't be the same. Aim is not to restore to original, but to restore to with same aim we did in 1988, which was to try and eliminate anything that had words "lucas" on it, anything with history, and make a simple, reliable, comfortable truck. We suceeded because the car was kept for 10 years, did 160km, never stopped, never broke down on the road. It will look nice, go well, have original LT95 and engine, seats etc, but I am not a purist. Was thinking of things like Craig Davis Electric water pump, use electric A/C pump (Denso second hand Prius units) etc. Go simple in some ways but updated in others. Try and make it as efficient as possible, spirited but not OTT power wise, look as standard as possible (no lift kits, no huge rubber), handle ok (front and rear bars probably) upgrade brakes. That is the intent. Re the work, the panel shop couldn't take this on until middle of 2013 as they are busy with other projects. Which is perfect I prefer someone that I have to wait for as this means they are in demand.

I'd avoid the Davies Craig pumps.

Aren't the pumps any good? The concept/idea looks pretty good. Was looking at taking all ancillaries of the engine we could, leaving only alternator and p/s pump.

OK for the designed application, racing and drag applications where you absolutely want to minimise parasitic loss. But the hassle of modifying the original pump to run (or even worse make a blanking plate) plus changing the routing of the hoses, making everything non standard, then carrying an (expensive) spare or a standard pump and another set of standard hoses to suit when it fails.

All a bit too hard for no real benefit. It's still cooled by the radiator/fan system. The pump just moves the water.

Elec A/C yes, just make sure that it can be modified to fit the fittings either way. Maybe look at elec power steering as well but there can be hassles if it's a speed sensitive system.

Ok good point. The water pump, alternator are on one drive belt. The A/C )the old York pump) plus P/s are on the other. So it would make sense to eliminate if possible the P/S pump. The Denso A/C electric pumps appear to just have inlet/outlet fittings, to get adaptor, or new hoses made shouldn't really be too hard. As long as the new electric pump had same capacity wrt to flow/pressure should be no issue really. And, if if failed then we are back to "Armstrong" model power steering, it wouldn't stop forward momentum.:)

I wouldn't count on steering without power with an elec pump. I ran a Supra without a pump connected (rack with a looped hose to allow fluid circulation to alleviate resistance of fluid not moving) and while I expected it to be hard due to 10" slicks on the front, even at speed it was undrivable.

I'll get SWMBO to lean over and lend a hand! Had a Chrylser Sports Fury coupe in 78 in LA, cost grand total of 200 bucks, pump broken, we drove that around for a month mind it had a HUGE steering wheel. And I was younger (just a bit). It is not something though i would plan on happening. Have seen some nice pumps on Ebay, a guy in Israel is advertising a quite nice looking unit, suited for early muscle cars etc so you would think should work.

Not even close to madness. Would you still want to be driving the mid priced$30 k suv in 20 years? Don't think so. I recon the kids will be fighting you for it. Does it have a name? our disco is called Barry and my kids are VERY attached to Barry.

30k would buy a nice disco3 though. But again in 20 years would you still want to drive it?

Go for it. I would keep it red though. Would look awesome fresh.

Matt