Thread: Two Door Restore 1978

Turns out the power steering pump was dead,installed a new ZF pump and instant light assisted steering,nice..

This was the only thing holding back from a test drive,so in the pouring rain,no wipers,no deck panel,and missing a headlamp,fired off down the road,quiet back road.

Still has the high zinc oil in there,and needed to put some load on to bed things in.

Profoundly powerful,compared to the 3.5,instant smooth pickup and torque,the clutch and gearbox seems smoother with the correct oil in there,and brakes all good.
The higher geared drive cogs in the transfer box are evident .

There's no back seat in ,and without all the weighty added extras present in the later models,the power to weight ratio of the 3.9 is awesome,kicks off the line nicely.
Even better,is after changing every seal,not a single leak anywhere,thats got to be a range rover first,likely temporary but good to see

The combo of the gruntier slightly more refined 3.9 with the lighter genesis two door body makes the vehicle sing.
If CSK was able to match up this combo back in 1978,this thing would have been a weapon for its day.!!

Anyone intending to efi their early range rover may be interested in this.

This car is running a surge tank setup to house the efi high pressure pump.
I installed a fuel pressure gauge at the fuel rail to monitor performance.
After some warm idling,the lift pump died?

I replaced it and it did the same thing,so had an overpressure issue somewhere.

I had setup the system following the below diagram setup, but something was not quite right here.

It became clear that the pressure pump was over riding the lift pump so it would sit there and grind away without flow and get hot ,boom.

Likely flowing back up the return line also,evident in the drop in pressure evident on the guage with the engine running.
pre start 36psi dropping to 23psi after 10 mins at idle.

The two door range rover has a small air line to vent pressure/overflow from the carbs,so this became my return to tank,(without tapping a new spigot into fuel tank) definitely some back pressure their also,so the combo was straining the system.

The fix,as i saw it,was to install check valves , 1 post lift pump ,and 1 in the return line to stop overpressure back up to the fuel lines.

Cut out the original plastic return line as far as the tank join,and replaced with 8mm fuel line to reduce resistance a bit.

This has worked .and pressures stay up past 30 psi running which ran well in the test drive,had to think about that one a bit

Mate looking good and congrats to you!

I am having the carpets made,and they sell dynamat,having built my own house it looked remarkably similar to window flashing material,and at the price they charge i'm assuming there is some marketing hype for what essentially is the same stuff

Nevertheless bought 6 sheets and went to work,this was enough to do the lower firewall and front footwells and centre pedestal.
I have to admit this does work,it's already quieter,and with a woven underlay then carpet,it should be comfortably subdued.

The gaping holes thru the floor for gearlever,transfer lever and hand brake are massive,and the heat rising thru blown in by the fan over the engine is an instant heatwave,alright currently but not in feb..

I will use some thick sound deadening foam,cut it out to shape and ados it under the portals with grooves for lever movement etc.will see how long it holds on in the heat

Will try and source some cheaper product for the remainder of the vehicle,the dynamat is butyl where as the house stuff seems to be asphalt based.

Lots of small jobs been going on.,tuned engine on rovergauge,set base idle.
Front air dam vents with support frame (Hint:Make sure these are fitted prior to installing the decker panel,no access afterwards,ask me how i know..)
Lining up panel gaps
510 ohm resistor to tell the ecu it's a manual.
Front grills/headlamp surrounds installed,these new wings came without mount spacers so had to be riveted in the right place to mount the grill and surrounds.

Been for a few short drives which are fun testing runs ,and got it starting first time,idling and without a road speed sensor,coping nicely without hesitation coming off drive to idle.

The water temp gauge reads wrong,so playing with a few to make it read in range,recall engine is efi 3.9 feeding 40 year old gauge.
The correct sensor for the 3.9 is green top.(1/8-27 NPT),which was on the engine,this makes gauge read just under redline.
The black top barely moves out of cold range.
I gather the correct resistance is from a white top from a rare early mpi disco.
Got one more to try then off to wrecker.

The Range rover is driving well,and gunning it around reminds me of the next big job,replacing 40 year old bushes and maybe the steering box,anything over 80 kph is slightly scary around the corners currently,,yee haa

Very Impressed with your dedication... or is it 'Obsession' ?

Looking superb,and I'd endorse your choice of wheels.. Alloys would look totally out of place, as would 'Road-Roller' - width tyres.
The Rangie is a Classic (pun intended) 'tall' looking car, and putting 265 / w i d e fat rubber only makes them look.... ordinary, IMHO

Dynamat with Dynaliner on top really keeps out the heat. It's expensive, but you're paying for a product that actually works, which includes the adhesive. I used some cheaper stuff and it's not as thick, or as sticky. I suppose I should start a thread on my rebuild from a couple of years ago when I did all this.

Restoration Complete Well sort of,most of the major stuff anyway.
This last while has been spent on the interior fitout,the fun stuff..

Spent some time getting all the electrics working,and stalks and the original accessory light stalk now turns on the fog/driving lights,,love this stock feature.

Fitted a black faced 52 mm tacho to replace the oil temp gauge,as wasn't very accurate or useful with the sensor picking up oil temp just after the sump and pump anyway.
I wanted to avoid those top mounted tach pods,as always look a bit tacked on,tach tacked

Fitted the new carpets,still retain that loose slightly unfitted quality the originals had,and that makes three layers above metal.

Amazing how each layer to soundproof quitened the cab.
I dont hear the fuel pumps,but still retain the exhaust burble when gunned.Very pleasant environment,no rattles either,mind you there's not a lot in there to rattle,,love that also..

The colour of vinyl turned out great,and a 1 inch test swatch for the headliner turned out sweet,just luck,so palamino,some new, some original old all around.

Can't take the credit for the upholstery,and had three new backing boards made up,as the 38 year old ply deteriorates and warps a fair bit.
Did cutout the speaker holes and fitted all the panel pins,tried three variants to get some the right size that worked.

The cubby box is an original,$50 tucked away way down south the guy had in a shed for years,smells like camphor wood? or maybe thats old school mothballs...
The top lid alone was recovered and matches the rest surprisingly ok.

Final step today was to rivet the Vin Plate back in place,been waiting over 10 months to do that,so nice moment

That is one impressive effort. You are now the possessor of a new 1978 Range Rover in 2016. It looks absolutely fantastic.