I better put my spare doors in the shed!
DL
Hi all,I seriously thought I was over the two door illness,having done a full rebuild a couple of years ago which I posted the process and progress on here at the time.
Here’s the link for anyone interested.
Two Door Restore 1978
Will post some background on how and why I have undertaken another mad project but for now thought I’d share what’s been done so far.
The bones are ok,but every single panel on the 40 year old two door have been bush bashed,crushed, bogged and split..
Especially the doors..lovely colour huh
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Since the reborn project a few years ago,the supply of donor doors,in fact any decent panels has become very hard to find,so asked around and a found a farmer at the other end of the country with some ratty doors,but the skins looked ok,so hatched a cunning plan
Surprisingly cheaply had them flown up.
Somewhat ambitiously hoped to fit the decent skins off the white donor doors onto the brown frames.
A good practice run was getting the dented skin off the brown door to see if it was viable.
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The door skins look like they’ve been pressed on in factory with some seam sealer,no doubt they had a machine for this process.
After a bit of you tube searching about working with alloy,launched into heating the edge with a heatgun whilst prying up the edge with a metal door panel trim remover and broad thin jemmy bar,taking my time and doing an entire edge at a time folding it back about 30 degrees with each pass.
40 year old alloy is brittle, so wanted to avoid splitting the edges.
Once the edge is folded back,the panel pops off,after remembering to drill out the rivets near the handle
Here’s the donor door,that first layer of steel on the front edge had seen better days..
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With the practice run over,now time to attack the white door,same technique.
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Now with the panel off ,worked on smoothing out some dings and creases.
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Reverse procedure was a bit trickier,as had bent back those brittle edges once and wasn’t sure whether it would stand up to being folded back again without splitting.
When the edges were folded within 30 degrees to flat,painted seam sealer inside the lengths,while gentle hammering with a short broad hammer and heat gun about 20cm at a time seemed to work without splitting.
Before laying the skin,rust converted the frame and primed then once the door regained its shape with a now secure skin,continued to fill and smooth the dings.
BD665D67-3370-47DB-B3C4-4F88D4ABF84E.jpg61468FBD-03AE-4FFF-A2ED-6CF8458B8D2B.jpg
Historically two doors often have an indented area around the key lock,so a fair whack used to level that area on this door.
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Primed,looks patchy as paint still wet,but happy with the recycled result.
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I better put my spare doors in the shed!
DL
Hi mate,
I have some quarters (actually a complete set) if you need them. They aren’t perfect but they could be a lot better than yours.
Good progress - I will keep an eye on this thread.
My 2DR is nearly back from a closed door respray.
Cheers,
GG
54 Series 1 86
61 Series 2 109 - Club Rego
76 2 Door Range Rover
78 101 Forward Control - Club Rego
88 Perentie FFR - Club Rego
90 4 Door Range Rover - Club Rego
93 Discovery 1 200 Tdi - Club Rego
98 Freelander 1 - Full Rego
22 Defedner 90 - Full rego
Many cheers for that GG
Managed to find a couple that didn’t have 2 kg of bog and in line for some sanding.
Looking forward to seeing yours back from the painters,great pictorial thread,really useful too.
I’m jumping the gun on the timeline but here’s the racing rangie all stripped out.
the kids are loving a doorless hoon around the hillside.
Did a walk around of a beautifully restored suffix F a couple of months back,inspired,thought I could do another restore of a two door,as missed my previous one,such a fun driving car and proportions are just right.
Started looking for a donor.
This suffix A was,and is,sitting in a paddock a very long distance for home,shame it couldn’t have been covered over at least,the guy wanted 5k but it’s a bit far gone I’d say.
707BD65C-FB56-4743-A637-7783CA72E0C7.jpg
The back story on the brown car is evolving,but flew down to farm country to inspect with the intent to drive it 5 hours home,major death wobble would have killed me so got it transported.
Two weeks later,car arrived and not having been able to take my toolbag on the flight down, set to checking underneath.
Panhard rod nut undid by hand!!that’d do it,radius arm bolts loose as well,ok that solved the car literally shaking
the entire front end
Shelving the underside for later so onto the bodywork.
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Engine does run so smooth, likely due to no lobes on cam,but nil vibration at all,wow.mileage 225,000km,not bad.
(I do laugh when I see 70’s range rovers listed with the mileage beginning with a 1
Stripped it back as per the video.
I rang an earlier previous owner and had a chat,he got it off a guy that had bash plates fitted,all jacked up on long springs ,cage around the entire vehicle,roof rack etc,so with a dated 3.5 would have been a tank.
I removed the front diff protector plate that was still on it,made up out of armour plated 1/2 inch steel,and could barely lift it..more to this later as it’s history may explain some gremlins.
He mentioned the car was originally left hand drive,and had been right hand drive converted,so had come out of France or Spain originallycool
I did wonder when I looked at the build plate ,as not the usual format.
My online research on the plate letters and numbers said it was left hand drive,but thought this must be an error at the time.
Anyone who dabbles in sourcing history please let me know if you can find where she originated from
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Anyway ,having never done panel work previously,decided I’d give it a go.Yes,I laughed at how crap I was too
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Early efforts were atrocious,patches of filler is not the way to do it!! but the more I did it got easier,and a bit of you tube gave better technique how to bog ,sand,repeat,skim,prime and filler primer.
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That was two weeks worth of work,and now with only a front right guard to find and the decker panel,she’s starting to look like a car again.
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Fitting the the doors so they sit square in its frame and line up with the panels was a full days work,witchcraft and voodoo!
I got some shims made,2mm and .5mm,as the left side gap was slightly tight but the right side door was miles out.
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I’m talking 15mm door edge to rear panel!
This was a deflating moment when I thought the chassis and or body was so laddered it would need to be straightened,and as this is a budget restore,wasn’t feasible short term,anyway pushed on.
With the rear lower side panel riveted onto back edge of doorframe so it’s a fixed panel.
I supported the door and used 6mm of shims to door frame hinge and shut the door to check.
Top tip,,release the striker pin first.or at least test it before shutting for clearance...
With the shims on,it moves the door backward in the frame ,it shut but wouldn’t open as the shims under the striker pin were now too many,and trapped the door on inner skin,,duh..
Some relief,as the gap now looked typical Land Rover 8mm and removing one top hinge shim got it to sit straight.loosening the hinges on the door itself, and moving it in/out allowed the door to align with the rear panel nicely.
Notice it’s sitting slightly high,but happy with that as presuming the weight of the window frame,glass and inside panels should drop it to level.
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The problem now is the decker panel and right front guard,when I find one,will have a massive gap to fill the front edge of the door,but cross that path another day.
Much metal work and panel preparation later,the now primer grey range is ready for paint.
It will be a semi amateur effort,utilising a mate who’s business is chassis blasting and did underneath the two door earlier.
Being winter we’ll set up a bubble paint booth in his shed,diesel heater to warm up to 20 degrees and using 2K in Bahama Gold.
There was no formula for 2K in that colour so worked from the base coat colour code LRC235 and adjusted it with tinters to match as close as possible.
Using a polish brand, Novol Protect 300 acrylic filler primer,3 coats then PPG 625 Polythane ,only got 3 litres so hope it lasts as the final tuning on the colour wasn’t recorded in the car colour shops database so will require some colour matching wizardry.
Was very aware of some hideous shades of so called Bahama gold I’ve seen with a google search.
Nowhere near the original in a lot of pictures,anything from tangerine to caterpillar yellow so hope this turns out that very 70’s dirty mustard shade with just a hint of green.
Keep the piccies coming Only people that have done this stuff before understand the hours you are putting in here!
Proper cars--
'92 Range Rover 3.8V8 ... 5spd manual
'85 Series II CX2500 GTi Turbo I :burnrubber:
'63 ID19 x 2 :wheelchair:
'72 DS21 ie 5spd pallas
Modern Junk:
'07 Poogoe 407 HDi 6spd manual :zzz:
'11 Poogoe RCZ HDI 6spd manual
Cheers GG,,
top tip..that clear film is sticky backed and makes an easy masking film,it’s carpet protector available at bunnings $20 for 20m roll,sticks to the glass too and just peels off,nice
Ripping apart aircon and dash today..there are random wires everywhere..
The aircon setup looks like it’s from an early 4 door,compressor is correct but fascia is wrong with the square clock in it.
I would love aircon,but prefer the clean look without.
Previous owners have put fuse boxes on both guard rails in engine bay and only used red and black wiring so no idea what does what.
There’s wiring for a cb,aerials,accessories thru extra cigar sockets,coax cable for sky tv probably,mental !
Ordered an engine loom from autosparks,€70,so the intent is to restore to factory and pull out associated aircon shambles,,will keep everything tho so can reinstate it tidily possibly down the line.
How well does the paint stick to carpet protector ? The reason I ask is I've used the plastic masking sheet in the past. You mask up ... do some painting .... come back a few days later to do more painting, and all the overspray blows off the plastic masking film and into the wet paint you have just applied
Proper cars--
'92 Range Rover 3.8V8 ... 5spd manual
'85 Series II CX2500 GTi Turbo I :burnrubber:
'63 ID19 x 2 :wheelchair:
'72 DS21 ie 5spd pallas
Modern Junk:
'07 Poogoe 407 HDi 6spd manual :zzz:
'11 Poogoe RCZ HDI 6spd manual
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