Thread: Discovery Body swap

The extra 4 bolts/pins are for the seat belts, so as when you have a sudden stop against an imoveable object, they don't tear from the floor pan, they are affixed to the chassis

Nice work

Day 2
Ok, so sorry for taking so long to get this up but i have been busy

The first task of day 2 was to work out how to remove the seat belts without the correct size Torx fitting. The answer, a grinder and a big Flathead.


Next we ad to work out where to get rid of the old body, luckly we had an old rusty box trailer we have been meaning to get rid off. to put it on, we first reslung the jig around the top of the b-pillar so we could keep our planks and wood blocks for the next body.

we then had to tie the front down due to short box trailer, the old man started with some old hemp rope that must have been as old as him, and lets say, after the second time it broke, i was informed to tie down my own body, and went inside to rest his sore back



For laughs and giggles we chucked a seat in and i grabbed the steering wheel and took a couple of pickies. unbeknown to me they actually started fliming and some smartie started to drive off. the unsecured seat didn't provide the regular Land Rover ride.






The First ever single axle Land Rover Discovery!!


As you can see a bit ass heavy.

The next step was to line up the new body to enable us to strip as much as possible and then roll it back under the rig, lets just say the lineup failed to a moderate degree.



Through the strip down process, it was brought to my attention that i had been driving around with a nail in my rear right tire. i was less than impressed, those tires are new.



We striped everything we could remember that was connected to both body and chassis. unfortunately due to me being dirty and or busy at the time the camera missed most of the stripdown.



You can never have enough lubricant, WD-40, RP7, wondermist, take your pick they all seem to work just as well, i have been able to use a few can to test.




Glad i'm not paying him by the hour!!

Out comes the dash, after all the fiddling that is.



This would be the point at which we called it a night, a fairly productive day over all.

Hell of a job DS, that surely would be one way to "get to know the Disco"

Great pics, thanks for posting them up

Day 3

Ok so day 3 morning, it was raining, i was less than impressed!! but we set up a tarp and got rugged up.




As you can see we all have very pretty colors, my jacket was yellow, even had a set of water proof pants, didn't we look fashionable




Thankfully after about 30 min of work the rain eased up to a light mist, so off we went. With the practice from the other body, this lift went off like clockwork, although you always forget to detach something don't you. it was alright i have another boot from the top of the gear and transfer box to the cabin, surprisingly didn't feel much resistance through the chain block...



With the chassis out the cleaning of the body began, along with the inspection of rust, at this point i say that the old body was in much better condition....... except for the big dint in the roof



hook the battery up to the winch and away goes the chassis



Then the delicate process of repositioning the body on the chassis, it was all a bit of fiddling around, the hi lift's were used once again and below are a couple of better photos of the lifting rig i used.





a couple of photos of getting the body onto the engine.





Now i could probably deal with getting into a car this high, but the body roll would be a killer





Another pointer to the listeners at home, if you can get dead flat ground that's awesome, we have had to use rope to hold the passenger door open.

also while the body was up we did treat some rust in the body, it looked as if battery acid and brake fluid had run havoc in the engine bay, but that has now been taken care of.



The loom went in and at first look it looked as though it would clip together without any dramas, however over the course of the next couple of days there were some plug issues, who though 1 year and engine type would alter the internal loom so much.



While fitting loom we discovered a bit of mud in the foot wells.... after lifting the flooring to dry it we found a fair amount of rust....... i am continually disappointed at the person that sold me the vehical(rear diff put a cog through the caseing first time i locked the center diff, WE WERE ON A FLAT DIRT TRACK)....Anyway, water under bridge...WOOSARR. But i am glad through this process i will have inspected most of my vehical and will hopefully be happy with it for the rest of it's life.





And so ends day 3....

any updates?

hi all,
I apologise with the lack of posts toward the end of this project, it's sad to say but things are depressingly slow, just lots of little jobs that are un-photo worthy. it has been running, is being used as my daily driver, but still need things worked out. like the rubber insert from the gearbox to body(it is now 2 inches too short), and the air con is getting re-commissioned today. still haven't reconnected the driving lights either, the list goes on. But from a outside view the car looks complete, thanks mainly to the ridiculously dark window tint of the previous owner.

On a positive note last week the disco got a handsome addition of a 120 amp alternator, as the one it had was almost shot.

I would like to thank all those who have helped me with advice and those just reading along as well, but i fear that now it's drivable, the remainder with take a long while. if anyone has any questions or request for a specific aspect, please feel free to post and i will attempt to answer while still sort of fresh in my mind.

Adam

Thanks for the posts Adam, but can I ask you why you went to all the trouble of the body swap instead of buying a vehicle that was a going concern?

well ...... i'm not really sure, i guess it's because i was inpatient. i know that's a crappy reason, i needed a car to drive, i couldn't find any diesel discos in my condition and budget at the time... i was already looking at doing a swap from my diesel disco to a RR body, so it just seemed like the path i took, it hasn't been the smartest decision of my life but i am glad i did. i have learnt lots about cars, and it all adds to my experience. in the end it hasn't been a particularly finacially sound move, but since when has owning a 4WD been financially sound....

Adam