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Thread: 130 Station Wagon with side fold pop top build

  1. #1
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    130 Station Wagon with side fold pop top build

    Hello everybody

    Ten years ago we built our 110 pop top "Jaffle", he was an awesome machine. Undo two clips, give the roof a little push and you're set up. You had standing room and could access all your gear. However with arrival of baby number 1, we needed more seating so Jaffle had to go It broke my heart...

    Since then we have tried various options, tent, Trayon slide on camper on a 130 dual cab, and a Jayco Outback but none of them were exactly what we wanted.

    So this thread is about my conversion of our 130 dual cab into a 130 station wagon with a side fold pop top roof. I am then going to put a hinge along the left side and have the roof fold over 180 degrees. Us sleeping on the folded over roof and the the kids at roof level over the front and back seats.

    Photos L to R : Jaffle camped in Mongolia, our 130 dual cab, Nene overland 130 station wagon, our old 130 with Trayon camper to give an idea of the folded out finished product, sleeping layout originally posted by Mulgo on another thread - thanks Daniel
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  2. #2
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    So the search was on to find a reasonable condition 300tdi 130 dual cab. We looked at a few in varying states of disrepair, and widely varying prices. We finally found a suitable 1995 dual cab in NSW - and I have spent the last 2 months getting the mechanicals up to scratch.

    Meanwhile the search was on for the rear body off a 2 door 110 defender/county. None were available that I could find. We considered buying a running 110 2 door defender to use but there is not many of them and price and condition just didn't add up. So we decided to go with a Series 2 or 3, 2 door 109. With the advantage of galvanised cappings and supposedly better quality aluminium.

    And found one locally. It had been resting under this tree for the last 7 years. Body in great condition - yay. And after trailering it home it came up really good after a pressure wash. We were concerned about parting this one out, as it was in good nick and I have never "wrecked" a car before. But I guess it will get a new lease of life on the 130.

    So it was dismantled. I was surprised to find the Series 3 roof weighed 39kg !! (on the bathroom scales). Its been 10 years since we did Jaffle but I am sure the roof wasn't that heavy, but I am 10 years older? Maybe someone can weigh a Defender roof?

    I got some second hand defender flares and measured up the wheel arches. The 109 wheel arch started around 45mm further forward than the defender ones. So while the rubber flare would have stretched, the wheel would not be in the centre. So I decided to sit the body 50mm back on the 130 chassis. This will give us a smidge more room and also hopefully mean I can keep the wheel arch boxes in the rear of the 109 tub.

    It seems silly taking in mm with Land Rovers as the tolerances are so lax. My 130 has 8mm difference from the rear of the cab to end of the chassis. So after multiple measurements of various options, I got out the 4inch angle grinder with a cutting disk and now the 109 tub is about 320mm shorter.
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  3. #3
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    Next step was to remove the tub of the 130. The dodgy brothers no mates available at the time way.

    Which revealed heaps of dirt at the rear of the fuel tank, and in the rear chassis outrigger ends. Out with the pressure washer
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  4. #4
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    Then off with the roof. Above the windscreen was sikaflexed on which took some cutting to separate it.

    I left the rear window panel in place to save time. If doing it this way also remember to undo the rear upper seat belts. I didn't, which gave us some awkward moments as the rear seat belts just retracted and the roof didn't come off smoothly. My wife who is not happy about lifting heavy Land Rover parts at the best of times was not impressed

    This job took about 45min.
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  5. #5
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    Then I drilled out the spot welds in the small panels behind the rear doors. I got a you beaut "6.5mm spot weld drill bit" off the net. It works well, but needs a bit of feel to just drill through one sheet of aluminium and not both, but also to go far enough through that the panel so the spot weld doesn't hold any more and the panel can come off. Bit of time spent mucking around here as I found I also needed to take the steel vertical corner cappings to get at some more spot welds.

    So my 130 then looked like this. Shame on Land Rover for only priming the inside of the steel cappings. The aluminium here isn't even painted.
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  6. #6
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    So then on with the Series 3 body. Job done ha ha ha

    The swooping Series 3 wheel arches look groovy. Shame they cant stay.
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  7. #7
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    Then next job was to work out where to bend the rear seat boxes where they rivet onto the 130's bulkhead. These holes are already predrilled by Land Rover on the 130, and are just plugged with rivets (you can see this in an earlier photo). Lots and lots of measuring. Depending on where I measured from, I got different bend lines. As the Land Rover is not square anyway it is a difficult job. In the end I just went for what looked alright. For the bend I used two bits of wood held with g clamps.
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  8. #8
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    Interesting.

  9. #9
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    Now that the body could slide forward into position, I did the final measurement on the wheel arches. Cutting them out with a jig saw seemed to work the best. It made a god awful noise though with the unattached body vibrating around and the tub acting as the drum it is. The zig zag line at the back is to go around the seat box. Tyre should clear it, though may need to reassess when I get 255/85R16 tyres. Not happening anytime soon according to my wife, as we have 2 half worn sets of 235s to wear through first. I left the front bottom of the Series 3 guard to keep some strength. I then just cut out the inner lip off the flare to suit. I will sikaflex these parts on when finished.

    To bend over the guard lip I ended up using a method recommended by someone on here. A length of 25mm solid rod with a double hacksaw cut to the depth of the bend (25mm). Which worked well stretching the panel as it bent around. Until I got to the sharper radius corner. Getting overconfident by now I gave it a bit too much muscle and the aluminium tore.

    Wisdom of hindsight - I would have only have a 20mm lip on the guard with a taper cut back to 10-15mm on the sharper curves. Heat would have helped, but my u beat $3 flame thrower was still on its month plus long journey from Hong Kong.

    I also moved the two front galvanised ribs on the tub forward by about 5cm to match up with the chassis mounting points.
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  10. #10
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    Some more exciting wheel arch photos.

    I also cut out the holes in the right side of the body for the galvanised Series 3 fuel filler at the rear and another one at the front to be used as the water tank under the rear seat (yet to be installed), obviously with different pipe work.
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