Thread: My 88" Series 3

Finished painting the wheels today, still need to find one more one day for the spare.



Stripped a bit more paint of the upper side panels, pretty much ready for a quick sand, to remove the last of the paint, and an undercoat now.





One thing I'm a bit undecided on is whether or not to strip all the originally galvanised pieces off and have them redone, or to paint over them. I'm leaning towards stripping them off, along with the gutter on the roof, but my goodness that's a lot of riveting to redo, and I've not had any luck finding a part number for the gutter rivets yet.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by TimNZ

So, the cleaning charge wasn't any near as bad as I expected, about $500. It only had one re-inspection, apparently they found some dirt in the rear cross-member....

After spending 2 weeks at the port I asked the manager(?) there if he was sick of looking at it, "hell no, it's already made me $20" was the response. Apparently his offsider took one look at it when it first arrived and said, "better go get the tow truck". The manager(?) replied "bet you $20 it starts first turn of the key". Which it did.

Anyway, its back at the workshop now, time for an assessment and a plan to get it on the road. Whilst it looks good from a far, it is far from good. Everything rubber needs replacing, some bad body repairs have been done in the past, it has a serious list to starboard, and after several rounds of "thorough" cleaning there isn't much paint left underneath.

On the plus side, there is very little rust, and the interior is in good shape, (the gauges need some attention). My first thoughts are to do a strip and rebuild, I don't want to take it too far from standard as it's in pretty original condition. I just want to make it "useable", and any input will be appreciated

Cheers,

hi tm if you need gauges i have them here just come in swb hard top 31 .000 ks rust free one owner will go on the market soon jim

Originally Posted by TimNZ

Also.... when did LR start putting the Park Lights above the Indicators??? (And why?)



Cheers,

The park lights came long before the indicators (1948), and hence were on top. Indicators started to be fitted about 1960 (talking about Australia here) as an optional extra, either aftermarket or dealer, so they were either below or inboard of the parking lights.

They became required equipment about 1970, and there appears to have been no standard location for the two lights - for markets where indicators were not required, the parking light was on top. Where the indicator was required, at least in the early years there was no standard as far as I can see - I have early pictures of the first wide light S2 with parkers on top, and also the other way, but they seem to have eventually settled down to indicators on top. But it is a simple job to swap them, and i am sure that many have been reassembled after repairs the opposite way to the factory way.

John

So, um, update I guess?

Ordered some parts on the weekend for the impending rebuild, consumables mainly, (bushes etc). I spend a bit of time after work yesterday trying to get it to run a bit better as it currently won't run with the choke off even when warm.

It's running really lean, despite putting a kit through the carb and blowing it out with compressed air. Admitting defeat I dropped the carb off at a specialist today to have a look. He has confirmed that all is not right with it, so we'll see.

I want to get it running correctly before I start pulling it down, so if problems occur during the rebuild I'll know its something I've done!

In the mean time... pictures! As you can see there is a serious list to starboard, at this stage I plan to get the springs reset, ($185/pr), unless advised otherwise.



I took a few other pictures of the car, starting with the interior, which is in pretty good shape considering its age!











Engine bay (in)complete with missing carb, the radiator is showing some signs of leaking, but the core looks good, I'll send it off anyway to be tested, and the water pump is leaking, but only when there is water in the system.



The alternator is labelled "Re-manufactured in UK" Which I hadn't noticed before?



Head number:



And on to the body, (sorry about the pictures, the lighting was bad, and I should have used my proper camera, that has a proper flash). Just a bit of surface rust on the door frames/tops.





There has been a crude repair done on the passenger footwell



And there is a small slot on the driver side where the clutch pedal has been contacting the firewall, (just above the red knob)



Front bumper has been badly repaired in the past, hence the wanted add in the markets



The chassis is in great nick, little bit of surface rust on the rear crossmember





Front dumb irons





Rear part of the chassis behind the rear passenger wheel, just a bit of surface rust, and some minor pitting on the outrigger, this is the worst side and looks worse than it is





I might update some of the (bad) photos if I ever remember to take my camera into work! If anyone wants one of anything in particular let me know.

Cheers,

That's REALLY nice Tim.
Parabolic springs go well on shorties.
Do you need a full licence???? Not many know you can get a concessional licence if you are a Team W4 member.
ENJOY
Andrew

Thanks Andrew, I've looked at the parabolics, but have read mixed reviews, and to take full advantage of them I'll need longer shocks, requiring mods to the mounting points. And I have to be a bit careful with what I'm spending on it also

And thanks for the tip on the license, I'll certainly look into that!

Cheers,

A couple of things about the springs.

1. The left and right springs are not the same. Leaning can be partly due to to either the springs swapped or having both sides the same. And, of course, there may be a broken leaf in one.

2. It is surprising how much of a lean can result from one single bush being cactus. The biggest effect is from the front bush on a rear spring.

Most Series Landrovers have a bit of a lean, usually to the driver's side, the result of long travel suspension and no sway bars. Most pronounced on swb as the rear springs are closer in.

John

Thanks John, didn't even think about the bushes! I intend to remove and strip the springs, so I'll see what they look like next to each other off the vehicle.

Cheers,