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My Series 3 Lightweight is definitely a Daily driver, Local trips only though. We use it every day except when we are away. Being Electric is a bonus as it costs nothing to run, and is 100% reliable with no need to ever open the bonnet except to show it off.
For the next few days though its off the road as I'm rejigging the shocker mountings , the cross up of the Parabolics is limited by the left - right orientation of the shocker mounting pins and inadequate ltravel.
My wish-list, if I could afford it (or if I'd started 20 years ago!) would be:
Series 3, 109 Wagon (factoring in taking the grand kids on holidays, if not a SWB soft top)
300TDi engine
Matching Auto (Not traditional I know but most of my driving is urban and even road trips will mostly be on hardtop)
Rebuilt/reconditioned drive train to suit (including original transfer case), possibly modified from a defender?
Power Steering
Freewheeling hubs
Upgrade to brakes and suspension
Suitable towbar – must be able to tow 1500-2000kg minimum
Camino Gold or Grassmere green body, white roof
Upgraded seating (late-ish model defender)
Aircon
Cubby box in lieu of centre front seat
Good stereo and UHF in appropriate dash mounted console
LED headlamps and indicators and possibly an LED lighting bar as well
Bull (Brush) bar.
Basically a 110 (or 90) Defender Auto with a series 3 body I guess...
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmabbott
That describes a 110 County. Get a well kept one with an Isuzu engine. If not already done, find a 4BD1t truck engine with Allison 1000 auto and fit that.
If you are thinking of the SWB body colour, it is correctly Wildlife Green.
Probably easier and most likely way cheaper than re-building a Series 3. Re the colour, I'd like the same as the Heritage model that came out, I believe that was called Grassmere Green, though the source I got that from may have been incorrect.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigbjorn
I recently did the line by line expense reconciliation (less labour) on a project S3 109. Reason being its a company service vehicle and I need the books to be small business tight. At the start of the project I conservatively coined 10k to get done, got stitched up closing the deal +/-500 as I thought it had a lt77 gearbox thrown in with the parts bin you inherit on a "needs work" truck. As it turned out the gearbox has water ingress and the cogs were pitted therefore uneconomical to repair.
Anyway cutting a long story short, the gearbox and custom prop shafts cost alone more than the whole vehicle. So once you start adding up all the bits, rustproofing, axel overhaul, brakes overhaul, sound proofing, specialist tooling, auto electrical looms, lights and bits, rubber etc etc then bring out another 5 and then another 5. Then it starts going through the 20k mark you start to think this better be good I can get a Defender for that. That's not even counting engineering and roadworthy, still not certain on all the curve balls yet figuring S%^t out. Its true that its actually a learning process and knowing the vehicle inside and out and being able to perform field repairs along with the satisfaction of building something yourself really can't put a price on.
Just don't listen to anyone who tells you they are just a big mechano set because that's bs it's more a big lot of dirty work and a mile long list of things to do:
Shared album - James Robbie - Google Photos
I'd have to disagree with some of your comments.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimR
If you can do most of the work yourself then it's a low cost proposition
If you are willing to wait, find secondhand parts, find alternative suppliers etc. it's an even lower cost proposition.
If you want it to look better than when it left Land Rover, can't wait and have to outsource a lot of the work then it's a bloody expensive proposition.
It is a big Meccano set. It's bolted together and you can take it apart and re-arrange the parts or replace parts without having to cut & weld panels. This means you can break the project down to bite size parts to work on.
Yes it's a lot of work but unless you cost in your hours most of the work can be done at reasonable cost.
The problem is you often find abandoned projects in a thousand pieces because people have lost momentum after taking everything apart.
Most of mine have been worked on one part at a time, takes longer but it's quick to re-assemble a few parts if you need to move it/sell it etc. I also have several projects on the go at one time so if I run out of $'s I can move onto something on another project that isn't expensive to do.
There are people who just want to make their Land Rover mechanically sound and not bother about the paintwork. I have vehicles that fit into that category because restoring them would reduce their value. So 'restoring' would be a bigger spend for ultimately less return (we are all only temporary keepers of these vehicles).
You can spend a small fortune on a 'restoration' or if you have the skills (or are willing to learn them) and are not in a hurry you can keep the costs to a reasonable level.
Each to their own but so far mine haven't had much spent on them because I have other priorities. Looking back, the bigger expenditure has been insurance & rego.
Colin
All good in the hood, the point being I was more agreeing with the sentiment about the real cost of restoring potentially being higher than you may think and relating with a few traps for young players. Not wanting to discourage anyone from doing it either it’s an awesome thing especially for those of us afflicted with the disease of loving Land Rover. Anyway I agree about doing it economically and leaving the paint original as possible definitely money well spent. Not a fan of the fresh coat especially backyard jobs and especially on Series Land Rovers unless it’s a heritage job. Cheers
OK, I agree with these comments.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimR
I think the 'problem' is that a lot of people want to strip them to the bare bones, paint the chassis (or galvanise !) and build it back up better than new. The fact that it's like a Meccano set makes them take it on because it seems easy.
Often a vehicle is 'taken on' whereas a few years ago the same vehicle would have been scrapped. Great that another vehicle is saved but at what cost ?
Maybe I've been lucky but all of mine have no serious rust issues, bulkheads didn't need repairing and chassis are intact. Mind you I've turned a few down in recent years and also parted out a couple that with $$$'s could have been put back on the road.
I took one on that needed a flywheel made, luckily the previous owned had an SG iron blank cast and I was able to get it machined at work.
My Series I was re-commissioned under a tarp on the driveway until I built a shed for it. One corner at a time stripped, overhauled & replaced.
Maybe there should be a thread somewhere giving an overview of the pitfalls and costs of early Land Rover ownership ?
Colin
My present two rebuilds are more cost effective than my first, having a doner car is also a big plus as the Mechano nature of series cars allows the mix and match of components over a broad age range.
Cheers Paul
Ahhh, thats who Larry Perkins was building that motor for!Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift
LP in his element today. His latest... - Perkins Engineering