Thread: Doing a complete bodyswap

When you say stripped body you just mean parts?I would paint strip all the area's that rust and the body seam's and sandblast the chassis and rust guard. Pat

Hey Romper Stomper

Just an idea, if the chassis is bear then weld up all the holes. once that is done, drill a hole, weld a nut to an easy position to get at once all back together preferably on a high points. Do the same for the lowest points. Once you have done that pour some oil into the top fill points (Make sure you havent forgot to put bolts with some thread tape on it to seal the bottom nuts) then put the top bolts in, sealed also . This will then stop the internal channel rusting inside the chassis. Your preference whether how much oil you pour in. I have done this to cars, boat trailers and my normal trailer. 1 problem you may have is that some of the wiring harness might run inside the chassis.

Be good to see pic's as you go along. Have Fun

Thanks
Bazz

if you can - clean up the chassis and put a couple of coats of Holden Chassis black on.

As for sound insulation I put the complete kit in from a late D1 that I was wrecking into mine - much better.

HTH

LRH

Doing a complete re-build seems like a great idea.

I had to fit a new body to my 85 after a roll-over some years ago and later wished that I had stripped the chassis and re-painted it. No worries.

Before you paint anything - make sure you put some phosphoric acid (rust dissolver/converter) into all the little cracks and crevises before rust treating and applying a good finish to the "ladder panels" (sides) and "picture frame" (rear) particularly where the panel is exposed below the tailgate.

Also on the picture frame. Make sure you rust treat inside, there is a small barrier inside the side rails about the height of the window bottoms. This can hold water and rust from inside out. POR15 Rust Preventative Paint on the inside is a great option but expensive. POR15 RPP is not UV stabilized so will turn grey if exposed to sunlight, so not a good option on the chassis or outside if having black is important.

Before you re-assemble the ladders and picture frame take some time to straighten out where they bolt together and assemble with a permanently flexible sealant. Mastic is ideal. After you do that you will find that lots of the creaks and rattles you know so well have gone.

Use Mastic when you re-fit the roof panel for the same reason. DON'T USE CICOFLEX this forms a permanent bond that will make it impossible to dismantle later on.

BTW I have the passenger and rear drivers side door off that vehicle as spares for mine. It looks like a good chassis.

Cheers
Diana

P.S Say hello to Gary for me,

PAT303 - Yep it has nice metallic green paint on it from what I've been told, much better then my current Westinghouse white. I don't know if I will goto the extent of getting the entire chassis prepped for sand blasting and then repainting it, more so just look it over well and fix anything I see that needs to be done. If I can get a 2" bodylift kit for a reasonable price I'll probably do as Bazz suggests and get some fish oil in there or something along the lines. How we are getting it is as what would be a rolling chassis minus the wheels.

Bazz67 - I have thought of getting oil into the chassis and even getting a durable wax coating in or out, but fish oil is the cheaper route with no considerable drawback. I will definitely be documenting it as I go, as it will also help when it comes time to get it blue slipped with a new chassis and VIN number with the previous engine stamps.

LRHybrid100 - Yep I will touch up any patchy parts of chassis paint with the famed GMH Black, the smash shop I used to work at has gallons of it and I know the painter will help me out. For sound insulation I want to do it as cheaply as possible, as I don't have a Discovery in my grasp I'll probably go for some insulation pads and a few coats of stoneguard, works out cheap and cheerful, yet effective. I'll also get some heat insulation foil adhesives throughout the transmission tunnel and over the exhaust as I noticed our transmission got nice and toasty on drives back from Sydney after a day in the trench, it's nice to have the free warmth but I'd like to decide when it's available.

Lotz-A-Landies - That's what I thought as soon as we looked at this Range Rover in Vaucluse . Like I said I'm not planning to go all out on the chassis but would like to tidy it up and check it over thoroughly. Don't worry about my rust working skills, it's all I did for my first year at a smash repair shop pretty much, at least one a week and most were 90s Japanese turdboxes. I've thought of putting a guard underneath the fuel tank over the rear of the frame, preferably one that will run up behind the rear bumper so it looks a bit clean cut. I'm not fussed on having a black chassis per say but I am not really keen on the idea of repainted the entire chassis as it still has both axles and the suspension on it. I don't think I was too specific in saying this is more a complete components swap onto a body, so I will be replacing all that Gary sold off it with whats in my white one. I'll check over all the panel sealants before bolting it all together as I want to make sure it doesn't leak water into inconspicuous places like my current body does thanks to worn out seals on the panels.

Say, I don't suppose you'd like to work something out for those doors, if you have them as spares I can repair and possibly work out a swap for those so that you would have two primed and straight doors ready for if you needed them, unless your Rangie is the same green already? The two doors taht are missing from it will cost me near on $300 to get prepped and painted around at my old workshop, and then the painter will keep going on about wanting to blend the other panels too.. I'm probably dropping into Winmalee this weekend if all goes well and will see Gary then, will let him know you said howdy.

It'll be a grand sight on the highway when this roller is on a car trailer behind another friends 76 Coupe on it's way to my driveway. It'll be a Kodak moment. Thanks for all the suggestions and input so far, I hope to put up some "before" pictures soon as the weather has finally cleared up here.

So this is why the new body is a priority, and why the car needs a general freshen up and a few things replaced. My dad originally wanted to fix it all as we went but fix all the body before our rego was due, 4 months after we bought the car. But as I looked over it more and more, I unsurprisingly found more and more gaping rust holes. As you can imagine, I'm not the biggest supporter of whoever owned this before us.
I've thumbnailed all 26 photos so it's easier to look at. If any of the photos look a bit confusing then just mention it if you want to know where/what it is.

If the thing is bare u would do well to to at least clean it down with a wire wheel ona grinder, repair any rust and give it a dose of zinc chromate primer then a couple coats of a semi gloss finish, be it enamel or other, I wished I did my 3 now, much easier with body off, u can also dose up the underside of the shell while your at it, sound deadning is great, from my years of playing with Fords I would clean the floor up and give it a good coat hyrdaseal{ bitumen}, then go mad with some under felt and cover the lot, u can do inside the doors and tailgate with the bitumen after a good cleaning and some rust preventative, ol fish oil is ok, might have a few cats hanging around for a while but we can fix the cats, do your under arches and inside the guards with the bitumen too, it itself is a sound deadner, Have fun.

So, got the rolling donor home. Not a great deal of rust which is good and it is all easily repairable, at most with heavy pitting on the floor and 2 stress cracks on the internal frame. Has a decent amount of bog repairs but none are bubbling up or in bad condition, a few crows feet in the paint but it could do with a general cut and clear.
Two trouble spots on the roof, looks like an old hail job as the bog seems to have split from the roof, will just be able to take it out and redo the roof, then get it painted again. Sunroof has been urethaned in but does look like a genuine installment. Haven't checked it all over thoroughly but the motor may have just burnt out or been removed and a bead of urethane around the edge to stop it leaking. Chassis looks solid, a lot of surface rust but time permitting I will pull the body off and refurbish the chassis.
Overall, can't complain for $600, but there is a decent amount of work to do, no where near as much as would be required on our white body/chassis. All new Land Rover HD suspension, which alone would be the purchase price of the whole roller as we needed all our suspension replaced anyway. As with the windscreen and windscreen seal, which are completely screwed on ours. Also no rust under the quarter windows, and all window seals are in good condition.
Worst thing is that it looks like it took a rather solid hit on the radiator support and it's slightly bent both inner wings on the front, repairable though. Bonnet and guards are fine.
So here are some photos, was lucky enough to have a trouble free journey back home. My mate Sean towed the roller back with his Coupe, luckily had no clutch problems and we swapped the started out of my white Rangie into his, as his was shot and we wanted to be 100% trouble-free if it stalled out.

So I'm now calling this a restoration. A lot of work ahead but should be somewhat enjoyable this way.