Cornish Rattler and Son Land Rover Project

[Cornish Rattler]

Hi guys
Well a couple of weeks before Christmas son was speaking to the farther in law about an old landy he had seen on his travels close to where he lives as he nu we was looking for a new project, anyway the weekend before last we went to inspect it with a view to buy and the landy was in fairly good condition the landy is a truck cab type, needs a re-spray, bodywork looks good, bulkhead looks ok but will need further inspection, the chassis again looks ok but will need further inspection but can say its been fitted with a newish rear X member and can see that the dumb irons need attention, its fitted with a none running ford transit DI engine ( electrical fault ) but was soposedly reconditioned 2 years ago, the gearbox looks very clean so may have had recent work done and has a fairy o/d and fairy free wheeling hubs, and the springs, brakes and steering need attention as well, anyway we ended up buying it there and then and had the landy picked up and the landy is now in the garage and the plan is to get it running, do what ever needs doing to it then sell on, managed to get it running on Saturday and son managed to remove the roof, doors and bonnet then weekend coming we can start removing the body just to see what the chassis really like inc the bulkhead and go from there, some pic's from weekend

 

[Cornish Rattler]

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Some more stripping down on Saturday

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Then whilst removing the screen frame from the bulkhead we found that the top rail was completly rotten but it seems to be the only bit of rot on it so have decided on buying a mig welder and having ago our selfs as neither of us can weld but son has always facied learning to weld so will give it ago and see

 

[Cornish Rattler]

New rear springs and shocks fitted plus partially painted chassis, the axles will be painted at some point

 

[suffolksmallholder]

I admire your tenacity! But IMO I'd have fitted a new chassis but this is a fab opportunity to learn to weld nicely. I went to night-school too which was a big learning curve and has stood me in good stead all my working life.
Richards Chassis make nice galvanised items. Simply unbolt everything and re-bolt it onto the new.
Put a large notice to change the oil in the overdrive very, very often. ALL the gearbox drive goes through less than a pint of oil in there.
Pull the nylon strings out of the FW hubs, if you can undo those little screws! Clean well, re-grease and only take them out of drive on long runs. Folk forget that the Railko swivel pin bushes need oil splash and will fail sooner rather than later if the hubs are permanently disconnected. False economy there.
25 years of running a S3 LTWT.
SS

 

[JP1]

Another fab project photo thread. Thanks, now on my watch list

You should do it up as a Fred Dibnah version

 

[Cornish Rattler]

I admire your tenacity! But IMO I'd have fitted a new chassis but this is a fab opportunity to learn to weld nicely. I went to night-school too which was a big learning curve and has stood me in good stead all my working life.
Richards Chassis make nice galvanised items. Simply unbolt everything and re-bolt it onto the new.
Put a large notice to change the oil in the overdrive very, very often. ALL the gearbox drive goes through less than a pint of oil in there.
Pull the nylon strings out of the FW hubs, if you can undo those little screws! Clean well, re-grease and only take them out of drive on long runs. Folk forget that the Railko swivel pin bushes need oil splash and will fail sooner rather than later if the hubs are permanently disconnected. False economy there.
25 years of running a S3 LTWT.
SS

Yeah tbh the landy is in quite good condition other than the bulkhead as the chassis is rusty but not holed anywhere so have decided to repaint the chassis still undecided of what to do with the bulkhead tbh as although the bulkhead is in good condition where the bulkhead is rotten looks easy for someone who knows what the are doing but its gone round where the drivers wiper arm shaft is as well as where the drivers side bonnet hinge is welded to the bulkhead and also where the bottom of the drivers air vent rubber fits so a lot of fabrication trying to get everything right for a novice so possibly could end up fitting a referbished one rather than make a mess of it but still buy a mig welder to learn on something that's easier first like footwells, pillars and corners then learn to make bends and stuff later when we have more confidence

 

[YELROM]

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Like the flip up front number plate to evade the speed cameras??

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Like the flip up front number plate to evade the speed cameras??

Yeah that will probably go back to where it should be on the bumper but on mine same front ( late 2a ) i've fitted mine at the bottom of the grill on top of the bib

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Drove to paddocks land rover parts supliers today to collect some bits for the project

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Didn't do much over weekend as son was working away and plus the weather was rubbish for going Metal detecting or working on landy's

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Hopeing to replace the swivels over the weekend and probably start stripping the bulkhead for bulkhead replacement in a few weeks time

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Still be doing the swivels this weekend as we had unexpected visitors on Saturday and we spent most of the day talking so hopefully should have them done later today, will post pic's as well

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Replaced the swivels, rear wheel bearings and brakes inc wheel cylinder's today, front hubs are built up with new bearings but waiting for the stub axles to arrive as there was no spacer washers fitted to the front wheel bearings so the inner bearings was wearing on the stub axles

 

[suffolksmallholder]

Are you going to replace the brake lines?
SS

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Are you going to replace the brake lines?
SS

Yeah will do once we have replaced the bulkhead

 

[Cornish Rattler]

The paint came today ( Pastel Green ) so we decided to try it on a spare wing we had

 

[Cornish Rattler]

Still waiting for the stub axles to arrive, Craddocks said they had them in stock when we ordered them last Saturday so whilst waiting and hoping they would arrive today we replaced the drag link ball joints and removed the bulkhead and tidied the garage up , will post pic's later

 

[Cornish Rattler]