As the kiddies were coming back to school I've had to push it back out of the workshop. Its had the door uppers put back on, the front clip disassembled and the guards attached to the firewall, the facia moved forward to accomodate the motor in this position and the bonnet placed on top until the next round of works.
I've just been thinking while looking at the pics and wondering. I reckon the body would look good in Hammertone blue instead of the rustgard blue. Now that would be something different and still so very easy to find and touch up. Based on the comments of others that seem to have done this, the Hammertone is a really good hard paint that resists scratching etc. Sounds like its the go!
LC60 rear axle on a pallet and ready for prep to be fitted to the ute.
OE spring perches are removed with an angle grinder and will be replaced with new ones which are spaced to fit Landrover springs.
Well, the old girl was finally to have that mixed axle syndrome sorted now, so out with the old axle (interestingly was a Rover rear axle, not a Salisbury which surprised me as the truck is all military spec).
In with the LC60 axle. Spring perches in place to sit the axle into, centre and tack into position.
Axle back out and prep'd for welding. The LC60 axles are bloody heavy compared to the Rover axles!
Interestingly the rear diffs don't look a lot wider, though the LC60 is definately heavier and stronger than the rover diff.
The Toyota U-bolts are also significantly bigger in diameter with a drill size of 16mm
The rear lower U-bolt plates were also replaced with the type used on the front to relocate the shock mounts from the axle as done by Rover in the rear to the spring as done by Slunnie.
On the drivers side the axle breather and brake line junction were in the same spot that the U-bolt needed to go. The breather was unscrewed and the brake line junction moved out of the way. The hole was welded over and ground flat before the U-bolts were put into place and the axle bolted down to the spring pack.
Got width? 2" Snake spacers.
Stock stance
And the stance on 31's is good now, especially in comparison to a stocker, though will be wider again when the 37's are put back on again.
Now all of the 37" tyres are on. The blue front guards really need a good trimming to make this work and in fact the 37's wont fit on with the blue guards untrimmed. As a temporary measure, until the blue guards can be trimmed properly I will fit the yellow guards which have the high clearance military cut on the them which better suits the 37's. This yellow guard is just sitting in position.
Front cross member has been replaced with 3mm RHS
The steering damper was also tested for position and had the chassis mount welded into position. It ended up going directly onto the original IIa steering damper mount. Actually the way I've welded it on, a Toyota or a Landy steering damper may be used, it just depends on the chassis mount that gets used.
Out of interest, I was able to raise the front wheel by 470mm before the hoist ran out of travel. I think that about 500mm or so will be about the limits of the suspension though. Also the rear tyre was pressed onto the tray, so the tray will also later need to be raised to suit.
The tailshafts arrived from Tom Woods in the US. Great looking shafts and very well built. Due to the length of the rear shaft the tube diameter has been increased from 2" to 2.5". The shorter one is for the front. Both shafts have been built with 1310 uni joints to suit this truck and joining a Rover transfer case to Toyota axles. The front shaft also has a long slip joint due to the shackle reversal design of front suspension that Rover have used.
The flanges were built to match the centre diameter of the Toyota pinion flange and so located centrally, but the bolt pattern is different. I ended up clamping the tailshaft to the pinion flange and drilling out the 10mm holes to suit. This task required a round toyota flange to do it.
The pinion flange was then replaced onto the diff and the shaft bolted in.
At the gearbox end the output flange and handbrake drum had previously been modified to run a Toyota shaft directly onto it, and this had to be converted back to a standard drum and output flange as the new shaft was a standard Rover DIN flange.
Today was radiator and guards. I sat the radiator into position and fitted the top radiator hose to estimate its position forward of the engine. From there I fabricated some lower mounts, then welded them onto the chassis X-member to support the radiator. The radiator sits on rubber cushions over the mounts. The radiator still requires the upper mounts, though this cant be done until the guards are locked into place.
The front body work was next. Using a military guard as a template, I marked out and cut the replacement guard with an angle grinder. The military guard also has a horizontally cut front guard panel, though I've instead used a MogRover style angled cut to suit. More will have to be taken out of the front later for additional tyre clearance. The guard was then fitted.
The Drivers side guard was also modified, though this time the front guard panel was unbolted, unriveted and unspotwelded, and the panel replaced with a Series 3 part to match the other side. This was bolted and riveted into position (poorly at that). The inner guard was modified with the angle grinder to allow space for the steering mechanisms and the MogRover cut also applied to the front. A headlight was installed from a Series II facia before fitting the panel to the 4WD.
The headlight surrounds have also been wirewheeled back and a coat of Aluminium etch primer applied in anticipation of paint.
Today work started on the SeriesIII facia.
The back was cut off it using an angle grinder.
Then it was sanded back ready for painting.
The bonnet selection was also changed as basically I couldn't be bothered making a new bonnet and time was not on my side. The Stage1 bonnet also looks like it will be able to be made to work with the SeriesIII facia.
The bonnet was stripped then sanded back ready for paint also.
Both of the front guards were modified again also. The problem is that with 37's, the tyres will catch the front lip.
The lip was removed, but the Military cut style was maintained.
All of the parts were then prepared for painting.
And then painted in Rustgard Blue. The plan is to eventually paint the car in Hammertone Blue, though the Rustgard provids a really good undercoat prior to doing this.
In addition to this the headlight surrounds have been painted gloss black now. A round Toyota front pinion flange has also been drilled out to suit the new tailshaft also. Once the pinion flange is changed in, the front shaft will be ready to install.
The painted guards were reapplied to the car and made it look a million dollars! Well, maybe a few hundred at least. :lol:
Unphotographed, but the bonnet hindes were fabricated to suit also, and the front propshaft was also installed. Getting the old pinion flange off was a real task - though thankfully a good student tipped in with some very effective advice to get the job done. The Tom Woods tailshaft seemed to be a perfect fit again.
The front headlight trims were put into place, as with the grill with none being a permanent fitting, but the truck was looking good.
The refabricated bonnet hinges were installed. These are an adaptation of the SeriesII hinge to suit the height of the Stage1 bonnet and to locate the bonnet back against the fire wall. The external bonnet catches were also installed to hold the bonnet down onto the guards. The facia has also been bolted to the guards.
The brakes are full LC60 setup. A Landy SeriesIII pedal assembly has had a spacer made up to suit the LC60 master cylinder and booster and then bolted together before being installed into the vehicle. Some minor modifications had to be made to the IIa firewall to fit a III brake pedal.
I made up double flare hard brake lines and connected the brakes to longer braided brakes lines which reach down to the axles.
The fuel pump was mounted behind the rear bulkhead to keep it out of harms way and plumbed up to the engine. I'm hoping it will have the ability to draw fuel from the bottom of the tank!
Then a new transmission hump was fabricated out of aluminium sheet to cover the larger LT95 gearbox. Definately a 2 seater now!
The exhaust system was bought for the engine half. It was chosen to do this for a more accurate fit and better result especially with the close proximity to driveline and chassis.
The assembly came looking quite good.
although the PS engine pipe was shortened by roughly 100mm to make it all fit in properly.
and rewelded
This part of the exhuast system was manufactured by Walker exhausts and fitted very well (apart from bit that needed shortening). The exhaust really is designed as a consumer part rather than a performance part. The above pipes are all about 1.75" pipe with press bends and further constriction at the merge between banks.
The rest of the exhaust was fabbed up in the workshop. $150 worth of part in comparison to purchasing about $350 made sence. I've planned to send the exhaust directly down the PTO path to the rear of the 4WD.
To do this I've used a total of 1x 16" offset freeflow muffler and 2600mm of 2" exhaust pipe. Cut the pipe to suit and it went straight in
Back to sorting the clutch out properly. A new mastercylinder was bought to replace the SeriesII unit with seperate fluid can. A quick and easy piston shaft change to make it fit the Series II pedal assembly was all that was needed before installation back into Ute2.
Removing the master cylinder but leaving the shaft by unbolting the mastercylinder and removing the circlip that hold the shaft in.
New master cylinder goes in but using the old piston shaft (but new piston)
Pedal assembly is then refitted and bled.
Made up a new radiator lower hose to fit a coolant bottle.
and fitted all of the bits, ie bottle, breather etc which will be mounted when the front bodywork goes back on.
The rear half of the exhaust system is mounted into position and welded.
I made this gizmo to join the fuel return from the engine back into the fuel tank via the breather pipe.
The engine cranks over, the ignition sparks and the fuel pump pumps.
Well....
She started.
Rough, burped and farted but she goes.
