restoration Land Rover Series 3 109 FFR rolling restoration?

[mike65]

Blimey has it been that long since I posted, where was I?

Oh yes waiting for summer to arrive, it did but that was the beginning of October and went to Newbury Sort Out and then went on holiday.

By the time I got back it was winter again and Christmas seems to get in the way for months.

So I have been fiddling in the garage

I did however get all those bits on the floor bolted in and a few other bits

 

Acquired a radio table (Clive might recognize this)

 

Took that apart and cleaned it up with a new bit of wood.

 

Just need to get it in the truck.

Radio battery box is still a hard to come by option for the Series so I have this, which will hopefully do until the real one comes along..

 

I am awaiting some bits for the battery tray and wondering where I can get some 1/4" UNF CSK bolts from.

 

Mike

[XWDV8]

have a look on this website, used them in the past.

keep up the good work on your restoration.

 

http://www.classicnutsandbolts.com/default/

 

Phil

[martin parke]

Coming along nicely mike .

[airportable]

Know what you mean about waiting for summer. Looking really good. Spring will soon be here! PS. must update my progress as well.

[mike65]

I believe summer has arrived, be over soon, so made the most of it and went out and worked on the truck.

 

Some things seem to take longer than you expect.

Especially fitting the strengtheners that rivet to the underside of the floor for the battery frame to bolt to.

Suppose it would have been easier with 2 people..

But got around this with some 2" long bolts that I could hand thread in underneath and then use to pull up to underside of the floor from the inside.

After that managed to fit the radio table and "temporary" battery box in the rear. Still missing a few cables and need to put the battery frame in when I get the bolts.

Pioneer brackets and straps on the tailgate.

 

 

Mike

[airportable]

Yep, looking really smart.

[ferret1958uk]

Apparently is missing some protection to the terminals. Having found some NOS ones on the internet for sale, I decided not to buy them (as my Lotto numbers had not come up) and knocked something up from a bit of spare aluminium I had knocking about. No prizes for guessing what it was.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]50390[/ATTACH]

 

Just need to save my pennies up for some new terminals and refit all the loose bits kicking around the garage.

 

Mike

 

I have at least one, maybe two, of those guard plates in my workshop. They came from the set up in an old l/wt Land Rover. As this forum has always been generous to me I would happpily donate them to get them out of my way.

 

Merlin.

[mike65]

I have at least one, maybe two, of those guard plates in my workshop. They came from the set up in an old l/wt Land Rover. As this forum has always been generous to me I would happpily donate them to get them out of my way.

 

Merlin.

 

Think I will take you up on that provided you can locate them. I know what these things are like.

The one I made is like the radio battery box , a temporary thing till the real one turns up.

 

Mike

PM sent

[mike65]

Well the old girl passed another MOT again on Tuesday

One advisory though, "slight oil leak on offside front axle”.

 

Yup no all about that the swivel hub seal weeps, especially after filling with oil.

 

Lovely day today so I thought I would make a start on the front nearside wing. The outer is a bit bent so I acquired a pair of wings of Ebay, for the princely sum of £10 each. But they did come with headlight bowls washer bottle, 24v water pump and those little spade flaps for the cables.

 

The PO had painted in in stone. Whilst rubbing down I noticed something peculiar. The back portion had a lot less paint. Why was there red primer and grey in layers.

In fact there is an obvious line on the wing

More rubbing down and it more visible going over the top.

So doing my best Tony Robinson impression. Time Team not Baldrick. I went and investigated the other bits further. The rest of the wing has similar paint so does the opposite wing and also a distinct line. The other wing has 2 "rivets" and a slug of filler in a 3rd location.

 

Cannot find any holes in the nearside wing yet, but there is a shed load of underseal on the rear. Bit more rubbing another day might reveal some filler.

Some am I about to add some ex-Piglet wings?

Explains the grey and change in paint layering.

Did they have FFR Piglets?

 

 

Mike

[Tony B]

Go for one shot grease (Then get paranoid becuse you don't see dripping oil :-D)

[mike65]

Go for one shot grease (Then get paranoid becuse you don't see dripping oil :-D)

Have a tube in my toolbox, been meaning to do it but it has been winter.

Thinking of squirting a bit on the drive to make things seem normal.

 

Mike

[Rover8FFR]

Mike I have just rubbed right back a wing on my lightweight and all over it at some point I found a pinky, redish browny layer like that. I think it is the effects of the IRR paint when being sanded back heavily....

 

On mine it was always just over I think the DBG base colour.

[mike65]

Mike I have just rubbed right back a wing on my lightweight and all over it at some point I found a pinky, redish browny layer like that. I think it is the effects of the IRR paint when being sanded back heavily....

 

On mine it was always just over I think the DBG base colour.

 

I still think it is primer as have not hat that experience with rubbing down parts on the truck.

It starts showing through red as the layer over gets thin.

 

Mike

[mike65]

Blimey a long time no updates.

What the heck has been going on you ask.

Yes the truck had to go away to a new home in the middle of May.

Luckily it was only temporary and it is now back.

Why did it go way?

Well I live on a hill with steps up to the front door.

These were kind of falling down so they needed a rebuild, so the builders had to come in.

With the fantastic summer :lol: we have had it took a bit longer than expected. But I do now have a nice set of steps that do not need mountain climbing gear to get up and more importantly there is no wall right against the drive and the truck.

There is however a gaping hole in the bank balance.

Reduced by doing the filling of lawn and garden reinstatement myself.

 

So what have I been up to between rain storms.

Well the replacement drivers wing is almost totally stripped back. The current one has a nasty split around the TUAAM mount.

 

I have also managed to acquire a roli bar. Some Health and Safety can be good. Just need to strip clean paint and fit.

 

Of course those other things have got in the way like decorating the house, gardening and work have all got in the way.

Oh yes it is Autumn now need to go get some firewood in, at least I can use the Land Rover for this

 

Mike

[robin craig]

While there is no doubt that is a Land Rover roll bar, is it a coil sprung 90 /110 style rather than a series type?

 

I'm not much of nit picking rivet counter (even though I have been accused of such detail atomic hair splitting) but i'm just a bit curious as I had been led to understand the series roll bars were quite different.

 

Robin

[mike65]

While there is no doubt that is a Land Rover roll bar, is it a coil sprung 90 /110 style rather than a series type?

 

I'm not much of nit picking rivet counter (even though I have been accused of such detail atomic hair splitting) but i'm just a bit curious as I had been led to understand the series roll bars were quite different.

 

Robin

 

Robin

That is a good question, it is a type I have seen in a Series before and the previous person removed it from a Series 3 an early FFR as a guess. This would explain the holes cut in the bulkhead plate as these would appear to match the generator/shunt cables for the rear mounted type.

I do know however that the fitting is basically the same. May just need to make some larger holes through the tub capping as they fit in the rear behind the bulkhead. The front tilt hoop remains in place.

I do know the later type roll bars had a diagonal brace and others were double hoops that replaced the front tilt hoop.

 

The main reason for it is a bit of protection if it should ever end up in a wheels up position.

 

Mike

[mike65]

Well Colin and a few others have been putting me to shame so I thought I better pull my finger out and get on with some work on the truck.

Technically I have been doing some stuff, I just do not like being out in the cold especially when you can sit in front of a nice hot wood burning stove.

So what have I done, well I have been preparing and painting stuff.

Roll bar. wings, furl tank, radio battery box and bonnet

 

The bonnet on the truck is not exactly straight so have a slightly straighter one to fit. Paint stripped on the top.

 

The under side has been cleaned up and primed

 

Replacement fuel tank cleaned sealed, layer of fiberglass added front and rear when the mud collects, painted, undersealed, and will give another coat before it goes in.

 

The usual rain this morning gave up about lunchtime and a strange glowing object was seen in the sky. However as is the norm it did not hang around long but I took the opportunity to drop the nearside fuel tank out.

Not eased by the fact that part of the front mount had been decked on something and bent back, Crowbar came in handy.

 

Tank out I had a good look inside. I was told it leaked when I bought the truck. I wonder why?

 

Managed to get something out though

 

So my fuel gauge reading when I first got the truck was actually correct.

 

Decided to straighten the front bracket but would not really hammer straight but you could bend with mole grips, but this was making a bit of a mess of things. So I decided to use the small vice instead, worked a treat.

 

And why the added fiberglass protection. This is why

 

Next job clean up the chassis and pain before reinstating a fuel tank.

GUESS WHAT its raining.

 

Mike

[mike65]

Managed to find some warm weather Saturday.

So it was fuel tank in time. Not exactly easy on your own but got there.

Now have double the fuel capacity but there is a slight problem. Fuel gauge works backwards.

 

 

Also managed to paint the underside of the bonnet.

 

 

Sunday was Newbury sort out and found a NOS 24v sender. It works backwards as well.

 

Mike

[mike65]

Well back to the life times work that is my restoration thread.

Had a go at my fuel gauge/sender issue and could not get any logical idea of why it does not work.

Mind you the working sender is 12v and not 24v. Both read full with my spare gauge.

 

So decided to rebuild the fuel tap instead

 

 

So we had a very mucky half removed tap. Must get a shorter spanner set before doing it again.

 

 

Took it apart and replaced the cork gasket (got it a Newbury from a nice tractor spares man)

 

 

Bit of a clean and back in place.

 

 

Just found out you can only post 3 attachments with the new forum set up.

After doing the fuel tap I decided to have a go at a bit more bodywork.

 

The front valance panel was removed. Had to excavate the paint to get to the crosshead screw bolts only to find that one would come out (with the impact driver) one other drilled off and 2 ground off.

Not to bad beneath a bit of a clean, paint and underseal should sort that.

 

 

Front panel had a few layers of paint and some damage

 

 

 

 

A bit of stripping (well a lot really) some rubbing down, panel beating and adjustments with some wood and a workmade it was basically straight and just required a bit of fine knifing filler to sort out the last.

 

Next job sand and paint ready for refit.

 

 

Mike

[raschippo1]

Looks good, I have some FFR stuff in my shed including a recon FFR Alternator and some cabling etc.

[ArtistsRifles]

Is the gauge now working properly after the tap rebuild Mike?? Mine still does not work at all.....

[mike65]

Is the gauge now working properly after the tap rebuild Mike?? Mine still does not work at all.....

Nope did not cure the problem, however the one that does work seems to be a bit more reliable (so far).

I need to spend a bit of time trying to suss out what is what with the bits on the truck and the spares.

Would be easier if I had radio batteries as a temp supply would be a bit easier then.

If I get an answer I will of course post it up.

 

Mike

[mike65]

Looks good, I have some FFR stuff in my shed including a recon FFR Alternator and some cabling etc.

What bits you got, always looking for spares.

 

Mike

[mike65]

The sun was out on Sunday so took the opportunity to get topless (on the truck) and fit the roll bar.

OK I am lying I actually started on Wednesday after work

Not the easiest job, as I had to remove the dexion and radio gear, the radio battery box, radio table and its mountings.

 

First things first. The bar does not fit in these holes, no surprise there then

 

 

Drilling the hole is easy I have one of these, however I have a hole where the pilot hole needs to be.

 

So I had a cunning plan and made a template from some scrap tread plate

 

Well that fits the roll bar but the bolt holes are different, never mind tape measure to check and G-clamps will hold it.

That worked, spot the handy pen line of bulkhead under, other marks cut away.

 

 

The observant will notice the change in sides.

Next locate the lower reinforcement supports, slight modification to avoid the seat belt reinforcement plate.

Following advice from elsewhere I have not fixed them in place.

Mind you one side dropped on perfectly and the other need the use of a medium sized persuader and bit of wood

 

Roll bar is then dropped in and pushed right into the corners and bolted in place

the diagonal brace bracket lines up perfectly with some holes already there, lucky me.

 

That all bolted in the strengtheners are drilled and riveted Hey presto a roll bar

 

Now to put the hood sticks back, oops they do not fit.

 

Never mind nothing that cannot be fixed.

 

Measure twice and cut twice (about 2 inches to loose)

 

 

Apply some heat (paint stripper gun) place on anvil (shaftless sledge hammer head) and whack it with a hammer till it is flat. Applying more intermittent heat.

 

Grind end to make tidy line up drill hole and then bolt in place. Job done

 

 

 

Next job put everything back in.

 

Ah now the radio mounting brackets need some adjustment.

 

 

That's for the next episode

 

Mike

[mike65]

Well its a bank holiday, yippee!!!!

So a bit of truck time

In the last instalment I found that the channels for the radio would not fit.

So it was cardboard template time complete with 2 rivet holes to align cut to suit

 

 

Guess what turn it upside down and it does the other side

So out with the grinder and both sides adjusted and fitted

 

That done its time to put everything else back.

First job was the dexion, now standard 109 dexion is too long for the top so it was measure twice cut once time.

About 12mm was removed from each end.

Bottom rail fits fine.

 

 

Of course being a bank holiday weekend you have to stop for this.

 

 

Luckily it did not last long so then it was fit the table brackets, with the help of the wife, as I do not have Inspector Gadget arms.

 

Luckily she knows how to hold a spanner in place even if she was wearing the wrong shoes for climbing into the back of a 109.

Table , battery box in and radios installed so I could fit the bracket.

Need another now for the DMU, decided they look good in line.

Room on the left for a 521/322 when finances allow and I van still have the 351/352 on the right.

 

 

Not content with that I got round to changing the manky alternator and fan belts.