Series 2A Refurb project.

[demonwolf444]

Me and 8gun of here have decided to take on a bit of a project. Its a Series land rover we are going to refurbish hopefully before the winter for an all purpose run around, off read vehicle and possibly lamping vehicle

Its all very "lots of talk" at the moment, but we did a few hours the other day on it and i thought i would show PW guys what we have managed.

We are a long way off, and along the way almost every single part is going to need to be bought new or second hand or stripped and rebuilt, with the exception of the major components and body work.

 

So we had to start by freeing the axles from the old chassis. The axles were to be attached to the new chassis as the original is completely beyond saving, to give you an idea of how much it had degraded i dropped a hammer on it, and it fell clean through the chassis, so no steel plate was going to fix this. Anyway Surprisingly some of the U bolts that hold the Axles to the leaf springs came right off, others tool a little gentle persuasion with a hammer. This is what we were left with.

 

 

After the Axles were free we moved them into position and placed the chassis on top of them and admired our work. We were about to attach them up when we realized we had both axles upside down and the wrong way around. After much sweating and swearing, we corrected our imbecile mistake and carried on. Did i mention that neither me or 8gun know very little about actually how land rovers are made?.... well we don't. But embarking on these kind of adventures without really thinking is the history of our friendship, which goes back to the day we were born.

Anyway after putting our backs out lifting stupidly heavy things, we were on track again and had the chassis resting on the axles with everything the right way around. ( in this picture they are still upside down wrong way around)

 

 

After a lot more work, some grease here and there, a lot of mistakes. We got the leaf springs attached and the axles attached to those. Cracking. Anyway we found that land rovers are really simply and if something is difficult; you are probably doing it wrong. Thus me made a lot of things difficult for our selves.

Edited June 2, 2013 by demonwolf444

[demonwolf444]

Here she is with the rear axle on the leafs. I'm pretty proud i have to say. (note i think the axles are the right way around in this picture?)

 

 

As i say about all this being a learning curve for the both of us, we didn't know that the leafs are left and right specific also. I believe the drivers side is meant to be stiffer than the passenger side. If this information is correct by a happy mistake we seem to have done this right. But if anyone can elaborate on this information with serial numbers or anything then please do educate us.

 

We were all game for carrying on until dark, however we are missing two threaded leaf spring shackles for the front leafs, that being so we stopped for the day.

 

A lot of work will need to be revisited, the aim was to get a rolling chassis. Several bolts were missing washers and other small parts. Our next port of call is addressing faulty missing or broken parts that are going to be needed in the near future. Considering we know nothing, i think we have done okay so far. I have just found a series 2A guide book/ hand book so that should really help us avoid mistakes with parts orientations and other time wasting things.

 

8gun just couldn't resist.

 

[jgguinness]

Excellent stuff mate, well done. I've rebuilt a few Series Landy's, and had a magazine feature out of one too, so if I can be of any help just give me a shout.

 

Cheers

Jonathan

[Paul223]

http://www.series2club.co.uk/forum/forum/

 

You'll find the guys here useful too

[demonwolf444]

Thanks Paul i have just made an account! I will keep any interested parties here up to date on this thread.

[demonwolf444]

Excellent stuff mate, well done. I've rebuilt a few Series Landy's, and had a magazine feature out of one too, so if I can be of any help just give me a shout.

 

Cheers

Jonathan

Thanks for the offer Jonathan. Father got home the other day to tell me that the leaf springs are definitely left and right specific. If this is the case we need to know what the serial numbers should be on the leafs for the left hand side and for the right hand side ( then again the leafs are new ish ones and the serials on them may not be the same as what they should be ). The Obvious way to check would be to take them off again and lie them next to each other so we know which is which, But i would rather no undo done work if i dont have to.

 

This project will defiantly be a learning curve if nothing else.

[Paladin]

Yes the four springs are all different.

[la bala]

lots of advice on LRO forum too. good luck with the project.

[sky gipsy]

You should find that the drivers side springs are taller than the passenger side. You measure by taking a horizontal line through the spring bush centres and then measure to the centre point of the first leaf. This lob-sidedness is due to the weight of fuel in the tank (under driver's seat) plus the driver, so when 10 gallons of fuel + 8gun are in the completed vehicle, it should sit level. As it may be too late to measure now, I suggest that you stand at the back of the vehicle & use the "rack of eye" to see if the chassis has a slight list to port.

Good luck with the re-build & if you are short of anything give me a shout as I have some left over bits from re-builds & general tinkering, although some genuine series 2A bits are hard to find & expensive.

ATB

S.G.

[jgguinness]

This was my finished baby

 

 

[sky gipsy]

This was my finished baby

 

 

 

Now that does look well

The bar is set high demonwolf444

[Big Mat]

I do like the old series, this belongs to a mate of mine and we are putting it on a galv chassis at the moment.

 

[Fuji Shooter]

my mate finished his series 1 a couple of weeks ago. Took it to a show and sold it for 35K, hence to say he now has another series 1

[Oxon T]

This was my finished baby

That is stunning!

[jgguinness]

I wish I had never sold it. I was always on the Series 2 Club forum when doing the resto. A guy offered me £5500 for it, which at the time was decent money. He used it for a year, then part-ex'd it at Nene Overland against a Defender. They sold it for £8500 to a guy n Finland. He got in touch with me, and we still chat to this day.

[Sx3 clay breaker]

Here's my little beauty not a series but close enuff currently doing the suspension done the fronts and a few injures later its done next is the rears then the crossmember and drivers side floor then put the CD player in and that should be it

 

 

[demonwolf444]

Nice pictures guys. My dad is into his land rovers and has a fully original series 1 and a series 2, the 2A that i am refurbing is technically his but we'll see!, we also have a series three hybrid defender that we use for all the really rough work in fields and off road driving.

 

Anyway, after a conversation with 8 gun and my father today we have discussed to the extent that we are going to refurbish.. which is to a large extent. We spent four hours today with wire brushes de rusting the front axle, nearly into white in some places, before we are going to prime and paint the axles. Since we are painting the axles we will remove the rear axle to strip and paint, while we are doing this we will remove the springs and check that they are on the correct sides using the technique you have suggested to us.

 

Covered in crud and axle grease and years of rubbish and rust here is the progress on the front axle from four hours today ready to be primed and painted.

 

 

 

I don't know if you can get a good comparison but if you compare this to the previous pictures above its made a staggering difference.

 

We are both excited to get the axles painted and connected to the chassis.

 

Thats all for today, Our aim is to get a rolling chassis and then start adding other major components such as the gear box and engine.

[demonwolf444]

You should find that the drivers side springs are taller than the passenger side. You measure by taking a horizontal line through the spring bush centres and then measure to the centre point of the first leaf. This lob-sidedness is due to the weight of fuel in the tank (under driver's seat) plus the driver, so when 10 gallons of fuel + 8gun are in the completed vehicle, it should sit level. As it may be too late to measure now, I suggest that you stand at the back of the vehicle & use the "rack of eye" to see if the chassis has a slight list to port.

Good luck with the re-build & if you are short of anything give me a shout as I have some left over bits from re-builds & general tinkering, although some genuine series 2A bits are hard to find & expensive.

ATB

S.G.

Thank you for the advice, we are going to take the axles back off for painting anyway so we will use this time to double check the springs. We will almost certainly be in touch, as the landy has been in bits for over 6 years or more and parts are likely to be missing, and while we have some parts, some parts are not going to be easy to get hold of, further more this project is severely limited to that of the budget of two 18 year old's , and my fathers inconsistent generosity! The Expense of small parts so quickly adds up. The things we are going to be missing most is going to be general nuts and bolts for attaching components together as these have likely been pilfered, borrowed, rusted or lost over the years.

[Dr_evil]

My series 3 king cab is coming to the end of its project life, soon to be on the road

 

A build never goes to plan but good luck they're always fun though!

[Sx3 clay breaker]

You got the v8 running yet dr evil ??

[Dr_evil]

Yep, engine running and putting in radiator this weekend.

 

Gotta use a Saab 93 rad from a tdi in order to get decent cooling with a tiny rad so I don't lose the series front end now

[ferguson_tom]

Looks good fellas, with out doubt the best way to learn about cars is to just get stuck in. I bought a kit car that needed restoring when i was 17 and spent hours on it and learnt more doing that than anything else i have played with. Good luck with the project.

[8gun]

Well pleased with the newly primed axles just got to keep fingers crossed for as little mishaps as possible in the future ey Demonwolf444

[demonwolf444]

Jet washed the Axles down, then scrubbed with white spirit and brass brush and wiped down with cloths. The white spirit really helped lift the rust, when we Start rust removing on the rear axle we will use white spirit from the start.

 

Before priming coat.

 

 

After Priming, looking good

 

 

Thats all for now!

[demonwolf444]

Well pleased with the newly primed axles just got to keep fingers crossed for as little mishaps as possible in the future ey Demonwolf444

Yes, like learning left from right so we don't strip every thread possibly would be a good idea.

 

When moving the axles we thought we should take the steering linkage off to make it easier; well they would have come off fine if we had not tightened the bolt and stripped the threads without realizing we were rotating the wrong way.

 

Bunch of numptys.