About a month ago I picked up a 1995 RRC from Craigslist that I was planning on flipping it. I got a pretty good deal on the truck as the guy selling it needed it gone as they were moving and it did not start. It had sat for the last few years. I went to go look at it with a buddy who is a LR tech and a walking encyclopedia when it comes to classics and we couldn't believe the condition of the frame and interior. Definitely not perfect inside but all the major unobtainium parts were in good shape and the seats were in better than average shape. Frame has zero rust essentially and none of the other problem areas showed any sign of corrosion, that alone made this appealing. According to sell he thought it was the starter and when seeing if the motor would turn over with the battery jump box he provide it acted like it too. Fast forward we reach a deal and I go buy a battery so I can get the truck to shift into neutral and up onto a flatbed and call AAA. Important info for anyone who plans on using AAA to haul a non runner or new to you vehicle make sure you throw a plate on the rear of the vehicle, any plate will do according to this tow driver. Luckily he was an old timer and wasn't about to turn down a tow over that once he was already onsite...So when I go to drop in the new battery I found the negative terminal was pretty much completely loose...I get it home and tried to fire it up, she cranked over just fine. Turns out the fuel pump was dead and had very little fuel and what was in there was pretty old. Swapped a new one in and she fired right up and runs great!!! Oh and the AC blows ice cold to boot.

Turns out the more and more I'm digging into the truck the nicer and nicer it is. Someone spend a lot of money getting this truck dialed in at one point, only issue is that point was probably the early to mid 2000s. Not being a major classic connoisseur to this point in my rover ownership upon getting it home I realized it was a 25th anniversary edition truck. There are none of the obvious markers other than the color and interior color. Original sticker under the hood confirms truck was originally Aspen Silver. From what I've been able to deduce through knowledgeable friends and a random auction of the truck I found online from pre 2014 here's what's going on:

152,xxx miles on the what appears original 4.2
LT230 t-case swapped in - have not looked further into it to see if it's a 1.2 or 1.4 case
4.11 gears with Detroit lockers (from the auction information) - still need to confirm but I suspect the rear has a Detroit and the front may have a trutrac if anything
early GBR rear shafts
Rovertracks steering components and rear trailing arms
Bilstein 7100 remote resi rear shocks - need to confirm lengths and valving
D2 shock towers in the front with some sort of bottom plate that takes a standard eye with kind of trashed procomp shocks
what looks to be progressive safarigard springs - fairly sagged out and could be seeing the logo wrong and not a lot of info out on original SG stuff that I can find, same with Rovertracks stuff
1-2" spring spacers - will be confirming exactly how big in the near future
custom bumpers and sliders and a very beefy gas tank skid - yet no diff guards, winch is functional
315/75/16 old as dirt Dick Cepek tires on super wide 16" steel wheels
TJ Jeep flares - very unfortunate....what's even worse is the abomination of cuts that were made to fit them

That's all I can think of for now and so far just the fuel pump and a power steering pump and she's been the new errand driver while I try and finish making sure she's fully road worthy (meaning up into the mountains, wheeling and back in one piece and a new set of tires).

 

The tow home

Came with Yakima bars, basket, sky box, and a dope Yakima hitch 4 bike mount

Fixed wiring to winch and it seems to work just fine. Will beef up mount for the fairlead and maybe weld in corners to protect the turn signals.

Boot on the procomp is roasted as well as the bushings. They rebound still but they have too much play.




Pulled the plastidip off the hood. By pulled I mean wd40 soaked and scrapped it off.

No junk on the roof for a nice clean look.

The abomination hiding under the front tj flares.

Half the rear…

The other half…they freaking cut the door rather than notch the flare to handle the seam in the door.

Some good old fashioned lag screws to hold the roasted cb antenna on

 

picked up a set of fenders from a friend. Lucked out that they are even cut and rolled for 35s already. Will get tires and suspension sorted and then flex it out to make sure everything clears before it all gets pulled, prepped and painted.


Going to be multi colored for a while but it looks so much better already. Just did this fender so far. Ran out of daylight.



315s are silly wide in case anyone was wondering.

 

makes me miss my classic. looks like a great start. lets see that interior!

 

I'll have to take some. It needs a good cleaning, planning on getting the interior fully detailed once I can get tires and see if that helps the floaty feeling or if steering needs to be gone through. It's all tight or seemingly so when trying to push anything around by hand...have a group running Red Cone end of this month and I'd really love to take this.

I'm kind of torn as it's already set up how I imagined my white disco (tire size and HD components) and the classic going to be so nice once I get the paint sorted. Having 3 large rovers is kind of unnecessary haha.

 

Pass side front fender done. Rear fenders and doors to follow next week hopefully.

 

What color is it going to be?

 

It will all be repainted back to the correct Aspen Silver, if it wasn't the anniversary edition I might go with something else but alas going to keep it as it should be. Will be multi colored until I can sort through what tires and suspension I end up with and make sure I don't need any more trimming before I pull it all off to prep and paint.

 

Pulled rear shocks while I had a few minutes tonight. Checked Pn and looks like they are short body 12” travel shocks that hopefully just need a recharge. Have a buddy going to help me out with that and see if I can avoid a rebuild. I picked up a used OME suspension to swap into my green D2 so I can try and lower it some and soften the ride some. Two of the fox shocks will go in the front of the classic and the big blues will replace the blown out springs on the classic.

 

you should be able to have a shop fill it with nitrogen for pretty cheap. that's what I did with mine.

I'd also recommend getting bushings to replace those Johnny joints. I did that on my old remote resi fox 10" 2.0's and it was so much quieter. no clicking! you should be able to find bushing at a more jeep-oriented 4x4 website.