I bet Grame could be a big help.

 

Always happy to help any body with my wee bit of knowledge...

 

That's great, thanks!

I just picked up some MT's on steelies with lugs for it. Gonna need new tires but got a good deal on them and will work for keeping the truck on all 4's and selling off the old wheels.

Got a line on a set of 3" springs for pretty cheap and probably going to run OME shocks with lowered mounts if I can convince Turf to trade me for some other stuff.

All in all the project is going well. The only challenges I see that I havent completely solved yet are as follows.

1. How and what to use for a fuel cell. I see some trucks have used a defender tank mounted on the tray itself, I like this idea or something similar I can mount under the bed that way I will have space for a spare, and other goodies.

2. How to brace, cut and seal the cab especially around the roof where it's curved.. I have decided running 1x1 square tubing across tops of rear door panels and then across the back of the truck is probably going to be the best way to make some supports. And then maybe add an additional vertical pillar.

3. Front seats - I would like to maintain two front seats. The easiest option is manual D1 seats but that's kind of boring and wouldnt include a harness.

Then of course issues/ideas that will need to be addressed later on like the design of the cage and bed. Diff and rocker sill protection. Street legality. Etc.

 

On HPTV.com Extreme 4x4 they have all the info about various ones they have built. Lots of good racing seats available with harnesses.

 

Having used racing seats in a few land rovers (see the pic of my 90) then they are great to wear when in a full harness but are a nightmare when on the road and having to travel. They usually offer little or no support on the rear. The other thing to consider as well is that when seated and strapped in can you reach all the switches? when on the road I just use to use the lap belt and have the shoulder harness hanging. Got pulled by the police so many times but in the UK you only had to have a minimum lap belt so they had to let me go.
The fuel tank that i had on my disco was mounted to the truck cab and the tray with the spare mounted on the tray as well.

 

Yea and after looking at costs of the seats and harnesses I think I will stick so a manual rover seat of some sort. Maybe something out of a classic?

Also thinking I am going to keep my current gas tank and build a mount for it forward the rear axle and then build the tray over it eventually.

Hoping to get the doors and frame cut today I am taking 25" off of the rear of the truck which should allow for a rear bumper if I decide to try to make it road legal.

 

Took the gas tank out for now and chopped the rear of the frame. Cleaned it up and sprayed some paint on it to keep it from rusting. The frame is in decent overall condition just a lot of surface rust to take off.



This pic is to show the rear approach angle and also where I will probably strap the gas tank.



I some how managed to roast my trusty harbor freight grinder while cleaning up the frame. Will try to fix it tomorrow or go buy another dozen for a dime.

Fixed the stating issue, it was the battery as I assumed. Gonna pick up a new one for the white truck and pass down the old one to this truck. Going to pick that up and the new set of steel wheels and tires this weekend.

Still need to take the rear doors apart and pull the glass and parts that are worth something before I start cutting there. I am going to come up with a cab length by test fitting the old seat and seeing how much room i really need.

I got one of those break pipe bender tools. need to go get brake piping at some point. I really want to drive this thing around

 

Question: Did you take note of what they did to bypass the immobilization and do you know it it worked?

 

It's a freakin mess... BUT the car runs without the security ECU.. However it does lock itself on it's own sometimes without notice. It's like it is possessed. - Havent figure that one out yet.

 

Kicking more ideas around

Thinking I am going to go with a tray similar to this.



Make it out of square tube and then tie the cage straight into the frame. Except I am thinking about making the cut out for the spare all the way in the rear where it can fit between the frame because I dont have plans for a rear winch at this time.

Here's the thought - you have to use imagination but cage will be in front of the spare. and the tray will come probably 1/2-3/4 up the spare so you will only see the top of the tire mostly. Then I will find a way to secure it from the top to keep it from bouncing.