No extra wheels lol. I would stick with the four wheels I have now and keep it a 4x4. But again I was leaning towards a custom built chassis with a longer wheel base and another foot of cargo space, that would eliminate many hassles. All I would have to do is hire a mechanic, rent a forklift and lift the body off the old chassis and install on new chassis and add a foot of extra body paneling. Order custom length propshafts etc. I was hoping i could find someone local to help me with the project and spend around $10K total minus the new engine later on.

I do take care of my truck and the previous owners have taken very good care of it for the most part, and although I plan on using waxoil on the chassis I still anticipate rotting. New England consumes TONS OF SALT plus we get TONS of moisture so it just seems inevitable that the chassis will **** the bed someday. Maybe longer than 4 years I dont know.

Just a idea guys and I wanted to see what you all thought about it. Always like to hear your opinions and share new crazy ideas. Keeps the forum alive, keeps us interested in our Rovers and sometimes other peoples ideas can really inspire some of us with our own Rovers. I may not even do this, just thought it would be pretty cool considering my needs and how much I love the 2004 D2 model.

 

Remember, if the chassis is rotten, most other metals will be pretty far gone as well. Might want to save up and buy a DII from Arizona or somewhere without rust, waxoyl the chassis and be good to go.

 

I will admit dude, I follow your threads, they are entertaining to say the least but I need to say it honestly sounds like you need to get yourself a Chevy Suburban.... You don't like the Rover V8, the wheelbase, or the cargo space. Guess what has a great V8, a long wheelbase, and tons of space.... a suburban.

Keep the rover as your second car, drive it down to the malt shop or whatever kids do these days. Whatever you do don't go butchering a decent truck like yours, love it for what it is and it'll love you back.


Also for all that is holy, fix "trail" in your signature.

 

I had a work K2500 Suburban with a 454. Not much on MPG, but could haul a bunch of guys, gear, and a 24 foot boat. 42 gallon gas tank.

As for adding ACE to a modded vehicle, once you have changed the geometry of the vehicle the system won't work as programmed and the vehicle will be more dangerous than ever.

$10K won't touch all the stuff you want.

 

Ambition is a good thing, but please stop trying to do the equivalent of turning a Chevy Luv into a 1 ton dually. The Disco was made the size it is so it handles better than a 2 door Wrangler on the highway, but short enough it does not hang up like a Suburban in the offroad. You will have way more than 10 grand in it in body work and paint, nd you have not even got to all the frame mods and wiring. If you had a custom build shop where you just wanted to show what you can do, that is one thing, but to hire that crap done, no way. Plus 12in of extra cargo room is not going to do crap IMO for a Disco.

 

with the amount of money needed to keep these suckers on the road in standard config i think those are some ideas best left for super rich people.

get the suburban if you want it longer.

get a new vehicle if you want to put on 2K worth of wheels (they'll be worth as much as the darn truck).

if you want a galvanized chassis i know a shop in NE that will do it, they were doing one last time i was there and told me it cost around 10G (i think, can't recall exactly) and it was for a rich guy with sentimental attachment to his disco.

if i were you i'd get the truck you have running nice and then save up your money and buy another disco at some point.

or buy a house or save for retirement.


oh yeah, those pix of the huge, extended discos are interesting but personally i find them extremely ugly. i think they're like fat chicks and mopeds - fun to ride until one of your friends sees you.

 

See here:
Replacing Frame - DiscoWeb Message Boards

Though I still don't think that D2 frames rust as often as the older stuff.

 

The D2 chassis can last another 10 years easily if you rinse the salt off it. The kind of frame-off you're thinking of will cost a lot more than that, especially if you're not doing all the work yourself. It's not just the frame that involves expense in the kind of project you're talking about. There's more than a $1000 just in nuts and bolts (unless you re-use the crusty old ones), there's hundreds in bushings, and you're talking about thousands labor, wheels and ACE and on an on. And you don't have cash?

Maybe you should have majored in ceramics. Just you and the wheel man.

 

Dude, do whatever you want to do, then share it with the world. Forums have a tendency to kill dreams before they even start. Do like the europeans, do everything, document it, then share with the world.

 

You need a longer, 4 wheel drive vehicle with a more reliable engine that will only see road use. Sounds like you need a Toyota Sequoia.

You definitely like to dream big, but your plan to collect the pieces and pay someone else to assemble them is going to be incredibly expensive. If you are lookng for more room, it would likely cost less to buy a second Discovery 2 and pay somone to follow you around in it than to do what you are proposing.