My Rangie story so far. Now Bobtail.

[v8rangie]

Just spent the last 2 hours getting the rangie stripped ready for mot prep.

Nearly got the fuel tank out ready for the filer neck are to be welded up.
But couldn't get the front 2 bolts undone :(

Also took the driverside front wing off as the side bulk head area has quite a bit of rot in it.

But fingers crossed ill get it all stripped wednesday and my mate can get it all welded up and get it MOT'd ready for the sundays laning :)

Although i started poking around the rear cross-member and its a bit eaten away but not too badly so hope to get away with plating it and sealing it with underseal.

[Brian the Sn@il]

hi mate, what year is your rangie ?

[v8rangie]

Its 89 'F' one of the last 3.5's

[v8rangie]

Right managed to get started on the repairs tonight.
My almost Brother in law popped over armed with his angle grinder and welder and started attacking my car :(

anyway here is how it all started out....

Behind the drivers wing..and under the pedals.....







And also the body mount has taken some abuse too :( and we now have to take the body off to get to it and replace it...
But then it does give me the excuse to fit the 2" spacers i have had now for months :)

Anyway he started cutting away..
 

And the side panel went....





Soon followed by the floor..









Then he started to remake it all back up..
the fun part. its all taked in place at the mo but looking a lot better than it did.









Here are a few of the other bits that will be up for some surgery very soon.

Front body mount under pedals...





Front drivers side under headlight area.







And also a few little bits on the rear









More to follow as its done. planning on lifting the body up the weekend along with completely stripping the interior ready for completely sealing inside and out.

[v8rangie]

Well had a great weekends progress managed to get most of the body cut and sorted ready for welding back together.

Heres quite a few pics for you all to look at.

i took off 16 " in the end as i didnt want to go too short :)

You will see the body x-member is shot so im gonna replace that too.

















Just got to chop the chassis during the week weld that back up then start on all te little bits for the MOT...

[Bowie]

You booked the SVA test?

[v8rangie]

will i need an SVA test?

i was originally told i wouldn't if i didnt cut too much off

[v8rangie]

Been  out there tonight and cut the chassis off now.

We decided on cutting the body mounts off and welding them further up the chassis instread of cutting a section out the chassis and attaching it back together.

Here are a few pics of the body mounts going on and the rear cross member tacked in place.










And a pic to show the difference now its been cut..

[Skibum346]

Theres a piece in this month's LROI pointing out that basically if the chassis has been cut... it needs an SVA test.

Mentioned this to someone the other night and they said... "Nawww...! It's been MOT'd & insured... it'll be fine"

But the point of the LROI piece was that MOT'd & insured vehicles, examined during road side tests were being seized for not having had an SVA test.

At the end of the day... it's your choice... but... :shock:

Skibum

[Range Rover Blues]

Yes, as I understand it the rule is "original unmodyfied chassis" and they are getting stricter on what constitutes a modification.  Basically any welding to the chassi that changes it's size or shape, or effects it's strength.

This brings up the arguament about if you replace a rear crossmember, like many series owners will have had to.  The only check on the quality of that work is the MOT, but then shortening the chssis does constitue a change in design.

That wouldn't put me off so much if you were able to keep the registration, after all and SVA test is about the best engineer's report you can give to your insurance company

[v8rangie]

Just finished getting the rear body mounts and x-member welded up fully and tacked up the body but we ran out of gas on the welder :(

And it was getting a bit late to annoy the neighbours

[big rob]

I did a bobtail 4dr this year . Never thought of doing your way but what a great job you've made of it, I'll be trying it in the new year.
all the best Rob

[v8rangie]

yeah i was going to do it by cutting a section out of the chassis and reweld back together but looking at it this seems the best way of doing it as there wont be a join in the chassis.

But i do have to make some spacers to get the body to sit on the mounts but hey its not all straight forward :)

[v8rangie]

Well managed to pull the Rangie out onto the drive this morn to get a bit more room and to see how it looks from a distance.

Also managed to get the roof off and cut down to size. cleaned up all the surfaced ready for a quick coat of paint to freshen her up.

Also cut the rear floor down to size and also trimmed the rear arches for a bit more clearance.

[Littledan]

nice work keep it up :)

[Range Rover Blues]

I'm just looking at the first of those pictures with the overhanging roof.  Bit late for you now but no-one has ever done a van style bobtail conversion.

[v8rangie]

How do you mean a 'Van style'?

[Range Rover Blues]

I noticed the roof hangs out almost to where the lower tailgate would be.  It struck me that you could have a fully upright back door, keeping some useful luggage space if the roof remained the same length when you cut the floor and wings down.

[mlines]

Yep - Bobtailing needs an SVA - see www.stumpy.me.uk - for the full sorry story

M

[v8rangie]

If that is the case and the VOSA dont have a category for them how can people be driving them on the road with MOT etc???

[Bowie]

SVAs were not required for bobtails until around 1999 (I think) anyone making one beofre then was exempt.

They do have a category for them, go ask your local SVA test centre about it, they will know more than any of us.... shame their documentation is sooooo bad on the web :(

[v8rangie]

Yeah would make ours and their life so much easier if everything was documented online.

[v8rangie]

suppose i had better update this a bit really :)

i have fitted all new belts in the engine and taken off the a/c pump etc and also taken the viscous fan off and replaced with a 12" elec one i had lying in the garage.

Re-routed the fuel lines to go into the boot where the tank is going to sit.

Also got the new x-member on now and plated up the rear boot corners woohoo. not much left now.

i have some pics but cant find the usb cable :(

[ChrisV8]

This has appeared very recently on the LRO forum re SVA, seems there is no doubt any cutting and shortening of chassis requires SVA !

http://www.lro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10696

[fezzy192]

i was going to bobtail mine by about 14-18 inches but done my research to find that 100% SVA is needed and that will rub to many hundreds and hundreds of pounds and then theres  the hassle with insurance and q-plates not worth the hassle

[v8rangie]

What a project this has turned out to be but its al,most there.

We have now completed all the weldinge etc for the conversion and for the MOT. i just have to put everything back together now.

Afew pics of the rear x-member going in and the state of the old one...








Also all the new belts are on the engine along with the a/c pum p coming off along with the fan and replaced with a elec one on a switch.
Also fitted a new shock turret as the centre had come through the old one.







We then started on the n/s sill and floor and the more we replaced the more kept falling out so we pretty much replaced the whole lot.









Then got on with fitting the body lift which isn't as complicated as people have implied, but then the car was completely stripped so that made it a lot easier.





Had to rebuild the driverside body mount and this was it everything done so i spent all day yesterday undersealiong absolutlely everything both inner wings and sills, both inner floors rear inner wings where they have been re-attached rear chassis where we been messing about with it...







we messed up the cut on the drivers side rear wing so im after a new one to do it properly now ..
But it does look ok i think a bit more mean and abused :)








Still not sure when it will be on the road yet due to test etc... :( :(

[Range Rover Blues]

This has appeared very recently on the LRO forum re SVA, seems there is no doubt any cutting and shortening of chassis requires SVA !

http://www.lro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10696

That sounds like a definitive answer.  A little annoying that you can't keep the identity of your original vehicle if all the parts you use are either brand new or from that vehicle.  Age related plates are fine, as that way you still pay lower road tax, but you loose the reg number on your car, for what reason?

I suppose one way round that would be the cherished transfer, but then you'd have to bob the car, MOT it to transfer the number, then SVA it to get back on the road.

[Range Rover Ron]

Following progress and it's starting to look the BIZ!

I like the idea of the "van type",
it does look really close when eyeballing down from the end of the roof to the cut rear chassis.
I bet it would look good too,
The back would look totally different with the back door,
you might even get a Disco door on there with a bit of planning!
what do you think?
Maybe even the back of a Transit?
I know it's too late now and you'd probably not want it like that anyway but it is a good idea and you'd reclaim a lot of space back for the stuff we all carry and never use!

Now I really need to know how you put the photos on the posts!!!!
Could someone please explain it to an absolute dummy!
In plain speak, not computer speak, if you assume that I'm a complete idiot when explaining then I should be able to follow.
thanks,
Ron.

[Range Rover Blues]

Ron, if you click on "quote" on the top of someone else's post with pictures in it, you'llopen a new message window that has all their text in it.

That text will contain the cose used to stick a picture into a message, you can then cut/paste or copy the syntax but ass a link to your own pipcture.  I'd huess you need to use some form of on-line storage for that though, even if it's your own galery.

Alternatively you can add 1 picture as an attachment at the end of your post.

[Range Rover Ron]

Cheers Blue,
I'll investigate and try it out soon.
thanks