Wedding belle
Nearly back to normal for Tim…
AS you will have seen a few months ago, Mr Brownie (my ’83 Range Rover) received rather a lot of work to the sills, bulkhead and rear arches, however there were still some other jobs remaining, mainly being the front inner wings, and a small piece on the rear body cross member to do.
I started off at the front end, thankfully being an early car, the inner wings simply bolt and screw to the car as opposed to welded on as per later cars. This does make things a little bit easier.
Initially I thought I could save the original inner wings, however once removed it was quite evident they were not worth repairing! Luckily I happened to have a pair of new inner wings in stock, so I trial fitted them to the car to make sure they all lined up, also it was a good chance to drill any holes that were needed, too.
In addition, there were quite a few things that needed to be removed from the old wings and re-welded to the new inner wings. Once this was all done I cleaned the inner
wings back to bare metal and then gave them several layers of paint, which is certainly a lot more than the originals received from the factory.
While the inner wings were totally removed, access to the chassis was now nice and easy, so I cleaned up, rust killed and painted all the front end of chassis (I had already done the same to the middle section of the chassis when I did the sills). At the same time I removed the springs and shocks, these were to be replaced anyway with some new ones.
With everything painted it was time to re-assemble, this took quite some time, especially as I was being very careful not to scratch or damage the freshly-painted parts.
While there was nothing bolted to the wings it was a good chance to get some clear wax oil on them and stone chip the underside. Once this was done I set about re-bolting everything back on, and once again Mr Brownie started to look like a Range Rover again!
Once the front end was completed I moved to the back end. I knew there was a small hole in the body cross member that needed addressing.
I took all the interior out, removed the boot floor (again on these earlier cars these just pop rivet in) and it revealed the top of the cross member, of which there wasn’t much left! There was only one thing for it and that was to replace it, again while I had good access to the chassis I did the same process and painted that all up at the rear end, too.
While I was there it was also a good opportunity to put a new fuel tank in, due to it being extremely rusty, and after draining it and seeing the rusty petrol, I’m glad I did replace it!
With the new cross member now in place, I trial-fitted the tailgates. These all still fitted and shut perfectly so I welded it in properly. Now that was in, I thought I’d freshen up the boot framework, so that was all rubbed right back, rust killed then painted, and looks much better for it.
It was now just a case of re-assembling the whole car, starting off with new springs and shocks to the rear, fuel tank, before then working my way up to re-attaching the outer wings, with the interior all going back in last. The only job left to do at some point in the future is to re paint the outer body panels, but for the time being they’re still not too bad. It is a job that will get done when time and funds allow, however.
Meanwhile as restrictions have eased, some friends of ours were getting married in Sandy, Bedfordshire. They were in need of some transport to for the bride and groom so I offered my special 4.2 JE Engineering car to them, and I became chauffeur for the day.
It was touch and go whether the wedding would go ahead in the current situation, but thankfully it did and the weather held out too, it was a lovely day.
The Range Rover certainly looked the part and was very well received by the newlyweds, along with many people who had passed by whilst we were outside the church. It was a nice change to be enjoying and driving a Range Rover rather than welding one up!
After the wedding a friend of mine wanted to know if I fancied a day out taking photos of trains in Wales. This would be the first time I had been to a heritage railway since before lockdown.
We set off early in the morning from North Yorkshire, en route for the Welshpool & Llanfair Railway, one of the few I hadn’t actually ever made it to.
The JE Range Rover was the vehicle of choice for this trip and we kept trying to get ahead of the train, to capture our photos. It was really good to see people out and about again (being sensible, of course).
We got many waves from both passengers on the train, and fellow Land Rover owners as we raced to each location! We had a great day there, and we very much look forward to returning one day, hopefully in more ‘normal’ times.