Expert view
Matt heads to Britpart for advice on his new project
It was the moment of truth. I’d trailered the Land Rover 90 project my wife Emmy and I had just bought as a joint project to Shropshire to see the experts at Britpart behind Land Rover Owner International magazine’s late 110 Defender (see Team Adventure on p34) and, notebook and screwdriver of truth at the ready and the car raised on a four post ramp, it was time to find out exactly what I’d bought.
Britpart MD Paul Myers might be the man in charge of this enormous company, but his roots as a Land Rover enthusiast are clear. Shirt and tie, but filthy hands within minutes of the car going up in the air, it’s clear we’re going to get along. Armed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the parts and repair panels available from the warehouses that surround us, Paul and in-house mechanic Steve Grant were well-placed to help me create a shopping list and form a plan of exactly how best to approach the numerous tasks that will follow in these pages over the coming months.
I poked at the seized and crusty side steps ‘It’s little jobs like stripping these down, freeing them off and painting them that I can do at home’ I enthused. ‘Or you could just replace them. We sell hundreds of them – they are so cheap that it’s not worth your time and effort trying to revive these originals’ says Paul. He’s right. Flicking through the websites of the numerous sellers Britpart supplies it becomes abundantly clear that economies of scale thanks to commonality within the Land Rover model range as well as the enormous quantities of parts that Britpart can stock in this massive site makes restoring a Land Rover something that really doesn’t have to break the bank.
Screwdriver of truth
Steve breaks out his screwdriver of truth as we head beneath the ramp. As I’d identified when viewing the car, the rear crossmember and back of the chassis legs were in a terrible state. Luckily, Britpart offer a replacement rear crossmember with chassis leg extensions included, making this repair not only possible but hopefully relatively straightforward, too. There are various chassis repair sections from just the crossmember through this with short extensions into half and even full chassis. It was a full chassis that I had feared Steve would reveal I needed but in fact he was pleasantly surprised.
‘You seem to have spotted the worst of it when you viewed the car. This chassis is definitely worth saving with a few repairs.’. That’s a relief to the bank balance! A front left outrigger also goes on the chopping list as we continue our investigative prod beneath the Ninety.
The battery box which sits below the front passenger seat was crusty, and with a tickle from Steve’s screwdriver soon became holed. ‘We offer an aluminium replacement for this common rotspot’ says Paul. All you need to do it remove the seat box, drill out the rivets holding the steel version in, then rivet the alloy upgrade into position.’ That beats endless hours fabrication and welding in my book, so I added an aluminium battery box to the ever-growing shopping list.
‘Britpart offers a wide range of repair panels for the many common rot spots’
Bulkhead concerns
We lower the car as we continue to inspect the bodywork. I’d spotted the top of the bulkhead was grotty when viewing the car but feared what Steve might find when he poked further. With the floor mats and trim panels removed from the inside, the lower corners of the bulkhead looked in reasonable condition. ‘You’ve caught this one just in time’ says Steve, ‘Normally, they go at the top and that’s where water floods in to rot out the bottoms.’ Across the workshop, Steve shows me an example of what he’d expected to find when he lifted the carpet. ‘This is the bulkhead from the LRO 90 project. You can see where water has sat and just eaten through the bottom. That car needed a total bulkhead replacement but I think you’ll get away with just the new vent section panels we’ve started producing for now, plus a little bit of fabrication work on the A pillar.’ I’m under no illusions that this will be an easy job, however.
The roof needs unbolting and raising slightly to allow the windscreen surround to be removed to gain access to the top of the vents. The doors need to come off, too. As do the front wings and the bonnet. This, then, is the biggest job identified to date and will require me to spend at least a day with the spanners before I can break out the MIG. That said, removing the front wings and bonnet will make replacing the engine easier, so the time spent here will serve a dual purpose.
What lurks beneath
Back underneath we turn our attention to the suspension, much of which looks like it’s come off the Mary Rose. ‘You’d better add springs, shocks, bushes and trailing arms to your list, Matt’ says Paul. ‘Plus brake callipers, discs, drums, pads,
shoes, copper lines and hoses,’ adds Steve.
List in hand, we make a plan. I’ll focus to start with on getting the chassis solid, then cleaned and painted. Then I can do all the suspension and brakes, all the time keeping the car as together and mobile as possible. Then it’ll be a case of stripping down the front end, welding the bulkhead and swapping the engine. ‘Sounds easy when you say it quickly, doesn’t it’ laughs Paul. Come on, let’s get the exhaust off. You may as well get cracking and replace the rear crossmember tomorrow while you’re here…’
But that’s a story for next time.
■ matt.tomkins@practicalclassics.co.uk