Range Rover bodyshell

Trevor Cuthbert makes separating the Range Rover’s body from the rolling chassis look easy. It’s a similar job on Discovery 1 and 2

Removing it for restoration

aving replaced the chassis in more than half a dozen Discovery 2 models, as well as removing rotten body shells from three or four Discovery 1 donor vehicles, I was expecting to find my first Range Rover body lift to be fairly familiar. The Range Rover chassis was used to develop the first Discovery and is, therefore, very similar with only minor variations. The Range Rover and Discovery 1 chassis are not interchangeable, but it does take a trained eye to tell them apart. The Discovery 2 chassis varies considerably from the other two in certain aspects, but the way the vehicle was built at the factory, and the way in which the body is fixed to the chassis, is very similar.

HReleasing the mounting bolts

There are 14 attachment points (bolts) between the body and the chassis on Range Rover, just as there 14 on the first two versions of Discovery. Two of these mounting points are located in the engine bay and removing these two bolts is often the most difficult part of the job. Working from below the Range Rover, getting a ring spanner on the head of the bolt in the engine bay when you can’t see it – and space is restricted – is pretty challenging. On our Range Rover the bolt heads were slightly rounded with corrosion, making it even more difficult. For this reason I decided to remove the engine from the Range Rover first. The engine was going to have to be separated from the gearbox anyway and, with it out of the way, it was possible to attach a pair of locking pliers (Vise-grips) onto the bolt head to hold it, while the nut was unscrewed from below.

Rust can often operate in mysterious ways: the engine bay body bolts were difficult to remove due to corroded bolt heads, but all of the others were in good condition and came apart easily. This is remarkable only for the reason that some of the bolts are in locations more prone to rust, than those in the engine bay. All of the body bolts and nuts on the Range Rover are 3/8 inch diameter (imperial

equivalent is M10) and are removed using 9/16 inch AF spanners and sockets.

There are two distinctive outriggers on each side of the chassis which are fixing points for mounts at either end of the sills on the body shell. As soon as the ring spanner is securely over the bolt head at the top, and after finding the best route for the spanner move, the nuts are spun off with a socket from below.

At the four corners of the chassis there are mounting bolts which pass though large rubber bushes at the chassis. These are all easily accessible and straightforward to remove, using a ring spanner and socket wrench.

The remaining four fixing points are the easiest of all. The bolts are hinged onto the floor of the body shell and all it takes is to remove the nut with a socket wrench, with no bolt head to hold.

Disconnecting components

After all of the body bolts have been undone or removed, there are plenty of other connections between the body shell and the chassis that need to be released before lifting the body off the rolling chassis.

The fuel filler pipe from the body to the tank needs to be disconnected by removing a compression clip at the tank or at the filler cap – the choice is usually dictated by which clip is least corroded or most easily cut off.

Inside the vehicle, the handbrake cable needs to be disconnected and pushed through the transmission tunnel. Likewise, the cable from the automatic gearbox to the shifter is disconnected and then pushed clear.

Around the hi-low shifter, the rubber boot needs to be removed after the knob is unscrewed. This allows the transmission tunnel to separate from the gearbox cleanly as the body is lifted.

The linkage between the steering column and the power steering box has to be disconnected at some point – I usually undo the pinch bolt at the steering box, and then lever the universal joint clear.

Unlike the Defender, where a large section of the wiring loom runs along the inside of the right chassis rail, almost all of the Range Rover wiring is contained within the body shell. Therefore there are few electrical connections to worry about. There is a plug in the wiring harness to the fuel tank that needs to be disconnected. Likewise there is a wiring harness to the gearbox that needs to be unplugged. Because our engine has already been removed, the wiring harness between the engine and body has already been dealt with.

The connections for the braking system, between the body and chassis, also have to be carefully removed. At the rear is a flexi hose between the top of the rear axle and a mount under the body. At the front there are two pairs of flexible hoses.

As with any project where the body is being lifted from the chassis, one can work through a check-list of disconnections, but it is vital to double check everything and then watch like a hawk as the body is slowly raised in stages. There may be something forgotten, or there may be some aftermarket modification carried out by some previous owner.