DISCOVERY 1 300TDI PICK UP (aka 'Project Pepe')
OWNER Mark Stonebridge (GLRC president):
I’ve been into Land Rovers since tinkering with my grandfather’s Series III when I was five, then building my first V8 Hybrid at 16.
I bought this Disco 1 about eight years ago, it was a mint 300Tdi ES with all the optional extras from new. Mechanically it was sound with only about 100k, so the question was what to do with it. I saw an article about a Disco 1 pick up using a Longranger kit and Project Pepe was born
I wanted to build something functional, reliable and as corrosion resistant as possible. In April 2018 I invited some mechanically-minded friends over for a few days to celebrate my birthday and help.
After stripping everything down to the inner body it was clear a lot of repair work was needed. The decision was made to build a new frame for the rear, the rusty inner body was removed and the rear floor raised by 45 mm to accommodate a rear winch.
The frame was sent away for galvanising, while I started on the wiring. I wanted to go back to basics and remove anything not essential that could cause problems in the future, including ABS, airbags, electric seats, electric windows, alarm/immobilliser and central locking, to mention a few.
I also replaced the front inner wings, fitted a galvanised frame, fibreglass wings and pick-up bed made from 5 mm chequer plate, and welded in the rear bulkhead.
Corbeau reclining seats and Momo steering wheel were then added and lower seat mounts welded in, the steering column dropped by 10 mm, the handbrake repositioned between the seat and gearbox tunnel and a new handbrake mounting plate welded in.
Next job was to fabricate the bull bar, roll bar, light bar, rock sliders, bumpers and winch mounts. The rear winch is particularly useful when pulling boats and jet skis out of the water.
After a paint job just over a year, Pepe was taken for an engineering report and re-registered as a pick up. Since then, it has had a ARB rear locker, new gearboxes, engine rebuild, gas-flowed head, VGT Turbo, bigger intercooler and uprated fuel pump, as well as some cosmetic extras such as Disco 4 side vents, Defender headlights, carbon fibre cab floor, roller shutter/side rails from a Ford Ranger and a rear tailgate from an L200.