1970 2a Upgrades

[deanc5]

I have started a makeover of a 1970 Series 2a. The truck was previously owned by a friend of mine who had owned for the last 30 years. Originally a BC Hydro truck, it has 58000km on it. Here it is on the day I brought it home. He also included all the missing door parts. My plans include a full rebuild along with a discovery 1 coil suspension and axles, a 2.5L NA diesel swap, and I thought I may as well do a power steering upgrade while I'm at it.

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[deanc5]

Here are some of the parts I've collected for the project so far.
Full set of deluxe seats, and the new axles.

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[deanc5]

The Koenig PTO winch will also be getting a cleanup and new cable.

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[terayon]

Looks great! Tis they season to get inspired and get something done!

Sent from my STV100-3 using Tapatalk

[deanc5]

At home, I got a better look after a thorough steam cleaning.

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[deanc5]

Teardown started. First order of business is to strip down to the frame and transmission so I can dry fit the diesel and get to work sorting out the far side motor mount. This frame is in fantastic shape. It apparently received new paint in the late 80's before my buddy bought it. Then it never left his acreage after that.

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[deanc5]

Bulkhead is pretty much intact. One small hole on the lower drivers door post. Being a late 2a, it also came with the power brake booster.

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[deanc5]

More parts from my brothers neighbor. He's been collecting and rebuilding series and defenders for 30 years. He's got a great selection of parts to pick through. So this defender roof and '59 tub will eventually become a trailer.

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[deanc5]

Diesel fit up time. Today I pushed the frame outside and ground off the front shock mounts, right side motor mount, battery box, and anything else that doesn't belong on a coil chassis. Then I temporarily stuck the diesel in place so I could get a look at the motor mount situation.

Instead of moving the battery inside the cab, I am thinking I will build a new removable battery box to keep the battery under the hood. I want to use the space under the driver's seat for a second fuel tank.

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The driver's side fit pretty good using the 2.25 petrol mount.

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This diesel has an extended mount on the passenger side to clear the injection pump.

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[ANDYD]

Looking great, nice find!

Thanks for sharing your progress, keep it coming 8)

[deanc5]

Got the motor mount built today.

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[deanc5]

I had a distraction lately when I took a road trip to pick up this Lister Petter TX2 twin cylinder diesel for my new 10kw generator project. This will allow me to use my plasma cutter and mig welder up at the storage building as I cannot use them in the house. Yes the rover is actually downstairs in the house. Some of you may have seen this advertised in Lillooet for the past month. Made an offer and it was well worth the drive. I brought it home, bled the fuel lines, and she fired right up. Plenty loud too with no muffler on the broken exhaust manifold. I have a manifold on order.

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[deanc5]

I am actually not happy with the way my right side motor mount turned out for the NA2.5 swap. The frame mount, which fits the stock na2.5 motor mount perfectly is sloped at a sharper angle than the left side stock 2.25 petrol mount. This has the effect of pushing the motor to the left as it strains the rubber isolators. The motor looks like it may foul my front pto driveshaft. It may not matter now anyway as I might be getting a brand new 2.4L turbo diesel! Seriously, I may have found a brand new crate motor at a price I cannot refuse. More about that later.

[deanc5]

Look what else showed up today. Its 7 boxes from Paddock Spares. I thought if I compiled one large order instead of several small orders, I might save on shipping. Nope. That didn't happen. Anyway, I have a lot to do now.

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[BlkP38]

What do you plan for the body?
Have been hesitating as it’s open to opinion but to me the body looks perfect as-is. Just protect the steel parts.
Eric.

[deanc5]

What do you plan for the body?
Have been hesitating as it’s open to opinion but to me the body looks perfect as-is. Just protect the steel parts.
Eric.

Agreed. At first, I thought that it was a bit too rough to leave as is even though I do really like patina. The rear quarters are quite badly dented and pockmarked although they don't really show it in the photos. The wings are pushed back and creased from years of work in the woods on Vancouver Island. But I recently came around to the fact that, if just for the time being, it looks great the way it is. I will paint the bulkhead and rad support. I'll also remove the paint from all the galvanized trim. But leave the rest as is. I did order some front wing panels, but I'll just save them for later and see what I can do with a dolly and hammer.

[bsa_m21]

My advice re condition of LR bodies is, "She earned the dents, she can keep them." Clean it up as best you can and paint it. :bounce:

[deanc5]

So what do you do when you are ready to install your new coil axles but they are stored in a building a half kilometer away in a blizzard, and you have no hoist and no one to help you? Easy. You tie them to a tire, drag them down the mountain, then you winch them the rest of the way into the garage with your 1500 pound winch that you've had on the shelf for years, and that you've attached to your series chassis with a giant c-clamp. Pretty simple really.

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[HeadDamage]

Nice trailer grooming drag, might be able to make a few bucks selling those to Whistler ;)

[deanc5]

I'm just getting the frame stripped a little further. The Relay removal was relatively painless and only took about 5 minutes. I picked up a 6-ton bottle jack at princess auto on sale and I had a piece of chain laying around. So with those and a scrap piece of 2x2 square tubing it popped right out. It definitely needed some force, but the 6-ton was more than enough. Actually, the hardest parts to remove from the frame were the front springs. The bolts were firmly seized in the bushings and needed to be cut off with a grinder.

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[deanc5]

I did a lot of research before attempting this build. Economics dictated that the low mileage Discovery 1 axles and suspension would be a MUCH cheaper option than rebuilding the series axles and purchasing parabolic springs. In fact, the disco suspension was a fraction of the price and provides many advantages over the stock suspension. As well, my attitude has always been that a land rover engineer at the Solihull plant in 1970 would have preferred coils to leaves if he/she had had the choice. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any specific information regarding the frame modifications required in order to mount a coil suspension on a series chassis. So I did the best I could deciphering the few photos that my research did turn up and went ahead and ordered defender radius arm brackets and spring seats. These photos show the frame mods that I had to do to get the radius arm brackets installed.

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[deanc5]

Alignment and squaring of the axles wasn't too difficult. I started with mounting the front radius arm brackets in the only spot they can go which is snug up against the bulkhead outriggers. Then I mounted the front axle. It was then a simple matter to measure out an exact 88-inch wheelbase to locate the rear axle. A quick test fit of the tub and it looks like the rear axle location is a perfect fit beneath the wheel arches. I did not try to mount the rear axle exactly where the original rear axle was because for whatever reason that would have resulted in an 86.5" wheelbase.

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[deanc5]

Shown below is a Defender cross member that I am "trying on for size". It will be heavily modified and reinforced to become an A-arm cross member on the series frame. I know the frame looks dirty but I ground it down to bare metal wherever I needed to weld. The whole thing will be sandblasted after the mods and repairs are complete.

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[red90]

Normally people keep the disco frame and modify it to fit the series body. It is a lot less work and you can buy the body mounts cheap.

[cbalme]

Have you got a plan for a fuel tank? It looks as though the original Series tank won't fit due to the arms getting in the way.