Ute2 Reincarnation

[slunnie]

Ongoing Photo gallery is at: http://www.slunnie.com/coppermine/thumb ... ?album=128

After buying Ute2 it was decided to leave the new jigger alone and as is. Somebody had already put an enormous amount of time and effort into the restoration of this ruck and it would seem a great shame to destroy that by making some wylie adjustments to the combined efforts from Solihull and the mid-north NSW coast.



It is a Mustard Land Rover Series II 1960 109" Military spec Petrol Cab chassis with a civilian Aluminium work tray on the rear. It was also running what appeared to be Game wheels with 31x11.5-15 Muddies.



Well, it took 2 months to get over how wonderful this truck was. With a fresh 12 months rego on her now, it was time to build it into something a little more..... well....... "animal" I think the word is.

The plan is this:

Rover 3.5V8 - done & removed.
Rover 3.9V8 - done.
LT95 - done & removed.
ZF/LT230 - done.
LPG/Petrol fuel system. - Petrol done.
Land Cruiser 60 series axles SUA. - done.
37x12.5-16 Maxxis Creepy Crawlers. - done.
Hybrid Land Rover & Land Cruser 60 series power steering - done.
Land Cruiser 60 series brakes.- done.
Trimmed Guards to fit the tyres. - done.
Restoration as required - done.
Rustgard Blue recolour. - done.

So the conversion begins. I'm doing this in my works workshop over the Christmas break, so I don't have a lot of time to make this all happen. This is how it went:

Push the ol' girl in, ready for a "grease and oil change"



Well, the strip was to begin. Off with the front end + radiator. This also included dismantling and labelling the wire loom



Stripping the body. The firewall wasn't too crash hot with some cancer in the DS chassis mount, so that'll have to get replaced - well, especially considering it fell apart when removing it.



Next off came the roof and rear glass



Then the seat box and rear bulkhead.



With the body off, then all of the tailshafts could be removed or disjointed, the engine and gearbox mounts released, exhaust detached - then lift!!!



After a few quick tidy-ups, the chassis is now bare. Well, at least where the work will be done.



In preparation for the new engine and gearbox, the front crossmember has to be removed, and later a replacement will be fabricated. The revised setup will be the same as that used in the Series 3 chassis so should not present any structural problems. The V8 motor length will cause the fan to come very close and the radiator to possibly not fit. The power steering box will also need to be bolted through where the current crossmember and steering relay are.



The front crossmember has been oxy cut out now, as have the original engine mounts.



Then ground flat before painting with Rustgard paint.



After the paint had dried the chassis was pushed outside and washed to remove any brake fluid, mud, grease and grinding dust. Then of course pushed back in to dry.



The blue IIa 100" Hybrid was then brought into the workshop to begin stripping. The IIa already has most of the equipment that will be used in Ute2 such as the V8, Lt95, LC60 axles etc. The firewall in this truck is also in a lot better condition that Ute2's, and so will be swapped over.

The stripping process of IIa was fairly quick, as the bolts were all in excellent condition and split washers were used instead of Nylocs.

Off came the front panel work, the roof, then the rear glass, and the rear bulkhead. This process took about 1 hour.





Nosing IIa up to Ute2 gave an insight into where Ute2 was heading, except lower, longer and meaner!



Next the donor IIa's firewall was lifted. This firewall is in pretty good shape and Ute2's original firewall will be rebuilt onto this one with the required modifications.



Back to the Ute2 chassis, there are some marks on the chassis from wear and tear, spilt brake fluid, parts removal etc. that need to be sorted.



Its important that the chassis looks like its in top condition so that the Engineer is under the impression that the job has been done professionally. The chassis has been sprayed using Rustgard Matt Black paint to tidy it all up. At this stage, only the tray forward is being sprayed. When the rear half of the truck gets worked on or the tray is lifted, then those parts of the chassis will be sprayed also.



The V8 and LT95 gearbox is finally lifted from the IIa ready to be transplanted into Ute2.



IIa chassis is pushed out. Those Landcruiser axles and 37" Claws will get lifted from it also for use in Ute2



The engine mounts from IIa have been cut out and new mounts based on these have been fabricated for ute2. These are comprised of new plate sides and a plate rear will also be added later.



The V8 motor is now having an LPG system added to it. This has come from a donor rangie and should allow the motor to not only be a little cheaper to run, but also allow it to run on steep angles without fuelling problems.

The V8 motor and gearbox have now been test fitted to the chassis. The gearbox needs to be offset to allow the tailshaft to pass through the chassis port. Gearbox mount now need to be made up to suit the offset location. grrrr.



In hindsight, I thought that the gearbox relocation and twisting of the engine/gearbox was going to be a silly way to do things, so the alignment problems with the gearbox output were fixed by removing the particular crossmember as in the pic below. The crossmember may be replace with one similar that that which is behind is as it shouldn't interfere with the tailshaft.



The engine mounts which had been tacked in place were welded into position properly and a brace plate added to prevent any for/aft movement of the engine which may cause fatigue. This was sprayed also.



Now to replace the axles. I dropped the springs and unbolted the axles with the chassis sitting on a tyre.



Drill the stocker U-bolt plates to suit the LC60 rear axle U-bolts (used up front)



U-bolt are LC60 rears for the front, plus a square Ubolt to the same specs for the the U-bolt next to the diff pumpkin. Keeping everything close to how LR did it from the factory reduces complications. Shocks just bolt straight up.





and the front axle is in, waiting for steering.



3x3mm plate was cut and drilled to reinforce the chassis and to suit the LC60 steering box



The chassis was also drilled to suit and crush tubes inserted to help further reinforce the chassis and keep the engineers happy



The crush tubes were welded in place using bolts and plates to ensure proper alignment, and then the welds ground smooth.



The chassis then had the paint ground away from where the plates were to be welded on, and the plates welded into position, with 1x3mm plate behind the steering box, and 2x3mm plates on the inside of the chassis. This was all sprayed while warm, for some accelerated drying times.



The engine was then dropped in to its proper location, and the steering box bolted in





Now the body was to be reassembled back onto the chassis. This wasn't as seamless as what I had hoped initially as the gearbox was a little bigger than the old one and the seat box would not fit over it. The best parts of both Ute2 and the IIa were used.



Until it met the nibbler at least, which subsequently encouraged the seat box to be a little more accommodating.



Seat box in with rear bulkhead, rear glass and roof now in place



Add firewall and windscreen



And flooring. Hmmm, this also needed to be adjusted with the nibbler to allow the engine/gearbox to fit.



Add doors also and its starting to look like a Landrover again.



When the firewall was out, it had the factory steering removed, and a Defender steering column put in. This was very close to being bolt in, with one bracket being cut off the column, and 2 bolt holes being drilled into the firewall to mount the bearing. The steering wheel is a Range Rover unit, and so naturally as luxurious as a royal would come to expect in a Land Rover. Although not seen in the pic, the column is mounted inside the cabin using the original clamp that holds the Series style steering column - both shafts being approx the same diameter.





The LC60 link to the steering box is telescopic and is a very good part to use between the Defender column and the LC60 steering box. The splines at the uni joint between the 2 parts do not match though. I trimmed the end off the shaft by 10mm and fitted a Rover uni joint to the end of the shaft, and this was welded in place. Beware of any absorbed impurities that will lead to porosity in the welds - this is critical. This way the LC60 shaft would now join with the Defender steering column.

[slunnie]

As the kiddies were coming back to school I've had to push it back out of the workshop. Its had the door uppers put back on, the front clip disassembled and the guards attached to the firewall, the facia moved forward to accomodate the motor in this position and the bonnet placed on top until the next round of works.



I've just been thinking while looking at the pics and wondering. I reckon the body would look good in Hammertone blue instead of the rustgard blue. Now that would be something different and still so very easy to find and touch up. Based on the comments of others that seem to have done this, the Hammertone is a really good hard paint that resists scratching etc. Sounds like its the go!

LC60 rear axle on a pallet and ready for prep to be fitted to the ute.



OE spring perches are removed with an angle grinder and will be replaced with new ones which are spaced to fit Landrover springs.



Well, the old girl was finally to have that mixed axle syndrome sorted now, so out with the old axle (interestingly was a Rover rear axle, not a Salisbury which surprised me as the truck is all military spec).



In with the LC60 axle. Spring perches in place to sit the axle into, centre and tack into position.



Axle back out and prep'd for welding. The LC60 axles are bloody heavy compared to the Rover axles!



Interestingly the rear diffs don't look a lot wider, though the LC60 is definately heavier and stronger than the rover diff.



The Toyota U-bolts are also significantly bigger in diameter with a drill size of 16mm



The rear lower U-bolt plates were also replaced with the type used on the front to relocate the shock mounts from the axle as done by Rover in the rear to the spring as done by Slunnie.



On the drivers side the axle breather and brake line junction were in the same spot that the U-bolt needed to go. The breather was unscrewed and the brake line junction moved out of the way. The hole was welded over and ground flat before the U-bolts were put into place and the axle bolted down to the spring pack.



Got width? 2" Snake spacers.



Stock stance



And the stance on 31's is good now, especially in comparison to a stocker, though will be wider again when the 37's are put back on again.



Now all of the 37" tyres are on. The blue front guards really need a good trimming to make this work and in fact the 37's wont fit on with the blue guards untrimmed. As a temporary measure, until the blue guards can be trimmed properly I will fit the yellow guards which have the high clearance military cut on the them which better suits the 37's. This yellow guard is just sitting in position.



Front cross member has been replaced with 3mm RHS



The steering damper was also tested for position and had the chassis mount welded into position. It ended up going directly onto the original IIa steering damper mount. Actually the way I've welded it on, a Toyota or a Landy steering damper may be used, it just depends on the chassis mount that gets used.



Out of interest, I was able to raise the front wheel by 470mm before the hoist ran out of travel. I think that about 500mm or so will be about the limits of the suspension though. Also the rear tyre was pressed onto the tray, so the tray will also later need to be raised to suit.



The tailshafts arrived from Tom Woods in the US. Great looking shafts and very well built. Due to the length of the rear shaft the tube diameter has been increased from 2" to 2.5". The shorter one is for the front. Both shafts have been built with 1310 uni joints to suit this truck and joining a Rover transfer case to Toyota axles. The front shaft also has a long slip joint due to the shackle reversal design of front suspension that Rover have used.



The flanges were built to match the centre diameter of the Toyota pinion flange and so located centrally, but the bolt pattern is different. I ended up clamping the tailshaft to the pinion flange and drilling out the 10mm holes to suit. This task required a round toyota flange to do it.



The pinion flange was then replaced onto the diff and the shaft bolted in.



At the gearbox end the output flange and handbrake drum had previously been modified to run a Toyota shaft directly onto it, and this had to be converted back to a standard drum and output flange as the new shaft was a standard Rover DIN flange.

Today was radiator and guards. I sat the radiator into position and fitted the top radiator hose to estimate its position forward of the engine. From there I fabricated some lower mounts, then welded them onto the chassis X-member to support the radiator. The radiator sits on rubber cushions over the mounts. The radiator still requires the upper mounts, though this cant be done until the guards are locked into place.





The front body work was next. Using a military guard as a template, I marked out and cut the replacement guard with an angle grinder. The military guard also has a horizontally cut front guard panel, though I've instead used a MogRover style angled cut to suit. More will have to be taken out of the front later for additional tyre clearance. The guard was then fitted.






The Drivers side guard was also modified, though this time the front guard panel was unbolted, unriveted and unspotwelded, and the panel replaced with a Series 3 part to match the other side. This was bolted and riveted into position (poorly at that). The inner guard was modified with the angle grinder to allow space for the steering mechanisms and the MogRover cut also applied to the front. A headlight was installed from a Series II facia before fitting the panel to the 4WD.




The headlight surrounds have also been wirewheeled back and a coat of Aluminium etch primer applied in anticipation of paint.

Today work started on the SeriesIII facia.



The back was cut off it using an angle grinder.



Then it was sanded back ready for painting.



The bonnet selection was also changed as basically I couldn't be bothered making a new bonnet and time was not on my side. The Stage1 bonnet also looks like it will be able to be made to work with the SeriesIII facia.

The bonnet was stripped then sanded back ready for paint also.



Both of the front guards were modified again also. The problem is that with 37's, the tyres will catch the front lip.



The lip was removed, but the Military cut style was maintained.



All of the parts were then prepared for painting.



And then painted in Rustgard Blue. The plan is to eventually paint the car in Hammertone Blue, though the Rustgard provids a really good undercoat prior to doing this.



In addition to this the headlight surrounds have been painted gloss black now. A round Toyota front pinion flange has also been drilled out to suit the new tailshaft also. Once the pinion flange is changed in, the front shaft will be ready to install.

The painted guards were reapplied to the car and made it look a million dollars! Well, maybe a few hundred at least.



Unphotographed, but the bonnet hindes were fabricated to suit also, and the front propshaft was also installed. Getting the old pinion flange off was a real task - though thankfully a good student tipped in with some very effective advice to get the job done. The Tom Woods tailshaft seemed to be a perfect fit again.

The front headlight trims were put into place, as with the grill with none being a permanent fitting, but the truck was looking good.



The refabricated bonnet hinges were installed. These are an adaptation of the SeriesII hinge to suit the height of the Stage1 bonnet and to locate the bonnet back against the fire wall. The external bonnet catches were also installed to hold the bonnet down onto the guards. The facia has also been bolted to the guards.



The brakes are full LC60 setup. A Landy SeriesIII pedal assembly has had a spacer made up to suit the LC60 master cylinder and booster and then bolted together before being installed into the vehicle. Some minor modifications had to be made to the IIa firewall to fit a III brake pedal.



I made up double flare hard brake lines and connected the brakes to longer braided brakes lines which reach down to the axles.



The fuel pump was mounted behind the rear bulkhead to keep it out of harms way and plumbed up to the engine. I'm hoping it will have the ability to draw fuel from the bottom of the tank!



Then a new transmission hump was fabricated out of aluminium sheet to cover the larger LT95 gearbox. Definately a 2 seater now!



The exhaust system was bought for the engine half. It was chosen to do this for a more accurate fit and better result especially with the close proximity to driveline and chassis.

The assembly came looking quite good.



although the PS engine pipe was shortened by roughly 100mm to make it all fit in properly.



and rewelded



This part of the exhuast system was manufactured by Walker exhausts and fitted very well (apart from bit that needed shortening). The exhaust really is designed as a consumer part rather than a performance part. The above pipes are all about 1.75" pipe with press bends and further constriction at the merge between banks.

The rest of the exhaust was fabbed up in the workshop. $150 worth of part in comparison to purchasing about $350 made sence. I've planned to send the exhaust directly down the PTO path to the rear of the 4WD.

To do this I've used a total of 1x 16" offset freeflow muffler and 2600mm of 2" exhaust pipe. Cut the pipe to suit and it went straight in



Back to sorting the clutch out properly. A new mastercylinder was bought to replace the SeriesII unit with seperate fluid can. A quick and easy piston shaft change to make it fit the Series II pedal assembly was all that was needed before installation back into Ute2.

Removing the master cylinder but leaving the shaft by unbolting the mastercylinder and removing the circlip that hold the shaft in.



New master cylinder goes in but using the old piston shaft (but new piston)



Pedal assembly is then refitted and bled.



Made up a new radiator lower hose to fit a coolant bottle.



and fitted all of the bits, ie bottle, breather etc which will be mounted when the front bodywork goes back on.



The rear half of the exhaust system is mounted into position and welded.



I made this gizmo to join the fuel return from the engine back into the fuel tank via the breather pipe.



The engine cranks over, the ignition sparks and the fuel pump pumps.

Well....

She started.

Rough, burped and farted but she goes.

[slunnie]

The battery was relocated to the drivers side of the Ute with a new mount. This was because the starter motor was on that side and it simplified the wires.



The fuel return jigger was installed into the breather of the fuel tank. I dont think that this will cause any problems.



And a dead sexy aluminium dash and switches were wired in, to make the jigger go!



And aint it minimalist. Ignition on light, Starter button, Ignition button. What more could you want..... perhaps a key switch.....



Oh and a knob for the gear stick, but now she starts, runs, brakes and stops. Very cool.

The front clip now doesn't fit due to the LC60 Brake master cylinder and booster. Nothing that an Artline marker and an angle grinder cant fix.



and now the front clip fits.



Next job is to sort the gear stick problem....

With a 3.9 Injected and a ZF auto with LT230 transfer. I thought a more humane handbrake might be nice also - from a Discovery.

Sooo, here we go again.

So I picked up a ZF auto and LT230 from Cloughy (Rovercare)



and a Rover 3.9 injected V8 from Andrew e (Son of Bundalene)



Now Ute2 needs to get stripped again to remove and replace the engine and gearboxs. Grrrr. Oh well. Body off.



Motor out.



While everything was disassembled, I reinforced the engine mounts with 10mm plate.



and also notched the Xmember under the front propshaft to allow extra clearance. This is anticipation of suspension mods later on which will allow greater travel and articulation.



The automatic was mated to the 3.9 using a hoist, a table and some straps. Care was taken to ensure the Torque converter was installed properly without damage to the auto pump, and the TC bolts were loctited into position.



The exhaust was assembled onto the engine while the engine was out and then installed. The Discovery 3.9 injected exhaust system does not fit into the Series chassis though as it contacts the crossmembers with its flat profile.



The 3.5 Stage 1 headers were put onto the 3.9 and the exhaust system reinstalled. The exhaust needed some significant modifications also due to the pan differences between the new ZF/LT230 and the old LT95 transmission.



After some fiddling with gearbox mounts, all of the original 3.9 engine and ZF auto mounts were reused. The pictured mount on the Xmember was removed and the bolts tightened through the original port through the Xmember



The new motor and gearbox were then installed into the Series II chassis and the exhaust reconnected.



So it turned out, the exhaust still wasn't right, and so the motor came out again, the exhaust came off and pipes were chopped and bent and welded to make it all fit a little better.



The gearbox end mounts were also very fiddly to make work. A tight fit!





The motor was then back in with a Disco radiator



The radiator didn't fit. Too wide and clashed with the steering box. It'll be back to a County V8 unit.



Exhaust back in



A bit more clearance in the seat box to clear the LT230 selector was needed.... so was the angle grinder.



And most of the body went back on.



The 37" Claws have now been replaced with 37" Maxxis Creepy Crawlers on 16x10 rims.



When fitted the black tyres and rims helped highlight the insides of the guards.



The guards had to come off again anyway, so the insides were sprayed black, so hopefully they wont stand out anymore.



The factory oil cooler lines for the 3.9 Disco came out from the drivers side as a pair to be connected into a cooler which was integrated in to the radiator. Both lines entered the same side. My intention was to run an ATF cooler as an oil cooler which had connections at either end.



The cooler was fitted under the chassis behind the front Xmember, but the difficulties were in fitting an additional cooler with line clearance and axle clearance for the ATF. The oil cooler has since been rerouted to plumb from both sides of the motor and now passes through a line only loop behind the cross member. The 3.5 V8 did not run a cooler, so hopefully the 3.9 in a light body will be ok.



The top radiator hose was changed from a 3.9 Discovery hose to a Landcruiser ute 2H diesel bottom hose with some trimming to suit the County V8 radiator and the different angle it leaves the the 3.9 in comparison to the 3.5.



The Impco LPG converter was installed and plumbed into the engines cooling system.



The ATF lines were changed out. The original lines that came with it were the small diameter units. I've swapped these out for large diameter high flow lines that should be a little more effective. This required the late model adaptors to fit the lines to the gearbox also.



Large line adaptor on the left, small line adaptor on the right.



The ATF lines on the passengers side were are a simple fit into the cooler. The drivers side was not. With some line cutting and adaption by Pirtek a new line end was made for the installation using high pressure fittings which then brought the ATF line into the cooler.



More Pirtek hosing from the PAS pump to the PAS box



All of the panels came off and and after some long discussions on colour schemes were painted Rustgard Marine blue again. The roof and rear glass panel will be Rustgard Gloss white. I like the paint but it seems to fade quickly in the sun.



After a lot of thinking, trying etc etc, the auto selector was placed to the drivers side of the transfer lever. I think that this end result will be really good in terms of access and ergonomics. The deck of the centre console was reinforced with MDF (I know, not the best material) and the selector fitted into it.



The centre consol was installed and the handbrake was mounted into a new dash panel where the middle front seat used to be. The cables could be made to work in this location, and I'll never know why LandRover never did this from the factory.



Low pressure fuel pump and filter mounted at the bottom of the chassis in a protected and easy to access area.



Low pressure pump feeds into a swirl pot located on the PS battery tray. The swirl pot then feeds into the high pressure EFI pump mounted on the chassis underneath it. This then feeds to the motor.



Blue painted panels are back on. Roof and rear glass are off while being painted white.



The cab top was painted in Rustgard white, another of my favourites from the Rustgard range. In keeping in theme, the painted was applied carefully with a Bunnings paint brush and a Bunnings paint roller.



And the cab was reinstalled. That was a bit awkward doing it solo and with no hoist to help.



ARB himount bar was then cut down to provide clearance for the tyres. The wings were removed using an angle grinder.