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.


