1978 Safari Renovation

[PHOENIX]

I have a 1978 Landrover Safari that my wife was driving up until five years ago ( the timing chain went, as did the engine ). It has been sitting outside since then. I am not in any way techically minded and hoped to get a local rover guy to do some work on it, the windows etc are in poor repair as are the doors, the body is good and the chassis is a bit pitted. Any ideas of how much pain ( or man hours ) this operation might take. I know its a big ask!

[smokey2a]

Hi,
without being able to see the car, the answer is how long is a pice of string. Can you post pictures?
Paul

[Snagger]

Door tops can be done over a weekend if the new tops have been painted and dried in advance. It's a little messy and fiddly, but once the first is complete, the others will be simpler.

The chassis might be OK with some welding - seldom expensive, and there are cheap Britpart replacement sections for all the complicated, rot-prone bits like rear x-member, outriggers and dumirons. If it's too far gone, a new chassis is expesive (£1200), and secondhand could be little better than your own (difficult to assess, as they rot from inside-out). A straight chasis swap can be domne in a week by the competent, but it's a lot of work and will need more than just the chassis.

The engine might just be suffering from the broken timing parts and bent valve push rods (usually bend sacrificially to prevent valve/piston damage). If you have avoided damaging the other parts, you'll just need a new chain and tensioner, headgasket and pushrods (8).

[onslow]

It shouldnt be too bad to do,where do you live and what are the weather conditions it has had to endure.
In the past I have bought vehicles that have sat in Barn and fields for upto 20 years and had them up and running on the road in a month or so 5 years isnt a long time for a landy to sit,usually the brakes are the most problematic when left for any duration,engines and Gearboxes will sit for years with no detrimental effects.
If the bulkhead has shown no signs of suffering,the chassis will have taken no harm during its lay up as long as you can go around the chassis with an engineers hammer and not poke any holes in the chassis then thats the general rule of thumb that the chassis is adequate.
Cheers Onz

[PHOENIX]

Thanks lads, weather wise - the bad news is that I'm in Ireland not California. I'll try to get some pictures up if I can and the news on the engine sounds promising. If I was going to rescue her I'd be giving it to a competent guy, but I don't want to leave it with him and as the saying goes ' get rode ' by him. A little education will help me a lot, so I'll try to get more specific details for you lads over the next few weeks if I can. I just thought I'd stick my toe in the water first!

[DickFox]

Hi
I purchased my first land rover, a series 3 at the beginning of the year which was an unfinished project. I was told 95% complete and it did look pretty damn close. Before I purchased it I was given the advice of the 3 landrover renoavtaion laws.

1) Any land rover project will cost 3 times as much as you expected
2) Any land rover project will take 3 times as long as youy expected and
3) Any land rover project will require 3 times as much space as you have.

I am still trying to finish her off but she is beautiful and have enjoyed every moment working on her, well almost every moment on her. I have to say though, I have found these laws quite accurate. I have spare parts everywhere, parts I dont even know where they go, and parts I dont think even belong to a landrover which the guy gave me when I bought it just to confuse me I am sure.

I have found this site a great help though, so if you get stuck on anything ask these guys, they know everything bout landies.

Enjoy

Dick