retropower

That's fitted to a sprinter single mass aftermarket flywheel and sprinter pressure plate, which the tdi driven plate conveniently fits nicely

Around this time I had a sat off metal fab and had a play with mating engine and box. Gaz fab's adaptor (a close copy of the one that Scandinavian marine sell in Sweden I believe) plate is meant for the zf autobox but I figured if it fits that it will fit an r380 v8 bellhousing, and had a stab in the dark that the tdi input shaft might be long enough to reach through the clutch. It was, just! I will face a couple of mm off the bellhousing to get complete spline engagement but plenty close enough for mockup and engine mount making

Other side of the rear ended gets the chop!

Making the "steppy" bits each end of rear seat area

I should add that I don't really "do" internet and forums much. My brother deals with that side of our business and I don't have much time, but this site has been so helpful, and seems so free of the keyboard warriors that occupy most online spaces that I thought it might be useful to somebody to drop this lot here, especially since it's now becoming worth restoring an RRC properly.

Quick bit made up to repair n/s/r inner 1/4 as didn't really want to change full panel, both financially and psychologically (wanted to keep some original metal lol)

About this time (October last year) I moved house so progress slowed a bit. It's never quick as I only work on it every other Saturday for a few hours and the odd hour in the evening. I run a restoration business so on one hand everything is there in the workshop but on the other I'm always stupidly busy and never get chance to work on it. I think at this stage I was about 35 hours into the metalwork

Sill and arch progressing

Missed a few pics at this stage but sills got box sectioned and I remade the outer floor sections to pretty much replicate the original, from sheet. Spot welded the reinforcer angle bits underneath then spot and plug and stitch welded the whole lot together, then moved on to destroying the back of it!

Gets bad before it gets better!!

Offside a lot worse!!

Time for nearside sill carnage to start

Bit more, gets a lot worse yet lol! Just a quick trial fit of an inner wing to check it lines up ok

Footwells looking healthier

That was the start of the learning curve of poor quality Range Rover repair panels, with the exception of the "easy-on" by froggatt front inner wings, which were pretty good to be fair

Converting footwell repair panels to have the edges the right way round!!

Starting to deal with the usual rot. No messing about just chop the lot

Then it was time to start tackling the rot! Can't upload any more though?

Getting stuck in to stripdown and rust discovery mode

The starting point. Fairly unmolested but pretty rotten in the usual spots. Vm boat anchor was a good runner but wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding so skip bound

Well been meaning to put this up for a while. Will be in dribs and drabs as very busy with work as well as building this! Figured it may be a useful reference for someone though!

I'm using '98 suffix L r380 which is now in bits on my bench. It's getting bigger 5th/reverse end bearings plus all usual rebuild parts, lt230 is getting sleeved casing and Ashcroft lsd centre diff. The spline engagement is indeed much longer than those failed ones.

I'm putting one in a Range Rover classic. Ollie hadn't finished his conversion when I started out, so I used Gaz fab adaptor plate and an r380 v8 bellhousing. All worked well with a tdi input shaft and custom spigot bearing, plus sprinter DMf delete flywheel and clutch cover plus 300tdi friction plate. Whether it'll take the power is another matter!! I'm going for mech pump as I want zero complication and a fair bit more power. I'm rebuilding the gearbox and transfer boxes with strengthening upgrades, and I've started from a suffix L disco box but rebuilding it with new suffix k/l type 300tdi input shaft. No body or chassis mods required, other than welding on eng mounts which I added onto stock v8 chassis brackets. Oil filter a bit tight to get in and out, either cut bulkhead a little in scuttle area or remote it which is easy as housing unbolts and leaves flat flange for pipe takeoffs

Lol yep! Range Rover body now bolted on, pretty sure there is some height variation compared to the chassis it came off, but also pretty sure no one will ever notice!