mwy1964

Thought it may be a bit easier to see with a couple of photos. The first shows the current Pillar joint below the top door hinge. The second the new door pillar. The current door pillar joint does seem different to the new pillar and how you have fitted it in your picture leading to me thinking it has been bodged in the past..

Thanks Les, dont worry it will all be cut out and replaced in full... No half measures here.. What I was referring too is in the the bottom left hand corner of the picture you can see the top of the replacement door pillar. Now, mistakenly or otherwise, I thought the top of the new door pillar slid up into the bulkhead. Your picture shows the new door pillar being let in to the the metal work around the bulkhead. Could you confirm how this is done as I think my Land Rover may have had the previous door pillars bodged in by cutting at the crease 10mm up from the curve section of the door pillars and just butt welded in, which may be confusing me... Thanks for your help Mark..

Hi Les, many thanks for the quick response. I am replacing both the bottom bracket and door pillar with the bulkhead in situ.. Not sure if this is going to be easy seeing your photo of the bulkhead on the bench. Also looking at your picture I had originally thought the new door pillar slid up into the top part of the bulkhead and was then welded. Your picture seems to show the top of the door pillar repair section exposed... Is there a reason for this or is my original thinking wrong... I have experience restoring classic cars but this is my first Land Rover so please excuse what may be stupid questions. Just want to confirm how it fits together before I hack the old pillars out next weekend... Many thanks Mark

Hi All, have spent the last few weekends removing Floor pans and A-Posts ready for replacement with all new parts. Unfortunatly there really was not much left of the Bulkhead lower brackets, where they slide up into the A-Post to gather whether they are welded into the A-Post or not. To me it looks like the bottom bracket is a sliding fit, within the A-post, and the lower hinge bolts hold this tight to allow a small degree of up and down adjustment of the bulkhead. Could someone confirm my thinking or correct otherwise... Thanks in advance Mark

Good point, I prefer the look of the standard roof. The car will be mainly used as a hardtop in the winter carrying me and the dog around shoots. The summer I plan to have sticks and canvas. Mark

That would further explain it then as it was originally a standard hardtop van.. Thanks for the info Mark

Thanks for the feedback so far... I have had a good look at it now and it seems to be too well done to have been fabricated by a previous owner... So just maybe they started fitting Safari roofs without vents in later models... Ala Portugal. JBorges - Thanks for the piccie thats exactly as it looks minus your roofs battle scars... Mines actually in good knick just I would have kept it except I seeing it adding some additional drag factor and I do not see much call for it when working my gundog October thru till Jan.. Mark...

Hi all, I have a Safari roof currently on my series 3 that I will be swapping for a standard roof. I keep hearing that Safari roofs are fairly uncommon and perhaps even sought after. Anyway I am not sure if the roof has been created by a previous owner to look like a Safari roof and was looking for information here prior to getting rid of it. The reason I think it has been fabricated is, it appears to have no internal vents to let the air into the car, which I am positive, looking at pictures of other Safari roofed Land Rovers, it should have. The roof also had a roof lining when I purchased that looked factory fitted. If it has been fabricated someone has done a very good job as the panel is well fitted. So I suppose the questions is did all Safari roofed cars have internal air vents. The car is a 1983 series 3 SWB. Thanks in advance Mark

Looking for some guidance on where to buy and what to avoid.. Need the following for my series 3 restoration:- Doors N/S and O/S tops and bottoms Safari door Footwells pillars N/S and O/S Paddocks seem to come out the cheapest for all of the above, an email back from Bearmach placed doors as 'limited availability' and pillars and bottom brackets 'no longer available'. So I am looking for advice on best place to buy, quality, price, who also delivers as I am in Kent. I am more interested in the quality of the items than price, but dont want to be top dollar for s%£t... Thanks in advance Mark

Thread Hijack:- Like Raymo, I am also going through the Do I or Don't I of fitting parabolic springs to my series 3... Given the replies, which seem to be favouring Parabolics, is there any recommendation for best manufacturer and, more so given the cost, best place to buy... Thanks in advance.. Mark..

This is what I have found on their website... I have never been there, only ever spoken to them on the phone and that was some time ago... I feel I may be getting to know them better over the coming months.. Kent Bearmach Plc, South East t: 01622 717525

I agree with the welding comment... I am thinking of sticking on a half chassis as it joins up nicely with the centre crossmember.. The dumb irons while not bad will not see the next couple of years so while I have it pieces to do the footwells I may as well do these as well.. The rest of the chassis looks good... I could swap chassis but from my experience of Land Rovers many years ago it is normally the extremes of the back and front that go... The centre section looks good due to oil coverage... So recomendations for repair panels are the first order... Footwell, dumb irons and 1/2 chassis... It appears that Bearmach have a place in Maidstone and I used a lot of their parts years ago with my Range Rovers and they seemed good... Any other recomendations????

Thanks for the response... I learnt to drive on MOD series 2 and 2a so was pretty to use to the brakes, or the lack of them... As its an 1983 it looks like it has the 11" front brakes from the 109.. Be keen to get them overhauled and see if there is any real advantage.. Reviewing the car in detail, in the cold light of day on the drive, it looks like it needs a new rear crossmember as well as the footwells.. So really must get the welding skills out of the memory bank... Apart from that it drives just as i remember and I was probably wearing the silliest grin driving it the 5 miles (10 with a bit of a detour) back home... Not sure about the Parabolics at present.. When shooting the car could end up with 4 people plus my dog in it and it would appear from my research that Parabolics are not good on fully laden vehicles... Also it would appear that standard springs seem to come in varying leaf combinations (I may be wrong on this) so maybe a combination of differing leafs could be the answer... So it looks like next week the spend could start...

Hello all, been lurking around on this forum for a few months now lapping up the information contained within prior to purchasing a Series 3. And what a great site it is.... Anyway earlier this week I took the plunge and brought a 1983 Series 3 of the Bay of Es for £400, 5 miles down the road from where I live... Got the chance to view and drive before I purchased, with MOT and Tax until next month. Anyway as you can imagine its not perfect for £400 and the following problems were clearly mentioned in the description - Lower part of footwells needs replacing (Passenger side is MOTable but while doing the drivers side I may as well do this as well) Front fuel tank outrigger corroded and pulls to the right when braking.. So a bit of work to do which while not daunting for me calls on reviving my skills for welding, which were last used some 15 years ago when I had a sideline restoring classic cars. The rest of the car is good, engine is a peach and bodywork solid and reasonably straight with a Safari roof and new tyres. Much loved by its previous owner but neither the skills or the time to get it straightened up. For me the car will be a bit of fun as a project and a prime mover for me and my dog when the shooting season starts and will probably do no more than 3000 miles a year around the Kent countryside. So this gives me until October to get it back on the road with a fresh MOT... So my reason for this post is two fold:- An introduction as i will probably be posting looking for advice and inspiration. Secondly some initial advice on parts recommendations... Scouring the web and LRO there are so many suppliers of pattern and OEM parts. My intial start to this project (In parallel to the welding) is getting the suspension and brakes up to scratch. So do you guys have any advice on suppliers to use and the best manufacturer for brake and suspension components. I look forward to your reponses and thanks in advance. I hope at some point I will be able to contribute... Mark..