Body Swap

[Jon W]

I am thinking of changing the body of my disco for something in much better condition and a slight change of track. Question is how much effort is it to swap the entire body over presuming that the correct lifting equipment is available?

Forgot to say it is a series 1 discovery 300tdi shape, but mine has a 200tdi engine in it.

How many bolts hold it on and are they easy to get to?

Wiring can it just be disconnected??

Anything else I should be aware of?

Cheers

Jon

[task]

I believe the mounting points are the same as the RRC, having just rebuilt all of mine I shall try and remember where they all are

2x under rear x-member

2x back of sills

2x front of sills

2x front of bulkhead/back of inner wings

2x front of headlamp boxes

In addition to this;

2x threaded bars in the middle of the centre floor

2x seatbelt mounts in rear floor

Wiring;

Gbox wiring on N/S

Engine wiring (no idea on diesel)

other stuff;

Gear linkages

rear brake hoses to boot floor

rear brake cables (ABS) boot floor

rear brake wear warning boot floor

front brakes each side of inner wing

front ABS each side inner wing

Radiator/aircon/oil cooler pipes

fuel pipes

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, HTH

[Jon W]

Right sounds straight forward enough, with lifting equipment and a selection of spanners.

As what I am currently thinking of a project to get a good working disco is .... would it be easy to roll my chassis engine etc. under a different body?

Or put my engine gearboxes axles etc under this other disco which is a chassis and shell at the moment. However I think the engine mounts of the 200 and 300tdi might be different??

Cheers

Jon

[task]

I built a rolling chassis (rebuilt axles/engines/gbox & fitted exhaust etc) then put the body on top.

I used an engine crane to lift my body on and off but that was probably only realistic for me with 2 doors and a fully stripped shell.

lots of photos on the link in my sig if it helps

[Maverik]

Any perticular reason why you want to keep the truck? Sounds like a lot of effort, Disco's seem pretty cheap just now, I just missed an 1997 with just over 100k on the clock for 1600 squid it was immaculate with a full service history... just putting it out there.

[Jon W]

Nope no particular attraction to the current truck, but MOT is up in November and I was either going to sell it and get what I can. Or break it and get more money as can take all my extras off it.

I picked mine up for £1k last year with the idea of keepig it a year then moving it on or scrapping it as will have a company car next month. But would still like a truck of some sort and 90's are quite pricey. Mine had new bits on it beofre I got it like rad, cam belt etc and I have done wheel bearing some bushes, head gasket, and things along the way as they have broken etc.

It needs a few jobs doing mechanically to make it spot on like swivels couple of bushes maybe tart the brakes up.

But having seen this commercial body for sale I quite fancy having it as more of a camper overlander weekend thing, and that way I can use most of my bits and not have to buy much more. Yes I could weld mine up for the MOT but the body work is tatty and abused.

And while I am waiting to do the swap and can gradually do the jobs that need doing on mine.

But yes I could/ should just scrap mine and move all the bits onto another £1000 vehicle, but then I know this shell is in good condition

Cheers

Jon

[sutty_32]

Body swap shoudln't be too bad, as the list mentions above there is just 2 (maybe only 1) plug for the diesel engine loom.

I have done a chassis swap in a weekend with 4 of us, which we just lifted the body off as a whole with a fork lift, just be careful where you lift the body from as the roof/gutters can bend