This text was the basis for an article published in LRO Sept 1992
on the original construction of my Lightweight/Range Rover hybrid.
Air Portable, Lightweight, Cut Wing, call them what you will I have always liked the look of the things. First built back in the 60s in ser 2 form but narrower. Also (when stripped down) light enough to be carried under a Wessex helicopter but only ever sold new to the military. Having owned one for two years I discovered they look much better than they drive. This might have had something to do with the 100 odd thousand miles it had already done. It was noisy, thirsty, under powered, impossible to drive in a straight line, and gave the most uncomfortable ride I have ever known.
So at the end of 1990 I decided to do something about it, and sold the thing, in order to finance a V8 coil sprung version of my own making. The idea only came to me when I spotted a very scruffy looking Lightweight minus roof, engine, and gearbox in E.W.Vass's yard. After some negotiation it was mine for œ300, they then put me in touch with someone who subsequently bought the rolling chassis from me for œ175. So far so good I had a body well within budget and the search was on for a Range Rover to provide the rest. Having turned down various part and whole vehicles as unsuitable a contact only 3 miles from home offered me a J reg. wreck sporting a cabriolet conversion compliments of Norfolk fire service. Every panel was bent, one door was falling off, and the rear half of the chassis was rotten. This did not matter as I would not be using the body, and the deal struck at œ500 included the rear half of a 1984 chassis but no engine!. Shortly after carting it all home a friend of a friend's wife's brother in law asked me if I knew any thing about Range Rover diesel conversions. This led to a 1984 V8 engine complete for £150 I even had the chance to drive it before it came out.
With all this strewn over the back garden I was getting earache from Candy about the resemblance to a scrap yard. So the time had come to start putting it all together. Before parting with the chassis from the lightweight I used some Dexion angle to form a jig picking up all the body mounting points. This I figured would make life easier reproducing them on the coil sprung chassis. Having steam cleaned all the bits I removed the rear axle from the R.R. chassis and cut off the rusted rear end 12 inches in front of the load leveller crossmember. The replacement rear was then cut just in front of the same and the two parts were aligned with much use of a spirit level and straight edge then welded together. I now have an 88-inch chassis. I now decided to save myself some time by buying new outriggers and rear crossmember rather than fabricating my own. First to be fitted were the bulkhead outriggers, once tacked in place I did a trial fit of the engine, gearbox, and bulkhead to ensure they fitted around one another. at this point by offering up the wings I discovered there was not room for a radiator.
Having slept on the radiator problem I decided on a remedy that would also create a mounting for the front hoop of the roll cage. This involved welding 2 inch box section around the front face of the main bulkhead (remember a lightweight has a removable top section). Pushing the bonnet and front panel forward but leaving the wings in the original place. Happy with this solution and dead chuffed with the look of the V8 in the engine bay I then stripped everything off the chassis leaving it on the axles but without springs, set it level and laid on my body mounting jig. Using the jig as a guide I tacked on all the other outriggers and brackets. The rear crossmember went on having first cut a further chunk from the tail of the chassis. Fabricated a new central crossmember to take seat belt and front of rear body mountings. Overplated the join in the chassis for extra strength. Fabricated roll cage mountings and cut off all unwanted brackets. The next test was to trial fit the body from bulkhead to tail gate, to my relief it all fitted. My jig had worked exactly as I had hoped as all boltholes aligned. Next job? You guessed it, strip off everything including axles this time. I could now turn the chassis over, making things much easier as I am not very good at overhead welding. Once welded the chassis was complete apart from the front panel and bumper mountings that would have to be done later when the wings were in place. At this stage Colin Smith helped in giving it 3 coats of paint.
Attention now turned to the axles. The rear one was leaking oil through rust holes in the diff housing!. These I welded up and also welded on two more shock absorber mountings. The swivels on the front axle were in poor condition. John Beeken promised me a pair of complete second hand units but seems to have
lost one in his workshop; I still need the o\s unit John. New brake pipes, seals, void bushes and a coat of paint made the axles ready for refitting. One problem I did encounter was the sheer weight of these units; even one swivel housing was a struggle to lift alone. Once re fitted to the chassis together with the Range Rover wheels and Michelin 7.50 x 16 X.C.L.s I was ready to tackle the greasy lump of the V8.
This I thoroughly cleaned, fitted a clutch, and new rocker cover gaskets, but otherwise left alone. It was then mated to the gearbox. Also clean but otherwise just as I bought it. The two were then finally placed into the chassis as one unit followed by the re enforced and painted bulkhead. All this heavy lifting was done with my Tirfor winch, supported by a gantry made from three pieces of telephone pole. Whilst lifting the engine\gearbox combination I made sure I kept well clear but it seemed to handle it with ease. Friend Colin then turned up again and tackled the rear wiring, re binding the harness, adding wires for reversing and fog lamps. Unfortunately he managed to rip off a fingernail with my electric drill. I never saw him again until the work was finished!.
The next challenge was to be the steering. By juggling with R/R, L/R & S.D.1 parts and fabricating a mounting bracket I came up with a system that put the wheel in the right place. It was difficult to tell the right place without a floor or seats as points of reference but the end result seems to work.
Handbrake! You don't really think much about the humble handbrake on a car you drive every day, but having offered up the seat base I discovered the gearbox-mounted lever of the R/R was sticking up under the drivers seat position. Most inconvenient to operate if not impossible. After much head scratching (forgot about the greasy hands again) I decided on a cable operated system mounted on the seat base. This required fabricating a retaining bracket, a Freight Rover lever, and a hefty clutch cable incorporating an adjuster from a military something or other. The throttle also required converting to cable, but the choke control just connected straight up as if it had been designed to fit. I now decided to tackle the brakes. As you probably know a R/R has discs all round with dual circuit callipers on the front. My L/R came with a new servo assisted, dual chamber master cylinder. So I deducted that all I needed was a pair of R/R banjo type brake unions to connect the system up. Wrong!. Having scoured various sources for weeks to find a pair, when I came to do the plumbing I discovered the primary chamber of the L/R master cylinder has a different size union *****!. So off to the local breakers yard to find a few bits of pipe and a tee piece, all f.o.c. (Thank you Phillip). Back home I learn that bending one brake pipe to fit neatly is difficult, twin pipes impossible, but at last with new flexible hoses the brake system was functional, if not pretty.
Colin was obviously still nursing his mashed finger so I had to tackle the engine bay wiring myself. First task was to find a home for the battery; this went on the n/s just in front of the bulkhead in the original carrier slightly modified. Add starter and earth leads and the battery was done, simple really. Not so simple was modifying the L/R harness to connect to the R/R engine. I was determined not to build in potential trouble for the future, so 100% solder on connectors were used to, extend the ignition and oil warning wires,
provide supply for electric fuel pump, cooling fans, radio, electronic ignition unit, washer pump, reversing lights, diff lock warning light and spot lamps. Incorporating a h/d relay to relieve the strain on the original L/R harness. A new harness was made for the alternator and the old one re bound to contain the new wires and extensions.
Whilst feeling creative I turned to the exhaust system. First I fitted the R/R front pipes followed by a Volvo silencer and after extensive cutting and welding of pipe had a tail pipe sticking out of the rear o/s wheelarch. A real puzzle for a Fastfit fitter.
I was now coming very close to being able to start the engine for the first time. All I needed was a fuel supply. The major problem was the site of the tank. After considering different locations I decided on the original place (under the seat). To meet A.R.C. regulations I had to provide an external filler (lightweights fill under the seats) to achieve this I again raided the local breakers and came away with a 12 inch square of Ford Escort rear wing surrounding the fuel filler and sealed cap. This I neatly cut round and mounted into a hole cut just in front of the o/s rear wheel arch of the L.R. The new civilian fuel tank had to have a piece cut out and re welded to fit around the front radius arm chassis bracket. I pressure tested the modified tank to 5 p.s.i using my Easy Bleed brake bleeding kit and one wheel of the L.R.. Once fitted I plumbed up the fuel system incorporating an in line filter and part filled the tank with fuel. Now for the big moment, with ignition switch on the fuel pump rattled madly. Once it quietened down the engine fired after very few turns. At last the wonderful tone of the V8 filled the garden soon to be joined by cries of "stop that awful racket" from she who is to be obeyed. Having not yet fitted the radiator I could not run it for long anyway.
So front panel, wings, and radiator were the next task. An entirely new front panel had to be made to fit in between the light boxes two inches forward of the original. This I fabricated from 1/8 th inch steel plate bending the top and bottom, and having cut the sides to shape welding on 1 inch angle to support the wings. With a S.D.1. radiator, the wings and lights all fitted to the front panel I mounted them onto the vehicle as one unit, fabricating chassis mountings as required. The front end was now looking pretty good whilst the rear was still bare chassis so this was to be the next part to receive my attention. Commencing by clipping the rear harness and brake pipe securely to the chassis. Fitting the rear prop shaft (this was a L/R front prop shortened by a friend with a lathe) and rear axle vent pipe. The rear body was then lowered into place for the last time and bolted up. I then checked over the existing rear lights and added four more standard military light units to serve as reversing and rear fog lamps. These I then coupled up to the harness Colin had modified and re bound, which also incorporated a military trailer socket bolted into the rear crossmember. I then modified the six way military lighting switch wiring to give a position for the rear fog lights, losing the position for tail lights only. Switch on and hey presto all the lights worked. Fit rear bumpers, N.A.T.O pintle hitch, tail gate (fabricating one securing peg and mounting plate which was missing) number plate light and B.L.R.C. sticker and I now had a vehicle with a front and a back but no middle.
To fill the gap between bulkhead and rear body involved fitting the seat base, floor, gearbox cover, sills and seats. But first a few bits to be tidied up underneath. Fuel pipes and cables clipped in place and diff lock vacuum pipes fitted. The vacuum switch was then mounted into the seat base behind the hand brake lever and the hand brake cable connected as the seat base was lowered into place. Positioning of the transfer box gear lever worked out rather well, with a bit of bending it now sticks out where the L.R. hand brake used to. By patching the old hole and cutting a new one plus some re shaping the original gearbox cover fitted fine. Likewise the floor panels went back with no trouble at all, as did the original sills. If only I had seats to sit on I could now drive it. So off to the breakers yard once more, this time I came away with a pair of black seats from a V.W. Golf. After cutting off some unwanted brackets and modifying the frames with a lump hammer I bolted these to the locker tops then into the L.R. This was when having an acre of garden came in handy, as this was the only place I could drive it for now. Even on wet grass I got a real thrill from the low box acceleration.
My thoughts now turned to getting it on the road, but there was still much work to do. Unfortunately the top section of the bulkhead was badly rusted with the area between and below the vents none existent. So having remained well within budget I decided to order a replacement from John Craddock Ltd. for œ175 +VAT. On arrival I checked it over and discovered the tapings for the windscreen hinge bolts were too small and sent it back. One week later a replacement arrived. It looked ok so I went ahead and modified the mountings to fit my modified bulkhead and painted it. Unfortunately when I came to assemble it I discovered, the wiper spindle holes were 25 mm off centre and too low, the vent hinge brackets were too close together, no spacer brackets were on the wiper mounts, the screen support brackets would not fit, and the top face was not straight leaving a 5mm gap under the centre of the screen. Not to mention several other small faults. Credit is still due to John Craddock though as following a letter of complaint I have received a cheque for œ50 compensation for the four hours extra work it took to fit the bulkhead top, windscreen, and wipers. Numerous small and often time consuming jobs now followed ie. screen washers, rubber mudguards (the axles are 6in. wider than the body), front bumper, towing points, heater, dashboard mods., a coat of paint, and many more. I then had to register the finished vehicle, this was surprisingly easy. A very nice man from the min. came out to drink tea and look at the L.R at no cost other than the normal road tax and resulting in a Q registration mark.
At last with the vehicle now registered as Q 925 HPW and after a little trouble getting it insured (some insurance companies backed out on hearing it was a Q reg.) I could actually drive it on the road. Or, more importantly drive to some off road locations more interesting than the garden. I quickly discovered that the twin rear shock absorber idea might be fine for competition but give a very hard ride on the road, so one had to be removed from each side. The other problem to soon appear was a lot of oil leaking from the engine, but throwing out the breather flame traps which were totally blocked cured the problem completely.
Apart from a couple of small water leaks the only other problem was the Lumenition electronic ignition dying whilst being tuned on a Sun machine. It worked perfectly up to the tuning machine cutting the engine as part of the test except it never started again. Full marks here go to Autocar the manufactures of Luminition electronic ignition as despite the unit being four years old and the cause of the failure being suspect they replaced it free of charge. My objective of building a quieter vehicle has been partly achieved by using sound proofing material between me and the engine/gearbox, but could be better with a second silencer. For the moment though I am enjoying the full note of the V8.
Despite being completed enough for the ministry of transport I still had work to do to reach A.R.C. standards. Firstly a roll bar had to be fitted; this was supplied by Simeon Hill of Bettaweld who produced an excellent bar to my dimensions with removable rear stays for œ100. Then doors had to be fitted along with the rear quarter panels and top half of the tailgate. I think all that saw HPW without these at Dersingham would agree it looks much better stripped down, but rules are rules if you wish to compete.
August bank holiday weekend arrived and I entered my first C.C.V. trial, also the first serious off road drive in HPW and achieved a very satisfying joint fifth place. Into late September and the weather has started to cool so the time has come to fit a full rag top which gives HPW a new quite pleasing look described by a neighbour as Tonka Toy!.
In due course (when I have some money to spare) I shall replace the camshaft as I believe it is past its best, and extend the roll bar into a full cage along with the other bits and pieces required to reach comp safari standards. Overall I am delighted with the result of seven months work building a competitive vehicle that is, powerful enough to tow a trailer loaded with gravel in top gear, comfortable enough to drive more than 50 miles in one stretch, fast enough to more than keep up with other traffic, and is possible to drive in a straight line even at 80 m.p.h. but most important still looks like the Air Portable I have grown to love.
Mike Rogers.
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