Is the Classic Range Rover completely unboltable?

[DickyC]

Owning a '72 Range Rover for ten years left me with the idea that the body was completely unboltable; ie you can use spanners, a socket set and screwdrivers to dismantle it to chassis and individual frames and panels. My RR ownership was a long time ago and when I came back to off-roaders with a basket case Discovery, I was disconcerted to find it is largely spot welded.

Am I right? Can you unbolt a Classic Range Rover? Did they stop being bolted and start being spot welded? If so, when?

I've got the bug again and would prefer a basket case Range Rover to a Discovery next time.

[BLUETHUNDER]

Yes they are completely un-boltable including the roof. They were a car ringers dream during the 80,s and early 90,s as it was so easy to swap complete i.d.s of a late vehicle on to an earlier one.

[DickyC]

BLUETHUNDER said:

Yes they are completely un-boltable including the roof. They were a car ringers dream during the 80,s and early 90,s as it was so easy to swap complete i.d.s of a late vehicle on to an earlier one.

Thanks BT. So there is the possibility of relatively recent looking car with a much older - albeit concealed - identity.

Marvellous. Now there's a good home build project.

[BLUETHUNDER]

DickyC said:

BLUETHUNDER said:

Yes they are completely un-boltable including the roof. They were a car ringers dream during the 80,s and early 90,s as it was so easy to swap complete i.d.s of a late vehicle on to an earlier one.

Thanks BT. So there is the possibility of relatively recent looking car with a much older - albeit concealed - identity.


Yes there is. A few were done that way. At the time i knew of a few early 80,s for doors,that were transformed in to an early 90,s model.The game was given away on some,as some still retained the old carb fed engine and inside the door shuts was still in black rather than the colour coding of the later models.












Marvellous. Now there's a good home build project.

[DickyC]

BLUETHUNDER said:

DickyC said:

BLUETHUNDER said:

Yes they are completely un-boltable including the roof. They were a car ringers dream during the 80,s and early 90,s as it was so easy to swap complete i.d.s of a late vehicle on to an earlier one.

Thanks BT. So there is the possibility of relatively recent looking car with a much older - albeit concealed - identity.

Marvellous. Now there's a good home build project.

Yes there is. A few were done that way. At the time i knew of a few early 80,s for doors,that were transformed in to an early 90,s model.The game was given away on some,as some still retained the old carb fed engine and inside the door shuts was still in black rather than the colour coding of the later models.

That's actually what I'd aim for: later appearance with simpler mechanicals. The purists will be after me though.

[300bhp/ton]

DickyC said:

Owning a '72 Range Rover for ten years left me with the idea that the body was completely unboltable; ie you can use spanners, a socket set and screwdrivers to dismantle it to chassis and individual frames and panels. My RR ownership was a long time ago and when I came back to off-roaders with a basket case Discovery, I was disconcerted to find it is largely spot welded.

Am I right? Can you unbolt a Classic Range Rover? Did they stop being bolted and start being spot welded? If so, when?

I've got the bug again and would prefer a basket case Range Rover to a Discovery next time.

Disco unbolts too, roof is part of the shell, but pretty much everything else comes apart.

[DickyC]

300bhp/ton said:

DickyC said:

Owning a '72 Range Rover for ten years left me with the idea that the body was completely unboltable; ie you can use spanners, a socket set and screwdrivers to dismantle it to chassis and individual frames and panels. My RR ownership was a long time ago and when I came back to off-roaders with a basket case Discovery, I was disconcerted to find it is largely spot welded.

Am I right? Can you unbolt a Classic Range Rover? Did they stop being bolted and start being spot welded? If so, when?

I've got the bug again and would prefer a basket case Range Rover to a Discovery next time.

Disco unbolts too, roof is part of the shell, but pretty much everything else comes apart.

That's interesting. I wonder if that depends on the version of Discovery. It was that whole spot welded floor and cross members beneath the rear seats thing that nearly did for me. I was sure the Range Rover unbolted (and BT confirms) and so I was just dismayed to find I had to drill out seven trillion spotwelds on the Discovery instead a bit of socket and spanner work. The Disco - a 1992 Series 1 - looks for all the world like a monocoque body bolted on to a RR chassis and I can see I could part the complete body from the chassis, but it was dismatling down to component frames and panels I was interested in.

[West4x4]

the body frame is spot welded on later ones all the panels unbolt as with discovery leaving the shell which is one peice. The early ones had a shell that unbolted into several bits to afraid i dont know what year the change happened but think was quite early in the production run