Sahara Blitz Land Rover kit car-update 25/4/11

[forkliftfred]

Not sure if this is in the right section. Feel free to move Mr Moderator man.
Maybe not normally considered retro but something a little different. This car belongs to a friend of mine. I'll try and keep you updated as the project progresses.
The ultimate aim is to end up with something like this

Take one £500 1995 Discovery 4.0 V8. Remove doors, glass and interior

Add a grinning goon in overalls

Cut along inner cills, through A pillars and behind front seats.

Remove wings, bonnet, front panel and inner wings

Attach to suitable pulling device.

Remove bodyshell

Roll bodyshell on it's side and cut into smaller pieces to be weighed in. Sweep up broken bits of glass etc.

The end result.

Most useful parts have been sold on to help fund the project. The bodyshell will be weighed in. Got to save the pennies for the new kit now. Got some cleaning up work to do on the chassis and move some parts around in the engine bay in the meantime.

[Doc Fox]

I have to say I thought you were talking about some mad 2cv Sahara / Land Rover hybrid.

He's taking Discovery guts and going to wrap it in something approaching a Defender's skin?

Sounds vaguely like a Wolf. (Army Landy - 300TDi Discovery/ Range Rover engine in a modified Defender)

[e21meister]

The Land Rover WOLF (Wheel On Left-hand Facing)?



eBay beckons again... ;D

[paulpen]

Got any rear bits left that you don't need ?

I need a few tiny bits unless your got rid of it all ?

[Ollie27]

Ooh, I will be keeping an eye on this

[forkliftfred]

I think he still has the boot door and some odd bits of trim etc. Anything in particular you want?

[paulpen]

The bits the rear seatbelts bolt to under the boot floor

[popuptoaster]

hmmm, don't think i like it, windscreen rake don't suit it and the back looks to small to me, proportions are a bit wrong, i assume the front end is lighter than stock Landy ally panels?

[forkliftfred]

May 19, 2010 8:51:28 GMT popuptoaster said:

hmmm, don't think I like it, windscreen rake don't suit it and the back looks to small to me, proportions are a bit wrong, I assume the front end is lighter than stock Landy ally panels?

The front uses stock Landy panels although inner wings will be gone and tubular frame will replace. The front flips forward like a clam shell. Each to their own I suppose.

[popuptoaster]

i think for 3 grand you could buy and roll cage rake a defenders windscreen to be honest, obviously i could be missing something, but seems a lot to build what looks like a Defender when you could have a Dakar or Storm Warrior.

[forkliftfred]

Ok update time. Plenty of cleaning up of the chassis and painting in hammerite.


New brake pipe to replace the flexi that was connected to the body.

Brake hose brackets welded to suspension housing as they're original position was on the inner wings which are now gone.

Battery relocated to the passenger side bulkhead.


Viscous fan removed from engine and twin electric fans installed with a switch to turn them off when wading.

Fuse box also relocated to bulkhead on drivers side.

Breather box relocated as it was also mounted on the inner wing.

Coil and amplifier now mounted on the drivers side of the engine on a custom bracket where the AC would normally mount.

And finally a bit of a clean up of the interior.

Oter jobs carried out but not photographed include stripping down the front wheel bearings to replace them, only to discover they were loose due to the locking tabs not being bent over by the last owner! Sorted out the wiring harness, removed unused wires and re routed the remaining ones to make it look tidier. Lot's of soldering and heat shrinking. The battery is only experimental. It's a small one used on a motorbike. It may get moved to the flat bed and exchanged for a larger one. The transmssion oil cooler has been removed and a radiator from a Range Rover Classic is being used as the cooler is all part of the radiator. The original cooler was going to foul the body panels as they will be a clam shell flip front.

Just to answer some of the questions for not going for the other kits.
the Stormer and Dakar kit are both much more expensive, more near £10k for the whole build when including all the extras like doors, fibre glass body work ect. but more importantly the NCF kit does not require an SVA inspection as the chassis is not modified at all.

Registration of the Sahara is simple as it retains the original unmodified Discovery chassis and running gear. It is important that an appointment is made with your Local Vehicle Licensing office (LVLO) to arrange an inspection of your completed Sahara to ensure your chassis and engine number correspond to your Logbook. Following inspection, the LVLO will then change your vehicle identity, but you will retain your original registration plate and you will receive a new logbook from DVLA. The Sahara can then be taken for a standard MOT.
taken from www.ncfblitz.co.uk/page11a.html

[popuptoaster]

Aaah, makes sense to use a stock chassis these days.

[Mystery Machine]

Looks like it could be interesting.

You might want to get this moved to Readers Rides where all the build threads are kept/updated

[forkliftfred]

If it's more appropriate in Readers Rides then i'm happy for it to be moved. I'm all for a well administrated fourm ;D. Can I move it or does it have to be done by a moderator?

[suterman]

I like the idea,

Its a lot of work,

If it were mine I would be sure to make it have a removable top/no top and fold over screen.

[datman]

Nice project. Check out my Rangie
retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=50390&page=1

[mdh]

curse word - i wopuld have bought some of them panels offa you!

[forkliftfred]

OK bit of an update. Not much to show really aside from a few brackets and a bit of tidying up. Still saving for the body tub. We went to the Land Rover show at Stoneligh Park to put the deposit down for the body tub. Managed to get some pics of the finished article. It's good to have a bit of inspiration to remind us what were aiming for.
The raw shell as it will be delivered. We've asked for slightly different rear cage layout.





The fellow was saying he only makes around 10 of these a year and each one is hand built by him. Should be delivered some time in January. Nice to hear your thoughts on the project (good and bad).

[mk2dk]

Hi Forkliftfred
This is one very cool build, and I look forward to follow it on here. Really like Land Rovers, but they seem to be very expensive where I live (denmark) The last picture with the flipfront opened, looks cool as F. . .
Keep up the good work, and keep posting pics.

[forkliftfred]

OK avid followers.....update time. It's been a while because we have been waiting for the body tub to be made. The chap only makes ten or so a year. So after a 600 mile round trip, a couple of tanks of fuel and a night in a Premier Inn, this was the result.


After a bit of shuffling around the body is removed from the trailer. We took the seats out so we didn't have to lift the body over them and removed the doors, rear tail gate and all the chequer plate to try to make it as light as possible.

So then we had to try to fit the tub to the chassis. Cue much face pulling and expletives!



A bit of jiggling and cutting of some bolts and holding back of wiring harness.


Body tub on and doors test fitted.

Front clam shell test fitted. Lot's of gap fitting and fettling to be done yet.

i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm293/forkliftfred/Blitz/Charly023.jpg
View from the rear

Feed assistants with tea and sausage sandwiches. How many sugars Frosty?

Thats it for now. Lot's of body prep to be done. Welding spatter to be cleaned, seam sealer to be applied to all the joints, panel gaps to be sorted, tub needs to be bolted down properly lights and trim to be trial fitted.....the list goes on. We are hoping to have the tub in primer in the next few weeks to try and stop the dreaded tin worm so maybe the next update will be in a few weeks.