Lightweights

[Duiker]

Hi Guys,

As I've asked in the military section without too much response I guess I'll ask here too.

I've just bought a lightweight which is in the process of being restored. At the moment the chasis sits with all brake lines and rolling stock replaced and fitted. Most of the "ground" work seems to have been done but as I've never completely stripped one of these I'm a little unsure of build order.
Presumably I fit the motor and gearbox, the steering slave and ancills, the bulkhead and then loom. Would that be right? Has anyone ever done it before? Have you any ideas as to best practice?

Thanks,

Mick

[Screwloose]

Sounds like a job there mate! Not ever done a body off re-build, so difficult to say, but speaking from having read a lot of forums(!) I would say that I don't think there is a prescribed order, its essentially down to you.

I just checked the Haynes Restoration guide and that does not prescribe a re-build order either, so I guess there isn't one.

Is your lightweight a 2 or a 3? I guess 3......

[Jud]

Mick,

Sounds okay to me. I replaced my chassis with a galvanised one a few years back. Did axles and suspension first while it was light (well relatively anyway), brake pipes on chassis, gearbox and props, engine, bulkhead, main loom down the chassis rail, rear body, hang doors and adjust bulkhead so doors fit and tighten down, front panel and then wings.

Thats a brief run down of two weeks work that I did. With an engine crane it was all done on my own except for getting the delivery driver to help position the new chassis on axle stands. I remember it all as being fairly straight forward, except bleeding the brakes!

As Screwloose says, whichever way you prefer is the best, the only bit you need to watch is the fitting of the bulkhead so that the doors fit to the body. Just noticed I didn't mention fuel tanks, probably easiest to hang before you put the back body tub on.

Good luck
Jud.

[Duiker]

Cheers guys!

Seems I have the order more or less straight then? I forgot to mention the tanks have been fitted too. Seems (despite work left) I was lucky to find the old girl given how much work has already been done. I'm a little concerned that the cost and hassle of getting the smaller bits will be a problem but I guess thats half the fun.
I'm lucky that I have a mate with a commercial landy garage over here who is a real decent bloke and will let me use the crane etc. I'm really looking forward to it now and will take some photo's this week for the forum.

Thanks again guys,

Mick

One more thing, where can I buy a complete loom? Is the military version any different? I ask because all the motor electrics sem to be shielded etc.

[Jud]

Mick,

Autosparks are apparently good for complete looms. I would expect a normal SIII would do the job but not 100%. I was able to get hold of various grades of wire and rewired mine from scratch, found lots of wire which had clearly been overheated. There are not that many wires so it is not too difficult.

Certainly a lot of the wire I took out had some sort of woven cover over the insulation, perhapsw some higher spec for th military. I suppose it all depends on how original you want to be.

Jud

[Duiker]

Hi Jud,

Thanks for that. Yeah the woven wire is to mask the em fields given out and received by the vehicle I believe. As a military motor everything is suppressed so as not to interfere with coms/radio.
As I dont plan to set up any Clansman kit etc its not an issue. I'll get a complete loom as you suggest and chop it about. With the exception of the ignition there cant be much more than lights and fuel anyhow I guess?

Mick

[Hot-herps]

Hi, I have just re-built my IIA, and it badly needed a re-wire thanks to the efforts of the previous owner using all sorts of rubish (household 3-core). I bought various conectors from "Vehicle Wiring Products" and used both 10 and 7 core trailer cable to make looms for the front and rear and covered them in spiral wrap (left bulkhead /dash wiring alone for the time being). Although not to original spec., the results are very good (even if I say so myself) and cost a fraction of the price of a new loom.
:yay:

[Jud]

Vehicle Wirinig Products,

I have also used them a lot over the years, all the above mentioned wiring was done using their bits (except the wire which came from somewhere else for nothing!). All solder bullets and sealed connectors, hoping I won't get any water ingress problems.

Has all been fine since doing, was always having something or other fail before just due to dodgy connections. Only problem I've got now is that I lost the wiring diagram I did and the colours are not as per original, that is probably the major benefit of getting a replacement harness.

Jud

[Duiker]

This all sounds great but how do you know what goes where? Are you working to wiring diagrams? I know it sounds daft but this is my first build and its seeming a little daunting!

One more question guys, is it worth replacing the bulkhead if its tatty? How expensive are they and are they easy to get hold of?
Should I just sand blast it and repair the rot (left hand side in front of door supports is rotted through).

[Jud]

Used the Haynes SIII manual, it's got the colours in the it is supposed to have. With you prompting my mind I now remember that I relabelled the circuit diagram in the manual with the colours that I used, however having moved in the last few months I haven't a clue where the manual is. I know that I have found a link on one of the threads which will take you to a circuit diagram, but can't remember which thread or the address. Perhaps someone will read this and add the link.

With regard the bulkhead, I was able to get hold of one at an Old Sodbury Sortout a few years back that had been converted to V8, not particularly well. I rebuilt this getting rid of all rust and then had it galvanised. Given your location and the very few that I've ever seen advertised, sandblasting and rebuilding is probably your best route. Having now rebuilt two, make sure you take a length of suitable box section and bolt across the two chassis mounts when you are doing the work. My first one looked really good until I had to ratchet strap it to pull the chassis mounts in and then it ended up with wrinkles up the middle section which made fitting the heater difficult.

Sounds like you are having fun, keep it going.
Jud

[Big Sandy]

I'm not sure if this is the link that Jud was mentioning, but it might be useful for you any way.....

www.lrfaq.org/series/faq.S.elec.html#SIII

Hope you are keeping a photo diary of your work, that would be interesting to see.

Just tried that link....I think I got something wrong there! However, www.lrfaq.org will take you to the home page. If you go to the index at the bottom, there is more information than you can shake a stick at, quite a bit about lightweights too.