Range Rover 2 Door Restoration- Tuscan Blue Suffix B

A project we finished a while ago (2021) and thought we should make a post about, a 1972 Suffix B Range Rover classic 2 Door. When we adopted this back in 2015, it was the rather boring Sahara Dust grey colour and had been retro fitted with a Perkins Diesel engine. It was always a dream to build a Tuscan blue 2 door and this made a great donor vehicle!

The Chassis and drive train was all in good condition on the whole, with the chassis only needing a few bits removing and re-welding in place,

We decided due to the great condition of the chassis not to galvanise it but instead sandblast + Red oxide primer and Buzzweld it black.

Next up was the V8, we managed to source a Rover 3.5V8 from a suffix A Range Rover which was in good condition, we sent the block, heads and crank to a Rover engine specialist locally.

Next up the engine was mated with the Chassis + Reconditioned axles and reconditioned LT95 Gearbox with thanks to Winchester gears

In the meantime- the 2 door body shell went off to be acid dipped and stripped by Surface processing in Birmingham.

Luckily the body when it came back did not have too much structural damage, but there was a fair bit of single skin areas which were rotten through.

Out came the welder, and with some excellent reproduction panels from DDS Metal Services, we made a start!

Once repaired (And it wasn’t a 2 minute job!) we then sent the body shell of the range rover off to our local painter who epoxy primered the shell before making it look pretty, finishing it in the famous Tuscan Blue colour.

Next up was the fun bit- installing all the body panels as they slowly returned from paint, along with crafting all the brake lines, light bowls, wiper mechanisms and interior. What was a huge help was the nut and bolt kit provided by Tony at LR Fasteners Every bolt came bagged and labelled, as well as all manor of fixings and rivets/ clamps/ brackets etc- from memory the kit was over £900- sounds a lot but worth its weight in gold, probably saved over 100 man hours in finding fasteners!

Its funny- the rear floor on the 2 door looks like it was stolen from somebody’s workshop roof!

The Final stage was to mount the ‘2 doors’ Blimey they are heavy, and over a meter long!

Once all the panels were on, and the wiring loom from Autosparks was installed, there was months of fettling and finding the final missing pieces, but in due course we got there- the maiden voyage: