The Range Rover Classic thread

[DonkeyApple]

MrMoonyMan said:

DonkeyApple said:

I bought the Halfords ones and spent five minutes in the car park faffing about transplanting the pins and lo they fit.

The ones I bought had the same holes stamped so the pins could be transplanted.

Ah, I see. Okay, will head back and have another go then.

Many thanks for the quick reply!

I just fitted a new set today. I bought the SP18's that the halford guide said were correct. They aren't and are in fact a different design to the ones I bought from Halfords last year but they still fit. You just pop out the plastic fitting to leave the metal frame and then I put the locating pin through the smaller of the two sets of holes and then into the fitting in the wiper arm.

[DonkeyApple]

SDB660 said:

NomduJour said:

I'd go with air, perfectly reliable when all the bits are in good order.

....Which is what I prefer as really love totally standard cars and suspension is only non-original part. Even stereo on mine is original. Flip flopping between both options now. Not a cost thing, just want a reliable car as per left factory. So assuming I don't get a whole heap of people on forum dissing air, any preferred supplier for kit to sort? Prefer quality and not cheapest.

I tend to agree with Nom, if it's a well maintained system then it should be fine. The concern I would have would be in regards to the age of the wiring loom and whether that was reaching or had reached being the cause of issues going forward. If I recall the system takes two readings from the car, so that means at least two potential weak points in the loom.

The real PIA for the system is that if it does get its knickers in a twist and drop down, finding someone nearby with the computer to reset it for you.

Edited by DonkeyApple on Monday 19th December 10:07

[DonkeyApple]

wildcat45 said:

ClaphamGT3 said:

Genuinely don't know whether this is potentially rather splendid or absolutely gash. Would love to know a little more about its provenance.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-1975-LWB-hun...

In other news, my 4 door will shortly be back from its long sojourn at Churchill 4x4 where Jonathan and the team have been sorting out various mechanical niggles and fitting a correct early 80s lower tailgate, complete with hinged number plate plinth.

I don't get the advert. It's not a 1975 model by the look of it. An early 4-door. Monteverdi?

It's a weird one. The sloping floor under the rear seats means the rear, at least, is post '82 as that change came in with the 4 door. The front is probably 2 door as the front doors are 2 door. There's also no mention of who did the conversion so one has to assume that it was done by a maniac in a council lock up.

At a guess it's a cut and shut of the two types and as it's being sold by a Dutch car vendor I would consider it safe to assume that it is total junk.

[DonkeyApple]

Huntsman said:

I haven't got a clue about thr RR market, but thought this looked ok.

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/land+rover/ran...

Looks lovely but an 'A1 solid underside' seems at odds with a car that needed a full respray. And the market for cars of this quality is around the £12k+ mark so seems almost half price if the description is accurate. My gut feeling is that 3 mins with a screwdriver under the car may explain all?

[DonkeyApple]

This one looks interesting at first glance:

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/land+rover/ran...

The pictures look as if it's just had a good clean up rather than an overhaul and redo. Looks like there is sun fading on the palomino and clearly the carpets have the marks of life on them. The engine bay just looks like it's been washed and no real tarting up. I'd want to see if it had been resprayed as that paint looks very good but it looks like a car that would warrant closer inspection and if solid and true would be a much better car than the later ones.

[DonkeyApple]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Similar condition to mine. Poor positioning of rear number plate and lack of drop-down plinth suggests that's not original and the headlining would want sorting. Could be a good one though, if the structure's solid

Yup. Tailgate replaced with a later style or reskinned. Not sure if that year should still have the glass bubble rear plate lamps? This one looks to have the later style. The shabby headlining is one of the things that made me suspect it could be quite an honest car on the grounds that if it was a total dog then they'd have fixed that to glam it up a bit.

[DonkeyApple]

squirdan said:

my main project car ( Y reg 4 door ) is booked into paint shop 19th Jan

I've been busy thinking about colours and have decided LR "mid grey" aka welsh grey.

I cant find a RRC in it, but it is period-ish for Land Rovers
just a bit different to silver, period but unusual

the beauty of this era of RRC is the inside, engine bay, door shuts etc were satin black regardless of body colour. So if I did ever want to, in the words of Amy Winehouse, go back to black, it wouldnt be ruinous

http://www.arkonik.com/defender/Land-Rover-Defende...





the original plan was to leave it black, but I've decided against that because:

- non metallic black doesnt look that great
- notoriously difficult colour to paint
- some of the details like the grille get a bit lost
- dont want it to look like a poor mans CSK

Edited by squirdan on Tuesday 27th December 14:35

Edited by squirdan on Tuesday 27th December 14:42

Black is so much the colour of minicabs and Escort transport these days that it's just not a brilliant colour at present. And as you say, a bugger to avoid orange peel and it will clash with the CSK.

I had an LSE that had been resprayed in Aston's Cumberland Grey and it did look nice. Maybe swerve the LR colour chart altogether and just chose the exact colour that you would like best?

Which is, of course, a deep Burgundy.

[DonkeyApple]

That's a lovely porker and a good colour. I saw a Rangie done in a very gloss grey chosen from the fiat500 range. That looked very nice.

[DonkeyApple]

DKL said:

DonkeyApple said:

I had an LSE that had been resprayed in Aston's Cumberland Grey and it did look nice. Maybe swerve the LR colour chart altogether and just chose the exact colour that you would like best?

Which is, of course, a deep Burgundy.

So Montpelier then, I may be biased but it's a nice colour.

I always thought that was a lovely colour on Rangies. Blood and custard usually works very well on big old British cars.

[DonkeyApple]

ClaphamGT3 said:

I will be intrigued to see what this one makes

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1979-Range-Rover-classic...

On the positive side, it does seem to be highly original and un-bodged, on the negative it needs simply everything doing by which time it would have lost the originality. If nothing else it should be a good be a good bellwether of the market - if it's topped out (I think it has) he'll struggle to shift it, if it makes strong money, we can assume that there's still some gas in the tank

I felt that the market for Rangies topped back in 2015 and have spent all of this year finding a solid base of around £10-£15 for quality late 4 doors and £20-£30 for solid early 2 doors and to break out of those zones they require a good story.

For a good quality restoration I'm not sure there is any commercial profit if you've got to strip the car to parts and weld up all the usual areas and then retrim the interior and respray the panels before even getting to the mechanicals. Even if you paid £1 for the car I'm not sure you'd be able to cover your costs. But a bit of a rapid bodge resto, a couple of days welding and covering with underseal, a blow over paint job and losing the interior fabric originality and there's probably a good profit?

Either way, I'm not sure the cars eorth much more than £2-£4K?

[DonkeyApple]

Front fogs/auxiliaries. How on earth do I change the bulbs?

There seems to be no obvious access front or rear and it's beginning to look like I have to remove the front spoiler to gain access?

[DonkeyApple]

squirdan said:

exactly where I'm hoping to sell my Green 2 door. which is more messed about with (Nissan diesel) but a better colour.

meanwhile any thoughts on the 570 Overfinch thats come up on ebay today...whats that worth

I'm in the process of selling a house and hoping to exchange next week..if I do I might have a crack at that In Vogue you prev highlighted which is still unsold at £15k. I cant understand that, recalling that the "project" 2 door In Vogue sold for the same...

I sold my Overfinch for £45 a few years back but it was by far and away the best one ever built and had fully documented history, tons of supporting paperwork and had had a total resto before being converted. The owner had invoices from Overfinch for over £70k, a £25k invoice for the ICE, another £15 for the retrim and over £30 for the resto including the panelnoff respray in AM. In short, the chap wasted tens of thousands.

I also sold my In Vogue for £33 this year. It wasn't a full resto to mint but was an honest, solid car eith all original features and I'd gone through all the mechanics so it ran perfectly. Tidying up the engine bay back to originality took the most time and money.

The market has woken up to early 80s 4 doors fully and I still think those are the ones with growth potential. 4 door convenience with 2 door exterior looks.

I'm not sure I'd buy any Rangie from a Witney postcode.

[DonkeyApple]

Yup. I'm just not exactly a fan of their restomod work having had a close look at a few in contrast to the pricing.

[DonkeyApple]

nickod said:

Thanks. The reason I asked is they are pretty close to me and I was considering the uprated door seals and soundproofing that is mentioned on their website.

Also I've now caught the RR Classic bug and will start looking to buy a later SE ( Hard dash 90/91 3.9) in March/April. Is it better to buy a very well sorted one ( what should I pay? Im seeing the very best of those albeit at dealers at up to 30k - is that optimistic pricing as I understand the soft dash and LSE are considered more collectable) or buy an ok one and get bodywork etc done.( looking at Kingsley that feels very pricey - which I guess is the point previously made specifically about them)

The story goes that the updated door seals will just be Disco door seals, I suspect. It probably follows the old Overfinch wheeze of fitting the later and better deals from the Disco and making out that they've had them made especially and charging 5 times more than the seals cost from Rimmers etc.

As that's what OF did and as there is a connection between the old OF and this firm then it might be worth checking out if you can get Disco seals first.

[DonkeyApple]

DKL said:

So just stock disco 2 seals DA? Worth looking at as I need at least one.
Ta

Apparently. Whichever is the earliest Disco. I can try and get the full details in Jan if it would help?

[DonkeyApple]

Be interesting to see the progress of this one. http://www.coys.co.uk/cars/1971-range-rover-suffix...

Dealer market for a good J reg is usually over £40k?

[DonkeyApple]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Fabric seats, front number plate in the wrong place and the ancillary instruments are wrong. There's also something not right about the boot

Yup. Should be plastic seats. But can be fixed for a few K. Instruments looked OK to me. Should really just be a clock and three blanks for the age but we're any other gauges optional extras? Boot mats were black in the first year or so?

Also, after the Velars didn't they have carpeted trans tunnels?

Edited by DonkeyApple on Monday 2nd January 13:50

[DonkeyApple]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Further evidence of pricing being all over the place, this may well be solid as a rock and a great basis for an easier restoration but £20k feels ambitious

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1976-Range-Rover-Classic...

I thought the price was bang on when I first looked at the ad but then you realise that it's one of those resto projects that has started back to front with a new paint job on the outside and run out of ambition before the tidying up of the underside, sorting of mechanicals and a complete solution for the interior. Scrolling through the photos you do get the impression that it's just a project car that's been painted. Again, to pay someone to bring it up to £20k spec might cost as much as £10k depending on the state of the fabrics and core mechanicals?

[DonkeyApple]

squirdan said:

chaps

given 2 door In Vogue in good order £30K plus

and 2 door In Vogue project / resto was sold for £15k ish

what do you think the correct price for the 4 door later In Vogue Derwent Blue is??

cheers

Very tough call. Market is awake to the earlier In Vogues but there haven't been enough of them brought back to life to get a good number of dealers frothing about the 'badge'.

My wild guess is that the badge would certainly make an early 4 door quicker to sell at worst but it should add £1-£5k above the comparable standard model price dependent on the state it is in. But you could probably stretch that considerably if you're happy for it to take time to sell.

I sold a mint, unwrapped hamper and coolbox plus the two sets of straps for over a £1k last year and a second mint hamper for over £600. So collectors are fully aware of the model but the later ones don't have the '2 door' premium that currently makes the big difference.

As I feel that early 80s 4 doors are the model type that will grow over the next couple of years then my personal view is that annIn Vogue one is well worth having for best investment gain/hedge.

[DonkeyApple]

Maybe that raises another minor issue with the In Vogues? All the 2 doors were the same colour and there was a fixed number of them. Two great attributes for 'investment'. Also, to get the trim bits separately you needed to go to W&P and pay their prices (bar the Brexton branded boot kit). By the time of the 4 door they had two colours(?) and then more(?) and no fixed numbers. Plus I think things like the door cappings just morphed into the Vogue cappings(?).

Going back to that wrecked In Vogue that sold for £15k, that was an absolutely insane price and I can't help thinking it was bought by someone who wasn't quite paying enough attention and is now sitting there wondering just what they've done. At the time that was up for sale I still had a full set of essential parts to restore that car but the state of the metalwork meant it was only remotely cost effective if you just transplanted the identity into another car and mocked that up to flog as a fake.