An actual barn find! Range Rover Classic LSE
Discussion
Hi folks, hoping this thread might be of some interest to you all as it progresses.
I’ve got a bit of a thing for the green oval and shortly after covid I got my hands on a rotten defender 90, which I rebuilt onto a galv chassis, ending up doing a full nut and bolt resto along the way.
After a year and a whopping 250 miles of use I realised that I enjoyed the rebuild much more than I did driving the car and so I let it go to a fellow enthusiast. In my tiny little petrol head brain the reason it got no use is it only had 3 seats and so we couldn’t use it as a family (of 4)! I decided the next project for me would be a RRC.
I’ve been without a project for a few months now, waiting for the right one to come along. Then I happened across a Facebook post with this picture….
Yes. That’s 40+ actual barn find RRC’s in an actual barn. The owner runs a resto business and kept buying ‘easy project’ cars when they came up for sale. He was featured in a LR magazine and his resto business took off so much he never got around to fixing up any of his own profit making cars.
Through various circumstances he finds himself downsizing his barn and needing to sell the cars. There’s all sorts there, from basic £3k cars from the 80’s through to some very special metal which are asking over £80k.
The sale was to start this weekend. With a short description of each car and a price on the Facebook post. Plus some words from the owner expressing his hatred for auction fees and his desire to see them go to enthusiasts. The words ‘first come first served’ permeated clearly through the post.
So, this happened Friday afternoon and I was ready for the off at 5:30am Saturday
I arrived at the barn around 8:15am and truly was the first to arrive. Which meant I got to take my pick.
After a cuppa and a long chat with the owner, zero pressure tactics and a passionate and honest description of each car, a deal was struck to pop his cherry and embark on the sale of at least 3/4 of this barn!
So? My next project will be this 1993 RRC LSE with the 4.2 v8.
I had to come away for work today so I only got a little time to tinker yesterday. A battery has been acquired and 20L of fuel also for the drained tank. The car turns over on the key, it has spark and the air filter looks new. So I’m hopeful that with the above thrown at it, it should fire straight up.
It’s been off the road 6 years. Judging by the rot, that’s what took it off the road last time. It needs:
Both front inner arches
Both rear arches
Maybe a sill (or maybe a patch)
Brakes all round and one caliper
Attention to the swivel housings
Minor surface rust addressing on the bulkhead and rear tailgate (they all do that sir)
In reality it’s gonna get more than that. I’ll drop all the suspension, axles etc off the car. Flat it all back, do the welding and then protect it, blast, rebush/ seal and paint everything that’s going back on and replace everything that’s scrap.
Behold…. A genuine barn find and my new project.
I’ve got a bit of a thing for the green oval and shortly after covid I got my hands on a rotten defender 90, which I rebuilt onto a galv chassis, ending up doing a full nut and bolt resto along the way.
After a year and a whopping 250 miles of use I realised that I enjoyed the rebuild much more than I did driving the car and so I let it go to a fellow enthusiast. In my tiny little petrol head brain the reason it got no use is it only had 3 seats and so we couldn’t use it as a family (of 4)! I decided the next project for me would be a RRC.
I’ve been without a project for a few months now, waiting for the right one to come along. Then I happened across a Facebook post with this picture….
Yes. That’s 40+ actual barn find RRC’s in an actual barn. The owner runs a resto business and kept buying ‘easy project’ cars when they came up for sale. He was featured in a LR magazine and his resto business took off so much he never got around to fixing up any of his own profit making cars.
Through various circumstances he finds himself downsizing his barn and needing to sell the cars. There’s all sorts there, from basic £3k cars from the 80’s through to some very special metal which are asking over £80k.
The sale was to start this weekend. With a short description of each car and a price on the Facebook post. Plus some words from the owner expressing his hatred for auction fees and his desire to see them go to enthusiasts. The words ‘first come first served’ permeated clearly through the post.
So, this happened Friday afternoon and I was ready for the off at 5:30am Saturday
I arrived at the barn around 8:15am and truly was the first to arrive. Which meant I got to take my pick.
After a cuppa and a long chat with the owner, zero pressure tactics and a passionate and honest description of each car, a deal was struck to pop his cherry and embark on the sale of at least 3/4 of this barn!
So? My next project will be this 1993 RRC LSE with the 4.2 v8.
I had to come away for work today so I only got a little time to tinker yesterday. A battery has been acquired and 20L of fuel also for the drained tank. The car turns over on the key, it has spark and the air filter looks new. So I’m hopeful that with the above thrown at it, it should fire straight up.
It’s been off the road 6 years. Judging by the rot, that’s what took it off the road last time. It needs:
Both front inner arches
Both rear arches
Maybe a sill (or maybe a patch)
Brakes all round and one caliper
Attention to the swivel housings
Minor surface rust addressing on the bulkhead and rear tailgate (they all do that sir)
In reality it’s gonna get more than that. I’ll drop all the suspension, axles etc off the car. Flat it all back, do the welding and then protect it, blast, rebush/ seal and paint everything that’s going back on and replace everything that’s scrap.
Behold…. A genuine barn find and my new project.
Edited by eltax91 on Sunday 16th July 22:22
Northbrook said:
Should be interesting.
Why that specific car?
Dunno really. It was on the front row which helped. Why that specific car?
There were a few options available. Most in my price range (I wanted sub £6k) had something major to do as you’d expect. One needed a body x-member and entire tailgate. Another was fairly solid rust wise but had had all the EFI removed for some non oem carbs. Another needed a full respray. They all had a story.
I like Ardennes green. The interior is very ‘survivor’. It has a host of history with it clearly showing it was once cherished by someone in the 00’s. It’s also had some engine work, namely a performance cam and very expensive cool/ dizzy/ leads fitted. Also for some reason the LSE just grabbed me, there’s something ‘chauffeur’ about rear legroom.
Dropped a battery in today.
And renewed the rotten/ not tight jubilee clips from the fuel pipes at the pump.
Turned it over and it runs! Oil pressure light went out. Ran for a few minutes but a red coolant light started flashing. I think this was just an airlock because after I killed the engine and took the rad filler off it had a good gurgle and the level dropped.
More pressingly, somebody has done quite the bodge on fuel pipes because the original threaded pipes are just hanging around disconnected and some rubber pipe has been used. Under the car, one of these pipes then changes to a copper pipe, with just a jubilee around the rubber pipe.
Unfortunately it’s leaking fuel at this join. So looks like new fuel pipes front to back before I can run it again.
Also, under the rad I got a nice pool of this:
I assume this is auto transmission fluid and it’s leaking at the cooler somewhere. So this also meant I couldn’t pop it in drive and see if it moves!
A couple of things to mess with before the next time I try and run the old gal.
And renewed the rotten/ not tight jubilee clips from the fuel pipes at the pump.
Turned it over and it runs! Oil pressure light went out. Ran for a few minutes but a red coolant light started flashing. I think this was just an airlock because after I killed the engine and took the rad filler off it had a good gurgle and the level dropped.
More pressingly, somebody has done quite the bodge on fuel pipes because the original threaded pipes are just hanging around disconnected and some rubber pipe has been used. Under the car, one of these pipes then changes to a copper pipe, with just a jubilee around the rubber pipe.
Unfortunately it’s leaking fuel at this join. So looks like new fuel pipes front to back before I can run it again.
Also, under the rad I got a nice pool of this:
I assume this is auto transmission fluid and it’s leaking at the cooler somewhere. So this also meant I couldn’t pop it in drive and see if it moves!
A couple of things to mess with before the next time I try and run the old gal.
Nice car OP. I can see from the registration that it looks like it was registered in Worcestershire - if you have the original service book see if you can identify the supplying dealer...if it was a garage in Droitwich it would have been my Dad's as he was the LR dealer at the time
My Dad had when he sold his business one of the ex factory cars a 3.9 Vogue SE in Ardennes Green which had previously appeared in the TV show Lovejoy - he fitted a later model bumper and side skirts kit to it!
My Dad had when he sold his business one of the ex factory cars a 3.9 Vogue SE in Ardennes Green which had previously appeared in the TV show Lovejoy - he fitted a later model bumper and side skirts kit to it!
. I look forward to seeing your progress. They’re great to work on, now into my second Classic project.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff