It IS Big And It IS Clever

Originally Published: March 2010 Words: Olly Sack Pictures: Steve Taylor

Fitting a body lift might not sound like the biggest ever fabrication job, but the bumper mount was created by welding a second front chassis section on top of the main one. This also carries the front body mounts; the bumper itself is a tubular unit from First Four

An unexpected advantage of the body lift was that when it came to making an exhaust, there was plenty of space to run it back above the chassis and out through the rear wing. The X-Brake disc-type handbrake can also be see here; this is operated by a Disco lever and Defender cable

The original 3.5-litre V8 was swapped out for a 200Tdi Discovery unit, with a larger intercooler and tweaked fuel pump giving it more get-up-and-go. Engine and gearbox mounts had to be moved to suit the new unit and its LT77 gearbox, and Ian wisely called a friend in to match up the old and new wiring looms (‘he made it look simple: I’m now helping him restore his Mini in return’). Another friend made some custom oil cooler hoses from hydraulic pipe, while a whole load of silicone hoses went into plumbing the radiator – which had to be repositioned so the intercooler would fit in front of it

Front axle is the original Range Rover unit, with its casing modified slightly to accept the frame for a Safari Gard three-link system. This too needed to be modified to fit, as it was originally intended to go on a 90. The SG system uses a whole new mounting frame which bolts in to the original radius arm mounts and diff (for which reason the Qt guard had to be modified), providing them with new locations and mating up to the third link seen here

The Safari Gard mounting system means the radius arms now locate above the axle line – ideal as it lines up both sets of mountings, meaning none of the bushes are constantly under compression even at rest. This did mean shortening the Qt radius arms to fit, though. Ian’s own two-inch lower spring seats have cones allowing the springs to dislocate at the axle; the springs themselves are Bearmach blue +2” units for a Discovery 3, lifting the front of the vehicle by three inches

The bushes’ relaxed position can be seen here, with the radius arm nicely lined up to the mount. Naturally, Polybushes are used all round. The support you can see here mounted aft of the radius arm and bush housing is an additional brace to the sill, made from high tensile 16mm threaded rod mounted to the sill and chassis alike using rubber bushes

Pro-Comp ES9000 shocks provide a liberally enormous 18 inches of travel. It won’t have escaped your notice that they’re mounted outside the spring, whereas on the standard Range Rover they ride coil-over style; allowing this is a set of Qt brackets at the axle ends, while the tubular towers you see here are modified Bearmach units with an additional external shock mount

Front and rear axles are protected by Qt diff guards. Inside are heavy-duty halfshafts, and by the time you read this the standard open diffs will have been replaced by ARB Air-Lockers, powered from a Warn on-board air system using a five-gallon tank

Landy spotters, it’s time to get your clipboards out. This is the rear axle from… no, not the Range Rover, but a Discovery, chosen for its stronger A-frame ball joint mount. The reason for this is that Ian was using a high-angle unit from Qt, and felt it was prudent, ‘having managed to remove an A-frame mount from the axle on a pay and play day on the original vehicle…’

As well as the A-frame ball joint, Qt also supplied the high-droop trailing arms, which are rose-jointed

Rear springs are Bearmach blue +2” units designed for a 300Tdi 90, providing 4.5 inches of lift. The spring seats you see here were fabricated by Ian and incorporates cones for ‘reverse dislocation’, allowing the axle to drop free of the spring on full droop

All bump stops are mounted on custom brackets, dropping them by two inches

Rear shock mounts from Qt are fitted using lift brackets designed to mimic the amount of travel on the three-link front. Modified to suit the shallower pin angle created by the extra mounting height, they carry a pair of 18-inch Pro-Comp ES9000s

Rear prop is an early Range Rover unit, which had wide-angle yokes as standard and can therefore cope with the extra articulation of the vehicle’s much-modded suspension. You can’t see the front one here, but if you could you’d be looking at a custom 675mm wide-angle unit made up specially to live with the demands of the three-link set-up

Chequer plate clads the lower door sections of many a dodgily modified Land Rover. But those would be the ones without jackable sill bars fabricated from 5mm steel and 5mm wall gas pipe; with these assemblies taking the load when Ian sits the Rangey on a tree stump, the ally plate can be left to do what it’s made for and protect against scuffs. Note also that one of the lifted body mounts is visible in this picture

Fuel tank remains in the standard location, albeit lifted by a couple of inches. Even then, the filler neck needed to be extended to cope with the body lift. What you’re looking at here is the guard for the tank. No surprise that there is one – though the fact that it’s made from 6mm mild steel might raise an eyebrow if you’ve ever tried saving weight while building a vehicle

Bobtailing is one way to protect a Rangey’s rear end, but with this much metalwork between it and the ground it doesn’t actually matter what you sit it on. Sitting on a custom rear crossmember, the bumper is fabricated from 80mm tube with a 6mm wall thickness and incorporates the hawse fairlead for the rear winch. You can see the way the body’s mounted at the back, here, too

Front winch is a Warn 9500xp, running Albright solenoids and in-cab controls. Paying out through an aluminium hawse fairlead are 85 feet of 14mm 12-Strand Plasma. Both winches are fired up by a heavily modded electrical system running twin heavy-duty batteries and a high-power alternator, with two extra wiring looms and three extra waterproofed fuse boxes for all the ancillaries

No need for a winch bumper when you’ve got a custom crossmember to sit it on. The winch is a Superwinch X9, fitted with 70 feet of 14mm Plasma 12-Strand. Like the front winch, it uses Albright solenoids and can be operated using in-dash controls

Which Simex copy would this be? They’re not, actually – they’re the real thing. One of two sets Ian uses (the other being 235/870R16 Insa Turbo Saharas), they’re 35x10.50R16 Extreme Trekkers. Rims are Discovery steels, with the centres cut out and turned around to provide greater offset

If it’s the detailing that makes a vehicle, this vehicle is well and truly made. Ian fitted out the back of the Rangey with two storage drawers and five other compartments, three of which are fully enclosed. There’s a fridge in there, too, as well as a 2500-Watt inverter providing 240-volt mains power

Ian says he likes Range Rovers as they’re ‘cheap second-hand, the parts are easy to find and they offer more comfort and space.’ Illustrating this on various levels is a modified and recovered two-piece roof lining from a late Classic, into which he’s built a custom console for his CB and stereo

With six inches of body lift, Ian Redway’s Range Rover is very big. But with belt-and-braces electrics, no end of custom parts and a bespoke three-link suspension system, it’s very clever too. So it should be, after the amount of time and money he’s put into it – just don’t tell the bloke he bought it from…

People who know nothing and hate everything are forever accusing off-roaders of just wanting to drive around in bigger cars than everyone else. Nonsense, obviously, but while the size of our tyres and the height of our suspension is all about the terrain we want to tackle, most of us admit that having a ride that makes everything else on the road look like a Dinky toy does give us a bit of a kick.

If you’re one of the enlightened few who admits to this, don’t go anywhere near Ian Redway’s Range Rover. Because it’s bigger than yours. Period.

A four-door dating from 1982, Ian’s Rangey currently shares a garage with three Minis and an Opel Manta. It’s his second, the first having joined the fleet when he discovered green laning then, presumably quite quickly afterwards, also discovered that a previous Manta wasn’t the best vehicle to do it in.

Interestingly, despite being well on the way to a quarter of a century in age when he bought it, the Range Rover you’re looking at here is on only its second owner. The first was an estate owner who, Ian says, had kept it totally original and didn’t want to sell it to an off-roader. ‘A few porkies were told,’ he admits, and you’d probably agree that with an attitude like that, the estate bloke had it coming.

Having run it as a daily-driver while modding it as he went along, Ian finally had to take the vehicle off the road when an MOT tester gently pointed out that the chassis was cracked. Death for many vehicles, but every exit is but an entrance to somewhere else: ‘What started out as a new chassis and a load of new panels,’ says Ian, ‘turned into a two-year, thirty-grand project to build what it is today.’

Doing all the design, welding, spannering and fabrication work himself, with a little help from his friends where necessary, Ian sourced another Rangey for parts then stripped the vehicle right down to a bare shell. ‘Surprisingly,’ he says, ‘it needed very little welding for a 27-year-old motor.’ Then came the new bodywork and panels, after which the replacement chassis was prepped and the axles went back on.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? ‘In all it progressed well,’ Ian confirms, ‘with only a few hold-ups.’ Needless to say, though, that only begins to tell the story.

What Ian ended up with was a full-bodied Classic with a 6” body lift, achieved using 65mm spacers machined by a friend from billet alloy bar, and heavily modified suspension adding 3” at the front and 4.5” at the back. The lift is only a small part of the story, though, as you’ll see; Ian modded a Safari Gard three-link system to fit on the front and employed a Qt high-angle ball joint at the back, with rose-jointed radius arms all round allowing tremendous amounts of travel. Pro-Comp ES9000 18-inch shocks do no harm here, either, and nor do his own dislocating spring seats. ‘In all, I think the triple-link front suspension is the best mod I’ve made,’ he says. ‘It took a lot of working out, as it was not meant to fit a Rangey, but overall it works really well and has given me much more front travel.

As well as lifting the body, Ian trimmed the wheelarches to allow room for a set of 35-inch Extreme Trekkers on full bump. ‘The hard part of this,’ he says, ‘was joining the inner and outer door skins back together on the rear doors, having cut two inches away.’ Afterwards, on went a set of flexible arch finishers to keep it legal without presenting too easy a target to any passing trees.

The big tyres are steered by a Tdi 90 PAS box, via a column which has been extended to compensate for the body lift. Sumo bars all round and a rose-jointed Qt panhard rod are hidden behind a heavy-duty guard, which was modded to fit, and a home-made boss fashioned out of Range Rover parts allows the use of, oh yes, an Opel Manta steering wheel.

Staying down below the vehicle, the chassis has been strengthened where necessary using webs and the rear crossmember has gone completely to make way for a custom winch mount incorporating a removable NATO hitch. The gearbox crossmember had to move backwards to make way for the three-link hardware, and up front a second chassis section was welded on top of the existing one to provide a platform for the bumper and body mounts.

It might come as a surprise to you, given the amount of quality time Ian spent with his welding kit, that he didn’t go the whole hog and do himself a roll cage. All in good time, it transpires; having first modified a full-length Brownchurch roof rack to carry a set of fuel cans and some of the very many additional lights the Rangey boasts, a cage is next on his list. Given the probable height of the vehicle’s centre of gravity, there are no doubt many of you who’ll agree that this can be no bad thing.

Once the cage is in place, it will pretty much complete the Range Rover’s transformation from toff’s classic to off-road toy. So much so that Ian’s now building a trailer for it – from the back of yet another Range Rover. ‘This is going to be built to the same design as the rear of this vehicle,’ he explains, ‘but cut at window level. It will incorporate a roof tent and a lot more storage, enabling me to travel further and live in the vehicle more comfortably.’

That should just about be the final straw for matey from the estate, who’d presumably now be foaming at the mouth to see what his old car has turned into. You might be too, mind – though hopefully for a different reason.

Or perhaps you’re just getting turned on by the sheer size of the thing. After all, it might be all about the terrain. But we are still human…

X-ENG X-BRAKE, DIY BODY LIFT, FIRST FOUR BUMPER, BEARMACH SPRINGS, PRO-COMP SHOCKS, BEARMACH SHOCK TOWERS, QT TRAILING ARMS, DIY ROCK SLIDERS, DIY REAR CROSSMEMBER, SUPERWINCH X9, SAFARI GARD SUSPENSION, RANGE ROVER, 6" RANGE ROVER