The Money Pit

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I've owned my 2001 Range Rover for 3.5 years now. I picked it up with ~89,000 miles on it. Currently has 128K miles on it.

Specs:
2001 Land Rover Range Rover
HSE
4.6L V8
3.54 Gear
3.??:1 low range
Automatic 4 speed ZF transmission
18" gay low profile wheels and tires

I've had 3 jeeps before this and an 85 Toyota truck. I've always wanted a Range Rover. I looked everywhere for a decent Range Rover Classic but I couldn't find one that was worth the money. I found this P38 on Craigslist in November of 2010 and took a look at it.

There were some issues with it. It was in need of an under hood electrical fuse box, radiator, heater core o-rings, suspension work and new fluids.

After driving it around and talking to the owner, I realized he was an idiot. He had bought it thinking he could fix the issues and then realized he didn't have the skills.

The Range Rover was already converted to coil springs (Thank The Man Above!). He was asking $7500 for the rig and it had been for sale for some time. I took about a month deciding and researching it. I finally offered him $5500 and picked up my new ride!

Since I purchased it I have invested about $2500 into getting it lifted and reliable.

I don't have an build thread anywhere else because I find most the Land Rover forums to be full of "Know it All's" Who have never actually turned a wrench or modified their vehicles with non-bolt on parts. Frankly I'd like to punch most of them in the face.

My goals are:

Reliability
Good Family vehicle (Wife and 2 boys 10 years old and 7 years old)
Fairy Stock Running Gear
Upgrade the Suspension for cargo and off-road manners

And now on to some pictures:

Stock when I purchased it.

 

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lineage shot

 

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My Modification List:

Plans:

OME coil springs and shocks 2" lift
roof rack
winch mount
skid plates under the radiator
32" tires
ARB lockers front and rear
RTT or Camper
Lights

 

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Right after I bought the Range Rover my 1989 Mercedes 300TE was totalled. Some Dumb old Man Ran a light and I T-Boned him. IT had 252K miles on it and was perfect. I wanted to kill him right on the spot. I paid $2000 for the car. His insurance settled with me for $5000.

This picture still hurts!

I still miss the car.



I bought a 2000 VW Passat Wagon for $750 from the dealership I was working at. Those guys were idiots, they thought the transmission was dead. I bought a new transmission control unit out of the junkyard for $50 and installed. Now the car was worth $4500

I also picked up a winch for the range rover. Rough Country 9500 with Synthetic Rope. (cheap but has not broken yet, and who really needs a winch when you own a land rover, they never get stuck)

 

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As you can see i've been down in SLC a few times. Well, this was some mall crawling in Park City.

 

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So anyway it was a starting point for this pile of crap.

First upgrade was some HID bulbs and some 6" spotties.



Old vs. New



I then decided to cut the bottom valance off the stock bumper. I had taken it off road through a ditch and broke on of the stock fog lights and decided it was really screwing up my clearance. I had seen another person who had done this and decided to copy the idea.

I then took some time to add my new 7" cheapo off road lights. I don't like to buy nice ones, because they always get broken. I had broken a set of Hella's on my Jeep Commander and wasn't going to spend the money on them anymore.
I later converted them over to HID bulbs and they work very nicely now.

I wired the lights into the stock wiring harness for the original fog lights. Works like a charm, and I didn't have to run any new wiring!!!!

 

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Next came wheels and tires. Since the Range Rover uses the BMW wheel pattern 120x5, it really sucks to find wheels. Luckily I found some 16" Pro Comp wheels. I think they are the Rock Crawler Series. They weigh and ton! But they Fit and should not ever break or bend, they must be made from 1/4" steel.

I also picked up some Treadwright Tires in 245/75/16. They are Load Range E and have the BFG AT pattern. I've put over 8000 miles on these tires since I bought them Last March. I've taken two trips from Montana to Salt Lake City without any issues. I have also used them off road a lot. Great tires, 4 only set me back $350 shipped.

 

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When I installed the Tires

It took a couple hours to put the wheels on this evening. But I love them!

I had to use starting fluid to seat the beads on the wheels. It worked like a charm. So quick and easy. Our cheetah we use for low-profile sports car tires wouldn't seat the bead at all. I finally resorted to Ether, the other guy wouldn't even watch, he was to embarrassed. We work on Porsche's, Audi's, Mercedes, and BMW. So this isn't a normal project in the shop.

After they were seated I put 30 PSI and balanced them on our uber high tech Hunter balancing machine. They all came out perfect and were easy to balance.

I had to install the wheels and tires with the factory lug nuts while i'm waiting for my new ones to show up.

I took it for a spin down the highway at various speeds, not one vibration or wobble. AWESOME!!!!

I then went for some Sonic with the wife and 2 boys. I didn't air down at all. The tires grip the sand stone very well. I am very impressed so far. The treadwright tires are pretty damn good, and cheap!

This is pre-lift

a short video.

[video=youtube;BUCaQyEjZdA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUCaQyEjZdA&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

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I researched springs for a long time trying to decide what I wanted.

I finally settled on Old Man Emu HD springs front and back. I was told by all the experts these would be too stiff and I would hate it. Another reason I hate experts.

I love the springs and have been very satisfied with them! They work great on and off road and carry all my gear very well. I can also add a 7000 lbs trailer behind the truck and it barely squats it.!

front springs old vs. new

 

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Spring Install. I used to work at a European Auto Dealer when I went through an Unemployment Period. Pay sucked, work was pretty fun, and using a lift made me spoiled.

View attachment 81720

 

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Sorry the pictures are huge. Pre- Instagram photo editor.

Sitting on new wheels and tires and suspension

I also addded Bilstien 5125's around it.

 

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Some test pictures. Posing in the lot.

 

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So, it pretty much stayed like this for the next year. Circa 2010-2011

We took a bunch of trips in Montana and Wyoming with it. I never got around to installing the winch, but we were okay without it.

Morrison Jeep Trail (Wyoming)

 

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Morrison Jeep Trail (Montana)

 

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2011 Went back up to Morrison Jeep Trail and did the upper section only. Beautiful area. I've been going up here for over 8 years.

 

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I had ORU shovel and ax holder laying around for over 3 years. I figured I might as well finally use it. After messing around for an hour trying to decided where to stick it. I drilled a few holes through the roof rack and bolted it down. I picked up a new shovel and ax.

Bracket holding the shovel and ax

 

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Well last year 2012 my wife and I finally had a chance to ditch the kids and take a trip. MOAB! So I decided to finally get off my butt and do something with that winch. 2 years later. i like to hoard stuff.

Almost sold it because i didn't think i'd ever get around to putting it on. I picked up a welding machine at a pawn shop and went to town.

 

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So my plan was to keep the front bumper as stock as possible. I like the stock grill guard a lot and wanted to keep the front end looking like factory. I knew this was going to be a tight fit.

So i took the front bumper off and started trimming out pieces of metal.

That is a tight fit. Mock-up