Oh man, what a fortnight it's been. It's our two week holiday at the moment, but we decided to convert our Series 3 Land Rover into a pop top. Yep, bonkers. First was making two frames. Here's the lower one on, unpainted.
At the same time, Jamie was fixing the gearbox and pulling out a spare wheel box to fit this water carrier - 40 L. It's an unused bit of space under there so we're stoked to utilise it this way.
We actually got a mate to do the welding as it's aluminium welding and Jamie hasn't done tig welding coz he doesnt' have the expensive welder to do it.
We even put another storage box on the other side. Storage is at premium in these old cars.
Then Jamie got to work cleaning and painting the roof. We also lined it with headliner - love the tan. The whole colour theme in my mind is 'laurence of arabia desert sands'. You'll see why as we go on with the whole build.
Finally the hinge arrived to rivet on one side (in the next post you'll see the whole roof in place - can't wait to show you.
And glueing and riveting down a whole heap of angle iron - the outer angle is to attach the canvas to and stop the rain coming in, and the inner is to attach the bed to.
We got Murray around to help with the hinge and attaching the roof. It was a little fiddly but we got there in the en with a few secret tricks.
Finally, the whole roof was ready to put on. I'll show you that in the next post. Would you believe the whole thing only ways about 70kg? I'm not exactly sure how much a Series roof weighs without the extra aluminium attached, but that's a LOT lighter than the huge roof racks and roof top tents that people put on, and the weight is lower.
Meanwhile I'm busy ordering all the other thing we need - a 12V battery system, a fan, and so on and so forth. We've got a way to go yet before she's completely done! But it feels like progress.
I'm quite proud of my husband for seeing this vision through. THe whole build cost 1300 AUD, including the headlining and paint - an Alucab pop top will cost you 20K and others charge between 12 and 18 in this country. To be honest 12 would be a bargain. We expect the canvas to come in about 1200. So 2500 AUD for a pop top and two weeks hard work seems pretty good really! What do you think?
With Love,
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here