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msggunny
08-27-2007, 12:38 PM
I am considering replacing my chassis and want some oppionions from those of you who have done it already. Mainly looking for info regarding quality, shipping, dealing with the company you bought it from. Not too worried about the tech aspect, but any PITFA's you ran into would be nice too.

Getting the old "reenlistment bonus" and trying to figure out what i want to spend it on. my current chassis isnt horrible, but i replaced the front frame horns, there is rust dammage to the crossmember with the PTO hole in it and the rear cross member was replaced by the PO (not a very good job either)

I want a Roverdrive, but a new chassis may be more of a need than a want.

Coilers? any info?

Thanks for the input.

Momo
08-27-2007, 02:28 PM
Gunny,

Last I heard (Friday) Roverdrives are going for $1350US right now and there's a waiting list.

Since the chassis is the backbone of your 88 & a new one will last another 35 years, and they aren't getting any cheaper... I say go for it.

xrover
08-27-2007, 06:48 PM
Best thing you could ever do if your attached to your series.

If your not, Sell it and buy one thats been done already. LOL...

yorker
08-27-2007, 07:25 PM
I got mine from RN in '96 or so. I've been very pleased with it, the shipping and quality were fine. I wouldn't bother with a coil chassis IF you could even get one. Last I knew ECR quit making them available to the general public.

jp-
08-28-2007, 10:23 AM
Both of my Rovers have their original frames. I suppose I just like saving things, but steel isn't that hard to work with. On my 88" I cut out the entire lower half of the square tube on both sides half way down the chassis. The other three sides of the chassis tube were solid. Then I welded in a strip of 3" wide x .125" plate all the way back in to complete the tube repair. I had a tremendous amount of weld time in the chassis, but anything with a square tube design is fairly simple to repair. After galvanizing, it was as new (and a heck of a lot cheaper + it's original).

jp-
08-28-2007, 10:24 AM
Oh yeah,

I had enough left over from the money I saved on the chassis to buy a Roverdrive!

yorker
08-28-2007, 04:20 PM
Those I've done mostly got swept up with a broom and dustpan- there wasn't much to weld to. Plus, at least in NY, you need to have any chassis welding work done by a certified welder which means $$$ per hour.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l119/sepp45/sIII/gotframe4.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l119/sepp45/sIII/gotframe3.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l119/sepp45/sIII/gotframe.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l119/sepp45/sIII/gotframe2.jpg

For trucks that have spent 40 years in the salted northeast I think the $ spent on a new chassis are well worth it.

If I lived in a region where there was less damage I can see fixing what little damage there is. If your chassis is better than my pics above I'd look into repairing/maintaining what you have and spend the $ from your re-up on something else!

msggunny
08-28-2007, 09:03 PM
Yorker,

That rot makes my skin crawl :eek:

Thankfully mine isnt 1/8th that bad.

yorker
08-28-2007, 10:07 PM
See things could be worse! Another one I had had the chassis filled with great stuff foam and artfully trimmed and sealed to look like a solid chassis. The fellow I bought it from had been duped by that ploy.

jp-
08-29-2007, 01:33 PM
Obviously, I didn't mean that everything could be saved. No, that frame is not worth repairing. Each person must make his own determination about what he is capable of.

jp-
08-29-2007, 01:40 PM
Plus, at least in NY, you need to have any chassis welding work done by a certified welder which means $$$ per hour.

This is becoming an increasing phenomenon all over the place. I bet you didn't know that you can't install your own garage door now. Someone has decided that it is too "dangerous" for any old joe to work on his OWN garage door. Everything will eventually be litigated away as being too "risky."

I'm waiting for the announcement that we can't pump our own gas, as we might get hurt...

Not meaning to rant, just an observation of our "legal" top heavy society.

Leslie
08-29-2007, 01:55 PM
I'm waiting for the announcement that we can't pump our own gas, as we might get hurt...


Isn't that the case in Oregon and New Jersey?


I was in Oregon once, pulled up to a pump.... I never use full-service since it costs so much more, so, I hop out and start to head for the pump... a guy comes running out screaming at me to stop.... said he had to do it, that he'd be in big trouble if I did it myself, that he'd be fined for not stopping me. :rolleyes:


Gack.

sven
08-29-2007, 02:29 PM
Not sure if I buy that Certified Welder only thing in NY. Ive lived there for 32 years, worked in a shop for 10 and never heard of such a thing.

xrover
08-29-2007, 07:17 PM
Yorker....

Do you keep a dustpan in your garage or should you get an industial shopvac for your next birthday:thumb-up: :nono: :) :eek: :D :rolleyes:

yorker
08-29-2007, 08:03 PM
Yep a dustpan... Now I wish I took more pictures of the teardown and rebuilds but when i was doing them I really didn't give much thought to it. That seres III is in the process now- I'll try to take more pics.

Man that frame was a mess, it is amazing it didn't just fold up.

The one from my 1965 was like latticework- all that was left of several portions was the welds at the corners of the box section! The welds remained but the sheet metal was gone completely.

scott
09-02-2007, 10:01 AM
there's a guy out in lincoln, nm. sells stuff on ebay. goes by the name of dustycowboy. he had listed a rolling chassis but his reserve wasn't met. this was a couple of months ago.

BackInA88
09-02-2007, 04:25 PM
there's a guy out in lincoln, nm. sells stuff on ebay. goes by the name of dustycowboy. he had listed a rolling chassis but his reserve wasn't met. this was a couple of months ago.

He's the guy that screwed me on a Series III trans, said it was perfect and the gears were so rusted it wouldn't even turn.:mad:
He would do nothing to correct the situation!

Steve

scott
09-03-2007, 11:45 PM
ya give him a crappy review or if he advertised it as other than the condition ya got it go to ebay's dispute resoution. my only problem was for something that was never delivered and e-bay got me about 90% of my money back. thanks for the heads up on 'em.

BackInA88
09-04-2007, 07:09 AM
ya give him a crappy review or if he advertised it as other than the condition ya got it go to ebay's dispute resoution. my only problem was for something that was never delivered and e-bay got me about 90% of my money back. thanks for the heads up on 'em.

Well here's how it went down....
Saw him listing a lot of Series III stuff so I sent him a note thru Ebay asking if he had a good Series III trans.
He said he had a perfect low miles trans and T-case he would let me have for $450.
OK, I thought the price a little high, but for a low milage "perfect" unit I said what the hell.
Now here is where I made a big mistake.
I just went ahead and bought it straight from him, heck he had pretty good feedback why worry, right? Wrong!! :mad:
I am 99% sure he knew this trans was messed up.
I still have the emails where I asked him to do some checks for me like, turn the input shaft and shift it thru the gears and tell me how it felt.
"It spins free and shifts great" was his response B.S. as you can see from the picture in the earlier post that trans was never turned. Heck I couldn't shift it let alone turn it after it bouced on a truck all the way from New Mexico to Michigan!
Which cost me $230 to get shipped.
Sent him pictures of what I found (one of which is the picture you see) which he said wasn't of his trans!
So I sent him other pictures of the trans cover, which included the same serial number him had sent me earlier, showing it completely rusted out from the inside breather.
I just wanted a few bucks back as the trans was not a total loss.
He response was to send it back, so another $230 to ship it back and I would have been a whopping $10 dollars in the hole!!!:nono:

I should have at least made him post it on Ebay with a "Buy it Now" price so I could have at least given negative feedback.
I'm sure he had no plans to list this trans but when a sucker like me came along, well he thought, what the hell.

BTW.. His Mommy is a real treat to talk to, leave my son alone he didn't this and didn't that, he's not a transmission expert!!!
You don't need to be a trans expert not to lie thru your teeth!!!

Expensive lesson learned for me.....
NEVER BUY LAND ROVER PARTS SIGHT UNSEEN UNLESS IT IS FROM SOMEONE ON THE VARIOUS LAND ROVER FORUMS!!:D


Steve

msggunny
09-04-2007, 08:28 AM
Well here's how it went down....
Saw him listing a lot of Series III stuff so I sent him a note thru Ebay asking if he had a good Series III trans.
He said he had a perfect low miles trans and T-case he would let me have for $450.
OK, I thought the price a little high, but for a low milage "perfect" unit I said what the hell.
Now here is where I made a big mistake.
I just went ahead and bought it straight from him, heck he had pretty good feedback why worry, right? Wrong!! :mad:
I am 99% sure he knew this trans was messed up.
I still have the emails where I asked him to do some checks for me like, turn the input shaft and shift it thru the gears and tell me how it felt.
"It spins free and shifts great" was his response B.S. as you can see from the picture in the earlier post that trans was never turned. Heck I couldn't shift it let alone turn it after it bouced on a truck all the way from New Mexico to Michigan!
Which cost me $230 to get shipped.
Sent him pictures of what I found (one of which is the picture you see) which he said wasn't of his trans!
So I sent him other pictures of the trans cover, which included the same serial number him had sent me earlier, showing it completely rusted out from the inside breather.
I just wanted a few bucks back as the trans was not a total loss.
He response was to send it back, so another $230 to ship it back and I would have been a whopping $10 dollars in the hole!!!:nono:

I should have at least made him post it on Ebay with a "Buy it Now" price so I could have at least given negative feedback.
I'm sure he had no plans to list this trans but when a sucker like me came along, well he thought, what the hell.

BTW.. His Mommy is a real treat to talk to, leave my son alone he didn't this and didn't that, he's not a transmission expert!!!
You don't need to be a trans expert not to lie thru your teeth!!!

Expensive lesson learned for me.....
NEVER BUY LAND ROVER PARTS SIGHT UNSEEN UNLESS IT IS FROM SOMEONE ON THE VARIOUS LAND ROVER FORUMS!!:D


Steve

Gotta love Ebay! what a turdbiscut. There is a guy 50 miles south of me in Wilmington who has the same deal, Tidewater Rover. Serious problems, met a dude who used to work with him, he quit because of the guys ethics.

O well, what can you do?

LOTS!

sven
09-04-2007, 08:50 AM
There is a guy 50 miles south of me in Wilmington who has the same deal, Tidewater Rover.

Tidewater sucks. They scammed me out of some parts too.

yorker
09-04-2007, 09:26 AM
Tidewater is the one who bought John Dorr's Stage 1 galvanized frame and then never came through with the $. Luckily they gave a deposit which he kept after all the jerking around Tidewater gave him over it. It peeves me though because Tidewater was the one who outbid me on the chassis on ebay to begin with, if they are going to bidsnipe they ought to at least complete the transaction...

scott
09-04-2007, 11:02 AM
ahh feel the love...i guess the moral is never trust any one you meet online or who drives a series. but wait, i bought mine from a guy on line after looking at a couple of pics. he said i ran great and it does (most of the time). my e-bay buys have been mostly things like seats, latches, horn contact thing. low price stuff that can't be lied about.