There seems an obvious solution to circumventing the "year specific" bulkhead. Why not just produce...oh I don't know... a Series III ...1975 RHD version.....problem solved, everybody happy
Considering the fairly reasonable cost of obtaining a Defender bulkhead and getting it galvanized, it would seem tough to make any economies of scale for this. Of course if you produced a series III galvanized unit for a grand I'd be in for one.
Why reinvent the wheel? Call our hosts and present them with a business opportunity.
They offer the repair panels for the entire lower bulkhead and the door pillars. Why not propose to them to make the missing top peice, series three or 2 specific dash aseembly and vents? Viola - instant bulkhead. (I believe the door pillar repair posts would need lengthening as well.)
The next logical step is to make sure the parts are available as DIY weld up kit or offer it as a complete galavanized unit available as a special order. No inventory for our hosts if they do not want to hold it.
In the least you help our hosts get the missing upper & interior dash peice made, enables them to have a nicely made bulkhead as a special order or have a kit for people that are willing to finish it themselves (not to mention the ability to customize the bulkhead to a specific application - swapping a motor? buy the parts sans the center section).
Finally, RN will be the only supplier of the upper bulkhead/dash repair kit and the only real work left is to get an accurate measurement of the upper assembly and specific interior dashs not currently offered.
I think more people would be interested in a company that can rebuild exhisting bulkheads to a brand new condition.
This would include
Metal work
Priming and Painting to desired color.
East Coast Rover is not rebuilding series bulkheads any longer. I am looking to have mine rebuilt, but I want to make sure it is done to the highest quality.
THis is a much more cost effective way of supplying nice bulkheads over all the RD and overhead involved in building Brand new pieces.
Rebuilding firewalls is not rocket science. It can be done to a higher standard than ECR by an carefull enthusiast. Here is some info on how you can do it:
If you want yours rebuilt, ship it to Ike Goss at Pangolin, Mark at Singing Camel, or Matt Browne at Overland Engineering just to name a few of the ones I know of off the top of my head. The reason I'm looking at new ones is, the guy in England that builds new ones was charging approx $1700 for a galvanived bulkhead. I have been quoted $1500 to $2000 to have mine rebuilt and painted. For the $ spent the English one looked awfully attractive. If someone can build them on that side of the pond for that kind of $ because he already had the equipment to do it; then quite possibly I can find someone on this side of the pond who already has the equipment to build them as well. As with any custom manufactured product the more that are built at a time the less expensive they should be. Henry Ford figured that one out. I'm not trying to get all Series owners to buy new bulkheads but 'd love them all to have the option.
Jim
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