Hello from Northampton

[speedkingkay]

Hello everyone, I've been pointed at this site by the gerryd on the Dormobile owners club. I'm liking it! Some of you are visitors to that site, and I appologise for posting the same pictures here, but this is my new pride and joy, a 1974 series III 6 pot. I bought it from Ray at Rockingham Land Rovers where it has sat in the hedge for 10 years. Great bloke with a cracking collection of Land Rovers and especially Land Rover campers. He's got a lovely SWB series I with a pop top roof that makes a surprisingly roomy conversion and a huge Perentie - which I'd never heard of before but certainly looked the part.

Anyhow I've started cleaning up some of the roof bits and taken out all the seats to start freeing up the hinges and removing the large amount of rust. I'm in two minds what to do with the rest of it. I want to get mobile before our kids get too old to want to come with us, so the easiest option would to be to get a good station wagon and swap all the Dormy bits over. I'd go for a series II (I’ve had a few and much prefer the look of them) and a more economical engine.

Or I'd re chassis the series III and keep it as original as possible. There are a lot of purists out there who would prefer this route but I ‘ help thinking it will take longer and be more expensive.

Or I'd use my 3 door series II (soft top, good chassis but poor engine) which would probably be the cheapest option but still take a long time.

I don’t think there is a right answer, but I'd be interested in anyone’s opinion.

It's good to see there are so many enthusiasts out there!

thanks for reading

Toby

[AlexB]

Hi Toby and welcome.

Having done a rechassis of an 88 and just got my new(er) Dormobile to the paint shop stage, I would wholeheartedly recommend the re-chassis and re-bulkhead method.

Not cheap, but not the most expensive option either. New (or 2nd hand) station wagon chassis are out there, refurbished series 3 bulkheads are more reasonable than series 2s, axles are also cheap and plentiful, so you could have a rolling chassis to swap bits over/from fairly easily - if you have the room.

My latest, requires new chassis, bulkhead, side frames - for starters. Side frames are available new, still, as they as the same for 110s.

Roof, seats and interior are the most critical bits, in my opinion. If you have those, you are laughing!!

[jerryd]

Hi Toby,
Welcome to the forum you'll probably find lots of info and advice on here, although I can't really advise what route you should take with yours. I'd probably put all the bits onto a good donor vehicle if it's rotten, that way you get to go camping quicker

I'm really fortunate that mine is just tired and completely rust free, it allows me to do a rolling restoration so that I can keep using it.The hardest part has been restoring the roof and all the bits that go with it

[Dormy]

I have done the 5 door SW body onto 3 door chassis swap before and there is practically no difference between the chassis. There are only a couple of body support brackets that require lowering for the rear passenger floor and a couple to fabricate for the rear floor front support (could possibly dig out some pics). This is a really easy job, so your suggestion to swap onto the series 2 chassis is entirely workable. Obviously depends on how bad the existing B & C posts and side door's frames are, but all of these are repairable or available new.

This would not be as original as rebuilding the S3 but depends on how much that bother you (and I am biased as a series 2 dormobile owner).

Dormy

[Peaceand]

Hi,
Slightly different breed of conversion - but my 5-door Carawagon was merged with a station-wagon by the previous owner. He'd sourced a station wagon of the same year and same colour and started doing the necessary cutting away of the seat boxes in the back. Then all the Carawagon specific bits were merged in, and I doubt anybody would be able to tell the difference now.
It's still the same vehicle as far as I'm concerned, just with much less rust and corrosion than it would have had a few years ago.

Whichever route you go down - I hope you enjoy it and get another Dormobile back on the road!

Patrick

[RobW]

Welcome.

Personally I'd try and keep it original if possible (with the probable exception of the engine which I'd mothball). Mine is missing quite a few bits so can't be put back without scrapping another one so the history has already been lost.