Sending in the roll cage to be fitted

So we were planning to fit the roll cage ourselves but the more we looked into it, the more complicated it was becoming so we've sent it in to get it done properly and let them handle making sure they get a new front bar made to fit the current roll cage exactly. This is how we're doing so far!

Had to remove the standard support bar behind the seats and re-cut it so that  we could accommodate the roll cage

Fitting the tailgate

Fitting the tailgate was a slightly tedious job because everything had to be perfectly level and equal. Our cables which held the door, landed up being bolted onto brackets which weren't actually perfectly  symmetrical(quite the opposite actually) but the tailgate is now on and nice and straight regardless and the brackets still looks neat tidy over the carpet.

We had to cut a metal backplate out ourselves because the ones provided with the brackets didn't fit on the one side. Also, we had fashion our own spacers out garden piping so that door would wiggle around.

New Parts!

So my dad became besties with a guy he met who was driving around in an SVX. My dad asked him a bit about his car and it turns out he has a spare SVX roll cage plus and spare SVX tailgate all just lying around in his house (what are the chances, considering there are only about 10 SVX's in South Africa). To top all off, the owner, Sean, gave it to us at an amazing discount because he was moving and wanted the stuff out of his house.
So here we have it, the roll cage (minus the front bar over the windscreen, which we're gonna have to get made)  plus the tailgate :D

Roof Off

Roof Off

Now that we'd stripped the interior, we set about unscrewing everything holding the roof in place. This was actually relatively easy because we took off the top and the sides off together instead of doing it individually. We tried lifting it off after unfastening everything and it all came free except for some glue which held the front of the roof to the windscreen. We stuck a screw driver between the it and were able to un-stick it. After that, the roof came off like a charm.

Roof Interior

Before we started taking the roof off we had to take out the roof lights and interior. The lights were easy, all you need is a set of screwdrivers. the panels were all relatively easily with most  popping off with ease. for the trickier areas which wont pop off, get a strong flat-head screwdriver and wedge it under,levering it and the poppers come off.

Seats and panels off

Seats

Before we started tackling the roof, we knew we were going to be taking the seats out anyway so we figured it would be more practical to take them out to give ourselves more area to work with.
Removing the lower half was tricky with many of the bolts stuck because of the rust. It would be impossible to remove the seats without to people because you need someone holding the bolt underneath while someone at the top works with the socket.  the backrests were easy because once you loosen them you can just slide them out

Taking off the door

one of the beautiful things about land rovers is the fact that if you have 10,12 and 13 spanner you can basically take the whole car apart. For us to turn into a bikini top car, we first had to take the door off. we removed the rear wheel because of its sheer weight. Disconnecting the wiring leading into the door was easy, with the collection of wires connected to the door all being able to be disconnected by a connector located behind the back-right speaker panel. we didn't really think of that though, and put ourselves through the effort of removing the entire door panel  unscrewing the hand grip and disconnecting all the wires before realising that the wires wouldn't fit through the hole they would need to, so we re-screwed and reconnected everything and only then discovered the door panel.

Undoing he nuts and bolts was slightly trickier with it being a two man job. Eventually though we were able to get it off and made sure we kept all the nuts bolts and washers for when we try sell it.