Matt Builds A Tomcat

So, yes, it’s been a while since the last update, and quite a lot has been done. Let’s start with the big stuff first.

There’s an engine! And it’s in! Ignore the filthy power steering unit (that will get cleaner as the photo’s go on) if you would. Getting the engine in involved using a hoist to get it halfway in, balancing it on a jack, removing the ropes and then re-attaching them through the windscreen to get the engine back far enough to mount. This may have been easier if not for Big Problem #1: The gearbox is the wrong size.

Let me explain. Quite a lot of people swap the high/low ratio transfer boxes out of automatic Range Rovers for one from a manual, which has a driver-selectable central diff lock (rather than an automatic one). I have not, for various reasons, but the people at Tomcat assumed I had, which meant they built the rollcage around a gearbox that is two inches shorter than the one I have. This has caused some problems, ranging from the small (the drum for the handbrake fouled on one of the seat mounts) to the large (the propshafts were the wrong length). I solved the seat mount problem with a hacksaw, but the propshafts had to be sent back to Tomcat (along with the seats, which turned out to be a bit too small for my rather generous backside) to be modified.

But anyway - the engine is in, the gearbox(es) are in, the steering is in, the transmission cooling is in, the oil cooling is in (in the bin, we’re just going to blank it off and put a guage on to keep an eye on the temperature). Some of the metal panels have been fitted and the transmission tunnel is in, with the gearsticks fitted.

I’m doing some thinking about the dashboard - ideally I would like to keep the original instument panel, as this would be much easier to wire in, but it won’t fit with the supplied dashboard. However, the dashboard is actually in two bits, so I may remove the driver’s half and fit the instrument panel above the steering column, as in the photo above. The alternative is to cut a gap in the dashboard big enough for the panel to fit into, but that’s a decision for another day.

Finally, I used a nibbler to cut out the hole for the air to get to the radiator. Note the brackets at the top of the picture above for the top pegs of the radiator to fit into. The bottom pegs sit on some box section which isn’t fitted yet.

Next weekend - brakes and fuel!

After months putting up with piles of bits, and then a month or so of having something that looked like a climbing frame, we’ve fitted the running gear and suddenly it looks like a car.

Getting the running gear onto the chassis was a case of lowering the chassis onto the axle and seating the springs, holding them in place (so they couldn’t shift backward or forward) with ratchet straps whilst getting the trailing arms / radius arms seated, then compressing the springs and tightening the arm bolts. To compress the springs, you can use spring compresser (obviously), a ratchet strap around the axle and the bodywork, or do what we did and drop a car ramp onto the whole thing.

That was about it this weekend - we did a touch more painting, put the steering wheel together, pressure-washed the engine (again), cleaned up some parts, scratched our heads about where to put the petrol tank and offered the winch bumper to the front to see how much we need to take off the chassis (about eight inches, distressingly).

And we played silly buggers =]

The next job will be getting the engine and gearbox mounted, some time around the end of the month. Stay tuned!

Everything is painted! Chassis, suspension components, running gear - all done!

It looks much better, I think you’ll agree.

Next weekend, we actually start putting things back together!

There’s a little work to do before painting can commence - namely grinding off some of the protuding welds to make sure they don’t get in the way of the bodywork, skimming off some of the welding splatter with a flathead screwdriver and wiping the whole thing down with thinners to get rid of any grease.

Next, some primer - we stood it on it’s side first to do the underneath, and now that we’re in a nice warm workshop it was dry enough to turn it back the right way up within the space of a cup of coffee. We used an engine hoist when getting it back down again but it’s light enough to do with two of you lifting if you don’t have one. We took the bolts off to make sure we didn’t get paint on them (the box section at the back has to come off to be painted properly anyway).

I decided to paint it black - my friend told me a red car with black bodywork would look like a ladybird. I’m not convinced he’s right, but the shop was out of red paint, so black it was.

This followed the same procedure as the primer as far as standing it on it’s side was concerned. We’re going to give another coat to the underside and to the bits you can actually see once the body is on (the door frames, window frame, rear cockpit frame and the two bits that come down from the roof to the rear of the car). We painted the rock sliders the same red colour as the propshafts, underbody protection and springs are going to be.

The next step (after a bit more painting) will be fitting the axles and suspension.

I’ve got a Tomcat! Shame it’s all in bits, but never mind.

The chassis and rollcage just (just!) fitted into a 4.5′ car trailer.

Now it’s all back, and (now that it’s clean) into it’s new home, which is drier and has a somewhat higher roof.

Next step - prime and paint the cage. I’m having a colour dilemma, though - the bodywork is black, and I’d always intended for the rollcage to be black too, with certain bits (the coil springs and underbody protection) being red. Now I’m thinking that the whole rollcage should be red.

Hmm…

I’ve just got off the phone to Paul and the bits should be arriving this afternoon, meaning the Tomcat is ready to pick up tomorrow!

Work commitments mean I can’t fetch it that early, but on Monday it’s back to Nottingham again.

Today we dragged the bodywork we (hopefully) don’t need to a local scrapyard, and then took the chassis on to Tomcat.

The rollcage should be fitted next week (we saw it when we arrived, it just needs fitting to the chassis) and the bodywork will be in by mid-December.

The bodywork will be taped to the frame ready for collection. Paul from Tomcat advises that we bring a sheet to prevent the body panels from blowing off on the way home. I agree.

I’ve also picked up my first official Tomcat part - the heated windscreen! The windscreen is specially made to fit a Tomcat, and has a heating element so powerful that Paul advises you to fit a ten-minute timer, as leaving it on for too long will cause the plastic between to glass to melt!

Time lag switches are proving rather hard to locate on the Internet. Stay tuned…
(Update - aha, here we are - a heated rear window timed relay.)

Well, the body is off the chassis, so there’s no turning back now. It was fairly hard, but not as bad as I thought. We removed all the cooling pipes and the main radiator, undid the UJ on the steering column, disconnected all the electrics from the engine, removed the winch and winch bumper, brake lines and ABS electronics, disconnected the gear linkage and speedometer cable, undid the mounts and lifted the whole body up with a crane. It took three of us about ten hours.