Landcrab Project

2

2Diesels

Member
Just thought I would share a few photos of my Wolseley 1885 project incase anyone's interested

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NEW WINGS & VALENCE
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BOOT FLOOR PAINTED
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MAIN FLOOR PAINTED
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As you can see it's been a much easier project than the P6 & is still in amazingly good order with only the outer sills, front wings & valence & a couple of small areas at the rear corners requiring replacement, just need 3 doors & a paint job & then I can screw it all back together

Regards Colin
 
I think they are great cars and yours looks like it won't take a lot more time and effort
You're lucky the same doors were used on Maxis and Austin 3 litres

Dave
 
DaveHerns said:
You're lucky the same doors were used on Maxis and Austin 3 litres

Dave
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Trouble is there's not many good ones out there, I found a set & bought them but they turned out to be worse than my originals, the Landcrab spares man in Blackpool reckons he's got some good ones for me but it's a long way to go to find out they might not be.

Regards Colin
 
I spent the first few years of my life being driven around in an austin 2200, so I've always fancied getting a crab, they're getting rarer than P6's from what I can see.

Keep us posted on the project !
 
They certainly are getting a bit thin on the ground now, they were always a car I liked but if I had the money in my pocket I would have probably walked past one for sale until early 2003 when I had just bought my Volvo 940 my mate rang me & said
"Got a car for you" so I said "Don't want it just bought one" "But it's a Wolseley 18/85" "Don't want it" "It's free to as good home" "I'll take it"
I replaced the steering rack, patched the silencer, got the brakes working & ran it for 12 months & I was amazed at how nice it was to live with so when it began to get a bit too scruffy I decided to treat it to some new wings & the project spiralled from there as they do.

Regards Colin
 
hey up colin brian burkinshaws dad ran the 1800s for years brilliant cars then he went to the princess 1800 then the 2200 had some good fun in them
 
Landcrabs? Got one languishing in my garage, awaiting it's turn :D This one is a 1967 Mk1 Morris 1800, so quite a rare beast. I went the route of Maxi doors on mine, but fitted them with NOS door skins. I had to modify the door frames as well, due to the early cars having totally different door catches to the later 18/22 range, and Maxi's.
Had great fun doing the sills as well......... Main problem being that the centre sill has to be spot welded to the outer sill first, and then the assembly has to be fitted up inside the door pillars. I had to cut the entire inner out to weld the outer/centre sill assembly into the bottom of the door pillars, and behind the seat pan. Now the sills are sound, and the car can be jacked using the original jacking points without so much as a creak! Had a lucky find with genuine BMC sill assemblies.
Still got an awful lot of work to do to it though. It hasn't seen the road since 1987. The hydrolastic leaks, clutch is seized,brakes are shot...... :wink:
 
bungi said:
hey up colin brian burkinshaws dad ran the 1800s for years brilliant cars then he went to the princess 1800 then the 2200 had some good fun in them
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My Uncle John had a Wolseley Six when I was a nipper & later on he bought a Wolseley Wedge super rare even then
Erik The Viking said:
Had great fun doing the sills as well.........
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I couldn't find any real sills so I had to use Hadrian Panels ones not the best but they're on, my inners & middles were really good needing only a few localised repairs & then I hit the problem of how to join the middles to the outers we seam welded as far along as possible through the access holes inside the car & drilled through in a few places from the outside & plug welded it.
Erik The Viking said:
Still got an awful lot of work to do to it though. It hasn't seen the road since 1987. The hydrolastic leaks, clutch is seized,brakes are shot...... :wink:
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My Driver's side Hydrolastics are leaking where the valve block is joined to the pipe but new pipes are only £40 a side in rubber Hydraulic hose as opposed to steel, I put rubber kits into the Servo, Master & Wheel Cylinders when I got mine & it worked but they've gone off again but bits seem plentiful on ebay at the minute.

Regards Colin
 
I'm told it's the strongest British built bodyshell ever made, put it this way the original works rally cars had no roll cages that's got to tell you something

Regards Colin
 
Yeah, the torsional strength of the Landcrab bodyshell is massive. It had to be, as the Crab doesn't have any subframes!! I too tried the pattern part sills, the main problem that I found is that original Landcrab sills are slightly curved down their length, and the pattern sills I got were straight!

I think a good testiment to the strength of a Landcrab shell is that I had the car suspended by the towbar, from a beam in the garage roof, while I was doing the sills!! I had steel bars welded inside the door shuts, diagonally, and the doors opened and shut perfectly all the way through the job. The problem I had was nowhere to put axle stands, as the rear suspension had to be removed, as the mounts were rotten........ :shock:
 
Erik The Viking said:
I too tried the pattern part sills, the main problem that I found is that original Landcrab sills are slightly curved down their length, and the pattern sills I got were straight!
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Yes I spotted this problem & am not entirely happy with the fit of the N/S one :( but it's on now & it's staying there :roll:

Regards Colin
 
I have to admit Colin, yours looks in far better fettle than mine. The Morris really is as rotten as a pear :roll: The only reason why it hasn't gone to the great scrapyard in the sky is because my late Grandfather bought it when it was a year old in 1968, so it been in the family a long time. My father took it over in the early 80's, and we had many great family holidays in it. It even pulled a big caravan all over the North Yorkshire Moors! I think at the moment the current mileage is 370,000.
 
It is quite good apart from the rear corners, sills & wings it only needed one small patch in the N/S front corner of the floor, & when the rotten wings came off the inners were amazing needing one postage stamp sized patch.

What was it like with a caravan on the back cos I have a coachbuilt Safari which would look a picture on the back of mine but am concerned that due to the way the suspension works do you not just end up with the nose pointing at the sky?

Colin
 
Here's a couple more pics

My furry pal inspecting the progress, is this what you call a cat scan?

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Under the N/S wing

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Well I took the chance & went to Blackpool yesterday & got 2 cracking doors for the crab & a new skin for the other one so I can bash on & get it ready for painting now :D :D :D :D :D
 
We used to tow a Sprite all round Europe in the 70's with the 2200, 5 of us in the car too. Never gave any trouble.
 
That's quite reassuring :D they do say the suspension is self levelling but they also say that if you hit a bump with say the front wheel the rear one on the same side is pushed down to "keep the car level" so what worried me was if you hang all that weight on the back it pushes the back wheels up into the arches which then in turn pushes the front wheels down which has the effect of raising the front of the body in the air :shock: see what I mean??
Also mine is an automatic with what is essentialy just a BW35 in a funny casing but it is driven by a chain on the end of the torque converter down to the input shaft of the box & to be honest that worries me just a little :|
 
2Diesels said:
Also mine is an automatic with what is essentialy just a BW35 in a funny casing but it is driven by a chain on the end of the torque converter down to the input shaft of the box & to be honest that worries me just a little :|
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I shouldn't worry too much, the boxes in the Landcrabs don't give many problems, and apart from the problems associated with actually getting the box out are the same as the normal ones. Worry about it when it happens, not before it does, it may well go on for ever.
 
I know what you mean Harvey but it's not so much the box itself it's the chain that worries me I have heard horror stories about chains letting go from a few people over the years :shock: I might put a towbar on the P6 & use that instead 8)
Plus the crab's positive earth & no I'm not changing it (I'm just too stubborn :roll: )& I can't get my head round how to run the caravan fridge & charging circuit without inventing some kind of Caravan Fembler whatever one of those is

Regards Colin
 
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