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Roof Reinstallation

To quote that famous manual, "Roof reinstallation is the reverse of removal"!

Having resprayed the roof (the colour I used was "Alpine White"), I enlisted the aid of my wife to carry it back into the garage, having first rolled the Land Rover out of the way. It was then suspended from the garage roof with ropes, and the Land Rover rolled back into position below it.

The Alpine windows had not yet been reinstalled; I did this once it was reconnected to the hard top sides. I'm not sure whether it would have been easier to install them with the roof on trestles in the courtyard, although this would of course have added to the weight of the roof.

Suspended roof prior to reattachment to vehicle

I then installed the new rear work light. The wiring runs through an existing hole in the roof (via a grommet and a length of clear plastic tubing for waterproofing purposes). I was particularly careful to terminate the ends of the wires in bullet connectors so that these can just be disconnected when the roof and sides are removed for the transformation into a pick-up format.

Rear work light

With the roof back on the vehicle, the rear door could then be reattached. The Land Rover was then wheeled out of the garage for the last time.

"For the last time"? Yes, the final job was to mount the roof rack. And, large as the garage is, once the roof rack was on there was no way the vehicle would go back in.

The roof rack was a donation from an old work colleague; he had been given this galvanized roofrack but it did not fit his short wheelbase Series 2A. It had spent several years leaning up against the wall in the rear courtyard:

Galvanized roof rack

Attaching it to the vehicle meant I needed some clamps. These proved almost impossible to find, so in the end I had no choice but to fabricate some myself. I found an image of some home-made clamps online, and using some small sections of angle-iron and some long bolts, I made twelve of them. This is the photo I based the design on (I'm afraid I can't remember where I found this photo though - if it's yours let me know and I'll credit you for it):

Land Rover Roof Rack clamps

The clamps did the job nicely. I don't currently have a ladder to reach the roofrack, but may make one at a later date. The roofrack will stay on the vehicle, providing a useful attachment point for suspending the entire roof and sides when removing them from the vehicle for summer use.



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