A 4x4 is Born

World-renowned engineering enthusiast Mark Evans dusts off his overalls to take on his first off-road project - the transformation of a 4-door, 1985 Range Rover into a unique 100" wheelbase Land Rover. It's a 21st Century tribute to 25 special vehicles that Land Rover built for the French and Swiss armies in the late seventies. First Mark cleans 30 years of crud off his donor vehicle and gives it a mechanical health check. In the workshop, Mark buys the body panels, and sets about modifying the chassis to support it all. There's a lot of metalwork to be done. He starts with some new outriggers and quickly gets into a spot of bother

Mark makes the brackets and plates necessary to fix the Land Rover bodywork to the strengthened chassis. Only one problem - the rear wheels don't fit under the wheel arches!! The rear tub is salvaged from an old 110 pick-up. Mark fires up his plasma cutter and finishes the customisation of the rear bodywork. But will it fit….

With so much metalwork to do, Mark calls in professional welder, Paul Harris to run a MIG-welding masterclass. There's also some TIG welding to be done to stitch up the seams on the new tub - it's a nightmare of a job !

Mark shows how to assess, renovate and upgrade the transmission. He rebuilds the axles from scratch, and shows in detail how to fit air-operated diff locks. Mark's attention turns to the front axle. He refurbishes the swivel joints and fits fused, 24-splie drive shafts and new cv joints

It's Mark's favourite part of the project - rebuilding and upgrading the monster V8! Cleaned, stripped of its ancillaries and decapitated, Mark assesses its condition. Mark visits a gearbox specialist to rebuild an R380 gearbox and transfer box from scratch for his project vehicle. Meanwhile, the completed, blasted chassis is galvanised by the hot-dip process. It's a very dangerous procedure but the finished chassis looks magnificent.

The galvanized chassis arrives back at the workshop. When Mark has finished admiring it, he starts to fit the running gear ! First up: suspension. Mark continues playing with bushes, trailing arms, and panhard rods, before experimenting with springs and dampers.