Joining strip

These are called body cappings, as far as I am aware you can only get them as genuine LR parts.

Don't know if you need to remove the roof, but would be interested to hear from others, as sooner or later I will have to replace mine as well.

Pieter

Just had the job done - I'd obtained body cappings from LR a few years ago and had the opportunity to have them fitted. The ones I got were galzanised and in one piece incidentally. Also got the corner section and the little squarish bit by the the doors.

In this case, the roof WAS being removed (for bulkhead top-corner repair) but in principle it would be possible to do the job without physically removing the roof.

The side-window section and rear three-quarter sections are secured by bolts along the roof/side join and a few brackets at the corners and in the middle of the section between the side windows and the capping.

So I would imagine it must be possible to undo the various bits, slide window and rear three-quarter section out and replace the cappings. The roof would need to be supported at the rear and I suspect it would be a fiddly and troublesome way to do it.

I've also seen a 90 which was having rear-section repairs where the roof and side panels had been pivoted up on the windscreen corner hinges. The roof had been well supported with assorted bits of timber and the whole thing jacked up. Personally I'd have thought that lifting the roof off would have been simpler, safer and perahps even easier given that there are only a few more bolts involved.

However, its not quite as simple as that, especially with a CSW. To get to the various bolts and fasteners, you're going to have to remove a lot of the internal trim and fittings.

Remove rear bench seats. Remove rear seat belts which then allows you to remove side trim. Remove rear three-qtr trim. Remove rear headlining section. (You'll probably have to remove the centre section as well to get it out without damaging it). Remove rear door.

If you're doing it by lifting the roof you'll basically do all the above and the front heading-lining has to come out as well as the relevant trim, grab handles, sun-roof trim, sun visors, mirror etc etc. IF you are doing it this way (which I had done) the rear trim section can stay in place though as the section is separated by undoing the side to window connections not the roof to side bolts at that point.

Use ziplock bags to keep the multitude of assorted (and non-matching!) bolts, nuts, screws, fittings, clips, bits and peices in some sort of order. You're unlikley to get all the headlining retaining plugs out intact so I'd suggest making sure you have replacements available and just cut the heads off at the outset rather than trying to pull them out, damaging the lining in the process.

If your cappings have gone, the chances are the bulkhead corners aren't too good anyway so its probably best to have it all done together while its all apart. I'd also replace all the seals at the same time.

There is a LOT of work in dealing with the bulkhead corner rot, even if it doesn't look too bad when you start! Doing it properly (mine was) is a major exercise. If it "looks bad" when you start, its probably not worth doing at all.

Be warned - this job is one of those that "just gets bigger" !!! Also be aware that there is the best part of a days work in stripping and replacing the trim, seats etc etc.

However, although its a time-consuming and fiddly exercise to do the cappings (and certainly the bulkhead corners) the resultant improvement in appearance is well-worthwhile. Best of luck !

Mike.