Gauging interest

Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
Land Rover used to offer a kit that would enable you to convert an lt77 seat box to an r380 tunnel.
The factory adapter is a plate with a flange and you cut the face of your existing lt77 seat box out and then mount this part on the back side and fasten it with a few rivets. This means the the only part visible would be the lip the tunnel cover screws down to and that will be covered by the black plastic r380 tunnel.
Brian @ DefendersNW had some of these made and was trying to get a fab shop to make him more but was a couple mos out on having any available. I have a client pushing me hard to do a three hundred
install and two others to do auto conversions so I have an immediate need for three of these so I was looking for a quicker option.

Dave Bobeck had one of the original LR kits in his hoard and agreed to let me borrow it. I have it with a local fabrication shop and he's qoing to knock out one for me to compare to the original and to establish how long it takes them to make these. The only difference between the original and the one he will make is that the original is stamped and this one will have the lip welded on. He couldn't tell me what its going to cost for the three I need but the cost is in the hours spent programming the plasma cutting table computer. The point of this post is to see if anyone else is considering converting to 300 tdi or an auto transmission and would be interested in an adapter. Regardless the shop will store the design in their computer but my deal with Bobeck was that in return for the favor I would offer these on a one time basis to the community. Price to be determined, just need to have some sort of idea of interested parties when I go back to see the shop next week as the more I order, the lower the price.

To be clear this is a single piece which will change the face of your seatbox to the r380 tunnel shape. You would need to still purchase the r380 tunnel and the bulkhead adapter. I have no intention of having these made and sell them on a flow basis. I am not a retailer and this will be a one time thing per my deal with Dave.
 

RBBailey

NAS-ROW Addict
Callsign: KF7KFZ
I bought one from Shop's here in PDX when I converted my seat box. So although I'm obviously not interested myself, I will say I'm a believer in the concept, and that if anyone has a serviceable seat box, it really makes sense, and was an easy conversion to make. Probably saved me a lot of money.
 

Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
Doing another run of these. Getting 18 from a larger sheet of aluminum.
Need 4 for our own projects and have about 6 others already spoken for.
$75 plus $18.83 for USPS priority mail.
These shoud be ready to ship first or 2nd week of Jan.
If you have an lt77 seat box and plan to swap to either a rover zf auto trans or doing an LS swap using 6l80e you will need one of these, or an r380 seatbox.
 

Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
Here's what I have for a list. Some on this list were from last summer and there werent enough to go around so I'm not sure if those parties still want/need one ? Want to get everyone covered this last time.
Dale 2 ?
Trevor 2?
Dave Lucas 2 ?
Ed Mah 1
Rob Sheahan 1
Neal Cain 1
Juan Villani 1
John Bufton 1
Blackfield/Oscar 1
Noyac40/Scott 1
Dave Smith 1
Erik Johnson 1
Scott Palmer 1
Shams Helminski 1
Ron 2
 

Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
No. Sold out and then had people sending paypals a week or two later for non existent adapters. I said last run was going to be the last run but I now need more myself. I got burned by many who asked me to make them one and then declined to pay for them when finished, fortunately I had enough back up/wait list buyers in line. Because of how that went I'm not feeling as gracious and charming as usual . I also had a pair of tithonus soft top cross bars made on my dime for someone who requested I do that. That was in December. They are still stashed leaning against the wall behind the door in my dining room, not paid for and not shipped, there's a story behind that but do you see the pattern ?
Stock piling parts for a someday in the future diy request isn't the business we are in, and makes little business model sense. Brian @ Defenders NW is your huckleberry for that sort of thing, god bless him. He may have a few tunnel adapters still available, ping him.

Right now I have my fab shop making r380 floor plates in slightly thicker material than original. We also have a plastics manufacturer in Ohio working on a mold to make the now NLA r380 transmission tunnels, y'all will be needing. Need to sell a bunch (50) of those to recoup setup costs.

My motives are self serving, making this stuff for the trucks we are building for clients.


Happy to help out forum diy'ers if its not a pita.
The second I get snippy retail type comments I just move on, its not the business I'm in and you just killed my willingness, hopefully thats understandable. I'm self employed, this is my day job, my time is how I get paid.

We have two business's going. The export/shipment/and US importation business for clients whom have found 25 yr old collector cars somewhere outside the US. Given time zone differences with the rest of the world, afternoons,evenings, and weekends are spent doing Defender restoration and modification work.

I'm not into manufacturing and or retailing parts and may hand off to one of our favorite vendors to let them handle a package deal that would include: floor plates, a seatbox tunnel adapter, a GRP tunnel, and then the bulkhead to r380 tunnel adapter, for now that part is still avilable from LR.

The floor plates can be bought from YRM etc but shipping them over pair by pair makes little sense, for us anyway. Anyone with hand tools can make a set of floors but we are all about having the correct plastic nutserts etc which require the squares be punched in etc.
 

AdamSanta85

Well-known member
Ok well if you end up making more I am happy to pre-pay for it. If I say I want something, I don't flake out.

Sorry to hear you are getting jerked around by people. A lot of people say a lot of things until it comes time to hand over money. Been there done that.
 

Uncle Douglas

Well-known member
Callsign: delete
Sorry to hear you are getting jerked around by people. A lot of people say a lot of things until it comes time to hand over money. Been there done that.

Yes, quite an eye opener.

Will let you know when he makes more. It goes two ways, I have him make as many as he can get out of a full sheet of aluminum and get one price. Or I have him buy a half sheet of material and have him make a few and eat the price of the rest of the material.
 

Topperkenobi

Well-known member
Doug,
I am willing to get those soft top bars from your dining room if you want to.

Adam,
I can sell you the adaptor that I got from Doug for the cost he sold it to me if you are interested. My used beatbox wasn't that bad so I didn't have a use for it.

Juan
 

DefendersNW

Well-known member
Stock piling parts for a someday in the future diy request isn't the business we are in, and makes little business model sense. Brian @ Defenders NW is your huckleberry for that sort of thing, god bless him. He may have a few tunnel adapters still available, ping him.


I'm not into manufacturing and or retailing parts and may hand off to one of our favorite vendors to let them handle a package deal that would include: floor plates, a seatbox tunnel adapter, a GRP tunnel, and then the bulkhead to r380 tunnel adapter, for now that part is still avilable from LR.

Thanks for the kind words - I do have a couple adaptors on the shelf that are not yet assigned to projects. (If you have a need Doug you always have first "dibs" on what I've got)

Your run fell in-between our run and let me push back production on our adaptors the end of a busy year. Happy to take the lead on the next set as we are in the Defender parts for DIY's business...
 

HAB

Member
I?m looking for a seat box adapter and a R380 tunnel for a auto conversion. Doug just told me his are still a couple weeks out. Anyone have a set that they want part with?

Thanks
Martijn


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