The rear corners of the Land Rover frame stops short of the rear corners of the Land Rover body. This leaves the lower rear body corners vulnerable to damage while rock crawling. It is fairly common to see Land Rovers with a rear body corner pushed up after a rear wheel had dropped off of a large rock.

Also, the civilian rear frame slopes upwards to the corners. This creates two problems. One is that there is no place to install rear bumperettes for impact protection. The other problem is that the only jack point for a bumper jack is inboard near the middle of the body. This location is extremely unstable. A 109 requires one person to operate the jack and one person to lean against the car to keep it from falling sideways the moment the rear tyres lose contact.

My goal was to modify the rear corners of the frame so that the frame extended out to the rear corners of the body, provide a suitable mounting point for the Land Rover rear bumperettes and create a stable rear corner jack point.

I obtained two lengths of steel channel that are as wide as the frame and as tall as the side of an imaginary triangle formed by the shape of the frame diagonal and frame bottom. The channel was cut diagonally to fit under the diagonal rear section of the frame and provide a flat frame underside reaching to the corner of the body. Next a notch was cut to provide clearance for the rear corner body. A short top section was welded on the outboard top side for reinforcement.

You can see the diagonal weld on the rear frame between the bumperette mounts. On the left side you can see where the stock frame ends and the new frame section extends to protect the body. You can also see that the extension provides a place for the lower bumperette bolts to mount.

This photo shows a side view where the stock frame ends and the frame extension continues. It also shows a side view of the rear corner jack point.

For a jack point, I obtained a short length of 'U' channel a little wider than my jack's lift bar, and had it welded up side down at the lower outer corners of the frame extension. The arms of the inverted 'U' keep the jack from slipping. I set the jack on the rear side of the land Rover and jack it from the side. The result is a very stable jack point.

The rear bumperettes have saved the rear of my Land Rover from expensive damage three times so far since they were installed.

It is a simple modification that has provided additional protection to the body of my Land Rover and provides a safe stable rear jack point. Personally I think it was one of my best ideas.

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