1952 Land Rover - 3.9 V8. The Keeping Cool Chronicles.

[skoze]

Evening all, been registered on here for a while, thought it's about time I got round to putting some pictures of my truck up. It lives within about 100m of Nightmare's garage in Essex.

This is Bernard, built in May 1952, bought by me in December 2009 with absolutely no history, a V5, some very rotten steel work and a high compression 3.5 Rover V8 under the bonnet for an absolute bargain price

How it arrived;



Lots of rot;







One major strip-down later...





Cleaned up all the surprisingly good metal and gave it a shed load of zinc primer;



Bulkhead was absolutely shot, so my dad being the absolute legend he is decided to make a new one;







Lots of new metal;











Lots of chassis painting with the help of my beautiful assistant...



Lots of shiney new bits (and lots of mechanicals and wiring bits and pieces that are arriving this week)









All kinda brings it to this;





A lot's changed since these pictures, most important being the loss of my dad/ chief engineer to cancer in August, but i'm gonna keep things moving and get it back on the road asap.
Got a big working party this weekend to try and tackle the brakes, wiring and finish the bulkhead which should hopefully see it driving!

Loving the community here, seems like a wicked vibe. Looking through all these threads has got me wanting to deck it on on some red banded steels with white walls, though...

See you at the gathering next year!

[luckygti]

Some amazing work there, sorry to hear about your dad, reckon he'd be very happy to see you cracking on with it. Welcome and hopefully see you at the 8 Ball in it soon

[SamR380]

I forget how short and cute Series 1's are! Should go well with that engine too.

Good work on the chassis!

[Anglia68]

That's a beauty and some lovely fab work from you and your dad and I'm sure it'll be a fitting tribute to his memory when it's finished.

[427]

Nice project mate. I do like the look of a land rover shorty with no roof and the window down.

[task]

Stunning! It'll go like stink with the 3.5 and with the "right" tyres should be fun round corners

[misterbob]

Love it! Have had a couple of Defenders myself, and we still have a factory V8 90 in the family.

I love series ones, I assume the 'high compression' 3.5 is probably a P6 3500s engine?
What kind of shape is the drive-train in? I'd imagine it would be very easy to do some serious damage if you had a heavy right foot!

Nice choice with the wolf wheels and XZL's btw. Have used that combo off-road many times and its unstoppable - as I would think would be this little 80

[thebaron]

Love it. The shot with the screen down is especially slick. Definitely the way to roll.

[Davey]

Bernard has arrived at this forum as now huh? Nice to see it

[brock05]

There is always time for some retro Land Rover love. Would like an S1 to go with my 110.

[skoze]

Woah, surprising amount of love for this!

Misterbob - Engine's out of a very late Range Rover classic just before they switched to 3.9's. Should be a 3.5EFI and came off an auto originally, but has been converted to carbs and runs a standard series gearbox with some RR diffs. Old gearbox was pretty haggard so i've got another one dressed up and ready to get dropped in to replace that. teeth were pretty chewed up in there! Putting over three times the intended horsepower through it is never going to work out well

As for tyres, yeah... Backwards in a hedge is going to be a look i'll grow to love.

And good to see you on here Davey, trials-forum mandem represent!

PS; 8ball... Definitely

[misterbob]

Oct 18, 2011 19:21:46 GMT skoze said:

Woah, surprising amount of love for this!

Misterbob - Engine's out of a very late Range Rover classic just before they switched to 3.9's. Should be a 3.5EFI and came off an auto originally, but has been converted to carbs and runs a standard series gearbox with some RR diffs. Old gearbox was pretty haggard so i've got another one dressed up and ready to get dropped in to replace that. teeth were pretty chewed up in there! Putting over three times the intended horsepower through it is never going to work out well


PS; 8ball... Definitely

Ah, so is that a 9.35:1 lump then? Good engines those. Dad had a classic Rangey with that engine in many years ago, and it's VERY similar to the Vitesse spec engine in my Tiv

I seem to remember Ashcroft make an adaptor to use an LT77 with the series transfer box. With the Rangey diffs that could work very well methinks

V8 Landy's are one of my absolute passions.
Just sold my Td5 110 I'll have another landy someday though

[Steve]

YEY for V8 Landies!! ;D

I very much love V8-powered series landies having owned two but this is just perfect in my eyes!
Standard series 'boxes really have a tough time behind a hot 3.5, my SWB went thru two in 3yrs but i really gave them hell on the road so no wonder
LT77 would help but not by much if you use all the power PLUS they are a pain to fit into a 88" so would expect it to be a right ballache in an 80"

Keep up the good work sir.....will look forward to seeing this next year

Steve

[goldnrust]

Come a long way since I last saw it mate. Looking good.

Whats the paint plan? Are you gonna keep some of that nice patina?

[west4x4]

He better keep all of that patina! PS Hello Matt

[skoze]

Thanks again! Would love to stick a 5-speed behind it some day, a friend of mine has one behind a 2.5NA Diesel in his series 3, can't remember if it;s an LT77 or R380, but it's had a short bellhousing put on it so it all fits.

101 gearbox is on my shopping list along with a Salisbury rear axle when I inevitably destroy this current one

As for the paint, Steve, it's staying exactly as is. I might wash it occasionally, but it's keeping every last bit of that patina

In "i'm gonna get this thing running" news, in addition to a wiring loom and some steel, i've got all of this in my living room;



Action-packed weekend ahead.

[goldnrust]

Good man, thats what we like to hear ;D

[gavinedwards]

Loving this! I need some new shocks for my 90, I'd like to know how you get on with those Monroes...

[squeezemetim]

I like the little prancing horse and stuff labelled with bernard bits

[skoze]

Haha, that's my mum for you... I leave it all laying around the house 'til it gets "organised".

As for the horse, got it at an autojumble for a couple of quid - I figure it'll add at least 50bhp