Hey all,
Certainly been a while since I've posted anything on here! Checked out the last build thread and it's a right miss with missing links all over the shop so thought I'd start again. I can't get on the spanners 'til this whole lockdown thing passes but can at least try and get motivated to do so when normality is resumed!
This is my 80" Series One Land Rover, built in May 1952 and passed through time and owners to finally arrive with me in 2009. Here's a condensed history of its life with me.
It started life as a normal farm hack, 45bhp 2.0 petrol, doing 'stuff' and it continued to do so 'til the late 70s / early 80s when it got a racy 2286cc petrol, then was upgraded again with a high compression 3.5 Rover, fitted terribly in the time when these were worth curse word all.
It'd been off the road since '91 when I bought it and, needless to say, the years and constant modifications hadn't been good to it:
You know that saying 'good from afar but far from good'? Yeah, that was this. But a summer job earned me a grand, which bought me this. The good thing about Land Rovers is that any 16 year old with a socket set can pull them to bits, so before long it looked like this:
Fortunately, I had my dad on hand to help with all the tricky bits like welding, but anything mechanical kept me occupied for most of the next few years. Lots and lots and lots of rot got cut out and replaced:
And the hard-to-find bits that were really bolloxed were recreated, like the bulkhead. New door pillars, new centre section folded, then migrate across all the really tricky bits like the pressed footwells, hinges...
Unfortunately my old man didn't make it to the end of the build, but I had some great mates step in to fill that engineering void:
And eventually you end up with a rolling chassis again. The eagle-eyed will notice it got galvanised in the end (making the most of the connections through my dad, and off the back of the fact I was also making galvanised hood stick sets to finance a lot of the build). And, as was no surprise, it needed a heart transplant in the process for me to actually get insured on it. Enter the 200tdi:
This is about the time it started moving home almost on a monthly basis. Storage loss after storage loss eventually saw my mum take pity and let it come live on her drive:
Which I'm sure the neighbours loved:
More time passed:
Until eventually, like a beautiful butterfly emerged from a chrysalis, it was on the road and tearing up the mean streets of Brighton while I was at uni down there:
And so it continued really! Would happily sit at 65-70mph driving from Southend to Brighton and return 45mpg no matter what you did with it.
Loaned it to a mate for a wedding:
Made the most of its capacity as a 7-seater:
Got some magazine features:
Winter-ised it with heating, fume curtain, radiator muff... all mod cons.
Had loads of fun going to the shops:
Moved out with it:
Sanded all the re-painted paint off having realised the factory coat was still underneath it:
And just continued to run around in it as an everyday car, until eventually it started getting really worn out / belligerent. Turned out the chassis was pretty thin around the engine mounts which made a habit of punching themselves through it and tearing oil cooler hoses out, and I was just generally getting fed up with driving a tractor around all the time which tried to shake my teeth and eyes out.
Eventually, the (new and expensive) fuel tank split from all the shaking and dumped a full tank of diesel all over the street:
At which point I got quite angry and sold the engine and box straight out of the car with a view to a new future which was also kind of a better version of its past. A 3.9 EFI running Megajolt ignition, recently removed from a friend's comp safari truck:
Lots of welding happened (again)
And the engine instal was reminiscent of its first V8 (aka: dire)
And then life got in the way, I fell out of love with this, moved to New Zealand for a bit and just generally forgot about it for a while. When I came back, it looked reeeeeeeeally sad:
So roll on a few months and more cash than I'm willing to acknowledge, it got taken back to mum's (sorry mum) and wired up - the absolute biggest shout out to James Meadows on that, if he's on here:
Added some very very nice tubes underneath thanks to Demand Engineering:
Until it was on the road again and looking a bit more presentable!
It spends quite a lot of time looking like this as there's an awful lot of engine in there and not much space for air in or heat out (needs louvres and a rad cowl I reckon):
But it does look ace in photos like this which I have shameless borrowed from Nick Dalton's instagram feed, taken at January's Scramble at Bicester Heritage:
After which, it called time on its fuel pump and returned to base in that most Land Rover-y of ways:
Which then brings it back to being abandoned on a driveway while we try to reconcile our relationship again.
Was sincerely hoping to see it right for the summer and get to a RR Gathering at long last, but maybe that's one for 2021 now!
Spec is roughly:
1952 80" Series One Land Rover
Rover 3.9 EFI with Megajolt ignition
Series 2a gearbox
Standard axles with Range Rover diffs
GB Parabolics all round, rears narrowed and shortened to fit the 'narrow' hangers, standard Monroe shocks
SWB brakes with an MGB Remote Servo which needs plumbing back in
Series 2a steering box
Military Wolf rims, 235/85/16 General Grabber ATs
Quite some change to its factory spec of a 45bhp 2.0 petrol and a top speed of 55mph, it's good for just shy of 3 figures and had plenty more to give when I lost my bottle. Considered deeply sacrilegious by many, but it's something I've always wanted and was never destined to be a show queen. Hilarious and terrifying to drive in equal measure and that's what it's made for.
Got a few niggles to sort with he cooling issues and a fuelling / EFI problem but I'm hoping a new pump and airflow meter should sort that.
Thanks for reading
Certainly been a while since I've posted anything on here! Checked out the last build thread and it's a right miss with missing links all over the shop so thought I'd start again. I can't get on the spanners 'til this whole lockdown thing passes but can at least try and get motivated to do so when normality is resumed!
This is my 80" Series One Land Rover, built in May 1952 and passed through time and owners to finally arrive with me in 2009. Here's a condensed history of its life with me.
It started life as a normal farm hack, 45bhp 2.0 petrol, doing 'stuff' and it continued to do so 'til the late 70s / early 80s when it got a racy 2286cc petrol, then was upgraded again with a high compression 3.5 Rover, fitted terribly in the time when these were worth curse word all.
It'd been off the road since '91 when I bought it and, needless to say, the years and constant modifications hadn't been good to it:
You know that saying 'good from afar but far from good'? Yeah, that was this. But a summer job earned me a grand, which bought me this. The good thing about Land Rovers is that any 16 year old with a socket set can pull them to bits, so before long it looked like this:
Fortunately, I had my dad on hand to help with all the tricky bits like welding, but anything mechanical kept me occupied for most of the next few years. Lots and lots and lots of rot got cut out and replaced:
And the hard-to-find bits that were really bolloxed were recreated, like the bulkhead. New door pillars, new centre section folded, then migrate across all the really tricky bits like the pressed footwells, hinges...
Unfortunately my old man didn't make it to the end of the build, but I had some great mates step in to fill that engineering void:
And eventually you end up with a rolling chassis again. The eagle-eyed will notice it got galvanised in the end (making the most of the connections through my dad, and off the back of the fact I was also making galvanised hood stick sets to finance a lot of the build). And, as was no surprise, it needed a heart transplant in the process for me to actually get insured on it. Enter the 200tdi:
This is about the time it started moving home almost on a monthly basis. Storage loss after storage loss eventually saw my mum take pity and let it come live on her drive:
Which I'm sure the neighbours loved:
More time passed:
Until eventually, like a beautiful butterfly emerged from a chrysalis, it was on the road and tearing up the mean streets of Brighton while I was at uni down there:
And so it continued really! Would happily sit at 65-70mph driving from Southend to Brighton and return 45mpg no matter what you did with it.
Loaned it to a mate for a wedding:
Made the most of its capacity as a 7-seater:
Got some magazine features:
Winter-ised it with heating, fume curtain, radiator muff... all mod cons.
Had loads of fun going to the shops:
Moved out with it:
Sanded all the re-painted paint off having realised the factory coat was still underneath it:
And just continued to run around in it as an everyday car, until eventually it started getting really worn out / belligerent. Turned out the chassis was pretty thin around the engine mounts which made a habit of punching themselves through it and tearing oil cooler hoses out, and I was just generally getting fed up with driving a tractor around all the time which tried to shake my teeth and eyes out.
Eventually, the (new and expensive) fuel tank split from all the shaking and dumped a full tank of diesel all over the street:
At which point I got quite angry and sold the engine and box straight out of the car with a view to a new future which was also kind of a better version of its past. A 3.9 EFI running Megajolt ignition, recently removed from a friend's comp safari truck:
Lots of welding happened (again)
And the engine instal was reminiscent of its first V8 (aka: dire)
And then life got in the way, I fell out of love with this, moved to New Zealand for a bit and just generally forgot about it for a while. When I came back, it looked reeeeeeeeally sad:
So roll on a few months and more cash than I'm willing to acknowledge, it got taken back to mum's (sorry mum) and wired up - the absolute biggest shout out to James Meadows on that, if he's on here:
Added some very very nice tubes underneath thanks to Demand Engineering:
Until it was on the road again and looking a bit more presentable!
It spends quite a lot of time looking like this as there's an awful lot of engine in there and not much space for air in or heat out (needs louvres and a rad cowl I reckon):
But it does look ace in photos like this which I have shameless borrowed from Nick Dalton's instagram feed, taken at January's Scramble at Bicester Heritage:
After which, it called time on its fuel pump and returned to base in that most Land Rover-y of ways:
Which then brings it back to being abandoned on a driveway while we try to reconcile our relationship again.
Was sincerely hoping to see it right for the summer and get to a RR Gathering at long last, but maybe that's one for 2021 now!
Spec is roughly:
1952 80" Series One Land Rover
Rover 3.9 EFI with Megajolt ignition
Series 2a gearbox
Standard axles with Range Rover diffs
GB Parabolics all round, rears narrowed and shortened to fit the 'narrow' hangers, standard Monroe shocks
SWB brakes with an MGB Remote Servo which needs plumbing back in
Series 2a steering box
Military Wolf rims, 235/85/16 General Grabber ATs
Quite some change to its factory spec of a 45bhp 2.0 petrol and a top speed of 55mph, it's good for just shy of 3 figures and had plenty more to give when I lost my bottle. Considered deeply sacrilegious by many, but it's something I've always wanted and was never destined to be a show queen. Hilarious and terrifying to drive in equal measure and that's what it's made for.
Got a few niggles to sort with he cooling issues and a fuelling / EFI problem but I'm hoping a new pump and airflow meter should sort that.
Thanks for reading
