Setting up this project thread mainly for my Dad but I will be doing a lot of the work on it and I like having a look back! Plus it's nice to see what other people think too.
My dad has owned this for many many years. Will try and get some more history into it as I learn about it and update it on here too. As far as I am aware from what he has told me is that it is an exRAF 1971. Now, some of you may have noticed that it currently has a Series III grille on the front. We are unsure if it ever had a proper Series IIA Grille on it as it was registered the same year Land Rover brought out the Series III. We think that Land Rover might have added a few Series III bits onto it to help get it off the forecourt, but completely unsure. The other idea is that someone put a Series III grill on there as it is simply cheaper than the Series IIA ones. As it's a very late Series IIA it also has the lights on the wings. You'll see in the pictures my mates S-IIA 88 with the lights in the middle as his is the early one.
Anyway, I'll update some more info on it as soon as I know. Let's get onto some of the pictures!
This is where it has been sat for 3 years, almost to the day. We've been umming and urring about restoring it a little bit and getting some use out of it for a while. Bit of a father son project. Plus I want to drive it...mostly I want to drive it haha. As you can see it's a bit dirty. The idea is to jetwash it down to get rid of all the growth on it, we didn't want nature to pull it too far into the ground. The other option is to get it mechanically sound and don't even bother cleaning it as it kinda looks good as it is.. who knows. As it's an exRAF landy, it was painted in RAF blue. But at some point in the past for some unknown reason someone has painted the sides (yes, just the sides) in green with a brush. Thankfully most of it is flaking off and most of it will come off with the jetwash.
My mates S2A 88 parked next to it. The idea is to get it as nice as his. (without the silly large wheels) we want mostly factory restoration.
Towing it out was rather easy, one of the wheels (NSR) was locked up so Dad was thinking it was the brake seized so we jacked it up and it was turning a bit then I realized it was in gear *doh*.
We got it up to the top of the field and cleaned it out a little of cobwebs and dirt. Doesn't look cleaner, but believe me the inside was caked with cobwebs!!
After loosening everything a bit driving it around a few times, every now and then Dad put it into gear and lifted up the clutch slightly to turn the innards of the engine a bit, circulate the oil etc just so when we decide to start it, the engine doesn't chew it's self any more than we want too. We attended a few bump starts but not much happened. Bare in mind it hasn't moved or been started in 3 years.
In the end we decided to pull it aside and borrow a battery out of one of my Dad's 4L tractors. The battery almost didn't fit inside the standard battery tray. We then charged it up a bit, turned the key and lo and behond it started with literally half a turn of the key. No issues. No bad noises. Just a simple half turn and vroom. Up and running! Kudos to Land Rover! (Will add running video later, just got to upload it.)
Few more pictures from a walk around of it:
Can see my Dad's other project, his 109 FC.
It's had a wooden floor put in the back that is removable. The original was rotten so my Dad tells me. I can remember sitting in the back of here as a kid, there used to be seats above those storage boxes. Plus there used to sit a spare wheel on the right hand side behind the drivers seat.
The brakes are questionable. Idea is to refurbish them with all new parts, and as far as we can tell they might be the only reason it would fail the MOT. (They literally do not work at all. Found that out whilst towing and once I stopped looking in the rear view mirror at an antique coming towards you with your Dad waving his arms around like a mad man meant get out the f***ing way but not too quickly to rip the tow rope lol!)
You can also see that it is missing a mud guard, but those panels are cheap so that will get sorted also.
This is the only major piece of rust we could find. The chassis is OK as far as we can tell. The whole rear end of the chassis is new as in the past it was rotten at the back. My Grandad one day decided tow something and it ripped the rear end off. Should be able to get a repair panel for this.
The bulk head is mostly OK
Interior - yep it's a land rover alright.
You may have seen in the above photo the rather large hole where the overdrive gearbox lever is. That is not standard. Dad had an overdrive gearbox fitted and got a bit carried away with the size of hole he needed. Will make some sort of gaiter for that in the future. Just to the right of the steering wheel is a switch that is for an electric fan. The viscous fan has been removed in favor of an electric one as in the past it was taking too long getting up to operating temperature.
Some idiot in the past (definitely not my Dad he assures me) painted the inside with emulsion paint and it's all flaking off. Funny story is that I remember it being like that when I was a kid. I'm not 22 and it's still like it and my Dad has always left it like that!
Chassis is good. In the photo you might noticed what looks like a set of rust holes. I noticed that also and checked with a light but it was just the shadow of the chassis paint flaking off. So it's all good. Will be repainting the chassis in time.
Bulk head and common area to rust seems good too.
Passengers and drivers footwell is a little rusty but will get some repair panels for those in time also.
Dad had parabolic springs fitted in the past too replace the old leaf springs.
Thought I'd end the final picture with all of the Land Rovers posing for the camera. On the right is my green disco 1, the rest are my Dads. We're a bit Land Rover mad. (this isn't even all of them, got several TD5 disco 2's about as well.)
Overall, it should turn out rather nice when it's finished. Not much on the list to do, just takes a lot of time to do it.
Body repair panels
Brakes
Engine service and tidy up.
Probably buy all new light lenses just to give it a bit of a tidy.
Various door and window seals possibly.
Bottom of the doors are a tad rusty. But it's only surface rust from what we can see so far. The top window frames are new so they are good.
Dad wants the interior cleaned up a lot. Likely to get new seat trims etc and door cards.
Not sure what colour to paint it. Dad wants NATO Green but I'd rather go with the original RAF blue as it was exRAF. The logbook says green and one of the original colours that we liked from when they were sold was Trident Green. We'll have a think.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for updates
My dad has owned this for many many years. Will try and get some more history into it as I learn about it and update it on here too. As far as I am aware from what he has told me is that it is an exRAF 1971. Now, some of you may have noticed that it currently has a Series III grille on the front. We are unsure if it ever had a proper Series IIA Grille on it as it was registered the same year Land Rover brought out the Series III. We think that Land Rover might have added a few Series III bits onto it to help get it off the forecourt, but completely unsure. The other idea is that someone put a Series III grill on there as it is simply cheaper than the Series IIA ones. As it's a very late Series IIA it also has the lights on the wings. You'll see in the pictures my mates S-IIA 88 with the lights in the middle as his is the early one.
Anyway, I'll update some more info on it as soon as I know. Let's get onto some of the pictures!
This is where it has been sat for 3 years, almost to the day. We've been umming and urring about restoring it a little bit and getting some use out of it for a while. Bit of a father son project. Plus I want to drive it...mostly I want to drive it haha. As you can see it's a bit dirty. The idea is to jetwash it down to get rid of all the growth on it, we didn't want nature to pull it too far into the ground. The other option is to get it mechanically sound and don't even bother cleaning it as it kinda looks good as it is.. who knows. As it's an exRAF landy, it was painted in RAF blue. But at some point in the past for some unknown reason someone has painted the sides (yes, just the sides) in green with a brush. Thankfully most of it is flaking off and most of it will come off with the jetwash.
My mates S2A 88 parked next to it. The idea is to get it as nice as his. (without the silly large wheels) we want mostly factory restoration.
Towing it out was rather easy, one of the wheels (NSR) was locked up so Dad was thinking it was the brake seized so we jacked it up and it was turning a bit then I realized it was in gear *doh*.
We got it up to the top of the field and cleaned it out a little of cobwebs and dirt. Doesn't look cleaner, but believe me the inside was caked with cobwebs!!
After loosening everything a bit driving it around a few times, every now and then Dad put it into gear and lifted up the clutch slightly to turn the innards of the engine a bit, circulate the oil etc just so when we decide to start it, the engine doesn't chew it's self any more than we want too. We attended a few bump starts but not much happened. Bare in mind it hasn't moved or been started in 3 years.
In the end we decided to pull it aside and borrow a battery out of one of my Dad's 4L tractors. The battery almost didn't fit inside the standard battery tray. We then charged it up a bit, turned the key and lo and behond it started with literally half a turn of the key. No issues. No bad noises. Just a simple half turn and vroom. Up and running! Kudos to Land Rover! (Will add running video later, just got to upload it.)
Few more pictures from a walk around of it:
Can see my Dad's other project, his 109 FC.
It's had a wooden floor put in the back that is removable. The original was rotten so my Dad tells me. I can remember sitting in the back of here as a kid, there used to be seats above those storage boxes. Plus there used to sit a spare wheel on the right hand side behind the drivers seat.
The brakes are questionable. Idea is to refurbish them with all new parts, and as far as we can tell they might be the only reason it would fail the MOT. (They literally do not work at all. Found that out whilst towing and once I stopped looking in the rear view mirror at an antique coming towards you with your Dad waving his arms around like a mad man meant get out the f***ing way but not too quickly to rip the tow rope lol!)
You can also see that it is missing a mud guard, but those panels are cheap so that will get sorted also.
This is the only major piece of rust we could find. The chassis is OK as far as we can tell. The whole rear end of the chassis is new as in the past it was rotten at the back. My Grandad one day decided tow something and it ripped the rear end off. Should be able to get a repair panel for this.
The bulk head is mostly OK
Interior - yep it's a land rover alright.
You may have seen in the above photo the rather large hole where the overdrive gearbox lever is. That is not standard. Dad had an overdrive gearbox fitted and got a bit carried away with the size of hole he needed. Will make some sort of gaiter for that in the future. Just to the right of the steering wheel is a switch that is for an electric fan. The viscous fan has been removed in favor of an electric one as in the past it was taking too long getting up to operating temperature.
Some idiot in the past (definitely not my Dad he assures me) painted the inside with emulsion paint and it's all flaking off. Funny story is that I remember it being like that when I was a kid. I'm not 22 and it's still like it and my Dad has always left it like that!
Chassis is good. In the photo you might noticed what looks like a set of rust holes. I noticed that also and checked with a light but it was just the shadow of the chassis paint flaking off. So it's all good. Will be repainting the chassis in time.
Bulk head and common area to rust seems good too.
Passengers and drivers footwell is a little rusty but will get some repair panels for those in time also.
Dad had parabolic springs fitted in the past too replace the old leaf springs.
Thought I'd end the final picture with all of the Land Rovers posing for the camera. On the right is my green disco 1, the rest are my Dads. We're a bit Land Rover mad. (this isn't even all of them, got several TD5 disco 2's about as well.)
Overall, it should turn out rather nice when it's finished. Not much on the list to do, just takes a lot of time to do it.
Body repair panels
Brakes
Engine service and tidy up.
Probably buy all new light lenses just to give it a bit of a tidy.
Various door and window seals possibly.
Bottom of the doors are a tad rusty. But it's only surface rust from what we can see so far. The top window frames are new so they are good.
Dad wants the interior cleaned up a lot. Likely to get new seat trims etc and door cards.
Not sure what colour to paint it. Dad wants NATO Green but I'd rather go with the original RAF blue as it was exRAF. The logbook says green and one of the original colours that we liked from when they were sold was Trident Green. We'll have a think.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for updates
