We have just got a 1963 serie 2a the plan is for it to be my sons when he turns 17 ( in 5 years )

We have taken a Leap of fafe as until I pick it up I haven’t seen it of the trailer it has been on in a storage unit for the last 5 years , it has been mucked around with in the past ( lights in the wings ex)

To me it the shasy looks ok reapers are sound , body looks good , engin ( petrol ) starts wit a bit of effort and then runs ( 14000 miels ).
Bad bits I can see are fibreglass repeats on the bulkheads around foot wells up , leaf springs very rusty , bushings are shot
( I guess from the standing )


It seems to have some military parts an oil cooler in front of the radiator for instance does this mean it was definitely a military vehicle to begin with?

It also has a strange dashboard ( not like anything I see on over series landrovers )
(See pick below)

Any advice or comments pleas

Thanks in advance

If its got the large oil cooler in front of the rad I would say odds on its ex-mil as the oil cooler fixes to brackets that are only on the military chassis. The ride (mil are 2" higher) and the dumb irons and shackles are the give away as they are all 2" longer. Dash looks very Land Rover but slightly different with the extra side panels ( a common addition) but no centre switch, could be a mil thing. clean the springs before deciding as they can look bad but still work ok.

What are the bullbars like? Most military landys had double bullbars

rob1miles said:

dumb irons and shackles

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Could you explain this please?

I got mine off of a guy who went through the process of getting an age related plate for it after it left the MOD.

Dumb irons are the section of chassis that hold the shackles. The shackles are the links between the spring and the dumb irons/ chassis.

The best way is to do some google image searches for stadrd and militray dumb irons and shackels for series landrovers. You'll need to try a few variations but soon you will see two distinctly different designs of front chassis (dumb irons) and two lenghts of shackles. The mil shackes are much longer and the mil dumb irrons have much larger side plates and come down further. A dead givaway is if the gear box cross member is unboltable.

Penswejan said:

lights in the wings

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if its a 2a it should have lights in the wings afaik

Early 2a's have lights in the grill, from 68 they moved to wings.