Tikirocker

New Member
G'day all.

I thought I'd post a few pics of my current project - 1964 Series 2A 88" called Bronson - by way of an introduction. A bit of detective work on Bronson revealed that with a gearbox and chassis suffix number both being B made Bronson a Feb 64 vehicle; one of only 8,207 built for CKD Export.

The first pic shows Bronson in the front yard after buying him from the previous owner looking a bit tired and worse for wear. Bronson had recently been in an accident that most other cars would end up written off for. The previous owner got completely side swiped at speed through an intersection. Luckily the oncoming vehicle took Bronson on the passenger side rear tub section. The owner and Bronson survived this accident without too much damage! The moral of the story here is that a chassis can be the difference. You can faintly see the darker green patch up paint over the sections where Bronson was hit.

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And here ... I was also going to need a new rear tub, left side door bottom and bonnet.

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Bronson had two owners prior to the guy I bought him from. The first, who bought him new, was a Gyro pilot who unfortunately died in a Gyro accident. Remember the guy who flew around in Mad Max 2? Thats a Gyro! The second owner was a Jazz muso and the third the bloke I bought from; which makes me the fourth owner.

The Series came with a tropical roof and a allot of spares; infact a huge amount of spares including the original 2A gearbox and Series 3 wings which I quickly traded for a new rear tub which Bronson was going to need if I was to pull off a decent restoration. I took the wings back to where the previous owner had originally got them; Hilton Pollard up in Colo Heights who up until a couple of years ago probably had the biggest collection of privately owned Land Rover spares in the wider Sydney area. With the help of a Black Stump forum member, Das - and after scouring through a huge array of old tubs stacked in a paddock - I found the one I wanted with the cleanest panels. Here she is, ready and loaded on the trailer for the 2 hour drive back home.

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This pic shows the new tub about to have the cappings stripped and re-galvanized. Lot's of drilling and lots of spirals of silver rivet thread allover the garden!

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Whilst at Pollards I took the liberty of hunting for a new bonnet as the old ones frame struts had rotted away for the most part. I decided I wasn't going to make the same mistake as the previous owner and painted the struts with cold gal.

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I also had to drill a hole for the securing strut that allowed me to padlock the spare tyre to the bonnet secure . I 'll leave it to you to guess which hole was the drilled one.

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The old and the new - end result!

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Finally we drove Bronson back to the Blue mtns where I live and back to his new temporary home ready for stripping and the restoration. Here I had managed to get the Tropical Hard Top off, by myself, by unbolting everything and then getting inside the tub and lifting upwards and carrying the entire hardtop on my back like some giant tortiose across the garden ... NO! I don't have photos of that!!! I had to do this also so I could get the Landy under the low cut roof of the open garage.

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After some good looking over the chassis seems to be in excellent nick, and the usual trouble areas like the rear cross member didn't seem to be a honeycomb of rust the second you layed into it with a rubber lump hammer. There may yet be hope!

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What follows is the result of a week alone with an angle grinder and lots of WD40!

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Getting there finally reveals the Holden 186 painted green and the considrable need for a new bulkhead which was rotten at the base of the windscreen above the vents ( the usual suspects! ) and well and truly in the footwells! I also came to the fast conclusion that the wiring was a basket case and needed total replacement as did the exhaust and manifold systems.

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The image above shows oil from the oil cooler on the front cross member after it's removal and all parts, including the radiator et al were all stored in the big shed out back. At this point another obvious replacement part was needed; you can see the slightly bent draglink. All tie rod boots and seals etc will need replacing as well as brake lines.

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Transmission Impossible? I think not! Though the gearbox will need stripping as it's missing a tooth in second ... clack, clack, clack!

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Avert your eye's if your sensitive to nakedness! A bare bummed Series ...

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It's centrefold stuff eh? A bit of night work during winter in the Blue Mtns ( freezin my **** off ) cords from the work lamps hanging down.

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And that's about where we are up to now gents. I am currently stripping the old rusty firewall, pulling old wiring out and am about to do brake and cluth pedal boxes and steering linkage. Oh, and if anyone ( in Sydney ) wants to give me a hand ( Apart from the days when Ace can ) I won't discourage them as many hands make light work. Two angle grinders are better than one!

I can be contacted at psi_fan@yahoo.com - Oh and if anyone in Sydney has a salisbury they want to get rid of and a good set of Rover springs let me know!

Best, Simon.
 
G'day Simon (from "old" South Wales)
The restoration is looking good!!
Just in the process of finishing the restoration of my 90.
Can't wait to get it back:)
 
G'day!

Nice to hear from someone else doing a resto - are you doing it yourself or is someone else doing it? I just got through bashing out the chassis to bulkhead pins - which you may well know on a 1964 vehicle may have seized after all those years. Luckily I only needed to spend about 30 mins on both of them with some degree of major yanking, wd40 and then a good bashing with a mallet ... the left side came out almost immediately but as usual nothing ever works in pairs with Land Rovers and nuts/bolts! A mate of mine who is doing a resto of a 109" series took a week of fighting with his to get them out. I'm sticking a 4.7 Salisbury on the rear of my 88" among other things ... whats the score with your 90 restoration then? :)

Best, Simon
 
Hi Simon
Didn't have the problems you've had getting the bulkhead bolts out cos I've changed the chassis & bulkhead for galv. I had a few probs getting them back in though as the bulkhead had warped a bit during dipping. Bloody nightmare!!
I've done most of the work myself (up to needing some of the bodywork -front wings, doors, screen to be put back), I just don't have alot of free time:(

cheers

Jeff
 
You Have A Beautiful And Hard Work To Come, . Would you keep it as original as possible? or you want to do some modifications?

Good Luck With That Series.
Salutes.
 
well done cobber. great article and great photos too.
cant wait to see it finished. get a fookin move on.
 
landylover said:
Hi Simon
Didn't have the problems you've had getting the bulkhead bolts out cos I've changed the chassis & bulkhead for galv. I had a few probs getting them back in though as the bulkhead had warped a bit during dipping. Bloody nightmare!!
I've done most of the work myself (up to needing some of the bodywork -front wings, doors, screen to be put back), I just don't have alot of free time:(

cheers

Jeff

Hey Jeff,

Nice looking 90! If I were to modernize I would get a 90 but they don't really market them or sell them here in OZ - only the 110 variants. As to dipping gal and all that - yes, it can be a right hassle. I aim to dip my chassis and replacement bulkhead. Before I do the bulkhead though I'm going to bolt it to a steel jig like a scrap bit of chassis so it doesn't warp as I've heard some nightmares like yours if you don't. If I was in your neck of the woods mate I'd come and give you a hand. :)

Best, Si
 
santana said:
You Have A Beautiful And Hard Work To Come, . Would you keep it as original as possible? or you want to do some modifications?

Good Luck With That Series.
Salutes.

I am keeping it as original as possible but for a few Series upgrades ... I'll be adding a Sailisbury rear axle with 4.7 gearing - Series 3 dual brake servo and new dual brake lines + LWB brakes all round and custom series leaf springs that will give better articulation than parabolics. Apart from that everything will be standard apart from using Disco S1 rims. :)

Thanks for viewing. Simon ...
 
Gareth Coe said:
I like the look of that front bumper in the top photo. Looks nice & strong :D

Hey Gareth!

Ha! You noticed that huge lump of steel ... your the first. The original owner whacked that on after the accident which I think severely buckled the standard bumper. By the way, your not in Colchester by any chance are you? :D ...

Best, Simon.
 
Hello - best of luck with the restoration. What's the trick to achieve better articulation without parabolics?
 
Hey mate, thanks!

For the superior articulation to para's you have to do some engineering which involves removing a few leaves from your packs, resetting the camber and getting them retempered by a spring place - some alteration to the shock mounts may be required but it works and it's definately better than para's --- here's a mates truck in here in OZ.

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and

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Yup, leafers!
 

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