Hi, I happily bought a partly restored 1961 series 2 SWB recenetly. I'm in Australia so Im not quite sure what you will be familiar with but I will try. The previous owner had replaced the orginal petrol engine with a 6-cylinder 3.3Ltr Holden 202 Red motor which since asking the few people I meet with landy experience is the best suited conversion. As far as I know apart from this it is orginal. I am 19, this my first car and Im proud of it. I am curious on a few things though.

General preservation-My landy is rust free, dent free, scratch free and a daily drive, some tips to keep the rust away and how not to taint the aluminum body with screws, bolts etc. please?

Gearbox-I understand that the gearbox is 1st and 2nd without syncros and 3rd, 4th with, correct? If so is it normal that even when stopped it grinds for 1st and reverse. Also I have a loud wearing noise, it sounds as if the gear is not engaging properly?

Overdrive-The car came with an overdrive but he said the clutch gear? is worn so he didnt attach it. With this being worn and the overdrive being 2nd hand should I look for more damage? Also where can I get replacement parts?

Performance-Im not looking for a drag car but can the series running gear handle engine tinkering or not?

Thanks for reading. lol Pics are coming soon!

You'r right about the gearbox being non-synchro on 1st and 2nd. To over come the difficulty getting into 1st and reverse, depress clutch and chuck gear lever into 4th and then straight out again and into the one you want. Slows things down a bit in the box and lets you select the lower gears. The loud noise, I don't know but the first thing to do is to check oil level.
Rust? Thought you didn't get it where you are!
Screws, bolts etc. - don't put 'em in.
Never had any problem with my overdrive so can't day anything about that but someone who knows will be along soon.
Performance tweaks - again, someone else will put you right on that but you probably know more about the Holden than we do.
BTW, welcome to the Madhouse!!

Hi and welcome,can't offer any advice about bodywork as mines got more dents than a panel beaters bench! As for transmission i don't know what power your Holden engine has but I've got a 3.5L V8 in mine and the gearbox is ok with that,the only thing mine had probs with was halfshafts and diffs but if you don't drive it hard you shouldn't have any probs.

The power of the 202 probably comparable to the v8 3.5 but would guess in oz there would be a lot of mods for the 202 around. Be careful though as many people here that have the 202 fitted normally end up replacing their gearbox at some point due to damage

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Plenty rust here cabbie surrounded by saltwater..its sorta hard to avoid lol as for 4th to 1st it works but still grinding for the gear. oil levels are fine but doing a change this weekend, cant hurt. The noise I think is just me listening to the gearbox to much, paranoid. Found rust today in the window and windsreen framing, another weekend warrior job. Plenty mods for 202 and a spare gearbox so im going to see what happens. Apart from that im happy with the landy and looking forward to finishing this project to make it my own.

When changing from third to second push in clutch, move shifter to neutral pull out the clutch, give it a blip of the throttle, push in clutch, and then as revs are dropping apply pressure to second - takes a bit of practice but is good fun! Adds to the experiance.

watch this guy on his down shifts:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoHS_tYjiwY"]YouTube - ‪Ferrari F40 LM (laffite)‬‏[/nomedia]

Oh you need to turn the volume UP!!!!!!!!!!! for this technique to be fully appreachiated ;-)

who else has now thought about puttin a ferrari engine in ther landy after that !!!!!