I have always wanted to own a LandRover since my childhood days, and my wish finally come true in June 1997 when I was given one to do up.
It is a 1964 Series 2A Swb ex Australian Army vehicle, which we had passed down to us from my Brother-in-law. He bought it from a local car yard, When I picked it up from the Brother-in-law's place I could not get it home quick enough. The first angle of attack was to start stripping the whole beasty down to a bare chassis and do a complete ground up rebuild, mainly because both the firewall and chassis had seen much better days, and were full of rust. The rover had been later fitted with an Australian made Holden Commadore 3.3 Litre 6 cylinder engine, which they tell me
is a better choice for Highway Use. Knowing that our plan is to mainly use it for more offroad use then onroad, We have taken the 6 cyl Holden engine out as we got given another Series 2A for parts and plan on putting the 2.25 4 cylinder petrol engine out of that into our's. Once getting the old engine and gearbox out, we then progressed to dismantle the rover down to a bare chassis stage.
Believe me myself and my wife grazed and scraped many a knuckle, on rusty bolts which would break off at the last minute after one turn to many with the spanner. We got the body off then I had to seperate the springs and diffs from the old chassis.
Once all stripped down, We were very fortunate enough to be given a very good chassis from a 1970 Model Series 2A Swb. I bought an excellent condition Firewall from a local private spare parts dealer, which got taken for a drive to the local Galvanizing Plant to get dipped to hopefully prevent that dreaded rust problem in the future. Then it was time to put the beasty back togeather again. I transferred the diffs and springs to the new chassis, and bolted the firewall in place. Then in went the engine, which is all standard other then having the generator replaced by a 90 Amp Alternater, that we kept off the 3.3 Litre six cylinder engine. The carbereter is off an early 1960's six cylinder holden, with a 1970 HT holden kingswood air cleaner fitted. Next the gearbox and transfer case.
We then continued to work on sanding the body down for a fresh coat of paint. I decided to paint the landy Canary yellow, after reading many a Landrover Owner International Magazine. We painted the roof white as to keep it a bit more cooler in the cab dew to the Harsh Australian Summer heat. This whole process took until November 1999 until the old faithful was finally ready for the road once again.
Roadworthy inspection day came and it passed with flying colours. I have since then done in excess of 5500 faultless Miles, with the exception of Blowing a hole in the excaust Manifold. I cured that pretty quick by fitting a Brand New set of Extractors to it. Great move.
We have since changed the wheels and tyres to 31x10.5x15s, also taken the Hardtop off and replaced it with a Utility top. The only few items that we have had to replace since putting her back on the road is a trafficator flash unit, Battery, Fluid Brake light switch and a new water pump.
PROFILE:
We have a few photo's of different stages of the rebuild, If you wish to take a look at them click on the Black and White dotted CUBE below.I hope that you enjoy my Photo page.
Hi there, Thank's for taking the time to have a look at my Landrover Webpage.
MODEL:1964 Series IIA
PLACE BUILD:Birmingham England
BODY TYPE:Utility type
CHASSIS:1970 Series IIA 88"
ENGINE:1958 2.25Litre 4 Cylinder Petrol
GEARBOX:Australian army standard's
DIFFERENTIAL:Australian army standard's
WHEELS:15inch x 8inch Steel
TYRE MAKE:Bridgestone Dueler AT
TYRE SIZE:31x10.50R15LT
