RECONNOITER MISSION - SERIES 2A LAND ROVER

In early July 2017 after looking through some old photos I came across the shots I had taken of an old Land Rover.  I thought it would be pretty cool to restore it so I decided to convince my husband, Garry, it would be a good project to work on together.  He wasn’t overly keen at first having other commitments on his mind like running our building business.  I worked on him for a week or two and printed off a couple of articles from the online back issues of Land Rover Magazine so he could read about what other people were doing.

"Bev"

I sent a message, with a copy of the photo, to the WA Land Rover Owners Club facebook group to see if they could help with identification.  A quick response told us it was a Series IIA and a few Google searches provided us with a bit more information but we didn't have a chassis or serial number.  We didn't even have a photo of the front end as I was more focused on a photo of the dogs at the time.  I'm sure my priorities will soon change!

After a quick conversation with John the Landy owner, it was to be ours free of charge.  He was happy for it to be gone (hmm, I've heard the same comment before) and said it had been parked up for about 5 years because of the brakes and most importantly it had a motor.  I suspect it may have been parked up a bit longer than that but I’m not going to argue.  John originally got it from a local guy after he bartered it for some drawing work.  John is a drafty.

On the road into the farm.

We’ve just taken a quick trip out to the farm to carry out a recce in order to determine what steps need to be taken to get “Bev” onto a hire trailer.  No point wasting our money hiring a trailer, driving 1 ½ hrs out there only to discover that the wheels don’t turn. 

It was also an opportunity to take the new work ute for a run and after cleaning that off when we got home, we've now realized it's not going to be practical for us to high pressure clean "Bev" at our yard as we initially intended.  We not only need to clean the buildup of mud off "Bev" when we bring her down to Perth but we have to clean up the hire trailer and the ute too.  Granted there wasn't a lot of mud on the ute last time but the gravel dust is still on the road outside our house.

We've managed to organize a more suitable area in which to conduct the cleanup op., so now we need to organize and plan the retrieval. 

For the trip in and out, we now know that if we take the same route in to the farm we have a 14.6 km drive along a not so good gravel road.  Or we can take another route and drive 9.1 kms along a different gravel road that is in better condition but adds a little extra travelling time.

Ready to pump up the tyres. Note the red Falcon hiding behind the Landy.  That's Shirl's Shaggin' Wagn'

As you will hear in the video, it was very windy and bitterly cold when we were pumping up the tyres.  The sky was heavy and ominous with dark clouds threatening rain at any moment.  We'd  just managed to get all the tyres pumped up when the rain hit.  You could see it working it's way across from the west.  Luckily we had taken a thermos and were able to sit on the verandah sipping a hot cup of tea, hoping the rain would soon stop.  The break for a cuppa also gave us a chance for a bit more Googling as we now had a chassis number.

The stamped aluminium plate attached to our body has the code 25323636D.  It's very badly faded and looks to be riveted in place as opposed to the many we have seen that are screwed into place.  We found that by altering the filters you are able to see a little more clearly what was originally printed in the background.  Only just.

Here is a link that we found very helpful.  You can enter your chassis number after you click on the yellow LR vin button on the Left Hand side.
http://www.clifton.nl/

253
Model: LR Series 2A
Body Type: Basic
Wheel Base: 109 inch
Eng: Petrol
Model Years: 1962-71
Destination: Completely Knocked down (CKD) r/h drive (RHD)

23636 = Serial No.

D = Desgin.  3 significant design modifications.  Suffix used from April 1967 till Mar 1968.

A little more eye candy.  Note:  the high lift jack was only used to take the weight off the tyres while we tried to get some air in them as we only had the small compressor. 

We successfully pumped up all 4 tyres and managed to tow "Bev" forward so we know getting her on a trailers will be easy.

A BIT OF NOSTALGIA

A nostalgic post while we are working out the logistics of retrieving "Bev" from the farm. 

I'd never been in a Land Rover until I met Garry.  Garry's dad had bought one for his hobby farm at Bridgetown which is located 258 kms south of Perth in the Blackwood Valley district of Western Australia. Beautiful country with cold winters, rolling hills and tall trees. Not long after I met Garry and under instructions from my future father-in-law, we took a drive with his brother in the Land Rover to pilfer old railway sleepers.

Things were going well until a hail storm suddenly hit.  It was such a heavy shower that were forced to pull over and wait on the side of the track till visibility improved.  I don't need to tell you how noisy it was with all that hail pelting down on the cab roof!  We are obviously easily amused as we had great fun playing with the hail once we had delivered the sleepers and in fact there was still enough laying around the next morning to have a snow fight.  (We don't generally have snow in Western Australia except on the rare occasion at Bluff Knoll and that's about 430 kms from Perth.  Even at that distance people still travel there to take a look).  You can see dad's old Series 2 Land Rover in the background of the photos below.

Richard in the puppy compound

  

Dad's Land Rover and our 1982 Commodore (circa 1985)

Not long after the farm was purchased at Bridgetown, a Land Rover was sourced which gave dad some good years of service.  Because of the Holden motor conversion, which may or may not have been done correctly, you couldn't drive it in high gear with out looping a bit of jelly rubber over the gear stick to lock it in place.  It didn't get up to high gear much on the farm anyway, so after the initial drive down from Perth it wasn't really a problem.

Land Rover towing State Energy Commission vehicle who got bogged when working on power supply to the property

Unfortunately, dad became a little bit too relaxed about the dodgy brakes and despite being warned he failed to take any action.  Anyone who visits Bridgetown will know how steep some of the properties can be and Treenvale farm is pretty steep.  Let me tell you, it's hard work walking from the dam to house along the driveways let alone from the dam to the house on the direct line up the hill.

Treenvale circa 1985/6

Dad, with mum along for the ride, had taken the Land Rover out onto the hill, just below where the house sits, to check for bracken fern, blackberry and thistle growth all considered noxious weeds here in WA and it's every farmer's responsibility to keep their weeds under control.  This property had been covered in the stuff when purchased a few years earlier and had been quite a job to clear (with the aid of a flame thrower of course) and so dad was very keen to keep on top of any new pop ups. The next job on the list was to check out the dam

"Come on hop in, we're going down to the dam." said dad.  "Nope" said mum "I'm not getting in that thing anymore, I'm walking." And so she proceeded to walk down the hill.  Not long after she hears almighty banging and clanging and turns to see the Land Rover rolling over sideways and coming down the hill. 

From dad's account of the story, "The breaks failed.", and in order stop he had turned into the side of the hill which then gave enough momentum for the Land Rover to start rolling over side ways.  In all it rolled about 8 or 9 times with dad holding tightly onto the steering wheel while all the objects inside the cab, including the other seats, catapulted around and bashed into him as the Land Rover rolled over and over.  It was only one of the doors flying open that eventually stopped the Land Rover which came to rest on it's side.  Mum being too afraid initially to approach the wreck and quickly working out her options of getting help suddenly heard dad cry out so knew he was at least still alive but pinned under the Land Rover.  After checking on him, she went down and around the hill to the neighbouring property situated in the valley behind.  The better and faster option that trying to get back to their house on top of the hill.

Final resting place

Vera and Dad  who looks like Wal from Footrot Flats

Dad in recovery mode, photo above, suffered with burns to his leg from battery acid that was dripping on him as he waited for the ambulance and fire brigade to arrive and free him from the wreck.  As to be expected, he was very bruised and battered but managed to find humour in the fact he had a bruise on his chest which was the exact imprint of a pocket knife which he had placed in his shirt pocket that morning. 

I can't remember how long the Land Rover sat out in the paddock but it was eventually spotted by some eagle eyed Land Rover enthusiast driving past the property who decided to knock on the door and ask if he could buy it.  Dad replied he could just take it as he would be happy to see it gone. 

The story dad tells is that "The guy came back and flipped it the right way up, installed a battery and drove it right out of there!"

BEVERLEY WESTERN AUSTRALIA - PHOTO SPAM

The farm at Beverly was so relaxing and had some lovely scenery.  Too nice not to share so here's more shots of our weekend on the farm in August 2016.

The Mazda was well and truly christened and certainly looked a bit grubby after the drive in. You know it's always a novelty for us city folks to get gravel dust on our cars right.  It's like a badge that we've been somewhere interesting.  We've always liked to take the less travelled road though, in a non 4WD way, rather than stick to the highways. 

So much to see and appreciate if you take the time to look.

Gathering wood to burn (supervised by the dogs of course!), Canola crops, the farm buildings, the creek and paddocks with old burnt out tree stumps and rusting machinery.  Warming yourself by the fire and old farm gates.

We love visiting farms.

MEET BEV THE FARM GIRL, AND US

This first post is a bit long.  It's all about the weekend we found "Bev".  Once we start working on her the content of this blog should, hopefully, become a bit more interesting for those who are Landy enthusiasts.  As usual, the dogs are always hanging around so will more often than not appear in our photos intentionally or otherwise.   Us is Garry, builder and carpenter and wife Veronica, owners of a small building business and living in Parkwood, Perth, Western Australia.  Veronica is the one who will be writing this blog and we will both be working on "Bev" together.

We first saw this Land Rover in August 2016 on a farm in Beverley.  The farm belongs to John aka "Fossil" and Shirley "Shirl the Girl" who are friends of ours.  John's Grandparents have farmed in Beverley for years and his uncle still farms there today.  After spending many school holidays up there as a child, John eventually bought a portion of the old farm for himself as a weekend getaway. 

We took a weekend trip up there after experiencing some rough family times and a couple of sad funerals......you know what life can be like sometimes.  Anyway, it was a great opportunity to escape the fast pace of the city, kick back by a fire and let the dogs have a run around.

We were so busy getting our fire organized (searching for wood) when we got there on Saturday that we didn't really pay much attention to the landy. 

Necessities - check!

 

Roaring fire - check!

Little white dog - check!

After a bit of a drenching on Saturday night, (Yes John, the roof leaked - onto our bed!) the weather fined up a bit on Sunday which gave us the opportunity to take the dogs out for a run and explore.  They certainly had a fantastic time playing in the creek and it’s a change for them to enjoy the freedom of running around and us to relax too without the fear of rangers lurking nearby.  The Kelpies get to run free because they come back when called but the little white dog just likes to run away and can’t be trusted.  (Believe me, we’ve tried working with him and just when you think he’s coming good he pisses off again. It's how he ended up in the pound)  Anyway, enough about the dogs and back to the landy. 

At first it just presented a good photo opportunity so up the dogs hopped and I snapped away.  The best shot of the lot is at the top of this post and will be the header for this blog.  It's one that we will probably get printed to hang on the wall. 

Garry checking out the interior.

Love the combination of rust and old wood.

This photo shows off the custom “cocky style” ute tray which is heavily weathered.  Haven’t seen a picture of another one like it on Landy Land (the net) as yet, but I’m sure there’s one or two out there. Discussion at the moment is based on what stays and what goes and how far to go with the restoration.  I like the look of the exterior now and would like to maintain it but Garry's got other ideas so this topic is bound to crop up in future posts. 

The roo bar and cab rack are obviously custom too.  It’s pretty obvious that the landy back has been cut away for this conversion.   Wonder what the chances are of finding a replacement tray?