LR's, how far back do you go ?

[rodp]

Another thread got me thinking, whilst standing in the shower, about how far back some of us go with LR. When I did my first V8 to 2A conversion there were no adapter plates, had to cut one out and drill and tap to suit, if I remember correctly (long time ago) it was P6 engine (10:1) with the big valve heads off something else. John Craddock had a lock up garage behind his dads betting shop and was starting to evict tenants as he grew. He was a nice lad then, lost touch over the years though. Martin Skidmore, the winch man then, still had his wooden garage in the middle of the Arboretum island in Walsall and was repairing LR's (now traffic lights). David Bowyer didn't sell winches, still worked on his dads farm if born (?)

None of the current suppliers existed or if they did they were tiny and working from sheds etc. I could get in to John Thompsons who made the chassis for LR and have a look around, same with the LR factory. Remember the series 3 coming out, saw the first one by us and we all said it will never catch on, too much plastic Can't remember Thompsons though, nor much of the factory, I closed my LR place getting on for 20 years ago and memories slip away

 

Anyone else got any distant memories ?

 

 

[figgy]

25 years ago I had my first a series 111 109 with both truck can and canopy. Uprated springs and engine from Range Rover 6x6 Carmichael Comando Fire engine.

 

Still had a itch for a series until I had to get in one, no itch anymore. Cars have moved on so much in the last quarter of a century.

Edited February 24, 2016 by figgy

[felly100]

11a V8 bought in 1987.

I used to boot it at traffic lights,shear a half shaft,get out,do the FW hubs,put it in 4wd and judder home.

The relief of doing it wheel end is something else.

I learned quickly though.

[mick miller]

23 years, Series IIa swb for 10 years, then a brief spell with boring cars, then back into a 300Tdi 90 about 7 years ago. That means only a few years when I first passed my test and in between that I haven't been sat in a LR of one type or another.

 

I must be an odd shape, I find cars super uncomfortable to drive any length of time whereas the sit up and beg seats in a landy suit me perfectly, a bit more room for the right arm and they'd be perfect.

Edited February 24, 2016 by mick miller

[Vince Green]

About 1970, my mate Nick and I were in the Harrow St John Ambulance Brigade. (We were 16) They had a Land Rover Ambulance which was kept at the local concil depot. Some sundays we would go and clean it and if nobody was about he would drive it around the depot. Nothing mad just a sedate chug round.

This started my mate on a life long love affair with Land Rovers and everything to do with them.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Vince Green

[CharlieT]

We always had one on the farm. I used to drive it around the fields to check the stock and cross the odd road with it from around 13 years old (1958) and passed my test in one in 1961. Had one ever since.

[Glenlivet]

Series 2 swb blue one then a green one. Blue one NEVER started when needed, ie in the snow. Green one had belonged to a brewery and was dented to **** in the back where they'd thrown kegs in.

[TONY R]

First landrover was my grandfathers 1949 80 inch series 1 1.6 petrol inlet over exhaust valve full canvas , he bought it brand new. it had been sat in a barn with the cracked cylinder head off since 1963, it was 1972 and at 12 i was ripe for a challenge, diesel pluss gas oxy acetelene you name it i tried to to free the motor but it was siezed solid.

It had some serious lip on the bores and after removing the engine striping it i found that the warn bores the fact it had emulsified oil and grandad being grandad the water in the oil from the head cracked and him still running it just adding water the crank was nackerd out of spec it could not be ground basicaly it was inpractical to rebuild this engine .

I had two options try and find another IOEV 1600 ( fat chance) Find a 2 litre IOEV from a landrover or an aloy head IOEV from a Rover P4 60 NO! Not practical on my paper round money.

Option 2 was interesting but work a lot of work for a little Tony to handle, Option 2 was a dead Austin J4 van sat right next to my engineless series 1, it had the much hated under powered BMC 1.5 Diesel ( Basically B series Derived), i was assured the van ran great and had only been parked up in 1969 when my grandfather bought a new transit with the perkings P4 108 diesel in it. :lol: (POWER OR WHAT?).

Anyway jumped the J4 off with the david brown and it was very nice runner, and it even started exellently which trust me is not something a BMC 1.5 is famous for .

Turned a spigot bush up at school in mettal work on a harrison l5 lathe ( thanks MR jarvis if you are still with us) And then the hard work started, took the back plate off the engine had it machined to take an MGB rear oil seal big improvement over the original afair, then cut a plate template from ply and had a block side conversion plate burnt out of 1`/4 plate at a local ship yard.

Made a template from ply for the box ring had one burnt out from 1/4 plate, got some flat bar that was laid about at the farm and rolled a ring on the rollers at school.

Now it was 1972 there was probably angle grinder back then but put it this way we did not have one so fit finnishing the box plate was a file and enginers blue and scribe but we got there eventualy ( about ten nights work ) drilled and tapped the bolt holes and shortened the bolts so they were flush with the face of the plate the plate was tight on the box lip.

Attention turned to back plate it was drilled and bolts obtained to bolt over the top of the engine plate the centre was burned out behind the flywheel area. A bit less attention to the back plate just made it tidy and then my dad set it up central rotate check double check tacked it up with the old oxford oil cooled arc welder i still own to this day. Then set about welding it all round, took a long time as i remember we did not want distortion but got there in the end.

Fabed up engine mounts from scrap box and angle laid about the farm, bought brand new engine mount bobins from ford ( Transit)

Bolted everything up dropped it all in the rover a bit of fabrication and linkage bending and mods had stop and throttle set up working. Better earth wire cables robbed off a old nuffield and battery on fired straight up exhaust was the right side of the engine and even the water pipes went straight on the stock rad which was latter changed for a david brown rad with one leaking core blanked off, obtained when the brown got a new rad.

Top speed was about 48mph and it cruised all day at 40-42 mph... MPG about 28 average. Pulling power well it had very little we had an old rice double horse box chassis braced up and made in to a small car trailer and i once remember my father trying to tow back our 1936 MGTA when we got it from A farm nerar a place called crail in scotland. WOW! that was a long slow trip lets just leave it at that.

[figgy]

Tony R great write up. Really enjoyed reading of your early engineering exploits.

[rodp]

First landrover was my grandfathers 1949 80 inch series 1 1.6 petrol inlet over exhaust valve full canvas , he bought it brand new. it had been sat in a barn with the cracked cylinder head off since 1963, it was 1972 and at 12 i was ripe for a challenge, diesel pluss gas oxy acetelene you name it i tried to to free the motor but it was siezed solid.

It had some serious lip on the bores and after removing the engine striping it i found that the warn bores the fact it had emulsified oil and grandad being grandad the water in the oil from the head cracked and him still running it just adding water the crank was nackerd out of spec it could not be ground basicaly it was inpractical to rebuild this engine .

I had two options try and find another IOEV 1600 ( fat chance) Find a 2 litre IOEV from a landrover or an aloy head IOEV from a Rover P4 60 NO! Not practical on my paper round money.

Option 2 was interesting but work a lot of work for a little Tony to handle, Option 2 was a dead Austin J4 van sat right next to my engineless series 1, it had the much hated under powered BMC 1.5 Diesel ( Basically B series Derived), i was assured the van ran great and had only been parked up in 1969 when my grandfather bought a new transit with the perkings P4 108 diesel in it. :lol: (POWER OR WHAT?).

Anyway jumped the J4 off with the david brown and it was very nice runner, and it even started exellently which trust me is not something a BMC 1.5 is famous for .

Turned a spigot bush up at school in mettal work on a harrison l5 lathe ( thanks MR jarvis if you are still with us) And then the hard work started, took the back plate off the engine had it machined to take an MGB rear oil seal big improvement over the original afair, then cut a plate template from ply and had a block side conversion plate burnt out of 1`/4 plate at a local ship yard.

Made a template from ply for the box ring had one burnt out from 1/4 plate, got some flat bar that was laid about at the farm and rolled a ring on the rollers at school.

Now it was 1972 there was probably angle grinder back then but put it this way we did not have one so fit finnishing the box plate was a file and enginers blue and scribe but we got there eventualy ( about ten nights work ) drilled and tapped the bolt holes and shortened the bolts so they were flush with the face of the plate the plate was tight on the box lip.

Attention turned to back plate it was drilled and bolts obtained to bolt over the top of the engine plate the centre was burned out behind the flywheel area. A bit less attention to the back plate just made it tidy and then my dad set it up central rotate check double check tacked it up with the old oxford oil cooled arc welder i still own to this day. Then set about welding it all round, took a long time as i remember we did not want distortion but got there in the end.

Fabed up engine mounts from scrap box and angle laid about the farm, bought brand new engine mount bobins from ford ( Transit)

Bolted everything up dropped it all in the rover a bit of fabrication and linkage bending and mods had stop and throttle set up working. Better earth wire cables robbed off a old nuffield and battery on fired straight up exhaust was the right side of the engine and even the water pipes went straight on the stock rad which was latter changed for a david brown rad with one leaking core blanked off, obtained when the brown got a new rad.

Top speed was about 48mph and it cruised all day at 40-42 mph... MPG about 28 average. Pulling power well it had very little we had an old rice double horse box chassis braced up and made in to a small car trailer and i once remember my father trying to tow back our 1936 MGTA when we got it from A farm nerar a place called crail in scotland. WOW! that was a long slow trip lets just leave it at that.

Ha ha, those old bmc 1.5's really pulled well didn't they To be honest, don't think I would have even considered that conversion. Had one and put the 2.2 bmc taxi engine in ................... for a very short while, probably no more than a couple of weeks then back out.

Always seemed funny how when centering engine and box for a plate it's guess work really. You wobble it about up and down then side to side putting marks here and there, effectively guessing the centre, but they run forever

 

I must admit to straying and built a suzi trialler. Moved the bulkhead back 4" and fitted an alloy 2ltr 8valve from a Calibra with Gertrac box, ford disc brakes all round and Vauxhall power steering. Major,major work went into that one but worth it

[Cosd]

First landrover was my grandfathers 1949 80 inch series 1 1.6 petrol inlet over exhaust valve full canvas , he bought it brand new. it had been sat in a barn with the cracked cylinder head off since 1963, it was 1972 and at 12 i was ripe for a challenge, diesel pluss gas oxy acetelene you name it i tried to to free the motor but it was siezed solid.

It had some serious lip on the bores and after removing the engine striping it i found that the warn bores the fact it had emulsified oil and grandad being grandad the water in the oil from the head cracked and him still running it just adding water the crank was nackerd out of spec it could not be ground basicaly it was inpractical to rebuild this engine .

I had two options try and find another IOEV 1600 ( fat chance) Find a 2 litre IOEV from a landrover or an aloy head IOEV from a Rover P4 60 NO! Not practical on my paper round money.

Option 2 was interesting but work a lot of work for a little Tony to handle, Option 2 was a dead Austin J4 van sat right next to my engineless series 1, it had the much hated under powered BMC 1.5 Diesel ( Basically B series Derived), i was assured the van ran great and had only been parked up in 1969 when my grandfather bought a new transit with the perkings P4 108 diesel in it. :lol: (POWER OR WHAT?).

Anyway jumped the J4 off with the david brown and it was very nice runner, and it even started exellently which trust me is not something a BMC 1.5 is famous for .

Turned a spigot bush up at school in mettal work on a harrison l5 lathe ( thanks MR jarvis if you are still with us) And then the hard work started, took the back plate off the engine had it machined to take an MGB rear oil seal big improvement over the original afair, then cut a plate template from ply and had a block side conversion plate burnt out of 1`/4 plate at a local ship yard.

Made a template from ply for the box ring had one burnt out from 1/4 plate, got some flat bar that was laid about at the farm and rolled a ring on the rollers at school.

Now it was 1972 there was probably angle grinder back then but put it this way we did not have one so fit finnishing the box plate was a file and enginers blue and scribe but we got there eventualy ( about ten nights work ) drilled and tapped the bolt holes and shortened the bolts so they were flush with the face of the plate the plate was tight on the box lip.

Attention turned to back plate it was drilled and bolts obtained to bolt over the top of the engine plate the centre was burned out behind the flywheel area. A bit less attention to the back plate just made it tidy and then my dad set it up central rotate check double check tacked it up with the old oxford oil cooled arc welder i still own to this day. Then set about welding it all round, took a long time as i remember we did not want distortion but got there in the end.

Fabed up engine mounts from scrap box and angle laid about the farm, bought brand new engine mount bobins from ford ( Transit)

Bolted everything up dropped it all in the rover a bit of fabrication and linkage bending and mods had stop and throttle set up working. Better earth wire cables robbed off a old nuffield and battery on fired straight up exhaust was the right side of the engine and even the water pipes went straight on the stock rad which was latter changed for a david brown rad with one leaking core blanked off, obtained when the brown got a new rad.

Top speed was about 48mph and it cruised all day at 40-42 mph... MPG about 28 average. Pulling power well it had very little we had an old rice double horse box chassis braced up and made in to a small car trailer and i once remember my father trying to tow back our 1936 MGTA when we got it from A farm nerar a place called crail in scotland. WOW! that was a long slow trip lets just leave it at that.

 

Agreed, great write up!

[rodp]

 

Agreed, great write up!

Yep ................... that must have taken ages to type out

[keg]

1996 300tdi, my one and only.

[bornfree]

We had a f reg 109 on the farm when I started working there. I pulled away from a zebra crossing in the middle of a local town there was a bang and the trailer complete with rear crossmember sat in the road. I had to leave it there and drive back to the farm and the boss let me take his range rover to pick it up.

[rodp]

We had a f reg 109 on the farm when I started working there. I pulled away from a zebra crossing in the middle of a local town there was a bang and the trailer complete with rear crossmember sat in the road. I had to leave it there and drive back to the farm and the boss let me take his range rover to pick it up.

Ha ha, another well maintained LR :lol: Would have loved to see your face when you got out and spotted it

[bornfree]

I was talking about this incident at work today and I was reminded of another one with the same landy but not me driving. It was a frosty morning with frozen snow on the roads,the landy wouldn't start (as normal) so the boss tried tow starting it with his range rover they had a very large tractor tow chain the boss jumped in the RR my mate in the landy. They went up the road with the landy wheels sliding. So the boss stopped, told my mate to swap vehicles as he didn't know what he was doing. Off they went and it still wouldn't start so the boss said go up to the main road which had been gritted. My mate stopped at the tee junction there was a car coming but a long way off so he pulled out and turned right,the boss in the landy saw the car and hit the brakes. The Austin 1100 hit the chain which pulled the landy forward into one side and pulled the range rover backwards into the other it also ripped the front suspension off the 1100.

[john deere]

Now that made me chuckle.

I was talking about this incident at work today and I was reminded of another one with the same landy but not me driving. It was a frosty morning with frozen snow on the roads,the landy wouldn't start (as normal) so the boss tried tow starting it with his range rover they had a very large tractor tow chain the boss jumped in the RR my mate in the landy. They went up the road with the landy wheels sliding. So the boss stopped, told my mate to swap vehicles as he didn't know what he was doing. Off they went and it still wouldn't start so the boss said go up to the main road which had been gritted. My mate stopped at the tee junction there was a car coming but a long way off so he pulled out and turned right,the boss in the landy saw the car and hit the brakes. The Austin 1100 hit the chain which pulled the landy forward into one side and pulled the range rover backwards into the other it also ripped the front suspension off the 1100.

[BrowningDJC]

My father had a v8 converted lightweight series 3 when i was young, also a few ex mod series 2A's 2.25 petrol. An early v8 Range Rover also. Moved away from Land Rover about 20 years ago.

[V8 90]

I used to drive a 1959 Series 2 on the farm I worked on when I was 15 (1978) It was 2005 before I owned 1 of my own, also a 1959 Series 2. Since then I've had a few different ones including an awesome factory "V8 90" that I modified extensively for off-roading. I now own a RR Evoque but am "very" tempted to change it for a Dicovery 4

[ditchman]

first encounter with landrover was in norfolk in 1962....we as kids you to pile in the back whenever it went out............my first landrover was in 1977 in Zambia.....and since then i've had every model up to the 300 series engine...............yes im certifiable..

[rodp]

Years ago I was offered a series1 12 seater safari, Why, why, why didn't I have it ? I've no idea what they worth now but I haven't seen one for donkeys years.

[felly100]

I had 750's on my 2a.

I was on a mates farm to off road for the first time and my mates Dad said "keep your thumbs out'troad"

I quickly learnt what he was on about when I whacked a rock!

[loriusgarrulus]

I bought my first landrover in 1999. It was an ex Ulster defence regiment defender 90. It had been completely rebuilt by a local farmers son onto a galvanised chassis. Unfortunately he hadn't filled the paperwork in correctly after the rebuild which meant I had to take it down for an inspection by the local landrover expert at the DVLA.

It was then borrowed by the local police for a complete examination to check it had no stolen parts on it.

I got it back two days later.

I was told the rebuild job was excellent and the garage were very impressed with the standard.

None of the parts were stolen which was good news.

The farmers son was going to get a warning about correctly filling in paperwork.

It had to go on a Q plate.

I sold it a few years back as the non power steering and heavy pedals got too much for me.

I still see it occasionally as it only moved a few miles away.

 

I bought a rag top Defender Wolf 90 last year 1998 300tdi 24v with power steering and assisted pedals. Got his army release papers and Merlin report. He had only done 50,000 when I got him.

I got a stock of 24v bulbs from a place at Market Drayton that sells ex military and landrover stuff as Halfords don't stock 24v bulbs "surprise surprise"

I have done 8000 miles this year in him and only needed a sidelight bulb to pass his MOT.

[pigeon controller]

In the 1950s l would leave the back garden walk over the fields over the Grand union with the barges going up to the centre of Birmingham and watch the Land Rovers going round the original jungle track. I went to school opposite the factory , the factory was producing the Rover 90 , 100 saloons along with the series 1 . Later on we would see Forward Control , the gas turbine JET 1 reg, the Spider which was a mid engined Le Mans type car . I then left school and enjoyed a different life for fourteen years, and returned and joined the factory working on SD1 , P6 ( Rover Three Litre) I worked at the factory where the series three chassis were made , four long strips of steel the length of the vehicle were clamped together and welded the whole length with the out riggers added later this was completed in long tunnels in an old rope making factory by a team of welders . I was in the team that produced the first LR 110 V-8 on the production line. I had 28 years with the company travelling the world and driving the products always open to a challenge . I was in Shipley and saw a sign to Ilkley Moor and followed the sign and met a Series 1 coming over the other way who was shocked to meet a brand new Range Rover . I would change my cars each three months so the farmers would have a different Range Rover or Discovery driving the land. The classic would be the farmer would say is the top field with the damage on it you won't get up there in that so I would drive up to prove the point with the farmer say don't let the wife see you as I ve told her they are posh vehicles but won't go off road??? On another occasion the farm had a shoot on and the farmer requested me to pop in the yard at approx four o'clock which I did . Afterwards I asked the farmer why and he told me that one of the shoot members had an ancient Classic Range Rover and kept on about his RR , when I turned up with a brand new model he questioned who that was and the farmer was delighted to inform him " oh that's my pigeon shooter". Wind Up Merchant.

[ditchman]

that makes a change from ridding central england of all its pigeons.........you are hiding you light under a bushel mr pc ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

mind you .............you couldnt resist to make some sort of referance to pigeon shooting could you ...

Edited March 2, 2016 by ditchman