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Thread: My 88" Series 3

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    My 88" Series 3

    So, a bit of background......

    Back in 1978, 9 days after I was born, my Grandfather brought himself a 4 year old ex Bay of Islands District Council Series 3, 88", truck cab Land Rover with 102,595km's on the clock. (Pay attention here you complainers that say a Defender is no good for a daily driver, these people did +100k in 4 years, on rural roads in the far north of NZ, in a sort wheel base Series 3!!).

    Anyway, for the next 32 years the landy was used as a run about, farm vehicle, for fishing trips, towing trailers, rescuing stuck tractors.... you get the picture. I was gifted the vehicle in 2010 by my then 91 year old Grandfather, and it was put into storage in a shed on the farm. Sadly, he passed away in 2013, but he is the reason this vehicle is special to me.

    There's a bit more info here http://www.aulro.com/afvb/wa-aulroia...y-siii-nz.html about my first thoughts on importing the vehicle.

    Back to the Series 3.... on the 2nd I headed over to NZ to prepare the car for transport, (oh, and visit family of course! ). It's been sitting in a shed on the farm since 2010, and while I was some what confident that it would probably just need some fresh petrol and a battery with some electricity in it to start, I thought it some what prudent to take some spare parts. A quick order later and I had the following:

    Rotor, cap, plugs, leads, points, and a condenser
    Brake master, (the wrong one as it turned out ), and slave cylinders,
    Clutch master and slave
    Water pump, (hoses I figured I could get locally)
    Fuel pump assembly
    Oil filter & oil
    Carb rebuild kit

    One of the main reasons I decided to bring the car to Australia is that last year my father retired, and the farm was leased out. This left the car in a some what abandoned shed on the farm, although quite secure as a fence had been built behind the doorway :/

    On Monday the 5th my father, uncle and I headed back to where the landy was housed, the fence taken down, and the car unceremoniously dragged out, (because the drivers side rear brake had seized on), into the sunlight.



    The wheel of the offending brake was quickly removed, and the brake drum got "gently" tapped until it released. The landy was then loaded onto a transporter trailer and taken up to my uncle's, where for the next 4 days my uncle and I were to work on it.



    I would have loved to get more photos of what we were doing, but time was really against us, so apologies in advance.

    After a good first day of just steam cleaning 42 years of dirt, various types of underseal & rust proofing away, and the removal of the first 3 buckets worth of Macadamia Nuts, we were left with the task of getting it running and driving. The first major problem was the brake pedal went straight to the floor, this is where I discovered I had ordered the wrong master cylinder. Happily(?) the landy has dual circuit brakes which I was unaware of. Unhappily I had a single circuit master cylinder.

    We stripped the master cylinder to see if it could be saved, but the plunger for the rear circuit was stuck in the bore, most likely by the bits of corroded cylinder that had come loose. A new master cylinder had to be ordered from a specialist in Auckland, and was overnighted to the extremely helpful people of Repco Kaitaia who acceped the delivery on our behalf, (we were some 30 minutes north of Kaitaia where overnight = 3 to 5 days if you are lucky).

    While we waited for that we moved onto the next biggest problem, would it start? So, oil & fuel was drained and replaced, interestingly the fuel looked clean, and looked like fuel, but didn't smell like fuel anymore :/ New plugs, rotor, cap and leads also fitted. I cranked the engine over with the crank handle to make sure it was free, then the choke was set, and the key turned. Dash lights come on, but no start. Sadness. The starting solenoid was getting an intermittent 12 volts, but not activating. Oh well, add that to the list and get a big screw driver. When the solenoid was bridged the engine started almost immediately, not bad for sitting for 6 years!

    The next day came along, the new master cylinder and starting solenoid collected. We decided to start on the brakes first as this was my biggest concern. The new master cylinder was fitted, brake fluid added, and it was time to attempt to bleed the brakes. "O.K. Down" was followed by "Oh, look, a fountain". The drivers side rear solid line had given way. Off into town again to try and get some brake line.... We managed to pick up some steel line, but were unable to get a double flare tool, so one was ordered for pickup the next morning.

    Back to the car.... Might as well change the starting solenoid, 10 minutes later it was time to try and start the car with the key, this was met with no joy. I decided to check a few of the other electrics: head lights - no, indicators - sort of, horn - yes, wipers - no, fuel gauge - no (this was bad as the fuel gauge needs to work for shipping). Time to check the fuses.... oh look, more Macadamia Nuts.... oh no. This is when I discovered that a good section of the wiring behind the dash had been eaten by rats, no doubt in their quest to store as many Macadamia Nuts as possible behind the dash. We shot back into town before everything closed for the day to collect some wire, crimp connectors, and a crimping tool.

    A new day greeted us, my uncle headed into town to collect the double flare tool, where he discovered the guy at Repco had forgotten to order our new one, but had brought his personal one in so we could keep going. I pulled the dash out and tackled the wiring. I had it sorted well enough to get the lights and fuel gauge working again, and enable us to start the car on the key before my uncle got back.

    A new brake line was made up, and promptly leaked. It was then I noticed that the double flare tool was for thin wall brake line, and wasn't capable of flaring the steel tube correctly. Panic. A quick call to the place we got the brake line from confirmed that the tool was no good, but they had copper line in stock that would be fine.... So, another trip into town was made to pick up the copper line, where the helpful sales guy commented "I don't know why anyone buys the steel line, it's too hard to work with." Anger.

    A new copper line was made up, this also promptly leaked. ****. After some faffing about I noticed the seating face in the slave cylinder was damaged by the badly made steel brake line. No problem, I have a replacement cylinder, yay! New cylinder on, new copper line on, fluid back in the reservoir, no leaks! The brakes were finally bled, and it was time! Time for the first drive!

    Car started, foot on clutch, won't go into gear..... Sadness. We changed the master and slave cylinders, partly in the hope this was the problem, and partly because the master cylinder was leaking onto my foot. Unfortunately this didn't solve the problem with the clutch, but after some advice from the specialist I got the parts from in Auckland the clutch was unstuck. (Basically I got the engine warm, started it in gear, and went for a drive, it let go when I changed into second ).

    From here we got on to the odds and ends:

    Floor was removed to allow for more thorough cleaning
    Dash was reinstalled and the interior was cleaned properly
    New radiator cap, (the middle had fallen out)
    Carb stripped and rebuilt, (the top plate was warped and leaking petrol slowly)
    New choke cable, (the knob had disintegrated)
    New top radiator hose, (another fountain generator)
    New tyres fitted

    Then the car was parked up after a quick drive, followed by finally being able to relax a bit, and a few celebratory beers!

    The next morning, the same morning the car was due to go on the truck, we were greeted by a pool of brake fluid under the front passenger wheel. ****. Not a problem, we are getting good at this now, the slave cylinder was replaced and the brakes re-bled in under 20mins! The car was then loaded back onto the transporter trailer, and taken into Kaitaia to be loaded onto the truck.





    In the short time the landy was in public we had several people approach us as they immediately recognised the vehicle, and knew my Grandfather well. I have never seen a vehicle that creates such a response, everywhere we stopped someone came up to talk to us, even on the side of the road when we were loading it onto the transport truck.

    Thanks for reading,

    Cheers,

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
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    Adelaide
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    SWBs are awesome like that... everyone looks! although it does make it hard to sneak around, or be inconspicuous

    looks like a nice little truck! keep posting about it!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
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    Perth
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    Great story developing.

    I'm looking forward to the rest of the story once it gets here ? next week! Glad to hear everything is working out with getting it across the ditch. Great for you to have been involved/connected with it your whole life. I'd love to see the reaction of AQIS when it arrives here.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
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    Taupo NZ
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    Likewise, look forward to hearing about her arrival. Who did you use for shipping and approximate cost if you don't mind me asking?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Thanks guys, the ships supposed to arrive into Fremantle today, so should have the car in short order. Not looking forward to dealing with AQIS though, I am expecting to get a cleaning fee, even after spending 2 days steam cleaning.....

    Gordie, cost of freight and other charges came to about $3,200. I still have gst to pay on the value of the car, (another $500). I'm a bit too scared to add up all my receipts!

    Cheers,

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
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    Molesworth,Tasmania
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    being a book keeper in a previous life , I thought it may be "fun" to keep a log of everything I spent on the Landy's. Didn't turn out to be as funny as I thought!
    cheers,
    D
    1957 88 Petrol (Chumlee)
    1960 88 Petrol (Darwin)
    1975 88 Diesel (Mutley)

  7. #7
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    Mar 2008
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    Well, looks like I'm off in my GST estimation, apparently they work out the GST payable on the value of the car plus the cost of freight! Which I've already paid GST on! Double dipping

    On the plus side the cleaning fee is supposed to be cheaper than I'd thought, around $2-300 according to the shipping company, (Taurus Logistics - Sorry Gordie, missed that part of your question before). I thought it would be a lot more, mainly because my lawn mower cost $400 when I moved here, and the lawn mower is quite a bit smaller than the Series III.

    When I asked what the likely hood of AQIS wanting to clean the car the freight forwarder informed me that 98% of cars they import have to be cleaned.... So a 42 year old Land Rover doesn't stand much chance of getting the all clear.

    Cheers,

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
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    So... I got a bit impatient, mainly because the boat is late, but also because I'm impatient. I picked up a set of rims to replace the very shabby ones on the SIII, (yes they are defender ones - 16 x 5.5, I prefer the little bit of extra offset they have, and no, I won't be fitting big stupid tyres!).

    They mostly look like this:



    And after some sand blasting:



    And a coat of etch primer:



    The etch priming highlighted a bit of an issue, mainly cleaning my spray gun. I've only had rare need to use it in the past, however I see it getting some more use in the future! The problem is cleaning it, I'm wasting a huge amount of thinners by cleaning it in a tin, and it makes a huge mess.

    So, I decided to knock up a cleaning station, 1 $10 gumtree sink and a bit of steel later I had the "sink" part together.

    Parts:



    Sink frame:



    I wanted a shelf underneath to put a tin to reclaim the gun wash/thinners. I was originally going to use a plywood shelf, but realised that it would probably just get soaked and create a fire hazard, so:



    Parts temporarily in place:



    For the "cleaning" side of the system I have a cheap air degreaser gun. I'd prefer to use this because there is no electricity involved, but I'm worried it is going to atomise the gun wash/thinners too much, which can't be safe. The other plan is to use a 12v facet fuel pump if things get too "misty".

    Cheers,

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Well the boat is still at anchor, so no car yet

    In the mean time I finished my parts/spray gun cleaner. Fitted a spare regulator I had, running it at 1 bar gets a good quantity of cleaner out the nozzle, and very little atomisation, so I'm quite happy with the result.





    I've still got 2 rims to sand blast, which will keep me occupied for a while. I also want to knock up some sort of spray booth/wall. Painting primer makes no mess at all, the top coat though...

    Cheers,

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Taupo NZ
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    A workshop to be envious of.

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