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Thread: 1974 Series 3 SWB

  1. #1
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    1974 Series 3 SWB

    This is the story of our 1974 Series 3 SWB Landy.

    [IMG]East Coast Tassie - Mar 15 by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]

    The story of our Landy starts almost 12 months ago (so it may take a while to come up to speed). However, the story of my affection for series land rovers started much earlier. As a child of the 80s, I have a penchant for old school four wheel drives. My first car was a 40 series SWB landcruiser and whilst I have progressed and upgraded to more modern (and comfortable) four wheel drives, I am constantly drawn back to the trucks of my childhood, particularly old land rovers. I still fondly remember borrowing our neighbour's 109 Stage 1 ute as a kid, what an awesome truck. I am digressing.....

    This time last year, my wife and I were discussing our desired holiday plans for the year when a lap around Tasmania was thrown into the mix. It would be a new holiday destination for the both of us and somewhere we each really wanted to go.

    Unfortunately, our trip planning was delayed by various things (read: life) until one day in February when I came across this ad on Gumtree -

    [IMG]Gumtree Ad - SWB top by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]
    [IMG]Gumtree Ad - SWB by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]

    I instantly had thoughts of lapping around the apple isle checking out the sights in an old swb landy - how good would that be?! If there was a better truck for the job, I didn't want to know about it. Whilst this idea kept a smile on my face for a good couple of hours, as reality kicked in, so did the realisation that this plan was quite unrealistic. After all, we were up here in Brisbane, and the Landy was all the way down there in Tassie. Not only that, I wasn't even sure the truck was still available. I finally convinced myself it wasn't a very good idea and left it at that....

    Until I mentioned the idea, in passing, to my wife that night. Expecting her reaction to be the same as mine (although I was expecting her to come to the same conclusion as me in about 4 seconds as opposed to my 4 hours), I was most surprised when she asked me whether I had called the seller to see if the Landy was still available.

    Whilst I know now that the little Landy was just the motivation we needed to get our trip planning back on track, at the time, I couldn't believe my luck (I was also concerned that my wife had lost the plot. I would worry about her well being further, just as soon as I had rung up about the Landy......).

    Call made. Truck available. By the end of the week I have bought the Landy sight unseen and booked a flight to Tassie to take possession.
    Last edited by Chad79; 9th January 2016 at 11:35 PM. Reason: Correcting a typo

  2. #2
    Homestar's Avatar
    Homestar is offline Super Moderator & CA manager Gold Subscriber
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    What a great little truck.

    So, what happened next, you can't leave the story there....
    If you need to contact me please email homestarrunnerau@gmail.com - thanks - Gav.

  3. #3
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    Very nice, pretty much what i would want in a series vehicle.
    MY08 TDV6 SE D3- permagrin ooh yeah
    2004 Jayco Freedom tin tent
    1998 Triumph Daytona T595
    1974 VW Kombi bus
    1958 Holden FC special sedan

  4. #4
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    Keep going with the story........

    Cheers Rod

    Sent from my GT-I9507 using AULRO mobile app

  5. #5
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    looks like a few of us are waiting.

    whitehillbilly

  6. #6
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    C'mon on Chad,
    don't keep us all in suspense, we want to hear all about your trip.
    How the Landy performed etc.
    Nice looking vehicle, is it on gas?


    Cheers, Mick.
    1974 S3 88 Holden 186.
    1971 S2A 88
    1971 S2A 109 6 cyl. tray back.
    1964 S2A 88 "Starfire Four" engine!
    1972 S3 88 x 2
    1959 S2 88 ARN 111-014
    1959 S2 88 ARN 111-556
    1988 Perentie 110 FFR ARN 48-728 steering now KLR PAS!
    REMLR 88
    1969 BSA Bantam B175

  7. #7
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    yes come on Mate - have you picked it up yet ? are you back home with it? did you drive it all the way? Did it survive the trip?
    Spill the beans.
    cheers,
    D
    1957 88 Petrol (Chumlee)
    1960 88 Petrol (Darwin)
    1975 88 Diesel (Mutley)

  8. #8
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    That is a sweet swb
    Any thought`s on going back to a LR engine

  9. #9
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    As we were still some way from finalising our lap of Tassie plans, we decided the best plan was to collect the Landy and store it until we were ready for our holiday. This plan saw me fly down to Tassie, collect the truck from the previous owner and whack it in a storage shed.

    I arrived in Tassie on a drizzly February Saturday morning and immediately knew I had arrived at the right house when I saw two SWB landies in the driveway. The first was our new truck, sitting pride of place, clean as a whistle, the second, a neat series 2A with a truck cab that didn't look like it was far away from being registered. The previous owner later explained that he favoured the 2A as it was running the original 2.25 motor and was going to invest his time in that truck.

    The previous owner told me what information he knew about our new truck - he had owned the Landy for about a year and had purchased it from another bloke in Tassie who had a number of other land rovers. Up until the week I collected it, the Landy had not been registered in Tasmania and was last registered, two years prior, in South Australia. Sometime before this, it has come from Queensland given the Qld compliance plates for the 202 and rear seats.

    We then did a walk around the truck and the previous owner pointed a few things out to me. The main issue he had was that the steering was pretty vague, which he was disappointed in, given he had recently installed a new steering relay. He was also good enough to show me the processes for engaging high range and low range in the Landy (as this was foreign to me - given there are two stubby levers...). We then took off for a quick spin together down the road to ensure all was in order before me and the little Landy embarked on our first journey together. To the storage shed. 10 kilometres down the road.

    My first impressions of the little Landy following this drive -

    1. The Holden 202 is not as torquey as the big 6 cylinder diesel I was used to (read: revs are needed BEFORE releasing the clutch, not after).

    2. Describing the steering as vague was being charitable.

    3. Anticipating when needing to stop would be placed higher on the priority list that reaching the speed limit in the first place.

    4. Cool. The little Landy had bucket loads of cool.

    You couldn't take the smile off my face with a sledge hammer. What an experience it is to drive one of these magic machines - talk about engaging. I had forgotten what it was like to drive a car you actually had to drive.

    I had only driven 10 kilometres on this first trip but I was already excited at the possibility of doing hundreds or even thousands more kilometres lapping around Tassie on our trip.

    Unfortunately, that was the only drive I could fit in as I had just enough time for a James Boags or two and I had to get my return flight back to Brisbane.

    Here are a few of the snaps I took before I tucked the Landy in the storage shed -

    Love at first sight
    [IMG]Landy - Tassie - Feb 2015 2 by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]

    Steel side steps and front bar
    [IMG]Landy - Tassie - Feb 2015 5 by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]

    Custom rear wheel carrier
    [IMG]Landy - Tassie - Feb 2015 8 by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]

    16x5.5 Steel rims
    [IMG]Landy - Tassie - Feb 2015 9 by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]

    7.5R16 Recaps (Olympic tread pattern?)
    [IMG]Landy - Tassie - Feb 2015 11 by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]

    Holden 202
    [IMG]Landy - Tassie - Feb 2015 12 by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]

    The last look I got at the little Landy for a couple of weeks.
    [IMG]Landy - Tassie - Feb 2015 20 by Chad79, on Flickr[/IMG]
    Last edited by Chad79; 10th January 2016 at 10:02 AM. Reason: Typos

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by bacicat View Post
    What a great little truck.

    So, what happened next, you can't leave the story there....
    There is more to come - but this will be a slow burner. Slow truck, slow thread right?

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