Originally Posted by
Dordie
Hi,
My first post.
I woke up on Monday morning to my first day of holidays for the 2020 Christmas / NY period.
What better way to start the day than to check Gumtree for a Series Land Rover.
Up pops an ex Australian Army Series 3 GS 109. Hmmm, looks original, reasonably unaltered and mostly complete.
Two phone calls later, offer accepted and I'm on a 750km road trip from Sydney to Wellington in the central west of NSW.
Left home at 11.30am and arrived back 12 hours later with 'Regie,' a 1978 Series 3 in mostly original condition. It was a great drive even if it did rain the whole time. Spiffy cut lunch, dinner and snacks prepared at extreme short notice by my wife was extremely well received. My favourite tunes via Spotify made the trip fantastic, not to mention the lack of traffic.
Here's his story so far. Regie was bought (probably from a disposal auction around 1990) by a Sydney based farmer who used to fly his plane from Sydney to his large farming property near Wellington, NSW. Regie was used to drive from the airstrip to the farm house.
At some stage, Regie was acquired by another farmer in Wellington and may have even been put to work (most likely towing something). In time, he was parked in a paddock where he sat for around 15-20 years. Fortunately for Regie, Wellington is hot and dry, so Regie didn't rust (ok, a tiny tiny tiny tiny little bit). He did however lose his canvas top, 2 hoops, and pintle hook.
And there he may have sat for ever, but the Land Rover gods smiled on Regie. Regie was spotted in the paddock by a truck driver delivering some hay. The farmer was persuaded to sell Regie to the truck driver. Regie then made his way to his new home at the driver's farm near Wellington.
Unfortunately, Regie sat for another year because he had a crook water pump and his new owner had a stack of more important jobs to finish. And then his new owner decided to move interstate, so Regie had to go. An advert on Gumtree and hey presto, Regie is in the Hawkesbury on his way to being recommissioned.
And that process has started. More to follow as I move through the partial-restoration process so Regie can again grace our roads.
Thanks for reading and a very happy Christmas and merry New Year!
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