Thread: Shonky's '58 Series II SWB

Gus' eviction came just before Christmas. It was a little sooner than planned, but that was because we ourselves had been evicted from our house (the owners are moving back in) and so he had to get moved anyway. Since I had to go to the effort of getting him out of the garage and onto a trailer, it seemed like a good time to just take him home to the farm.

The very steep driveway presented a dilemma. How does one get a non-running vehicle with no brakes onto a trailer on a sloping driveway? After considering many options, some sillier than others, it was decided that the best way to do it would be to give the brakes a quick and dirty bleed and go for a ride down the driveway!

Mark (Isuzutoo-eh) kindly played wingman (as usual ) and we got it good enough. The next morning a trailer was procured, brother in law on traffic duty, and white knuckles over bakelite down the hill I went!
...turns out we did a better job than we thought because even though it was loaded to the gunnels, I actually slowed down too much and didn't have enough momentum to pull onto the road as planned.







I wasn't able to borrow my usual trailer this time (a nice new one owned by an ex 106 Fd Wksp RAEME spanner - so, well maintained! ) so I had to rent a wreck. Crappy thing weighed more than the QEII and I had to clean and repack the rather unahppy bearings before I was happy to even tow it up the street.



Despite the cruddy trailer, it made the trip quite okay. The Defender just chugged away and did what it does best and Gus stayed put like a good little Land Rover.



A bit of creative reversing was required to get it lined up on the shed. Shed theory has applied in force to the pig shed in Gus' absence, and it is already full of crap! I evicted my old Falcon from it's normal home and tucked old Gus in a machinery bay instead.



Didn't get any pics of him all tucked in. Maybe later. He's going to be there for a while.

I feel a little uneasy about putting him back in storage after we had come so far... The nagging self suggestion that I'm turning into a "Gunna" (one of those people who is "gunna" get around to doing something) doesn't bode well, but I guess being my age I have one thing that most of the "Gunna"s I know of don't have; Time.

Shonks, me thinks you need to look for a SII hard top! (or at least the side/corner panels)

The one you have is off a SIIa!

(the SII tops didn't have the windows at each side of the tailgate.)

There are 376 1/4 rivets in a SII 88" without counting the hard top