The restoration of Wombat

**crackers** · 29th May 2015, 07:31 PM

Subtitled: Look what followed me home Mum. Can I keep it?

I posted a thread in the general series section looking for help finding a project vehicle. Among the many, helpful replies, was a series from Sitec who pointed me towards a vehicle he knew of ... and had been secretly lusting after methinks.

We viewed said Landy this arvo and, after some dickering with the current owner (she was in a wreckers) that culminating with me parting with $900, I became the proud owner of a Series 1 Land Rover

Thanks Simon. You do realise that I can now blame you for all the dramas this Landy inflicts upon me

Some specifics.
She's a Series 1.
Lovely and straight.
Not a basket case because most parts are still holding hands but no, I won't be doing any club runs anytime soon.

These photos were taken by Simon and uploaded as attachments - I'm not sure how to represent them as attachments so have linked to them directly - sorry for any problems this causes.

The engine is a 2 1/4 litre, so not the original but at least it's a Landy 4 cylinder. If you look at the following photo, you might notice a few things awry, such as the bucket of pushrods in the front left hand corner. I can reassure you that the bores look good ... because we simply lifted the head off and had a look

The head looks complete (ie, has valves and rocker gear). Carby looks complete. No thermostat cover but the radiator actually looks in really good nick, no bent fins to speak of.

Inside, all the instruments are there **phew**
The steering wheel looks good but no horn button.
We won't mention the seats ... because there aren't any.

The chassis rails look good with some surface rust but surprisingly little really - farm truck in a dry area maybe? Similarly, the firewall has a bit of surface rust but no immediately apparent rot. Some aluminium panels show some wear (where the front of the bonnet sits on the mudguard for instance, where there's a worn hole) and some tearing on the back of the tray which you can see in the photos. The cabin seems in very good condition. Door tops will need ... attention.

Simon will pick her up next week and take her back to his house north of Gawler until I sort out some way of getting here all the way to Happy Valley (about 90km). His suggestion of my hiring a car trailer didn't really kick off when I pointed out that I own a small MG and the trailer alone would account for about half of her towing capacity. I'll come up with something.

So Wombat isn't home yet and won't be for a day or two, but she's now a member of the family. Why Wombat? Well, wombats are known as the bulldozers of the bush so I felt it was appropriate

Thanks for all your help Simon. Who's going to regret it first?

**crackers** · 29th May 2015, 07:37 PM

Now, the ever important question of what is she exactly?
Simon took this photo of the vehicle id plate

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...help-image.jpg

Typically, the numbers are a bit oddball but Diana (Lotz-A-Landies) provided the following:

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

It has to be a 1956 107", they are the only option for a chassis number with a round top on the first digit and 776 for the next three digits.

As John suggests in another place the chassis number after 1949 contains a digit for the year. From after 1949 and prior to 1955 it was the first digit and the sequence contained eight digits. (That is why CalVIN suggests an unknown year with 8 digits) From 1955 to 1961 it was the fourth digit in a sequence of nine digits.

The options for that chassis number are:

107" truck cab 277600102 (sold by Genges Garage, Canberra on 10/2/1956)
107" station wagon 877600102, although its unlikely that there were 102 station wagons in Australia in 1956.

You can tell a wagon chassis because it remains low behind the front seats and only rises a little before the rear wheels, where the truck cab rises up immediately after the front seats/cab.

Diana

That's fantastic as it means Wombat was sold in the same year I was born.

I'll be following this up further when I get her home.

**Lotz-A-Landies** · 29th May 2015, 10:30 PM

Congrats on your purchase.

.

Piccies are required.

**crackers** · 29th May 2015, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Congrats on your purchase.

.

Piccies are required.

Thank you. I certainly hope congratulations are appropriate, the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

Gotta get her home first. Don't worry, your reputation precedes you and as soon as I have the numbers and the photos I'll be begging your assistance in getting to know her intimately enough to do a sensitive restoration.

**crackers** · 29th May 2015, 10:37 PM

Can anyone recommend workshop manuals for this Landy? I work for a library supply firm so if one is in print, I can buy it, failing that, I'll be chasing manuals that are out of print or now on DVD. In any case, I'd rather be mislead by a manual than make it up as I go along.

**digger** · 30th May 2015, 12:20 AM

Crackers,

congrats on joining the SA arm of AULRO!!

Hope you have lots and lots of fun...

photos as she goes, check out some of the other restored threads...
Dinty is one restorer who's thread springs to mind - his series 1 is a ...well in deference to your name I'll change that... is a ripper!!!

The back corner looks like a corner capping may be all you need- if so .. sweet!

..
Im not sure if Triumph Rover Spares have any series in at the moment but when I was last there there was just the bones of a S3...
..
Search on here, somewhere there is a thread about building your own seats for a S1...

Have fun mate!

(pm sent)

**numpty** · 30th May 2015, 06:37 AM

Noice Crackers.

A year younger than mine, but I have to replace the chassis and bulkhead in mine.

Factory workshop manuals are the way to go and quite often they appear on ebay. It's where I sourced mine. Parts manual is a good thing to get too.

Good luck with the resto.

Perry

**gromit** · 30th May 2015, 10:27 AM

Try here
Results for land rover | Book Depository

Free freight and reasonable prices. Series I workshop manual $43.87

Colin

**Sitec** · 30th May 2015, 05:50 PM

Dependant on time, I will try and get 'Wombat' out of the Graveyard Monday or Tue avo. Once home, I'll post up some more pics of him and try and get a better shot of the I.D plate, and locate/highlight the chassis number... (Diana should I be looking on his front right leg or his rear left by the x member?). Crackers, I have a set of rims that hold air, so I'll sit him on those, and I also have several spare 4.7:1 Series diffs here so will add them to the pile. Think I've also got a center cap for the steering wheel... Not a horn push type tho. 107guss might be worth PM'ing as he has an immaculate version of this truck which would give you something to go by....

Here's his truck...

**crackers** · 30th May 2015, 07:01 PM

Thanks mate. I was wondering about tyres, thinking maybe fit tubes during the restoration then buying new tyres when preparing her for the road.

I can see I'm going to have to rescue her from you quickly before you have a chance to set up machine gun emplacements and hire a squad of SAS to stop me getting her

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