Project Serenity

Another progress update.

I've been plodding along slowly, tinkering here and there, pulling bits and pieces off for the past few weeks. I didn't do anything major, but I was slowly making progress. It all came to a head tonight, where I finally removed the bulkhead.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...2012/01/42.jpg

The removal didn't quite go according to plan though. The bolt securing the bulkhead to the chassis on the drivers side has rusted itself solid over the years, A breaker bar, heat and a sledgehammer couldn't loosen it. Thankfully the bulkhead has rusted itself loose over the years, so with a bit of a rock it just broke off the mount.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...2012/01/43.jpg

My apologies for the quality of the photos. I left my proper camera inside so had to use my phone.

I've been told by a friend that the bulkhead is so bad that it's not worth repairing, which I must admit I'd have to agree with, so I guess tearing this part out isn't a big problem. I just need to source a replacement...

The next fun part will be getting the engine out. It doesn't look like too much work (I've been wrong before), but ironically I have to reassemble the wheel bearing so I can shift the motor underneath my fixed lifting point in the shed.

I have no idea what I'm doing, but I sure am having a lot of fun doing it. I'm loving my Landies!

-Martin

Edit: Here's a timelapse from when Jawapro was helping me remove the tub from Serenity, which I should have posted earlier.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nASUFi2ik70"]Removing the tub from Serenity - YouTube[/ame]

Another update, followed by a perceived moral dilemma...

We'll start with the update.

With a little bit of fiddling, the engine came out yesterday. I'm getting nice and close to being able to start painting, repairing and reassembling now, which is really nice. I've really enjoyed the project so far, and I'm sure the next part will be even more enjoyable.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/857.jpg

The engine, gearbox and transfer case were all removed as one piece before being lowered onto a wheeled pallet for extra convenience. Dad insisted I should use a drip tray under it too, I can't really blame him for that!

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/858.jpg

There's not much left on the chassis now! The stuff down the back is just resting there as storage space is limited.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/859.jpg

Now for the dilemma...

I've been speaking to David Benson in regards to purchasing a replacement bulkhead as mine is terrible. He has suggested that I would be better off buying another vehicle which has got a sound bulkhead and chassis in it, as I would probably end up spending a lot less money on it in the long run, plus it would be far easier to source as the good ones are becoming rare these days. As I suspect some of you would have already noticed, he's got an ex-mil IIA ambulance for sale at the moment. He also mentioned he has another ex-mil engineers car(?) for sale which will be listed in the coming days. He said they're probably just a good service and possibly changing a few seals away from being registerable.

A quick and easy solution to get a working Landy appeals to me, as I'm dying to get to drive one of my Landies, but at the same time I'm torn for a number of reasons. Firstly, I'm kind of attached to Serenity, and I'm really enjoying working on her. To give up the project now would be difficult. That being said, if I do stop working on Serenity, I would still be able to move onto Kaylee, my 80" (or Dad's '27 Chev truck, it would be a race!), which honestly has a little more appeal to me than Serenity. Not that Serenity is unappealing!

The second problem is that I would then own an ex-military vehicle. While that's kind of a dream for me, it's also a big responsibility in my eyes. If I've got a civvy one, if I accidentally do something stupid and break it, while it is the loss of another great old Landy, it's not a loss of part of our nation's military history. I bought Serenity with the intention of using her to tour both the state and potentially the nation in the future, using her off road as she was originally intended. While I'm not the sort of person who thinks bogging a vehicle for kicks is a good plan - I prefer to go places than just play in puddles all day, I would potentially modify Serenity in the future with bigger wheels, lockers, a dual battery system and a winch. I would probably feel a bit bad about making similar modifications to an ex-mil vehicle, and potentially also feel bad every time I hit the undercarriage on a rock off road.

Basically, I'm wondering what other Landy enthusiasts think. Would it be wrong to buy an ex-mil given what I want to do, or would using them for their originally intended purpose, driving off the beaten track, rather than mothballing it, be a fitting tribute to the vehicle? I see this has thread has a lot of views but not too many comments, but I'd really appreciate some input on this one. I'm really not sure what to do.

I had the same dilemma, seeing plenty of ex army Series Landies for sale that I almost bid on. In the end I bought a civvy 2a for the same reasons as you did, so I didn't have to barstardise a military one in my pursuit of adventure. I bought a 2¼ diesel and ancilliaries to put in it, a steering protector bash plate, bigger tyres, Defender rims, driving lights, a comfier seat...
Turns out my civvy 2a has history too-ex NSW Police and in fairly good original nick, so I don't want to damage it if I can help it. I then bought my County for the tracks.

Lets see what some others do: Geoff takes 'THE BOOGER', his ex army S3 GS off road a lot, it hasn't had many modifications done but when driven carefully is still capable. Another formerly active member here Panda used her ex army S3 GS off road with gusto, it has lockers front and rear but still only 7.50R16 tyres. She is probably a harder taskmaster to her Landy than the army blokes were!
Both these ex-army Landies are still rag tops, with original engines, they are scratched, dented and bruised-most of which was from active service. The main thing is neither of these vehicles has been modified in a way that can't be reversed. The unique parts are all there and not modified.
The above examples are both GS (the most basic format) ex army Landies. When you look at the specialist vehicle variants-ambos, workshops, fire tenders etc their usefulness without modifications goes down drastically.

An ambo isn't really much of an offroad toy at the best of times seeing as it has a higher centre of gravity and so much more weight and wind to push with the diminunitive 2¼ petrol. They may have a big interior but without cutting window in the sides they're not so good for using as a camper.
The workshop (Engineer's) Landies have a fairly rare canvas canopy that would be an absolute pain to set up for camping-the rear extends out into a monster sized tent. It'd have to be used as a table top if you didn't want to modify it. You can't fit a standard hard top to one.

I'd personally go another civillian vehicle, even though many of them have history worth saving too.

I don't see anything wrong with modifying an ex-mil vehicle as long as those changes are reversible. I certainly don't like to see them bastardised and abused (eg. lots of beach driving by the previous owner in the case of my 2A GS). If I wanted one for touring, camping, playing I'd go civvie. It is nice to see respect being shown for the military Landies.

It is a shame to abandon a project having gone so far. I know how much trouble I would have with that. Personally I would search far and wide for a firewall. Rusty firewalls seem to be the most frustrating part of series Landy restorations. I've spent a fair bit of time out in the arid parts of the country and I've seen a lot of old, abandoned Land Rovers around cattle station rubbish dumps etc. In most cases their firewalls would still be good. There must be many, many good firewalls out there. They just need to be sniffed out.

G'day TB,


can't actually see how much rust is in your firewall by the pics..


Have you seen my 'bessie' rebuild thread

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/remlr-proj...live-last.html

Now that is a serious amount of rust:(:o


Plan and put your mind to it and most things can be achievable;)

As for the ex-mil think about it for now:)

Mrs hh:angel:

Thank you all very much for your input. It's nice to know that what I was thinking is roughly in line with what the rest of the enthusiast community thinks as well. I've decided that I'll continue on with Serenity, as it sounds as if an ex-military Landy won't suit me at this point in my life. I won't rule one out in the future though! It also struck me that I don't need a bulkhead this exact moment. I can probably spend a year looking for one without delaying the project at all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The ho har's

can't actually see how much rust is in your firewall by the pics..

Have you seen my 'bessie' rebuild thread

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I hadn't seen your thread before, but have since read it all. Very impressive progress indeed, in fact it was quite motivating. From the photos I think that my bulkhead is worse, as there is more damage throughout the whole unit, rather than just in the one location. I'll let you judge though. I've gone though and taken a lot of photos tonight, particularly of rusty areas in the bulkhead. I've also taken photos of the chassis, to give everybody a proper understanding of the overall condition of Serenity. I'll attach a few low res pics below, but all the photos I took (there's 94 of them at twice the resolution of the ones attached) can be seen here: Index of /images/serenity

Here's some of the important ones I've singled out.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/743.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/744.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/745.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/746.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/747.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/748.jpg

Thankfully the chassis looks really good.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/749.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/750.jpg

Remnants of the bulkhead I haven't othered removing yet.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/751.jpg

And just because I think it's hilariously dodgey

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/752.jpg

Cheers,

Martin

Dave Benson also has a 2A Ex-Army Panel van in very unmolested condition.
The army only bought, I think, between 30 and 40 of them ever. So, if you wanted to get an ex-military vehicle this would be a highly desirable vehicles.
But, of course, it is a vehicle that should be kept that way and looked after.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...012/02/659.jpg

Awesome to see the enthusiasm you have for your project, also what you have in mind. I have several landies that I would like to rebuild but not able at the moment, I suffer with chronic disabling pain, one day I will be able I hope,it is giving me many hours of research including meeting up online mainly with other like minded souls. my boy Malcom 8 just came and had a look and said "Dad I love Landies" so I showed him your video of driving yours when you had it hooked up to the can of petrol, he was so wrapped up in it he nearly exploded. "Dad maybe I can learn to drive in one like you did" he mentioned. Stay with the dream, when you get annoyed walk away for awhile and come back later, you will find it's a love hate relationship, all of a sudden you start noticing them hidden in back yards, farms etc. I say live the dream!!!! (Nightmare some times!!) You are really doing a great job in what you are sharing and it's appreciated.
Cheers Konrad

Quote:

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Originally Posted by korg20000bc

Dave Benson also has a 2A Ex-Army Panel van in very unmolested condition.
The army only bought, I think, between 30 and 40 of them ever. So, if you wanted to get an ex-military vehicle this would be a highly desirable vehicles.
But, of course, it is a vehicle that should be kept that way and looked after.

---

Thanks for the tip. It looks like it would be a really awesome vehicle, something I'd really like to own in the future sometime. Heck, I'd like to own one now, but finances won't allow me to have too many Landies at this point, so I think I'll just stick with Serenity (and Kaylee). I don't think I'm able to properly care for an ex-military vehicle just yet. Hopefully that day will come soon though!

I'm up the North West (of Tassie, for you mainlanders) at the moment, I've bought an exhaust manifold off David, but he needed to come out to the coast to visit a sick friend, so he dropped it off at his daughters place for me. I was hoping I'd get to go and visit him, but it didn't happen. Maybe some other time!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Radical

Awesome to see the enthusiasm you have for your project, also what you have in mind. I have several landies that I would like to rebuild but not able at the moment, I suffer with chronic disabling pain, one day I will be able I hope,it is giving me many hours of research including meeting up online mainly with other like minded souls. my boy Malcom 8 just came and had a look and said "Dad I love Landies" so I showed him your video of driving yours when you had it hooked up to the can of petrol, he was so wrapped up in it he nearly exploded. "Dad maybe I can learn to drive in one like you did" he mentioned. Stay with the dream, when you get annoyed walk away for awhile and come back later, you will find it's a love hate relationship, all of a sudden you start noticing them hidden in back yards, farms etc. I say live the dream!!!! (Nightmare some times!!) You are really doing a great job in what you are sharing and it's appreciated.
Cheers Konrad

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Thanks very much for you comment, Konrad, you made my day! Given how much fun I was having yesterday, that's a seriously impressive feat! (I'll explain in a moment...) I really appreciate the feedback, knowing others are enjoying watching me progress is really nice. It's a great joy to bring pleasure to others. Say hi to your son for me, he sounds like an awesome little man! All the best for your recovery, hopefully I'll be able to watch you restore your Landies shortly!

As I mentioned earlier, I'm up the north west, about to head to the west coast camping and exploring. Yesterday Rob (jawapro) and I went part hunting, him for G60 Patrols, me for Series parts. He bought his fifth G60, I bought a reasonable bulkhead, but we've also found another bulkhead which I would describe as good to excellent, which also comes with a complete body, including a nice straight set of parts including a LWB tub, ute canopy and guards. I haven't bought them yet, but I fully intend to. I'm amazed at how easily I've managed to come up with something, given less than a week ago I was thinking about throwing the project away as I doubted I'd be able to source a good one. It's amazing how quickly things all change. Rob makes a big difference though. You tell him you need something, the following day he'll send you an email with about 6 different options. It's very handy.

Once I return I'll probably do a full trip report, as I'm sure many of you will be interested in the photos of Blitzes, Series 3s, G60s, bulkheads, steam engines (already seen all this!) and any other cool stuff we find along the way.

Have a good one!

-Martin

Time I actually told you what I found!

I returned to uni this week, so I expect I'll have a lot less time to tinker in the shed and post update here over the coming months. Ah well, that's the way it goes.

So, the trip itself... As Rob was working on Friday, the plan was for me to head up to his place and we'd try to get away sometime on Saturday. I had also organised to visit my cousin on the way up to check out a growing collection of vehicles I'd kept hearing about. I have to say, it was definitely worth a visit! With a Blitz, a Kombie, Series 3 SWB and a Mini in the shed, I had a ball!

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1371.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1372.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1373.jpg

It took me over 9 hours to make what is normally a 3-3.5 hour trip due to a bunch of stopovers. I also detoured through Launceston to check out renovations on an uncle's house, plus inspect an old 80" some friends had found for sale. I really don't need a 3rd Landy right now though, plus the front cross memeber had been replaced, so I left it where it was. (No pics, sorry)

Anyway, Saturday arrived, and Rob had arranged to go and buy his 5th G60 Patrol. Nutter :p Anyway, as the owner had specified a one-day low price, we headed out and collected it.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1374.jpg

It turns out the seller has good taste, owning a Series 3 and a Defender, plus and an excellent collection of interesting piles of rust in a paddock. And he smokes a pipe. I figured that asking whether he had any Series 2A bits would be an excellent idea. Turns out he had a 109 suffix B ute body which he was prepared to part with, as it was only earmarked for scrap. I had a look and told him I'd get back to him as Rob had found another bulkhead which we were planning on taking a look at. My father is also looking for a Commer Knocker to restore, it turns out he has one of those too! It's like a old vehicle supermarket!

We went and checked out the other bulkhead, and we met another interesting guy! I don't recall his name, but it sounds like he's potentially well known in the Tassie Land Rover community for those hunting parts. He had a lot of axle and diff parts for Series 1s and other Landies, plus more G60s and other interesting things. He intends to restore two of these, the 86 is a parts car though.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1375.jpg

I ended up purchasing both the bulkhead plus the complete body. All up it set me back $300, $150 each. The one with the body is really nice down the sides, but the footwells aren't great. The other one I bought has excellent footwells but the rest isn't so great. And I have a welder!

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1376.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1377.jpg

Chassis number 25313211B

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1378.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1379.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1380.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1381.jpg

The complete body also came with great array of spares. I got wings, a bonnet, radiator, windscreen, ute cab, tub, seat box, steering column, steering wheel, indicator stalk, plus possibly other stuff I haven't noticed yet. I'm pretty thrilled, as it means I can pick the best of what I've got and get the best finished product possible. It should also save me a lot of time, as hopefully it will mean less repairs.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1382.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...12/03/1383.jpg

I hope this post isn't a bit too all over the place... I'll try to get some better photos of the condition of the white bulkhead once it arrives in Hobart either tomorrow or Saturday.

We did also manage to go camping for a while. We snuck out Sunday arvo, returning on Wednesday afternoon. We camped at a beautiful place called Trial Harbour, absolutely brilliant spot to pitch a tent. On the way out on Wednesday I "bumped" (read: spotted, turned around and surreptitiously approached) into a 130, piloted by Ranga. I think it's the first forum member I've come across in real life, so that was a nice surprise. I also managed to pass through the Road to Nowhere, C249, which runs from Corinna to Arthur River and claimed the diff in my Ford Laser this time last year. It was a good feeling taking a car I rebuilt myself through the road that broke it. Hopefully Serenity will make the trip one day...

It's interesting that as a 21 year old, I have 3 vehicles with an average age of 43 years old, the youngest of which is 20...

I'll leave you with that thought!

Cheers,

Martin