Thread: 2a 109 - should I be worried?

I don't know the answer to your question, but interestingly my blue ute according (correctly) to the RTA is a 1960 series II ute. According to the chassis no. / VIN it's a series3 ute - no chance of that!.

That's interesting.

I walked away from a 2a with Series 3 chassis and numbers. Worried some over-zealous public servant would question it at registration.

So who else has a Series with, shall we say, a mixed parentage?

If in doubt, it may be better to walk away.

If you had a vehicle of 'mixed parentage' already in the country, it probably wouldn't be quite so difficult to please those who need to be pleased. Importing a vehicle from overseas is a whole different kettle of fish.

One of my mates imported a Rolls Royce 20/25 (in need of restoration) and they made it very difficult once it arrived at this end. He had to provide evidence that the vehicle was infact, that vehicle, and had to go as far as providing a copy of an original letter from RR. This may have been a one off, or the fact it was a Rolls, but I know they do tend to get very picky with vehicles, especially from the UK. Being a Land Rover, it would be assumed it has done some rural work, so they may make it hard for this reason alone (Quarantine etc).

But again, this may vary from port to port

At the end of the day, I suppose it's risk/reward. Is the risk worth the reward at the end?

I think it would be worth chatting to a blue slipper as it can be really messy getting into all of this. The blue slippers are much easier to deal with and get info from than the RTA.

Originally Posted by Firefish

That's interesting.

I walked away from a 2a with Series 3 chassis and numbers. Worried some over-zealous public servant would question it at registration.

So who else has a Series with, shall we say, a mixed parentage?

Well my IIA has a IIA chassis (as far as I know) with SIII front wings, SIII truck cab and SIII interior with 6cyl gearstick (prefer 6cyl stick to 4cyl). But it's probably got other SIII parts, It was originally a well body but was converted to tray back and all sorts of things done to it.
My SIII isn't even close to a SIII anymore, it's got Rangie chassis and running gear now so its powerful and comfortble so not very SIII like.

in the UK we (almost) use whatever is in reasonable condition to resurrect our landrovers but unless it's a genuine NEW replacement chassis that has been fitted by a Rover agent or bought NEW some years ago i'd be suspicious of a 2a with a S3 chassis under it

you can still buy new replacement 109 chassis from Richard Chassis but they aren't small change, using a secondhand chassis is technically illegal here as it's the chassis the carries the majority of the identity points (we need a minimum of 8 points out of 13 to legally retain the identity)

body panels, axles, engines and gearboxes on the other hand often get swapped from one model to the next unless someone is performing a "rivet counter" rebuild as those carry the smaller points required (body panels carry Zero points), using a secondhand axle/engine/gearbox is legally fine as long as it's of the type Land Rover would have used even if it's a Series 3 component in an early Series 2 and doesn't require a major modification to the chassis to fit it

so to sum it up, the vehicle "could" be what it claims to be, or it could be a "bitsa", you've gotta make the call

i've a mate with a Series 2a 109 (supposedly) that has a Series 3 "combat" chassis under it along with a 200tdi under the bonnet, i like it as it's a practical truck built from salvaged bits but definitely no show-winner , strictly speaking he's breaking our laws but the likelihood of him getting into trouble for it is pretty slim but if he sold it to you i'd guess you'd have troubles getting it through your import identification system

In Aus, the vehicle ID is based on the chassis only. If you put a RR chassis under a series Landy, then despite what it looks like, that series has just become a RR as far as the registration authorities are concerned.

I had a 67 6 cylinder 2A years ago, that I put a 64 4 cylinder military chassis under with a 68 6 cylinder firewall as the original chassis was bent and broken and the firewall was rusted through in many places. I wonder if someone years later gets confused by my meddling, but it was what was available at the time. It should last as we treated everything to prevent the rust reoccurring as I lived right above a beach at the time.

Jeff