Thread: 1st timer restoration

Welcome to the forum George. Someone will be along shortly to decipher your stack of numbers. In the meantime, how about a photo or two of your project.
Don.

Yeah, no photos so it doesn't exist

Welcome to the forum mate.

First time restorer eh? Does that mean you've done some 'doing up' in the past or are you a complete novice? Not that it matters, I think nearly all of us doing restos at the moment are more or less novices.

Any plan yet on what you're trying to achieve? Absolute originality? A good working Landy?

Welcome George.

You have definitely come to the right place. The occupants - some might describe them as "inmates" - all share a deep and abiding passion for the exquisite form of quiet, fast, non-leaking, pleasant-smelling and economical form of transportation that is an old Landy, so jump right in and remember, medication time is 11:00 a.m.

Regards

Damian

welcome to the forum.


CalVIN says:


25319985 C

253Model: Land Rover, Series IIABody type: BasicWheel base: 109inEngine: petrolModel years: 1962-1971Destination: Completely knocked down (CKD), right-hand drive (RHD)19985Serial numberCDesign: Two significant design modificationsSuffix used from April 1966 till April 1967

Thanks calVIN, Damian, crackers and Don,for the cheery welcome.
Little steps, crackers, in the photo stakes....still an absolute novice when it comes to posting anything on any forum. Will post photos as soon as i read the forum how too's.
Thanks for the info on potential year of manufacture calvin. I would be pretty happy if it was a 67 model as that was when i hit the ground!Any way of narrowing down the date?
Crackers, I'm a fully blown virgin when it comes to doing up any sort of vehicle but I've been dreaming about it for years. I think the landy is fairly original so that's the way i want to keep it. It would be used for light duties on farm and trips to town (20kms). From what I know it served approx 12 years in a local RFS as Fire Captain transport with out fire fighting equipment. It was retired in 2008. I purchased it off a local mechanic who had aspirations on doing it up but never got around to it. It runs fairly well.....well that was until my 3 teenager boys and their mates decided to try "mattress surfing" behind it which is where 2 or 3 nutters hang onto the mattress whilst the driver of the vehicle tries to loose them....or hurt them ...or both. This was going fine until the poor old landy lost it's drive. I assumed it had broken an axle but once myself and the perpetrators of this wicked crime checked the axles both were fine so then assumed it was the crown wheel and pinion, (have done a little reading) but not so. t
The 2 differential pinion wheels had disintegrated and the diff spindle and made a mess of the slots in the diff carrier. That's when I stared hunting for serial numbers and decided I should stop collecting and start restoring.
You see I have a bit of a fetish for collecting older local vehicles that have served time in the community. Every vehicle has a story and I like it's connectivity with the district and it's people.
In the stable in various states of direpair:
1952 dodge fargo suburban ambulance...then school bus in local saw mill settlement (mostly complete but not running)
1953 anniversary model ford customline ambulance (very tired but visions of canopy for below ute)
1958 ford star model mainline ute. (currently being totally rebuild and hybridised by 4 wheel drive guy who specialises in outside of the box projects. Its running a brand new turbo 6.5 chevy diesel on a landcruiser chassis and transfercase with a turbo 400 auto with custom suspension and dual fuel capability that enables it to run on anything from fish and chip oil to rendered cow fat...)
1967 40 series landcruiser purchased new buy local farmer and never left the district (running)
Ford xp falcon ute, same as above (but not running)
So...back to the landy...i need to thank the boys for their abuse of the landy because it has made me stop dreaming/pretending and to just do it!
Sorry about all the other irrelevant vehicles tangent...I will stick to the topic of my project.
Looking forward to picking your collective brains and sharing my experience of the rebuild along the way.

Cheers

George

Assuming the Series 2s still used Whitworth bolts, your first job should be to get onto eBay and buy a set of Whitworth sockets. If you've already got a socket set, you'll be able to use those drives and the sockets will only cost about $30 from an Aussie suppliers - don't go to the tool shops, they don't know, don't care and charge too much, eBay is the way to go. I wasted soooooo much energy not going this route to start with and I already had a collection of Whitworth spanners.

A workshop manual is also a 'must have' - I'm still in the happy throes of tearing the poor old girl apart and mine's had a lot of use. Not expensive from Book Depository and there are online versions for while you wait for your paper version to arrive.

I did an email search on my series 1 to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust (Gaydon) and got this back:


Further to your enquiry the vehicle with chassis number 113-701494 is a CKD, complete knock down, which was sent to Regent Motors in Melbourne and assemble there.
We don't have any information on these vehicles except the date the parts were despatched, 24th June 1957, so I am unable to give you the original colour.

So you may be able to get it more or less to within a couple of months.
cheers,
D

Can I suggest if you look at "Shop" in the top bar of this forum page, you can order a CD with all the necessary manuals, and support the forum as well. You will find the parts book very useful for more than just parts numbers - it has a lot more pictures than the workshop manual, and shows how bits fit together.

That vintage of Series 2a used mainly Unified (UNF, UNC) threads and AF spanners but still had a lot of Whitworth/BSF threads and spanner sizes, so you need to have both. There will also be quite a few BA threads, usually with Whitworth spanner sizes on small bits and pieces. (And, of course, after fifty years heaven knows what replacement bolts and nuts have been fitted!)

If you do not already have Whitworth spanners, a good place to look is op shops, markets, garage sales etc, where you can usually build up your stock for small change. Look for spanners with the size shown as a fraction that is clearly a lot less than the actual size in inches - Whitworth spanners are labelled by bolt size, not spanner opening (BSF spanners are the same, but use the spanner for the next size up bolt, as do almost all Whitworth bolts and nuts post 1940).

John