Thread: Series 2A Project pics ...

G'day all.

I thought I'd finally post a few pics of my current project - 1964-66 Series 2A 88" called Bronson. The first pic shows Bronson in the front yard after buying him from the previous owner looking a bit tired and worse for wear. Bronson had recently been in an accident that most other cars would end up written off for. The previous owner got completely side swiped at speed through an intersection. Luckily the oncoming vehicle took Bronson on the passenger side rear tub section. The owner and Bronson survived this accident without too much damage! The moral of the story here is that a chassis can be the difference. You can faintly see the darker green patch up paint over the sections where Bronson was hit.



And here ... I was also going to need a new rear tub, left side door bottom and bonnet.



Bronson had two owners prior to the guy I bought him from. The first, who bought him new, was a Gyro pilot who unfortunately died in a Gyro accident. Remember the guy who flew around in Mad Max 2? Thats a Gyro! The second owner was a Jazz muso and the third the bloke I bought from; which makes me the fourth owner.

The Series came with a tropical roof and a allot of spares; infact a huge amount of spares including the original 2A gearbox and Series 3 wings which I quickly traded for a new rear tub which Bronson was going to need if I was to pull off a decent restoration. I took the wings back to where the previous owner had originally got them; Hilton Pollard up in Colo Heights who up until a couple of years ago probably had the biggest collection of privately owned Land Rover spares in the wider Sydney area. With the help of a Black Stump forum member, Das - and after scouring through a huge array of old tubs stacked in a paddock - I found the one I wanted with the cleanest panels. Here she is, ready and loaded on the trailer for the 2 hour drive back home.



This pic shows the new tub about to have the cappings stripped and re-galvanized. Lot's of drilling and lots of spirals of silver rivet thread allover the garden!



Whilst at Pollards I took the liberty of hunting for a new bonnet as the old ones frame struts had rotted away for the most part. I decided I wasn't going to make the same mistake as the previous owner and painted the struts with cold gal.



I also had to drill a hole for the securing strut that allowed me to padlock the spare tyre to the bonnet secure . I 'll leave it to you to guess which hole was the drilled one.



The old and the new - end result!



Finally we drove Bronson back to the Blue mtns where I live and back to his new temporary home ready for stripping and the restoration. Here I had managed to get the Tropical Hard Top off, by myself, by unbolting everything and then getting inside the tub and lifting upwards and carrying the entire hardtop on my back like some giant tortiose across the garden ... NO! I don't have photos of that!!! I had to do this also so I could get the Landy under the low cut roof of the open garage.



After some good looking over the chassis seems to be in excellent nick, and the usual trouble areas like the rear cross member didn't seem to be a honeycomb of rust the second you layed into it with a rubber lump hammer. There may yet be hope!



What follows is the result of a week alone with an angle grinder and lots of WD40!



Getting there finally reveals the Holden 186 painted green and the considrable need for a new bulkhead which was rotten at the base of the windscreen above the vents ( the usual suspects! ) and well and truly in the footwells! I also came to the fast conclusion that the wiring was a basket case and needed total replacement as did the exhaust and manifold systems.



The image above shows oil from the oil cooler on the front cross member after it's removal and all parts, including the radiator et al were all stored in the big shed out back. At this point another obvious replacement part was needed; you can see the slightly bent draglink. All tie rod boots and seals etc will need replacing as well as brake lines.



Transmission Impossible? I think not! Though the gearbox will need stripping as it's missing a tooth in second ... clack, clack, clack!



Avert your eye's if your sensitive to nakedness! A bare bummed Series ...



It's centrefold stuff eh? A bit of night work during winter in the Blue Mtns ( freezin my **** off ) cords from the work lamps hanging down.



And that's about where we are up to now gents. I am currently stripping the old rusty firewall, pulling old wiring out and am about to do brake and cluth pedal boxes and steering linkage. Oh, and if anyone ( in Sydney ) wants to give me a hand ( Apart from the days when Ace can ) I won't discourage them as many hands make light work. Two angle grinders are better than one!

I can be contacted at psi_fan@yahoo.com - Oh and if anyone in Sydney has a salisbury they want to get rid of and a good set of Rover springs let me know!

Best, Simon.

Hey Mark.

Storage is always the issue with projects ... when I bought Bronson I was living in inner city Sydney and had to lay it up at my old mans place before we moved to the Mtns. I'm about to buy a second Series 2 109" actually ( I must be nuts! ) but the opportunity is there and the price is too good to pass up. I just did some detective work on Bronson and based on both the Gearbox and body Suffix numbers, which are B, I can nail the vehicles build to exactly February 1964 - there were only 8,207 of that particular type built ( CKD export in RHD ) and record ends in 1964. The gearbox that's in the vehicle now is a Suffix A from an earlier Landy but I'll replace that with the original B suffix box for correctness.

I have two younger brothers, 5 and 3 years old ... the 5 year old loves the Series Landy. I'll look forward to working with them on the 109 when they get into their teens. Looks like it will be that long until I get around to the 109!!!!