Thread: Hard Top Side Panels

Originally Posted by Psimpson7

Mine is a Hard top, but that probably doesn't count as its a personal import!

90/110 Hard tops are available through all the european markets at least.

Part of the problem in this thread is nomenclature. In Australian terms, hardtop means a hardtop with side windows, and has done so since Series 1. I assume that when you say hardtop you mean a hardtop with no side windows?

Hardtops (with side windows) have been available here at least since 86" Series 1, but as Landrovers have become a niche market here the models sold have become very few.

The main sellers in the last twenty-five years have been the 110 wagon, the 120 and 130 cab/chassis and the 130 dual cab, usually sold with the factory tray but often converted to a dropside tray. Other models have been tried from time to time, with the 110 hardtop (with windows) being probably the best seller, but also 110 cab/chassis and for a short period the 90 hardtop (with windows) was sold. Other short lived models include the 110 dual cab in 1988 and the 110 6x6 in the 1980s.

Apart from military versions, I don't believe any soft tops for example, have been sold in this period. While it is possible that windowless hardtops may have been sold in this period, I have never seen or heard of one being sold locally, and Landrover Australia's attitude to selling small demand variants makes it pretty unlikely - they even dropped the Defender altogether for two years after the Disco was introduced.

John

G'day Folks

To my knowledge there were no sold sided hard top vans sold in Australia after the start of CKD production in the 50's something to do with Australian content and that included the glass, made under license
also it has a lot to do with safety,& registration regs,and the vehicle classification, private or commercial user, hence Japanese/euro vans being windowless but with removable solid panels for glass, there may have been some solid sided vans brought in in the 50's for particular Govt Depts. but not for general sale.

My advice to you would be to import a couple of solid sides Ex-UK from one of the ex-MOD spares suppliers like P.A.Blanchard,(www.pablanchard.co.uk) or Paddock spares.(www.paddockspares.com) they could be sent out as flat packs surface freight and Second hand would be of low cost, so ther would be little or no import duty.

But, I would seriously think about your dogs in an enclosed van body in the Australian summer, as I am a dog breeder and trialer,(30+yrs) and a heat stressed dog is not a pretty sight, and the animal never fully recovers as there is always brain damage, also you leave yourself open to RSPCA/police charges if the animals are left in a locked vehicle. just my humble opinion.

cheers

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Part of the problem in this thread is nomenclature. In Australian terms, hardtop means a hardtop with side windows, and has done so since Series 1. I assume that when you say hardtop you mean a hardtop with no side windows?

Hardtops (with side windows) have been available here at least since 86" Series 1, but as Landrovers have become a niche market here the models sold have become very few.

The main sellers in the last twenty-five years have been the 110 wagon, the 120 and 130 cab/chassis and the 130 dual cab, usually sold with the factory tray but often converted to a dropside tray. Other models have been tried from time to time, with the 110 hardtop (with windows) being probably the best seller, but also 110 cab/chassis and for a short period the 90 hardtop (with windows) was sold. Other short lived models include the 110 dual cab in 1988 and the 110 6x6 in the 1980s.

Apart from military versions, I don't believe any soft tops for example, have been sold in this period. While it is possible that windowless hardtops may have been sold in this period, I have never seen or heard of one being sold locally, and Landrover Australia's attitude to selling small demand variants makes it pretty unlikely - they even dropped the Defender altogether for two years after the Disco was introduced.

John

Yep you're right John. Hard Top is the official designation for a van with no windows in the UK.

With windows in the UK it is a station wagon, or county station wagon if the purchaser specified the higher trim level.

Cheers
Pete.

Originally Posted by Psimpson7

Yep you're right John. Hard Top is the official designation for a van with no windows in the UK.

With windows in the UK it is a station wagon, or county station wagon if the purchaser specified the higher trim level.

Cheers
Pete.

Yes, I thought we might have crossed wires like that. Short wheelbase station wagons have always been very rare in Australia, so here station wagon is usually taken to mean a lwb five door, with the windowed hard top simply called a hard top whether long or short. Rear seats in a windowed hardtop, while they exist, have always been rare here.

John

Not sure if it's still relevant (since they were dropped as an import in '96)
but there is an RVD listing for one, although it seem to have no rear windows either, except for the door of course.

Road Vehicle Descriptor (RVD1)
as you say, they'd be extremely rare,
I'm a Welsh hill farming ex-pat, so I've grown up with Landy's with solid side panels, side windows were only for the county owner's back then.

Originally Posted by UncleHo

I would seriously think about your dogs in an enclosed van body in the Australian summer, as I am a dog breeder and trialer,(30+yrs) and a heat stressed dog is not a pretty sight, and the animal never fully recovers as there is always brain damage, also you leave yourself open to RSPCA/police charges if the animals are left in a locked vehicle

my dogs would never be left in the vehicle alone, not only for health related purposes, but if I were to walk away from the vehicle and not let them out they'd let me know about it.
And in summertime the landy is topless anyway, it get's too stuffy for me, even with the safari roof.

Originally Posted by landyman

Not sure if it's still relevant (since they were dropped as an import in '96)
but there is an RVD listing for one, although it seem to have no rear windows either, except for the door of course.

Road Vehicle Descriptor (RVD1)
as you say, they'd be extremely rare,
I'm a Welsh hill farming ex-pat, so I've grown up with Landy's with solid side panels, side windows were only for the county owner's back then.

I have never seen one of them - the hardtops with windows are rare enough in the 110/Defender. And the fact that a RVD exists does not necessarily mean they sold any at all - they may only have been prepared to sell them, although it is likely that they sold perhaps one batch to a specific customer.

The reason for the popularity of the windowless hardtop in the UK is that having windows changes the tax status. In Australia this has never been relevant, and the preference seems to have always been to have windows.

It is interesting to note how the preferences for different body types have changed over the years. If you go back to Series 1 or even Series 2, probably the commonest model was the short wheelbase, and soft tops were quite common, although hardtops were also common after the 86" was introduced anyway. Station wagons were exceedingly rare, and utilities fairly common, although rare in the swb. Also rare, but not as rare as station wagons were tray tops.

By the time the Series 2a was introduced in 1961, the lwb was becoming more common, as was the dropside tray. By the time the Series 3 was in full swing, lwbs definitely outnumbered swb, softops had become very rare (except for the military of course) and the typical Landrover was either a lwb hardtop or lwb traytop. And station wagons were becoming a little more common. By the time the 110 and 120 replaced the Series 3, sales of the swb had become so small that it was not introduced until over fifteen years later, and then only briefly. The majority of 110 sales were either tray tops or station wagons, with a few hardtops, and possibly a few utes, and, of course, the 6x6 which was available only as a traytop or cab/chassis.

When the Defender replaced the 110, the only models sold were station wagon, now the major seller, tray top, and the new 130 as tray top or dual cab ute. Small numbers of others, such as the hardtop, dual cab 110 and possibly the van have been sold as well, but the market is now almost entirely station wagon, tray top (mostly 130), and dual cab 130, with the wagon being by far the largest seller.

To some extent this reflects Landrover's marketing changing from a serious four wheel drive to a Luxury car, but the trend had started at least from the sixties. To draw a contrast, in 1955 the commonest Landrover sold in Australia was a swb soft top - by 2005 it was a lwb station wagon. (and the people who in 1955 were buying softop Landrovers, in 2005 were buying dropside ute Landcruisers!)

John

G'day All, I do remember a mate had a 88" with no side windows, it was unusual, and also the Army used them as a delivery van
from the Anzac steel site, so they were here in Oz but most likely not in great numbers, cheers Dennis

The series 2 hard tops in Oz didn't have the small glass panes either side of the upper tailgate at the rear, where the S2a did. But it was very rare indeed for there to be no glass in the sides at all.