Thread: Burt - Series IIA 88"

Jock

I can't help you a real lot more on the chassis number 24305923b other than what you have already deciphered.

However several things I can tell you is that the vehicle doesn't seem to be recorded in the NSW books and that vehicles with chassis numbers 14 numbers before Burt and 63 numbers after Burt were both sold to NSW customers in April 1964.

(And in case anyone is confusing you, Series IIA Land Rover have 8 digits and a suffix letter in their chassis number, just like Burt, while series II Land Rovers have 9 digits with no suffix letter and the 4th digit indicates model year)

Hope this assists.

Diana

BTW. You may find that a Salisbury in the rear will cause problems of prop shaft angles.

Originally Posted by Jock The Rock

So it could be a '64 then, but more likely that it was made in '63 or '62? ...<snip>

No it was an Australian assembled (CKD) which would have come out of the PMC Enfield NSW assembly plant. The CKD vehicles contained components manufactured in the UK and components manufactured in Australia, particularly body components. It would be wrong to date a vehicle at the time one component, like an engine, was manufactured in the U.K. The build date is the day it comes out the end of the production line at Enfield and has its chassis number stamped.

My understanding was that in the early days of SII/SIIA when there was little competition from other marques like Land Cruiser, as a Land Rover was produced at PMC it was sent to a distributor for sale. When I review the Grenville books* for 1962 - 64, there are occasional notations in the header like "April production" with the vehicles in that batch being sold in May, similarly "Dec-Jan" and the vehicles are sold/distributed in February-March. So my read of your chassis number is that the vehicle would have probably been built in March 1964 but possibly as early as December 1963.

It does seem that the suffix periods for Australian assembled vehicles is about 2 months behind the equivalent suffix in the UK. This would be because the components that the suffix relates to are manufactured in the UK and need to be shipped to Sydney for final assembly of the vehicle.

What I don't find helpful is determining a vehicles age using it's fittings 44 years later as a basis for what it had when built by PMC/Rover.

A classic example is the firewall vent regulators. The SII had screw regulators which you could adjust proportionally and screw up tight to seal the vent from dust and rain. The SIIa had a lever arrangement with pre-set knotches, these didn't seal very well. In the LROC-S during the 1960s and 70s many members with SIIa vehicles would grab the SII regulators when ever they could get them to retrofit their SIIa.

Another issue is the steering column, when someone had a worn steering box they would often grab a complete box, column and steering wheel from another vehicle.

Hope this helps .

Diana

* Grenville Motors NSW was a division of LNC Industries, PMC at the time was also a division of LNC Industries.