Thread: Restoring the Colonel

Plenty of people around wrecking them, so I'd be looking for some better doors.

So far I've only been able to find the straight door section for the bottoms. Otherwise I have found new 2nd row doors from the UK for 600 (thats without postage though). Looks like I need to keep my eyes and ears open for anyone wrecking a station wagon.

Check with the Ho Har's wrecking thread - - Series Land Rovers

Post what you're after and they'll let you know if they can help - not far from you either.

So a few more nuts undone today. All doors off and inspected. The front ones need new tops but the bottoms are pretty good. Wish I could say the same for the passenger doors, looks like I'll be needing some replacements. Everything takes longer than I expect it to. I guess that's the Landy way. Every nut is a battle. But I'm having a ball which is what its all about. A couple more pics of my side doors.

So I'm guessing this Landy has been on the beach more than once. That's about a 1cm layer of sand sitting on top of the transmission. No wonder every single bolt is rusty.

Spent this weekend getting the seat box out and the front floor/transmission cover off. More rusty nuts than you could poke a pointy wooden thing at. I did get some help from my son, he's loving the giant Lego/Meccano set. In the second photo you can see a pile of rust on the ground on the left. The bulkhead posts where the hinges are fixed has rusted severely on both sides. I have seen repair bits for this so looks like I'm in for some welding. Also the rails that run down the side have some rust, can I replace the bad sections with some U section steel? I've also found some serious corrosion in the bottom of the middle uprights (where the second row doors hinge from). Any ideas on repairs. My apologies for the lack of technical terms for these parts. I'm still at the bottom of this giant learning curve that is the world of series land rovers.

Originally I was going to keep the baby poo yellow, be true to its roots etc. However, I have decided if I'm having a mid life crisis it might as well be in a colour I like. So my thoughts are Masai Red for the half below the galv strip and limestone for the top. Still a series colour although I think it was only used on the V8.

Photo showing floor and seat base removed.

So I've been spending my spare time reading through other peoples rebuild/restorations to try and work out what I need to be doing and what some of the pitfalls are. Some people seem to go from a complete car down to a bare chassis in a few days. I've been chipping away at it for a few weeks now. This afternoon I removed the last of the bolts holding the tub on so it's ready to be lifted off in the morning. This means I am bodyless from the bulkhead back. Unfortunately the vehicle has spent a lot of time on the beach so most bolts are rusted solid which means eerything takes much longer.

When was looking for a project vehicle I thought a land rover would be ideal, everything bolted together and an aluminium body meaning no rust. How wrong I was. Plenty of steel in these things which means pleanty of rust, just less obvious than in some cars. Thankfully the vehicle has a galvanised chassis, however every other part of steel seems to be affected by rust in a major way. I removed the B/C pillars today and one side disintegrated at the B pillar. The other side needs some serious work on the C pillar.

I am thinking of buying a MIG welder and teaching myself the art of joining metal together. Although I suspect repairing a B pillar may be a challenge beyond my skills at this stage. Maybe I should scout around for a replacement instead. I have seen repair sections for sale in the UK but they are around $240 each plus freight.

I also spent a few hours tonight attacking the front. Firstly removing the bullbar (which weighs about 40kg). Then moving onto the radiator surround (which of course has rusted out at the bottom). I also discovered that I have an oil cooling system. Is this standard on the 6 cylinder?

Just to show how unobservant I am I discovered something odd today. When I got the vehicle I checked the ones on the drivers side, both 7.5 x 16. So I assumed that was what all 4 tryes were. However, on the passenger side the tyres are both 235/85. I know both are similar, but they are not the same. Surely it would make sense to have one size on the rears and the other on the fronts? Not different sizes on each side.

Anyway, more photos tomorrow of a tubless landy. I'm on holidays for 2 weeks so hopefully some serious progress can be made.