Thread: Looking for a project - help!

G'day all, I'm feeling the need to have a project - you know, something vaguely car shaped that lives in the shed and snacks on money while offering the seductive lie of one day being registered.

I've played cars most of my life. Have done most things on cars at one time or another - sometimes even successfully. Currently suffering under the tyranny of an MG ZR160 which is my only car and hence the family car.

My son is early 20s and, thanks to his soccer fanaticism, we've never played cars together. However, he's discovered the joys of breaking things mechanical and a project would be a good way of sharing my love of cars before he shoves off into independence.

I'm a single dad so I'm ahead of the game in that I only have myself and the cat to answer to.

Now the biggie. Ever since my days in the Army Reserve back in the early 80s, I've known that I'd love to own an old Land Rover one day. I've got no earthly use for one and it's that which has stopped me getting one.

Today though, I stumbled across an ad for a 1960(?) ute, in extremely preloved condition and judging from the photo of the engine, it's a few thousand hours from running (though it might only need cleaning up). It also comes with a spare chassis and body parts. Realistically, it's a basket case. Price is affordable at $1250 though I recognise this could still be overpriced - I've been looking at MGs and they start a lot higher.

Is it possible to rebuild a basket case Landy (can I use that term in polite company?) with a minimal budget stretched over a few years armed with stubbornness and the ability to use an internet forum?

I haven't been looking specifically for Landy's so don't know if this is a good price for what I'm looking at, nor do I know if they come up very often - I'd like one of the earlier series and like the minimalist look that the military Landy's had.

Cheers
Richard
I chose 'crackers' as my username because I reckon I probably need to be to dive into this.

The big thing for me would be checking the chassis and the firewall have no rust. That would be the deal breaker. Everything else you can do. You'll be stripping it to nothing anyway. Oh and that bonnet is the wrong one.