My 1968 IIa Shorty V8

[russV82a]

I thought it was about time I put some photos up of my IIa shorty now that it is looking nice and shiny!

It is a 1968 SWB which started life in the service of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (MMW before being bought by my father in the early 1970's. He used it as daily driver and on many trips with the Victorian Land Rover Club. The vehicle received a heart transplant in about 1978 with professional conversion to a Range Rover 3.5 V8. My Dad continued to make various improvements to it including the addition of a x-army 6,000lb Bamford PTO winch, higher ratio diffs and a jack McNamarra rear diff lock and strengthened rear axle.
The vehicle served our family of five for many years including a big trip in 1988 up through central Australia and to the top of Cape York and down the East coast. A memorable trip with 5 of us and all the camping gear (no trailer) squashed into the shorty!
No long after the trip it was realised that larger vehicle would be required (surprise, surprise) and it was sold and replaced by a county.
The vehicle had three different owners after Dad sold it, however each owner was known to us through various connections. One of these owners had the vehicle used by paramount pictures in the filming of a Mission Impossible TV episode! I managed to find the episode on you tube - see the link below:

It features at 6:09 and then at 18:49
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JntheyGeufg&feature=player_detailpage]MI88 The Sands of Seth.mp4 - YouTube[/ame]
I would suggest fast forwarding to these parts - it was a pretty average TV production!

In 2000, I bought the vehicle as my first car. It was in a fairly sorry state having been in a head on bingle (wrote off the other car) and being left in a paddock for a few years. I then slowly overhauled the vehicle during uni holidays and have since used it on quite a few 4wd trips and recently been treated to some panel straightening and a respray. Its come up pretty well I think!









On Dad's stand at the Victorian 4WD show the other week


When I bought it




During the overhaul


The chassis had to be repaired due to the crash




Having fun

[Johnno1969]

What a beautiful Land Rover! Thanks very much for posting the story and all those lovely photos.

I will write more when I can stop ogling those pictures....

Cheers,

John

[wpalmo]

Great story and a really nice looking Series II. What rims and tyres are you running?

Regards Warrick.

[will d8r]

Great story great history neat looking LR. Have the galvanised cappings been painted or regalvanised or still original .The wide wheels set it of.
Cheers Will

[garrywlh]

What a fantastic story and a gorgeous Landy! You have inspired me. Thanks!

[russV82a]

Thanks all!
The rims are a standard 16 inch LR rims that has been widened to 8 inches. I'm not sure where they were done, Dad got them done back in the 80s sometime.
The tyres are Silvestone (BFG mud terrain copy) 265/70/16.

The galvanised cappings haven't been touched. They are original and holding up well!

[Slunnie]

What did you do for a fan?

[stevep]

hey - the car looks great & nice storey.
I like the action photo - creek crossing - looks good.

regards
Steve

[Cobber]

Great story, great car

[Bearman]

Terrific job you have done there, it looks great! Reminds me of the 1965 2A shorty I had back in the late '60's.