Thread: Some silly questions I should know

Is there a diff between a military seat base in a 2a and a standard non mil base?,
What was the std rim size on a 53 series 1, mine dont got wheels, cant have everything I guess,
Are all series 1 front doors the same?
Are the early and later series 1 instrument panels interchangable?
I really know very little about the first series, mine is partially imcomplete but enuffis there to think about fixing it up.
Some info I read about them, the early models were produced from pretty good alloy,try melted down ww2 aircraft, and the green paint was british aircraft industry cockpit green, apparently there was a huge surplus of paint after ww2, funny what u read.

Originally Posted by landyfromanuthaland

1.Is there a diff between a military seat base in a 2a and a standard non mil base?,
2. What was the std rim size on a 53 series 1, mine dont got wheels, cant have everything I guess,
3. Are all series 1 front doors the same?
4. Are the early and later series 1 instrument panels interchangable?
I really know very little about the first series, mine is partially imcomplete but enuffis there to think about fixing it up.
5. Some info I read about them, the early models were produced from pretty good alloy,try melted down ww2 aircraft, and the green paint was british aircraft industry cockpit green, apparently there was a huge surplus of paint after ww2, funny what u read.

1. No difference, but the bits attached to them differ a bit as the military ones usually (always?) have two tanks and hence no tool box, although some had a centre tool box. Also the holes for fuel tap etc will be different.

2. 5" wide, 16" wheels, same as all Series swb. Wheels remained basically identical throughout series production and are interchangeable. To the purist early (I think only 48) had the position of the valve hole different, but otherwise they are the same.

3. No. 80" had at least two variants of door, with and without external handles, and both are different from the 86/88/107/109 doors. 80" ones have a sloping back edge to the lower section, later ones are rectangular.

4. 80" is different to 86/88/107/109, which are interchangeable with each other as well as Series 2/2a up to 1967, although there are detail differences, and with slightly more differences, up to the start of Series3

5. Not quite - it wasn't melted down WW2 aircraft, it was the alloy sheet that had been produced already for the 1946-7-8 production of aircraft that was cancelled in 1945 when the war ended. This is why the Landrover had an alloy body - there was no shortage of it, but there was a shortage of sheet steel as civilian car manufacture used a lot more of it than did armament manufacture; it was rationed according to the car manufacturer's exports. I'm not sure how long these supplies lasted, possibly as long as the end of S2a production.
The green cockpit paint came from Rover's own supplies - they spent the war building various aircraft assemblies (including, as a matter of interest, some of the earliest aircraft turbine engines, hence their experiments with turbine cars in the fifties.)

John