Buyers guide

Hi Peeps,

I don't seam to find any buyers guide for Series Land-rover on the site. I am interested in hearing from experienced serviceman and peeps doing restorations what are the key places to look for rust, what things I better properly test to save me spending more on fixing it up then the vehicle itself and even what do you think will be the right engine for the use I'm intending it for? Alternatively are there any fakes floating around? How to spot if it is genuine?

Alternatively if anybody know reliable service man in Kent who will be willing to come with me to check the landy before I buy it for some reasonable fee.

Thanks

eric appla said:

Hi Peeps,

I don't seam to find any buyers guide for Series Land-rover on the site. I am interested in hearing from experienced serviceman and peeps doing restorations what are the key places to look for rust, All of chassis, esp rear cross member, out riggers, cross members, if fact everywhere and bulkhead.....usually go around windscreen hinge and under vents first what things I better properly test to save me spending more on fixing it up then the vehicle itself and even what do you think will be the right engine for the use I'm intending it for? If you tell us what your intended use is this would be easier than guessing Alternatively are there any fakes floating around? How to spot if it is genuine? Yes, lots, especially tax exempt. Check paperwork and chassis number (if the paperwork has it!) Check it's not sat on coils

Alternatively if anybody know reliable service man in Kent who will be willing to come with me to check the landy before I buy it for some reasonable fee. There may well be a member or two willing for a few beer tokens.......or even a few beers.

Thanks

Click to expand...

It might help to read this guide

Thank you for help blue. My intended use is predominantly local not a big distances. I live on farm and we have unmade access road which especially in the winter is a no go for pretty much any non 4x4 car and when it gets really nasty it's just my neighbours tractor which can make it up.
I would like to be able to go few times a year down to Devon which is about 400 miles there and back and I would like to get tax exempt one to keep the running costs down as it will be very limited mileage 3000max is my guess.

One of the ebay items I am interested in is
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rove...omobiles_UK&hash=item19d42c7778#ht_585wt_1307

What do you use atm?

I was in the same type of situation a couple years back, you'd get 4-5ft drifts building back up within 30-60 mins. Unless you ram through short sections or dig then you might still get stuck.

Last couple of years have been mild though

For the madder, you can get a snow plough for it!

I don't have a car at the moment and i actually never had one, but to my benefit I used to drive in mountains on snow and ice in Paugeot 206 and never ended up in trouble. This Landy I'm looking for will be my first car

Excellent, hope you like to fiddling with cars then

not afraid of mechanics!

lorri just won 10 reputation points
but seriously what are the places where rust damage can impact the practical usability of the car the most? There is no doubt about frame I can imagine swapping that or even stripping all off to weld some patches on it will be major task costing me probably more then whole car itself since they go for 1500-2500 and i do not have access to respective tools.

any tax exempt landrover (and many later ones) suffers badly from the tinworm ...

if you want to avoid that problem i'd suggest looking at one that has been fully rebuilt in recent years (last 5 years or so) on a galvy chassis along with fully refurbised bulkhead

i spent nine months rebuilding my 109 from the ground up, repaired my chassis by removing the rot and replacing with good metal, two new outriggers, rebuilt dumbirons, rear chassis rails rebuilt and a new crossmember along with a couple of other repairs let in, rebuilt my bulkhead as well, springs/shocks replaced, diffs replaced, engine swapped for a TDI/built my own exhaust, built my own wiring harness and refurbed the braking system where needed, new paint and polished as required

luckily the gearbox is perfect, the best i've ever used so i didn't need to touch that

any old landrover will throw up problems unless comprehensively gone through and rebuilt properly, mine has been on the road for a little over a year now and is used as a daily driver but still requires frequent fettling (mostly to the brakes) and checking over (i hate checking the gearbox/transfer box oils), plus spring bushes and shock bushes wear at a pretty alarming rate

an old landrover is NOT the ideal tool to own if it's just expected to grind on in the worst conditions only as it'll not get maintained sufficiently (nothing worse than fixing it with 6" of snow on the floor with 2" of crap over the chassis etc'), landrovers work best if they are a (almost) daily driver rather than parked up for nine months of the year

remember it'll require waxoyling or similar once a year to assist keeping the tinworm at bay

on saying all that, if you enjoy tinkering and can find a half decent condition landrover they are a really enjoyable motor to own (nice simple vehicles), i've three Series landrovers in my collection with two of them on the road and one waiting for me to rebuild, i also have three or four that come to me for repairs as and when they need them along with a few discos

p.s.
i've only owned landrovers for three or four years so i'm no expert or fountain of knowledge, i've just learnt the hard way by buying at least two total rust buckets

Thanks Nite for your thoughts. I will be using it frequently in the local vicinity, it's just never long distances. It's like 2 miles trip twice or three times a week.
It's trips like going to local B&Q for various material for DIY. It will not be standing still, I just don't plan to use it for daily commute to and from work. It'll probably cost me arm and leg on fuel since it is 40 miles a day

Indeed. My brothers neighbour has just purchased a series 3 that was rebuilt in 1999. Looks fab and is in very good nick. I wouldn't be too sniffy about when the rebuild was done, but the quality of the rebuild.

That's my problem, I don't have any experience to say good from bad. All I have is understanding of physics and common sense. I can probably tell quite a lot just by using those but experience is priceless

Give me a nudge if you see one nicely rebuilt Series 2a or early 3 flying around

if you're interested in a 2A might i suggest that you join the Series 2 forum, there's often motors advertised on there, not all brilliant but occaisionally a very nice rebuild comes up

plus you'll get all the information you could want on the various motors (including fake S2/2A's) and advice on the details to watch out for, i am a club member and have learnt an awful lot from them to assist in identifying "wrong" parts/motors, it's a very useful forum to learn from and free to join

occaisionally (very occaisionally) a motor comes up that has not long finished a comprehensive rebuild (a member sold one a few months ago) that we watched being rebuilt so it can sometimes come up with a golden opportunity as you get to see what effort has gone into the motor (don't worry they're not all rivet counters :rofl: )

don't discount the 109 either it's a more useful motor than the 88" and naturally more comfortable, a more spacious cab, a bigger load space and the turning circle of a supertanker (i have both lengths), i use my 109 daily right down to the supermarket shopping trips and parking in Asda/Tesco etc' carparks, my 88 is a bitsa that is a hoot to drive but rough and ready so i'm not so precious about it when out playing offroad, laning or just chucking junk into the tub for the tip runs but for general use i prefer my 109, it's prettier, more comfortable on a run and rides over speedbumps with less of a jolt plus it's 47 years old so i like to show it off on a regular basis

these are the two i've got on the road

One can see theres a lot of love time and efforts invested in your 109. True beauty

op2:.......................:scratching_chin: