Land Rover Series 1 Minerva

Hi guys and gals


Took delivery of my Minerva it's a 80" 1952 so I'm Told, I have hardly any knowledge of them and I'm used to Diesel engines defenders. This could be a sharp learning curve

Anyone know anything exciting about them please let me know .

What an honest looking car. Lovely. I know less about them than I thought - I didn't realize that they were steel! Is there any alloy in the body anywhere?

Martyn110 said:

Hi guys and gals


Took delivery of my Minerva it's a 80" 1952 so I'm Told, I have hardly any knowledge of them and I'm used to Diesel engines defenders. This could be a sharp learning curve

Anyone know anything exciting about them please let me know .

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I have read up on em a bit now.
About 18,000 total, from 1952-56.
10,000 made for a contract with the Belgian army, like yours.
from 1953 on they made some civilian models, identified by three seats in the front.
And right at the end of production they made 1,100, 86" wheelbase models.
Shippped from Solihull as CKD kits. Steel bodies made locally,

boguing said:

What an honest looking car. Lovely. I know less about them than I thought - I didn't realize that they were steel! Is there any alloy in the body anywhere?

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It is very honest, engine pretty tight and sweet, low mileage.
Chassis has good metal thickness, and very little rust.
Body is all steel judging by the(surface) rust!

Very nice. Fascinating little bit of Land Rover history.

Looks brilliant! Looking forward to hopefully seeing it around the roads at some point!

So over the past week I've been sorting a few small things out on Friday I had my carb ultrasonically cleaned I can't believe how much crap came out some fuel galleries were so blocked up they weren't even visible before cleaning. I'm planning on doing a few other engine/ braking jobs before I make a start on bodywork

Martyn110 said:

So over the past week I've been sorting a few small things out on Friday I had my carb ultrasonically cleaned I can't believe how much crap came out some fuel galleries were so blocked up they weren't even visible before cleaning. I'm planning on doing a few other engine/ braking jobs before I make a start on bodywork

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Certainly has cleaned it up! Looks like it just came out of the factory!

Wow, she's a beauty! What kind of body work are you planning? Is there any damage? Or do you want to just repair any rust and whatnot for respray?

I'm in two minds i quite like the look of it as it is shows its past a bit, i intend on making it capable of passing a mot which it doesnt have to have as it too old maybe then a oily rag restore.

Martyn110 said:

I'm in two minds i quite like the look of it as it is shows its past a bit, i intend on making it capable of passing a mot which it doesnt have to have as it too old maybe then a oily rag restore.

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I believe the modern trend is to keep the patina of age on old vehicles, and I much prefer that to restoring to as new condition!
Would be good to stabilise as much of the surface rust as possible first, I would think, though!

i agree i don't want it to rust away in front on my eyes, i will pay attention to chassis bulkhead etc but just keep the body original as you say try and stabilize the rust thats currently there

Martyn110 said:

i agree i don't want it to rust away in front on my eyes, i will pay attention to chassis bulkhead etc but just keep the body original as you say try and stabilize the rust thats currently there

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Chassis looked rock solid to me, and bulkhead pretty good, was more the rust patches on the wings and tub I was thinking of!

Update: fully restored the carb and cleaned the fuel tank had a few bits sand blasted, now I'm repairing the holes in the bulkhead I found after removing the rubber windscreen seal 3 holes about fag packet size but nothing too serious.

Tried to add photos but website says it's currently not able to upload photos.

So today I decided that I would change the gearbox and transfer box oils and I am sad to say this is all the oil in both the gearbox and transfer should be 2.5pints in the gearbox and 6 pints in the transfer box:-s my next photo will show you how bad and scummy the old oil was.

This was the oil that came out it really stank and the drainer bung on the gearbox had lots of filings.

does look very poor

Quite odd because the gearbox actually feels quite nice.... It does grind on the way into first sometimes but I think that's just the clutch that needs a bit of adjustment

its hard to believe seeing the oil but ,driving is proof

Next job is to replace the canister filter with a more modern spin on one

Martyn110 said:

Next job is to replace the canister filter with a more modern spin on one

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Paper elements work perfectly well if you can get them.
Did the new oil improve the gearchange?