Why a series Landy, why not something sensible, or at least relaible........

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Teflon

New Member
This forum seems a bit slow. Thought I'd throw a seed at it, see what you came up with.

Here you are:-

ODE.jpg


So, what ulegy, excuse, delusion can you come up with for your chosen mode of masochism!?
 
Enjoyed the poem Teflon,
But back to your question, Why a series land rover?
Well my answer to that is this. Saturday morning I was awoken by my son at 7.30 to say that my wind screen had been smashed. This is the first Land Rover I have had, and I have only had it about a month but all the family love it. I got up and cleared up the mess then informed the police about the damage. 8.30 I went to a yard where I had seen some landrover bits and it was shut. I noticed a Discovery backing up and it was the owner of the yard, he said he was just off to Wales over the weekend and I was lucky to have caught him. He opened up the yard, sold me a second-hand complete wind screen for £10 he also give me 2 rolls of double sided tape to fix the glass in, and explained how to do it. By 9.30 the glass was replaced and good as ever.
I had fixed it myself, paid just £10 and met a real nice garage owner. I can't think of any other car what I,with my limited knowledge of vehicles would have been able to fix. I think Land Rovers and most likely Series Land Rovers have a certain charm that dose bring out the best in people. I have only just got used to complete strangers in their Land Rovers waving to me, I am more used to the 'V's or the 'finger' but waves , smiles and flashing is quite amusing now.
Anyhow I like my Series 11a for all its noise, its leaks, its smokers chough in the morning and the fact I'm still wobbling half an hour after getting out of it.
Its great fun driving it, it gets more looks than most sports cars ( normally older guys in bib & brace overalls) and with the noise of the engine you can't hear the kids moaning in the back. Just Bliss.
 
'scuse the delay, but had to comment...

Nail on head, Fattom.

My earliest memories were going to Highlands to visit family for our thrice yearly annual hols. We had to go over - at the time barely what people would know as a road, 1 in 4 grad' - a serious hill road, and were transported in an SIIa. All the crofters ran old series vehicles in various states (in the late 80s, a slight trend for decrepit Subaru pick-ups developed, but they all soon added to the acidic nature of the peaty soils). The postie, 'Willie the Post', delivered the mail in an SIII. One of the pastimes when there was to hitch a lift with Willie in the 'Red Streak', and see how long before our bottles crashed and had to get out (bench seats and mail flying around, and that was him moderating his driving with the kids in back).

From that moment on, LR had left it's mark on me, and i don't mean bruising. I have a soft spot for old Fergie tractors for the very same reasons too. However, i can't take my kids out (another gem, fattom. you CAN'T hear them) for a hurl in a Fergie. I don't do comp's, trials or seek to test man and machine to limits. But i also enjoy simply playing with the thing, and never worry about scraping metallic paintwork (sorry, roy!), or scraping anything for that matter. I currently have a 10 yr old 90, not a series, and i am delighted with the reliability so far. But i would have a series also in a minute; leaks, rattles et al.

I hear Cruiser and where he's coming from, but anything other than LR just doesn't have that elusive ingredient. My bro-in-law runs a 'cruiser - it's great. Does everything on road better than my toy, and always goes. Why, i even had a Toyota car before. It adequately provided me with reliable transport. But a Landrover just does it differently, particularly a series vehicle.

How much of the devotion is down to image over substance, i wouldn't care to say. I'm big and chunky, prone to leaks (after too much beer), but endeavour to be dependable...so i guess it embellishes my look/ dovetails into my raison detre. Who knows?

And i'll tell you something else; i reckon i would gladly go for a pint with any stranger who drives a Landy, safe in the knowledge i'd be in good company! If i was looking for a good drug deal, i might look at the driver of the ML or Shogun with tinted windows....
 
Thanks for the comments "Struy"
Teflon started all this off with his poem, and the question "why a Series Landrover etc.
I think he knew the answers already.

I mentioned in my bit about the garage owner who opened up just for me and give me good advise as well as a good deal.
I've been back to see him and thank him, I also give him my custom and have been back 2/3 times since, never is this bloke to busy to talk and always willing to share his knowlegde. He has a small yard crammed with doner vehicles and one or 2 for sale. He stocks spares and also dose repairs. This might sound like an advert for him but what the eck! when you come across someone like this its has well to share the info.
If you live within travelling distance of Ashton-Under-Lyne he is well worth a visit.

Northern Land Rovers
Unit 3
Lower Wharf Street,
Ashton-Under-Lyne,
OL6 79E

He dose not open on at weekends
 
you're welcome, fattom

I know the kind of chap you are on about; i have a couple of those types up here too. One of my first posts was regarding seatbelt configurations for the back of my station wagon. You wouldn't believe the lack of progress i made off the back of Main Dealers and the like, but could have blethered all day on the phone to the afore-mentioned engineers come enthusiasts. It seemed like they were going to blether all day - i was only asking advice too! They are the breed you come across so often in the world of LR.
 
In the ninteen eighties, my grandfather bought an old abandoned slate quarry, and Land Rovers were the lifeblood of his various ventures in those days. I remember an old series 1 being stripped down to its bare essentials for going underground. It was petrol, so hardly the safest vehicle in the world for working in confined closed spaces! I was a young boy at the time, about five or six, but still had to duck in some parts of the underground workings, as the roof was so low. Despite looking like a vehicle that had been stripped for spares, she provided many years of hard work.

My father tried to re open the quarry in the ninties, but not to much avail. Having lost all equipment and staff, my father struggled for months to try and save the business. All he had was an old digger at the top of the quarry, a 1960 series 2 with trailer. The Series 2 would carry huge pieces of slate, one on the trailer, and another lying across the back of the old girl. These rocks were 2-3 tonnes EACH! They were transported down the quarry for cutting and dressing down gravel tracks so steep, that only Land Rovers could go up. When the engine finally died, so did the business. The Landy stood there for many months, where she had broken down. It was a sad sight. She was the first vehicle I ever drove.

Land Rovers are more than a mode of transport. They are a love affair. They get into your bloodstream, and once you've had a taste, you're hooked. I promiced myself a Landy since I was knee high to a grasshopper. My father and grandfather owned many over the years, and I believed that I would not be a man until I had also owned one. The first was a series 3 LWB ragtop. Looked the business, but drank petrol. My current one is a 1969 2a. I bought her six months ago, but only got cracking with the project about two months ago, when I found out that there is a baby on the way (unless I finish it now, I'll never be able to!). I took her down to a rolling chasis, did all the welding, installed parabolic springs, overdrive, Perkins Prima turbo diesel engine, and countless other pieces. She had stood on a farmyard for 5 years prior to my rescue. She is still some way off being ready, but she is an obsession. She is the first thing I think of when I wake up, and the last thing I think of when I go to sleep at night. Sad I know, but she has a soul, a character, and even a certain beauty!!
 
You buy a Landy and then make it reliable. I've never seen any other vehicle suffer the abuse I've subjected L/Rs to and still run. My own favourite is a Perkins 4203 Slll (with cracked chassis) that shunted my entire life around, is now missing both headlights, has a 'skywards-facing' bumper, had its interior chewed by a nervous dog I 'rescued' (read removed from an abusive owner), towed1.5t welder, coped with porous axles, dragged ex-mil vehicles about, climbed 1:2 hills, got trialled by 'friends'(read "bast**ds") and generally "roasted to f**K" by everyone.And it still starts,runs and drives. I'm currently saving for a galv. chassis for "Gus" as a reward. He also was run on diesel, Derv, 50/50diesel/petrolmix, 50/50diesel/centralheating oil mix and 50/50diesel/anyoldsh*t mix and never complained. And he cost me £550. Tyres, Dixon-Bate t/h and experience more than covered this cost. Friend's headlights (forMOT) on his Uzi-Suzi Roadhogger cost more.
Loyalty is probably the fact that a re-chassis costs less than a instrument-cluster replacement.
Loyalty may be the fact that I run a Landrover that was built in 1967, runs an engine first built before 1935 and goes faster than any Jap4x4(except the EVOShogun) and can be fixed with a hammer and a set of Stillsons. I admit it's not as comfortable to drive as a Bitsu-Batsu Streetsh**ger but I've never got stuck, don't mind if I'm dragged (rather than "pulled gently") out and can fix a bent wing with a hammer instead of a mortgage....
 
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