exRAF Land Rover Series IIA 109 2.25 Diesel

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Tomushh

Active Member
Posts
220
Location
Kent
Setting up this project thread mainly for my Dad but I will be doing a lot of the work on it and I like having a look back! Plus it's nice to see what other people think too.

My dad has owned this for many many years. Will try and get some more history into it as I learn about it and update it on here too. As far as I am aware from what he has told me is that it is an exRAF 1971. Now, some of you may have noticed that it currently has a Series III grille on the front. We are unsure if it ever had a proper Series IIA Grille on it as it was registered the same year Land Rover brought out the Series III. We think that Land Rover might have added a few Series III bits onto it to help get it off the forecourt, but completely unsure. The other idea is that someone put a Series III grill on there as it is simply cheaper than the Series IIA ones. As it's a very late Series IIA it also has the lights on the wings. You'll see in the pictures my mates S-IIA 88 with the lights in the middle as his is the early one.

Anyway, I'll update some more info on it as soon as I know. Let's get onto some of the pictures!

This is where it has been sat for 3 years, almost to the day. We've been umming and urring about restoring it a little bit and getting some use out of it for a while. Bit of a father son project. Plus I want to drive it...mostly I want to drive it haha. As you can see it's a bit dirty. The idea is to jetwash it down to get rid of all the growth on it, we didn't want nature to pull it too far into the ground. The other option is to get it mechanically sound and don't even bother cleaning it as it kinda looks good as it is.. who knows. As it's an exRAF landy, it was painted in RAF blue. But at some point in the past for some unknown reason someone has painted the sides (yes, just the sides) in green with a brush. Thankfully most of it is flaking off and most of it will come off with the jetwash.



My mates S2A 88 parked next to it. The idea is to get it as nice as his. (without the silly large wheels) we want mostly factory restoration.



Towing it out was rather easy, one of the wheels (NSR) was locked up so Dad was thinking it was the brake seized so we jacked it up and it was turning a bit then I realized it was in gear *doh*.

We got it up to the top of the field and cleaned it out a little of cobwebs and dirt. Doesn't look cleaner, but believe me the inside was caked with cobwebs!!



After loosening everything a bit driving it around a few times, every now and then Dad put it into gear and lifted up the clutch slightly to turn the innards of the engine a bit, circulate the oil etc just so when we decide to start it, the engine doesn't chew it's self any more than we want too. We attended a few bump starts but not much happened. Bare in mind it hasn't moved or been started in 3 years.



In the end we decided to pull it aside and borrow a battery out of one of my Dad's 4L tractors. The battery almost didn't fit inside the standard battery tray. We then charged it up a bit, turned the key and lo and behond it started with literally half a turn of the key. No issues. No bad noises. Just a simple half turn and vroom. Up and running! Kudos to Land Rover! (Will add running video later, just got to upload it.)

Few more pictures from a walk around of it:





Can see my Dad's other project, his 109 FC.



It's had a wooden floor put in the back that is removable. The original was rotten so my Dad tells me. I can remember sitting in the back of here as a kid, there used to be seats above those storage boxes. Plus there used to sit a spare wheel on the right hand side behind the drivers seat.


The brakes are questionable. Idea is to refurbish them with all new parts, and as far as we can tell they might be the only reason it would fail the MOT. (They literally do not work at all. Found that out whilst towing and once I stopped looking in the rear view mirror at an antique coming towards you with your Dad waving his arms around like a mad man meant get out the f***ing way but not too quickly to rip the tow rope lol!)



You can also see that it is missing a mud guard, but those panels are cheap so that will get sorted also.

This is the only major piece of rust we could find. The chassis is OK as far as we can tell. The whole rear end of the chassis is new as in the past it was rotten at the back. My Grandad one day decided tow something and it ripped the rear end off. Should be able to get a repair panel for this.

The bulk head is mostly OK



Interior - yep it's a land rover alright.



You may have seen in the above photo the rather large hole where the overdrive gearbox lever is. That is not standard. Dad had an overdrive gearbox fitted and got a bit carried away with the size of hole he needed. Will make some sort of gaiter for that in the future. Just to the right of the steering wheel is a switch that is for an electric fan. The viscous fan has been removed in favor of an electric one as in the past it was taking too long getting up to operating temperature.

Some idiot in the past (definitely not my Dad he assures me) painted the inside with emulsion paint and it's all flaking off. Funny story is that I remember it being like that when I was a kid. I'm not 22 and it's still like it and my Dad has always left it like that!



Chassis is good. In the photo you might noticed what looks like a set of rust holes. I noticed that also and checked with a light but it was just the shadow of the chassis paint flaking off. So it's all good. Will be repainting the chassis in time.




Bulk head and common area to rust seems good too.


Passengers and drivers footwell is a little rusty but will get some repair panels for those in time also.


Dad had parabolic springs fitted in the past too replace the old leaf springs.







Thought I'd end the final picture with all of the Land Rovers posing for the camera. On the right is my green disco 1, the rest are my Dads. We're a bit Land Rover mad. (this isn't even all of them, got several TD5 disco 2's about as well.)



Overall, it should turn out rather nice when it's finished. Not much on the list to do, just takes a lot of time to do it.
Body repair panels
Brakes
Engine service and tidy up.
Probably buy all new light lenses just to give it a bit of a tidy.
Various door and window seals possibly.
Bottom of the doors are a tad rusty. But it's only surface rust from what we can see so far. The top window frames are new so they are good.
Dad wants the interior cleaned up a lot. Likely to get new seat trims etc and door cards.
Not sure what colour to paint it. Dad wants NATO Green but I'd rather go with the original RAF blue as it was exRAF. The logbook says green and one of the original colours that we liked from when they were sold was Trident Green. We'll have a think.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for updates
 
Thanks guys!

Going up to the yard tonight with Dad to have a proper look over and to make a parts list of what to order. Ideally going to make it solid so will be looking a bit harder for rust. I did see at the weekend on the passengers side bulk head corner it is a bit crusty but the other side is good thankfully. Shouldn't be too much of an issue.
 
Got it up onto the drive yesterday evening. Cleaned the windows as you probably guessed they were well covered in green crap! We took it for a quick spin up the private road and back just to see how it found feel on tarmac. Brakes are now kinda working. have to punch the brake with your foot a bit but the more we used it the more it worked so it's likely that they were just a bit seized and needed freeing up.





As said in the last post, the drivers side bulkhead is pretty good. This side isn't so much. Plus the hole in the footwell in the previous post that i posted seems to have infected a bit of the area where it comes in contact with the bulkhead too. Little worrying but we have a welder and will likely get some repair panels for them at some point. The corner is easy enough, I'm personally just worried about the hole in the passengers footwell.



This is the bit I am worried about.


Also found a little photo album whilst going through some stuff at my grandparents house. Unfortunately 2 weeks ago my Grandad passed away so was just looking through some photos. In some of the photos where they were building the drive for their new house my Dad's first Series 2A is parked on the drive. Unfortunately that one was designated for the scrap and was sold then scrapped a few years back. (unrecoverable rot). Still, nice to see it when it was mostly okay though.



Can see that it had the original Series 2A Grill on the front. Shame that probably went to the scrap with it, could have done with it for this one.
 
Not much has happened in recent months on this due to unforeseeable busy summer wither other stuff on the go.

I am itching to get this back on the road and with my Dad busy with other stuff I'm pestering him every now and them for him to sell it to me so I can get it back on the road haha

Small-ish promotion at work (mainly just made full time with a tiny bit extra money) has meant I am seriously considering buying it from him as I don't see him having the time anytime soon to do anything!

He is more interested in getting the 109 FC started, which is fair enough. I will set up a project thread once I get him to hurry up with the thing. He wants to get a new chassis ordered and all he has to do is pick up the phone but as he is so busy running around all the time he doesn't have the time for that neither.

Will update in due course!
 
Cheers Darren, am hoping to be able to keep most things as they are and just tidy it up for now.

Will probably get the jetwash out on the underside to get it really clean and have a good look for any extra rot that there may be and then get on and do the footwells and bulkhead when I can. Still undecided to leave the outside as it is or paint it lol
 
Cheers Darren, am hoping to be able to keep most things as they are and just tidy it up for now.

Will probably get the jetwash out on the underside to get it really clean and have a good look for any extra rot that there may be and then get on and do the footwells and bulkhead when I can. Still undecided to leave the outside as it is or paint it lol

LEAVE IT! dont touch a thing and don't even clean the outside looks awesome!

get it welded on bulkhead/footwell and anything it needs then just drive it as is, although might want to clean the windows for the mot :D
 
I do agree it looks awesome!

I will 100% be cleaning the inside though, don't mind about the outside. Want to get some new seats and paint the inside of the roof as it's flaking everywhere lol. Just make it a bit nicer to drive inside!

Guess that's that haha
 
I do agree it looks awesome!

I will 100% be cleaning the inside though, don't mind about the outside. Want to get some new seats and paint the inside of the roof as it's flaking everywhere lol. Just make it a bit nicer to drive inside!

Guess that's that haha

Id just scrub the roof with a scouring pad to get the flaky stuff off, quick vac then leave it id love a project like this
 
Good point, may do that this weekend!

Does anyone have any information or part numbers for the door seals? Can't seem to find anything useful. Just want to stop the water getting inside as you may see the original door seals have turned to stone!!

Need:
Drivers complete door seal
Passengers complete door seal
Rear door seal
Not sure if to order original pre cut ones or buy some that you cut yourself? Cheers

Also how do they fit? do they have a groove where they slide in or are they screwed/bolted into plate through some holes on the seal? Am not with the car at the moment so I can't check. I'd like to order some parts that will hopefully be here for the weekend also! TIA
 
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To be fair, the bottom door seals look OK. May just get away with redoing the top ones for now and then treating the bottoms
 
Well what can I say. Some work has finally begun. Long time coming but to get the ball rolling did all the bits I could do, as well as checked out what TO do next.

Got it started, attached a good battery. Took a few turns of the key, started, cut out (forgot to warm up the glow plugs), started again little rev and woosh it was running. Little cloud of smoke (sorry polar bears) then after about 2 mins smoke was gone and was more or less clean again. Bare in mind this was the first start in about 6 months
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I thought the best thing I could do today was give it a GOOD clean inside so it feels a bit more alive and not dying.

Biggest annoyance was the flakey paint coming off the inside of the roof. Got all of it off with a dustpan and brush. Very little effort. It looks lovely again inside, few bits wouldn't come off but the paint underneath looks fine and shiney! What possessed anyone to paint over it who knows.

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Took my Dad's homemade wooden floor out expecting to see RUST everywhere. However I was very pleasantly surprise. Even the crossmember supports were all intact. Just surface rust! (Verified by said hammer sitting in the corner!!) Chassis is perfect. I cannot, and believe me I was proactively TRYING to find rust so I knew what needed doing. Absolutely NONE! :p:p

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In the past it looks like it has been painted with what I am guessing is red oxide which is good, mostly of it is now peeling off though. So next time I am there I'm going to take all the crap off it and get it painted with lots of protection. Obviously treating the chassis first, will decide on specific products in due course.

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Can see where the new rear crossmember part of the chassis has been welded on. Glad to see my Dad made sure a professional done it, still holding on!

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Then I went onto giving the front interior a good old clean. Left the door cards on for now (they are only basically cardboard) would like to get some nice vinyl/leather ones from Exmoor Trim or something. Unless anyone has anything to sell! ;)

Also, note the bird crap on the steering wheel. Considering the doors are always left shut baffles me to how it got in there. Anywho, found the large blackbird laying dead in the back. Sorry fella!

Annoys me that someone painted the dash black, with such a lovely RAF blue underneath! I scraped off all the flaky bits but the rest is still holding on strong unfortunately. Any ideas on how to get just the black off?
Can see the blue under the seats and on the passengers side of the dash, sorry I didn't get a better picture.

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Only bit I am worried about is below, I think you can get a panel for this part but memory doesn't remember. I will have a check, if not I will have to make something up.

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Gave the engine bay a bit of a clean as well, best I could do! Assortment of birds nest and cobwebs. Also scraped all of rust from the passengers footwell, the rest is mostly good metal so should be able to repair that easily enough.

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Got some of the old paint off the passengers corner of the bulk head. Will get a new section ordered soon, but first I want to take off the front wing, bonnet and door for better access. Also to see if there is any more rust further down. Going to grind down the rust to see how bad it is, hoping I can get away with just that corner top of the bulkhead. If not, looks like it's going to be the whole corner.

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After all the cleaning work in the lovely Saturday weather we had, it started to rain so I couldn't do much more. Instead I decided to take it for a drive around the land, little bit of off roading (only going up and over a slight dirt pile) but it drives lovely. Obviously it is stupidly slow compared to what I'm used to. Not to mention it's an old 2.25 Land Rover diesel engine for Christ sake :D

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Happy.
 
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