1968 Land Rover Series 2A in Nato Military Matt Green
2286cc petrol engine from a "Military Lightweight" (aka "1/2 Ton" or  "Air Portable")

I love fishing and in my semi-retirement I go as often as I can. But, as any angler will tell you, some of the access routes to lakes and rivers are nothing more than untendered pathways with huge great potholes and overhanging branches – not the ideal terrain for my 18 month old shiny black low-slung Mercedes. So I started to look around for an old van to use for my fishing trips instead. We already have the Merc and another car so the prospect of yet more road tax wasn’t exactly appealing.  Trying to find a pre-1972, and therefore tax-exempt, van was impossible…they’d all been run into the ground.  And then it happened, that “Eureka” moment.. “I’ll get an old Land Rover, I don’t care what it looks like and I won’t do it up – just use it as it is”.  There was several on Ebay but, not knowing any better, I considered them to be exorbitant and most looked wrecks.  Finally I saw one with the bidding at £500 and 3 days to go.  I emailed the guy and after a bit of discussion we agreed on £900 and he ended the sale early.  I now owned a 1968 petrol driven Series 2, or is it a 2a, in Nato Green. It suddenly occurred to me that I knew nothing about this strange breed of vehicle – but having done just about every job you can think of over the years, either under, over or in old motors I thought I’d just “wing it”. After all – how complicated can it be ?

Sunday morning came and brother-in-law Bob and I set off on the 100 mile journey to pick it up.  It was just what I wanted – a rough and tumble, slightly dented wagon ideal for bouncing down the lanes with all my gear in the back.  We set off on the 100 miles back to home. This was my introduction to old Land Rovers !!   It thudded over every bump – had they forgotten to put in the suspension ?  At 50 mph it was as noisy as hell and could certainly have done with another gear on top or an overdrive – the latter being an option I later found out could be had.  But it ploughed on and got me home in one piece albeit shaken and stirred.

This is when the problems started – the wife christened it “Lucy” as in Lucy the Land Rover. Not exactly the macho image I was seeking …”Fishermans Friend” seemed more appropriate but never mind.  I’d taken the precaution of putting down some tarpaulin on the drive in case it leaked.  In case it leaked ? It leaks more than worst government enquiry board . It comes out of the gearbox, out of the transfer box and out of the steering box.  Engine, axles and radiator are good though so that’s encouraging. The lights were another issue and I soon found out why. New, later, wings had been fitted and the headlights moved from the centre of the truck to the new wings – the original holes having been very neatly blanked off. Because the wiring hadn’t been long enough for the move someone had actually just twisted wires together and put bits of tape over the “joins”. The wiring fell apart in my hands and need totally replacing   Not exactly standard wiring colours, close enough, but then remember I’m not going to do this up am I ?– At teh same time I also replaced the headlamp cones and fittings..

The dashboard annoyed me – all the switches were odd, no indication what they did and most were “flakey”. So I stripped the dash, sprayed it black ( it had been greenish), re-wired it and put in new switches and legends – again, only to make it usable - Yeah right. 

The wing tops were a mess of holes where bits had been removed so I cleaned off the inside, filled the holes and then riveted on new Wing top Protectors to smarten it up.  But of course now the front looked shabby. So back to Ebay for some headlight surrounds which I primed and sprayed matt black. While I’m at it I may as well tart up the front grille, off it came, wire brushed and sprayed matt black. Hmmm – “don’t like those modern reflective number plates so forty quid lighter I was fitting black and silver plates from Framptons.  To top it off I blasted the Land Rover badge from the front grille, primed it, sprayed it black and then meticulously picked out the lettering to leave the aluminium backing. 

I’ve only had “Lucy” for less than a fortnight ( mid August) and everything I’ve done so far has been  cosmetic and there’s me saying I wouldn’t do any of this.  The wife thinks I’ve deserted her as in between fishing and the odd bit of work I’ve spent hour after hour either under Lucy’s bonnet sorting the wiring or up the shed cleaning and spraying. I haven’t properly tackled the leaks yet as I’ve put in plenty of Stop-A-Leak to soften up the seals in the vain hope it might stop Lucy dropping all over the tarpaulin. I’ll give it the statuary 14 days to work but I suspect it won’t and I’ll be doing the necessaries in due course.

I used it yesterday for the first time on a fishing trip – just 20 miles away. It was great …I could just throw everything in the back, exactly what I’d envisaged. It looked right parked next to the river and it brought it home to me when another angler arrived in his newish estate car and complained about other angler’s inconsiderate parking in case his car got scratched in the tight confines of the parking area.  I just shrugged, locked Lucy up and, saying “ you should get yourself an old Land Rover”, I walked off with a big smirk on my face.

We went to a classic car meet over the weekend  – not in Lucy I might add but in my 1950 Chrysler. There I met a guy there with a Series 2a. He was smorgasbord of information and he set me straight on a number of things. He reckons they all leak and they all whine. He showed me how to fill the gearbox without getting oil running down your elbows. He pointed me to a local company in Hatfield who can supply just about anything I need.  So I’m just off now to pick up some window channels and front vent rubbers, bit of carpet for the back and half a dozen other non-essential bits – did I mention that I’m not going to do this Land Rover up, just use it as it is ?

Addendum (28October2011)
Since writing the above I've also fitted spots on the roof- to help down the dark lanes, adjusted the front spring hangers so the front bumper now sits straight, fitted a new Water Pump and Temperature Sender, thrown out the back seats and pop-riveted in two pieces of 4mm thick aluminium checker-plate which makes loads more room for my fishing gear. I've stripped the inside of the roof and sprayed it in Aluminium silver and made an overhead rack to store a couple of spare fishing rods and my fishing umbrella. Next I replaced the rubber seals around the front opening vents and that's stopped a lot of rain coming in. The front hubs have been filled with CV Grease instead of oil and that's stopped the leaks. It's now sporting four very chunky tyres ( 8mm tread ) which I bought for £25 each from a guy in Reading. I've put in the triangular brackets for the upper seat belt mounting so I'm now looking for a pair of 3 point seatbelts.  Although not shown in the photos above it's also got grills over the front lights and a valance (apron) from the front bumper to the radiator grill. And the icing on the cake ... today it passed its M.O.T.  Now if I can just stop the damn gearbox from leaking oil ........!

AS ALWAYS - MY THANKS TO MY GOOD FRIENDS AT BOB HARMAN PERFORMANCE FOR ALL THEIR HARD WORK, FRIENDSHIP AND TEA
BOB HARMAN PERFORMANCE LTD - 01923 262700    www.bobharman.com   mail@bobharman.com