Visiting Another Land Rover

Today I had the good fortune to visit Tim and his 1961 Series 2 Station Wagon, in Peterborough, Ontario. Only 8 months seperate the manufacturing dates of our respective vehicle, Tim's being made in April, 1961 and mine July, 1960.  Tim's has the original chassis, fully repaired and in great shape, and the bulkhead has had the footwells replaced. The tub has all the seats and trimmings. The engine and transmission have been replaced at some point, with those from a Series 2 109, according to the engine and transmission serial numbers. Tim's put a lot of work into this project, and it shows. The principle differences I noted initially between out two Landies were that Tim's has the lower steering control arms, plus it appears his came with a Smiths heater (mine has a Kodiak). It was interesting to note that we have both chosen the same replacement tires for our vehicles, although Tim's are 6.50 and mine 7.50. And of special interest to me is that Tim has a media blasting machine, and it may be possible to do my wheels in Tim's workshop!

Also worth mentioning is that Tim's also came with a snowplow...must be a Canadian thing. : )

It's impossible to write everything that's been done to bring this Land Rover in the seven years Tim has been working on it, but it's definately producing one nice example of the type.

On the left in the photo below is the frame for the rear door, with some locally-custom-made channel to replace the rusted areas.

Nice replacement wing outer panels over the new tires and re-furbished wheels.

Our interiors are fundamentally identical, but Tim's seat box has a hinged center panel (mine is just a bolt-down panel), plus a horn-push button on the steering wheel center (mine has it on a seperate arm). Mine also has a double-cranked shift lever, unlike Tim's.

Front Panel Stripped

My daughter being off school today gave me some extra time to work on the front panel, and so was able to strip the paint off plus give it a good sanding to try and remove as much of the surface rust as possible. It seems to have worked pretty well, but I think a coat of rust converter will be necessary to reach down into the bottom of all those remaining almost-microscopic corrosion pits. Interestingly, there appears to be some small repairs (spot-weld-sized brown spots in the photos) to the sheet metal around the central opening, that were under the factory paint. A little product prep before painting?

The front panel after washing. Next on the list is sand down the rear side where necessary.

Landy Birthday; Front Panel ('Breakfast') Initial Cleaning

Received the certificate from the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust today, which informs me that this Land Rover was originally completed on July 18, 1960, and was shipped out to the Rover Company of Toronto on July 20. Another birthday to celebrate next summer! :)

Started cleaning the front panel. The rear side is pretty good, easy to deliniate between good surface areas and bad (and where there is paint, it is like new), while the front is different. There clearly was some surface corrosion originally over which there was no Pastel Green paint left, which may have prompted the overlying gold repaint scheme. Where the was surface corrosion, the present paint layers chip off easily, revealing a lightly pocked steel surface. Where there was only minimal corrosion or wear, the black primer coat is still attached, but the gold and Pastel Green colour is gone. Where the corrosion/rust stopped, all paint adheres well. And then, there are areas where just the gold is not adhering (see centre-bottom of panel). Makes it hard to know what's doing what.

Here's a view of where the corrosion/rust stopped. All paint layers still adhere well. The black area is where there is just original factory primer. I'm not sure why the factory Pastel Green comes off but not the primer.  Incidentally, the rear side of the panel does not appear to have any black primer under the Pastel Green paint.

Finally, a view of the other side (front), where the Pastel Green is adhering well, but now it's the gold that's not adhering well.  Those tiny bumps under the gold paint of the curved grill-holder bracket are what surface rust looks like under paint, on this Land Rrver. All in all, I think this all calls for a complete stripping of the front side of the front panel, to make sure all surface rust is exposed and given a primer coat of rust converter. Would have been nice to have had the entire panel soda blasted (and then galvanized!), but that's not possible, and so I'll have to do it with stripper and elbow grease and hope that the primer and paint offer enough protection.

Radiator Cleaning

Only had time to do a flush and a bit of cleaning of the radiator today. Water flowed through at the same volume it was being pumped in, and so I assume there is not too much obstructing things in there. Will do another flush, and a better one, when the radiator is installed again and the engine is running. Copper cooling fins are in great shape. The paint came off very easily, just needing a gentle scraping, wire brush and a scouring pad, perhaps due to being oil covered for many years - except on the solder, where it adhered very well! Overall, the radiator is a very nice colour combination of metals: brass, steel and copper. Too bad it has to be painted!

Radiator; Front Panel; Axle Markings

Front panel and radiator came off easily enough, to reveal their inner surfaces for the first time. The front panel ("Breakfast") is in as good a shape as I had hoped, just some very superficial surface rust. This will be cleaned, sanded, and primed, ready for painting at a later date.

The radiator appears to be in good shape, too, although I'll try to flush it tomorrow and see what come out. The drain tap performed flawlessly, which was good news. If all is well, the radiator will be cleaned up, stripped and repainted.

With the front panel off, the front axle is now easier to see (and do an initial cleaning of). Revealed were the numbers 7828. I assume for now that it the axle serial number. Once the front panel and radiator are put away, it'll be time to take this apart and see how things are inside.

 Broad view of the area, showing the front panel mounting brackets (the middle one had a rubber 'shim'), steering relay, and engine front - note the small balance weight on the fan blade at right. At the very bottom it's just possible to see the remains of the snowplow mounts, which the previous owner had welded to the chassis and are thus difficult to remove at this stage. On the front of the crossmember is the steering damper bracket, which from its shape and welding technique I don't think is original to the vehicle. The rebuilt Land Rover will not have a steering damper, as it's not needed and most did not have one.



Chassis Painted; Lights; Horn

The chassis, having passed the paint test, is now horizontal and painted. It took four aerosol cans of Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black, and the result is a very nice semi-gloss black chasis. Just got it painted in the nick of time, I think, as the temperatures in the garage are now going to be too cold for further painting.



The headlight retainers, which were rusted (see previous post), were soaked overnight in Evapo-Rust, which does an excellent job of removing rust and leaving any remnants converted and black, following which were then given a coat of rust converter to seal them up, and after that a coat of zinc paint. The result is a finish almost indistinguishable from the originals (they were coated, too, although it looked more like anodizing or something similar)), and will have good rust and corrosion prevention.

The headlight bowls (not seen here) were placed in a shallow dish of  Evapo-Rust, which removed the slight rust on their rims. I then rubbed the rust converter into any corrosion holes in the paint, leaving the original paint untouched, and as the converter is black, have left things like that.

Finally, just a view of the horn after repainting. Thought it came out pretty well!

Headlights and "Breakfast" prep

While waiting for the chassis to be finished, it was time for the front panel, or "Breakfast" as some call it, to get some preparation prior to being removed and refinished. First out were the headlights. The bowls are in pretty good shape, the paint is still nice and shiny, but there are very small corrosion spots in many places, plus a hint of rust on the bottom rim. Will have to think of a way to correct and hide those spots without compromising the original paint, which I'd like to keep.

The front panel, in black and white as the photo came out so yellowy-orange is was distracting! Around the headlight openings the paint is the original pastel green. All the split rivets that hold down the bonnet cushion strip have been drilled out (brass, so pretty easy). The radiator itself appears to be in great shape, with what appears to be only the tiniest of leaks around the drain plug, hopefully fixeable with a new washer.

The bonnet latch cover plate has been cleaned and refinished, while the mechanism itself has been cleaned but will get a bath in a gentle rust remover to clean it thoroughly. The front panel, while having the original pastel green paint chipping off, has almost no rust at all, and that which there is, is very superficial.

All the headlight components in one shot. The chrome parts are in perfect shape, and cleaned up very nicely. The rubber seals can perhaps be used again. The retainers have rust at their very bottoms, and as such after cleaning they will most likely get a coat of rust converter and then a silver spray (perhaps a zinc-type paint). The headlight bulbs will be replaced, as one is burned out (at least, it din't work before, and I can hear something small rattling around inside), and it's probably better to start with two fresh new ones.

Note the shadow of the chassis on the right, which is now horizontal!