Our perfect wedding car
James Boston was determined to get married in the same Series I in which his mother and father did back in 1973. But he would have to restore it first…
James Boston was determined to get married in the same SI that his parents did, but he would have to restore it first
WHEN DEDICATED Land Rover enthusiasts James and Sam Boston decided to get married, it was inevitable there would be a green oval theme to the proceedings. After all, they had fallen in love during an off-road trial and had shared their lives with Solihull’s finest ever since.
It was also a family tradition. James’ parents, Jonathan and Vivien, were married in September 1973 at Horsham St Faith, Norwich, and they drove from the church in a Series I 107 pick-up.
“The Series I was Dad’s pride and joy,” says James, 42. “He was a vicar and Mum had been a member of the congregation. They fell in love and got married and, of course, the Series I was their wedding car. It was part of the family and, when I arrived a few years later, we went everywhere in it. As a small boy I used to drive it around the garden.
“But as the years went by it started to get a bit tatty. Dad bought himself another Land Rover and, when I was 14 he gave the 107 to me. It needed a lot of work, but I had plenty of time to get it back on the road for when I was 17 and old enough to drive. I taught myself to weld and put a hard top on it. It was ready by the time I passed my test, in late 1993.
“I did everything in it, from driving to college in the week to trialling off-road at weekends. It wasn’t the most comfortable car, but it was mine and I loved it. It was an everyday car for about six years, but then I bought a 1971 Range Rover and, in 2000, a 1996 Defender 90 300Tdi. By this time the 107 was a bit tired, but there was no way I’d have ever considered getting rid of it. I pledged that one day I’d give it a proper restoration, but by then I was working as a full-time Land Rover mechanic and I was too busy fixing other people’s Land Rovers.
“I was living with my dad at the time. I’d get the 107 out of the shed for an occasional run off-road, but I didn’t bother to get it Mot’d because for the very few miles I drove in it, it wouldn’t be worth insuring. I was young then and insurance was very expensive.
“Also, it needed a new chassis. The chassis had been patched up so many times – there were more patches than original metal. In the early 2000s I decided to put it on a new chassis, but when I contacted Richards Chassis they told me they were no longer building 107 chassis, so my plans were put on the back burner.”
Sadly, James’ mother died of cancer in 2000. It was around this time that James first met Sam.
“We have known each other since we were teenagers,” recalls Sam, now 40. “Like James, I was born into a Land Rover family. My dad owned a Series I, that he let me drive around the fields when I was about nine. I’d meet James at club trials at weekends and we got on, but he was far too shy to ever ask me out and I ended up marrying somebody else.
“We eventually got together by accident – quiet literally. It was in 2012 at an off-road event at Glaven, near Holt, in north Norfolk. James let me drive his trialler and as I drove it up a steep hill I got the line slightly wrong. That’s all I can remember until I regained consciousness at the bottom of the hill, my head pouring with blood.
“The trialler had rolled back down the hill and I was badly concussed. My head had hit a rock and I ended up going to hospital to have it glued back together.
“But James really impressed me. Although I had wrecked ‘Roger’, his beloved trialler, he was more concerned about me. After that we got closer and eventually we became an item.”
The couple decided to get married and set a date: July 22, 2017. They wanted a Land Rover theme, which was easy to achieve as most of their family and friends also drove Land Rovers, but James decided that one particular Land Rover would have to be at the centre of things.
“As Mum couldn’t be at my wedding I was determined that the 107 she and my father had got married in would be our wedding car too,” says James. “I knew it would take a lot of work, but I hadn’t realised just how much work.
“The plan was to put new brakes on, tidy the body, patch the chassis and give it a respray. It sounded pretty straightforward. First, I took the roof off. The wings were beaten up, so I took them off, too. Then I noticed the top rail of the bulkhead needed replacing. I’d patched up the footwells when I was a teenager, but my standard of welding had improved by now, so I decided to put new ones in.
“When I took the passenger seat out, I could see just how bad the chassis was. There was a huge hole there and the inside looked just as bad, so I ended up taking out the gearbox and removing the whole body. Eventually, all that was left in the chassis was the engine, so I took that out as well.
“I put the chassis on its side so that I could get to the underside as easily as the top. There was more new metal than old by the time I’d finished, including a patch four feet long towards the rear. It was a big job, but I was determined to do it thoroughly so that this 60-year-old vehicle would be good for another six decades.
“The trickiest bit was rebuilding the dumb irons, as it was so fiddly. But I got there in the end and I was pleased with the outcome. Typically, by the time I’d finished, I found out that Richards Chassis were now making 107 chassis again!
“I also repaired the bulkhead, fitted new footwells, top rail and door pillars. But there was still a lot of work left to do and I was starting to worry about whether I’d get it finished in time,” he admits.
Sam, too, was having her doubts. “James had promised me it would be our wedding car, but to be honest I was wondering whether all the stress was worth it,” she says. “He was working on the car every evening and weekends at his father’s and I hardly saw him. I ended up organising all the rest of the wedding myself, but I didn’t mind because I knew
how important that Series I was to him.”
Meanwhile, James got on with the work in hand. He refurbished the brakes and steering, but kept the original leaf springs. Luckily the 2.25-litre ex-series III three-bearing engine and gearbox didn’t need any work, but the bodywork certainly did. James got a friend who was a whizz at the tricky art of aluminium welding to repair most of the panels, although unfortunately one wing had to be replaced because it was beyond salvation.
On June 17 he began spraying the panels, using a gazebo in his father’s garden as makeshift spray booth. He painted it Dove Grey – its original colour. “It had been a few colours over the years,” recalls James. “I remember Dad having some special military green paint made up, which he brushed on. The trouble was there had only been enough to cover half the Land Rover.”
Now the pressure was really on. On June 30, three weeks before the big day, James fitted the cab. On July 8, just a fortnight before the wedding, he started rewiring. James had planned to buy a new wiring loom, but he discovered there was a waiting time of around six to eight weeks, so that was out of the question. Luckily the wiring on a Series I is relatively simple and he was able to modify a secondhand Range Rover Classic loom.
“Now I was really getting stressed,” admits James. “Sam told me I spent so much time with my Land Rover I might as well sleep there, but I was more determined than ever.”
On July 15 – exactly one week before the wedding – James put the body tub back on. That left just six days to apply the finishing touches, which included fitting the refurbished seats. Incredibly, they arrived on the eve of the wedding – July 21. But that evening, as he tightened up the last bolt, James knew he’d done it.
The wedding was a joyous
affair, with James’ dad coming out of retirement to officiate at the ceremony in Beeston Church. James drove to the wedding in the 107, while the four bridesmaids arrived in a 101 Forward Control, driven by his best man, Dave Orford. Meanwhile, Sam drove Green Pea, her 1966 Series IIA. In the passenger seat was her 12-year-old son, Jake, who was giving her away.
“Jake kept telling me to slow down,” says Sam. “I was driving too fast because I was nervous. To calm my nerves that morning I got out a tin of touch-up paint to get Green Pea looking perfect.”
The reception was held in a marquee on a friend’s paddock, with 13 assorted Land Rovers lined up outside, including a 1949 80-inch Series I, two Forward Controls and an early three-door Range Rover. Even the wedding cake had a Land Rover theme.
James holds down two jobs – as a Land Rover mechanic and a brewer at a local mini-brewery. To mark the occasion, the brewery produced a special beer called Worth The Wait – very appropriate, in the circumstances!
The newlyweds spent their honeymoon on the west coast of Scotland, driving the North Coast 500 route in James’ Defender 90. “We came back via the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales,” says James “It was mostly good weather, but we did get a little rain most days, which is what you expect in that part of the world.”
Their cosy home in Beeston, Norfolk, is a shrine to all things Land Rover, with a front room display cabinet groaning under the weight of off-road trophies they have picked up over the years. Outside, the garden boasts a fine crop of Land Rovers. Their fleet of eight also includes a 1958 88-inch Series I, two hybrid triallers, a 1976 101 Forward Control and a Discovery 3.
Sam worked in the insurance industry for over 20 years but has recently quit her job at Arriva to set up her own business – Boston’s Travelling Tea Party in which she will use the Disco 3 to tow a specially-converted horse trailer to parties, weddings, birthdays and other events. “I love baking cakes and people seem to love eating them, so it’s a perfect fit,” she laughs.
It’s also the perfect ending to this happy couple’s story.