One man’s mission to restore a special Tickford Land Rover
Retired surgeon John Lennox had always coveted the Tickford Land Rover, and in 2010 found one of the three right-hand-drive examples. But he hadn’t bargained for an eight-year DIY restoration. Scalpel...
Initially, it looked to be in good condition but it turned into a major rebuild,’ says John Lennox of his 1949 Land Rover Series I, one of only 641 shooting brake variants bodied by Tickford between 1948 and 1952. ‘There had been extensive use of body filler prior to the last repaint and the paint was cracking in a very large, crazy-paving pattern. The window-winding mechanisms didn’t work. The quarter lights were inoperative, corroded and sealed closed with mastic sealant. The door handles weren’t the originals and the rear window handles were missing. The brakes weren’t working and the roof lining had been replaced by cloth.’ John first drove a Land Rover in 1959 while working as a farm labourer. ‘I was taking a year out from university where I was training as an electrical engineer.’ Perhaps inspired by the farm’s owner, a consultant surgeon, John returned to university and in due course became a surgeon himself. Land Rovers have always been in his life, and he’d always wanted a Tickford.
‘After WWII, Tickford wanted to make something other than utilities, so it came up with the concept of a more civilised Landrover, much like the Range Rover in concept, but more than 30 years earlier,’ says John. ‘It built an initial batch of 50, and this is an early second-batch car. Most of the 641 built were left-hand drive and ended up on United Nations service in Africa – the UK was operating an export-orientated economy at the time as part of the postwar rebuilding effort – but three Tickford Land Rovers were finished in right-hand drive for the UK market. Mine is the first.’
The Tickford would’ve left the factory in 1949 with a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine but, like many Series Is, a later 2.0-litre version of 1956 vintage had been fitted before John acquired it in 2010. To make the later starter motor fit, both the floor and transmission tunnel had to be cut. ‘However, the original gearbox with freewheel, front shaft drive was retained as was the original radiator stamped “1948”. The bulkhead and the footwells had undergone numerous repairs and the timber of the A-pillars was rotten in places.’
The Tickford had suffered a shunt on the driver’s side at some point; the timber repairs behind the driver’s seat didn’t use the correct, original-spec mahogany. ‘The original Tickfords used a type of mahogany called Iroko, chosen for its resistance to rot and, importantly given the markets it was being exported to, termites.
‘The chassis was one of the few good points. It was original and, after 60 years, there were only a few rust holes in the outrigger that supports the bulkhead on the driver’s side. But it otherwise appeared sound – no signs of repairs or welding to it.’
The stripdown begins
Taking a coachbuilt Tickford Land Rover apart is far more daunting than simply disassembling a standard 80in. ‘For starters, there’s no real bodywork on a standard S1 Land Rover – they’re largely canvas,’ says John. ‘A Tickford, again like a Range Rover, has a solid body and a one-piece windscreen. Another aim of the Tickford body was to create more room within the vehicle, so it’s three inches wider and longer than a standard 80in Land Rover.’
Despite the huge list of issues, it looked in decent shape before work began, at least from a few yards away. John relied on his steadfast vision of what this particular patient could be and made the first cut. ‘I’ve always been useful with my hands. I had a fascination with electronics as a kid, made my own television set, have rewired several houses, got involved with a preservation steam railway, and after retiring I requalified as an electrical engineer.
‘I began by undoing everything that was screwed or bolted, and then cut through the A-pillars at their tops, where the steel cladding of the posts joins the aluminium of the roof.’
Once John had stripped the chassis bare, he sent it for shotblasting at Heritage Classics of Middlesborough, whose premises are just up the road from his workshop. This revealed a few more rust holes in the other bulkhead outrigger, and in the top of the chassis beneath the wood strips that gives a flat-floor surface for the rear passenger area; new metal was let in. ‘I shaped it myself, taking a second plate, bending it into shape, cutting out the bad metal with an angle grinder and welding the new sections in,’ says John. ‘Originally, they feature two U-shaped plates clamped together, welded along the seams. I had to reproduce this carefully so it didn’t just look like a patch.’
In with the new
Rather than patch up the original, chopped-about bulkhead, John came across a suitable standard replacement from his vast collection of spares, having previously restored an S1 Land Rover for his son. After transferring the various unique Tickford fittings – the A-posts with their top and bottom welded brackets, and the proper brass hinges with no sideways adjustment, bolted through to steel plate with rounded corners – he sent it off with the chassis to Leeds Galvanising to be zinc coated. While they were away, he overhauled the axles, brakes and leaf springs. The drums were fine but he had to fit new shoes. The front hubs only needed oil seals and swivel bearings, all thankfully easily-obtained S1 parts. John stripped and checked the front axle Tracta joints – they were good. The original, cast iron brake-wheel cylinders just needed cleaning and new seals from Past Parts, but the master cylinder required a stainless-steel sleeve and seals.
‘I had experience of the same issue on my son’s S1’ says John. ‘When left standing the seals corrode in the cylinder bore, and you can get stainless steel replacement sleeves. When the new one is fitted, then drawn out slightly and pressed in to fit, the original piston can be used. Technically they’re no longer available from Land Rover, but early S2s use the same model of master cylinder. It’s a case of asking the right questions.’
John installed a brake pipe kit from Automec in place of the corroded old pipes. The differentials needed new pinion bearings and he adjusted the backlash to remove any clunks; they were otherwise in good condition. ‘There was a problem on the rear differential, probably with a bearing that had disintegrated and been replaced, but with a lot of play. Brownlee Bearings in Gateshead found me a replacement. Then, the secondary cone bearing needed adjusting for tightness, but there was still backlash between that and the crown bearing. On either side, there are thin threaded collars. Move one a quarter-turn in, the other a quarterturn out, and you can move it all left or right until it fits right.’
Bump in the road
For such a seemingly simple component, it’s surprising how often Series Land Rover owners struggle to find new springs of the precise specification for their vehicles. This is never more so than when it comes to 80in Tickfords. Firstly, they’re narrower than the later models and secondly, the rears are 11-leaf units, not the ten of a standard 80in.
John’s Tickford needed new rear springs; a leaf in each one had broken. Despite taking the original 11-leaf springs to the foundry – and pointing out that he had a very heavy Tickford, not an unladen standard 80in – he was still sold ten-leaf units. The foundry insisted that although they didn’t have the extra leaf, the springs would be
Low point
‘Fabrication costs kept rising. I had to take the car back from the firm doing the stripdown because it would’ve ended up costing £15-20k rather than £4k’ John Lennox
correct. By the time the body had been rebuilt onto the chassis, five years later, it was clear that John had been rightly dubious; it sat far too low. ‘I had to get a new set of 11-leaf, biased springs made up so the vehicle looked right, and not tired or overloaded.’
The right engine
Finding a complete 1600 engine in any condition is next to impossible, let alone one in full working order. John put an appeal out on the invaluable resource that is the LRSOC (Land Rover Series One Club) forum. Four potential candidates emerged; John settled for one in Essex. ‘It had been resting on the floor of a shed for several years, but I was down in Kent at the time so stopped off and bought it for £700 on my way back.’
He pulled the 1.6-litre engine apart and found the crankshaft was badly worn, but undersize bearing shells of the appropriate size weren’t available for it. ‘The pistons were seized in place and the sump filter was breaking up. The cams and rockers weren’t badly worn, but the sump had clearly hit the ground a few times.’
Ever resourceful, John retrieved the crankshaft from a 2.0-litre engine he had stashed in his attic as part of the previous owner’s collection that came with the car. ‘The 1.6 and 2.0 crankshafts are hard to differentiate, and are interchangeable,’ says John. He got Cleasby’s Precision Engineering to rebore the cylinders to 0.020in oversize together with new oversize pistons, and to regrind the crankshaft to 0.040in undersize on both main and big-end bearings with shells to match.
John beat-out the dented sump – with a combination of heat, hammer and anvil – and welded up the crack. He reassembled the engine, fitted a replica bypass oil filter, a rebuilt Solex 32PBI carburettor from Carburettor Exchange in Leighton Buzzard, fiddled with the distributor, bolted-on an original ‘bomb’-style starter motor – so-called for its resemblance to a grenade – and splashed out on a new water pump. Eventually, with all this work, the engine ran well. ‘It felt like a breakthrough – it always does,’ says John. ‘Once you’ve got a working engine in a chassis and you can sit in it and rev it, you know you’re on the home straight.’
After stripping the gearbox and free-wheeling transfer box, John found nothing that new seals and oil couldn’t fix, ‘It’s not hard, I’ve done it so many times before!’ After two years of work, with six more ahead of him, John had two Series I rolling chassis – he was rebuilding an 80in from 1952 alongside his Tickford.
Body hangups
John had invaluable support from a great bunch of friends, including Sandy Lowther, an excellent carpenter, Caterpillar expert Paul Walton and welder and fitter Andrew Scarr – all fellow members of the NERO (North East Rover Owners) club. Tanfield Railway’s Brian High worked miracles with sheet metal.
A Tickford bodyshell is a highly complex construction, making restoration a huge challenge that’s certainly not for the fainthearted. The A-pillars are made up from a piece of mahogany shaped to fit down the outside of the square bulkhead door post to make the vehicle 1.5 inches wider on each side.
Sandy Lowther made two extra pieces to give the correct ‘knee’ angle to frame the windscreen and angle the windscreen to the bulkhead. ‘I bought two blocks of Iroko from Duncan’s in Gateshead,’ says John. ‘Sandy cut away the rotten wood but used it to create a pattern, and used his saw and planing machine to reshape the new Iroko to fit.’ This angle is derived from the matching angle on the leading edge of the doors, and from the original timber. The header rail is steel; John had that shotblasted and painted. The panel beneath the windscreen was in good order and was retained for use, although the channel above it was renewed. John re-joined the posts and roof frame with ¾in dowels and epoxy resin glue, replicating the original construction. On the doors, the rear upright struts were warped, so Sandy had to make new ones. The undamaged door skins were retained.
The window-winding mechanism was more of a challenge, with the steel frames of the quarter lights corroded and the lights fixed closed with gasket sealant. ‘I took them apart, made new steel frames out of 10mm steel U-channel and freed the whole mechanism to make it operational again.’
The missing original external door handles were the same as those found on the same-era Rover P3 saloon. ‘My son Paul gave me a set he’d found on ebay as a Christmas present!’ says John. ‘I re-barrelled both the ignition switch and the doors to take one standard key.’
In the original version, the timber A-pillars had then been clad with 0.020in steel sheet and painted. This had rotten through and had to be discarded. ‘Profiles of the various scuttle panel sections that I needed shaping were cut out of ⅛in plate and Brian High carefully bent new shapes out of 0.020in galvanised plate with his industrial ventilation-pipe presses, which I then cut to length and welded into place,’ explains John. Part of the scuttle needed refabricating. ‘This is a flat panel, so it’s easy enough to make, but it needs to sit at its correct five-degree angle, and the wiper holes need cutting in the right place,’ says John.
The vinyl interior upholstery was in fine condition, as was the aluminium rear lower door, apart from the locking mechanism, which had been partly stripped. John was able to remove the lower tailgate inner panel; and by reverse-engineering the remaining catch parts, he created a working mechanism. The upper tailgate was fine, but door seals still remain to be sourced and fitted. ‘I now had a complete rolling chassis and a sound, woodenframed, aluminium-clad body awaiting final preparation and painting.’
A final dilemma
John and co decided that to achieve the best-possible finish, the Tickford needed some professional input, so KSM 312 was loaded onto a transporter and taken to a workshop in Middlesbrough.
As work began, there was a big, unexpected problem – namely the amount of filler that John had to remove with a pressure-washer, and the moonscape appearance left behind. ‘A Middlesborough firm then attacked it for me, but said it would have to take the sides off, and that they weren’t worth recovering. Eventually I agreed to new side and door panels being fabricated – they’d hammered out replacements – but by now the cost had risen from an estimated £4000 to about £9000 and, although I can’t fault the work done, I decided to call a halt and to recover the vehicle. Left with them, it would’ve ended up costing £15k-£20k.’
‘I finished off the wiring and installed direction indicators, polished out all the scratches in the window glass, then sent it to NERO member Karl Brandy for the final painting in deliberately unshiny two-pack to replicate the original Land Rover finish.
‘Since the initial restoration was completed, I haven’t done much to it. I’m still hunting for door seals, and I sourced an original-style rocker cover for the engine. It was cracked, but it was just a case of welding, painting, polishing and fitting it.
‘It’s done more than 700 road miles in my hands now; and apart from a defective thermostat and a blown cylinder head gasket, it has performed well. I’ll never sell it – for me, it’s the perfect Series 1 Land Rover, as well as an important piece of history. Without the Tickford, there may have been no Range Rover. It’s important to preserve that.’
High point
‘One you have a working engine in a rolling chassis and can sit in it and rev it, even if it doesn’t drive yet, you know you’re on the home straight’ John Lennox