ANOTHER PROJECT

Steve gets stuck into his Series III restoration

ell, it’s time to start the laborious task of finding out whether I’ve bought a lemon or not. You may recall last month I picked up another project, a Series III Lightweight. After driving round to the man my children affectionately call Farmer David, we found a spare corner in his yard and we set about investigating what needed doing to get it back on the road after nine years.

My mate Pete was on hand to provide both moral support and his excellent mechanical know-how, so we set about preparing to get the 2.25 petrol engine fired up. I already had a brand new set of points, condenser and a distributor cap so we changed those over before even attempting the start-up.

There was a little drop of fuel left in one of the fuel tanks but I drained that out as it smelt very stale. With a couple of gallons of fresh petrol added, and a battery borrowed from one of Farmer David’s tractor, it was the moment of truth. Of course, the engine fired up with no problem, and believe it or not, settled into a sewing-machine-like tick over. Just beautiful!

We ran the engine for a couple of minutes before I attempted to stick it in gear, but it wouldn’t go in. The clutch was seized, so we switched off the engine, stuck it back in gear and gave it a tug with a rope attached to the rear of Pete’s

WRange Rover. With the Range Rover dragging the Lightweight, there was a thud from the gearbox as the clutch plate freed up. Pete disconnected the tow rope; I restarted the Lightweight, selected first gear and was soon off, driving it up the track and selecting all of the gears perfectly well.

One thing I hadn’t checked was the brakes. I didn’t have any – the pedal was solid – 15mph had never felt so fast!

Satisfied that all was well with the engine and gearbox, the lights all worked, horn and even the heater, you could be fooled into thinking it was MOT ready. It was time to look over the chassis again.

Underneath, things didn’t look too good. There was lots of surface rust and I spent the afternoon with a large screwdriver and a scraper inspecting every inch. The rear cross member was beyond repair and the rear quarter chassis was looking thin, with many holes appearing with each prod of the screwdriver.

Believe it or not, I find knocking holes into my own Land Rovers quite enjoyable. I probably need to seek help!

Fortunately, we’re dealing with Land Rovers here so there aren’t many parts you can’t find amongst the advertisers within LRM. Most chassis parts are readily available. The total evaluation was that I needed one bulkhead outrigger, and to keep things neat, a half chassis repair section. I started on the removal of exhaust, fuel tanks, rear tub bolts (all nicely seized) and the wiring etc., determined not to go too far and ending up with a full-on restoration again. At least the weather’s getting better…