JACK DOBSON
Dobbo Dow n Under
THIS LAST month started innocently enough until I found myself browsing Facebook Marketplace. I am confident that many of us find ourselves doing this. I usually satisfy my curiosity with ebay or Gumtree but recently found that Facebook also has a for-sale section. I found myself looking at a 109 Series IIA fitted with a Holden six-cylinder. Ignoring the decay, it is almost a carbon copy of my other 109, Old Girl. What peaked my interest was the Aeroparts Capstan winch, straight bodywork and location – for a change this one was relatively local, at about three hours away. Noticing the advert had been up for a while I messaged the seller to see if it was still available. Of course it was. The next day I decided to take Grandma for a bit of drive. It was a good excuse to give her a decent run after all our dramas and what harm would it do checking out this other Land Rover?
A combination of poor directions and my seeming inadequacy to read a map meant that finding the Land Rover was to be the biggest challenge. It really was in the back of beyond and, with no mobile signal, a big effort.
When I finally got there I was directed towards a graveyard of decaying vehicles, various farm implements, outbuildings and a collection of mystery bones. There, nestled amongst it all was the rusty carcass of the 109. It did not take long for me to decide it was not worth pursuing for the advertised $1500. I was probably being overly fussy but really there was no great desire to take on yet another project that needed lots of work. The biggest concern was the bulkhead which had extremely rusty door pillars and footwells. I did not bother to inspect the chassis for fear of snakes. That evening I messaged the seller to say no thanks but a day later I am asked what would I be willing to pay? I decided to go in really low-ball and offered $500. Some wrangling followed and we settled on $600 which is £320. At that price I felt I could not really miss out.
It arrived the next day (delivery was included) and I was eternally grateful that my neighbours were out so could not witness it (they are already questioning my sanity with three Land Rovers in our household). There is no denying it, with the rusty radiator panel and missing door top it looks decidedly tired.
I was really in two minds over what to do with this purchase, break it for spares or restore it? The first thing I did was to
treat it to a thorough wash using a high-pressure hose – I really did not want to be bitten by anything lurking in there. I subsequently gave it a pretty thorough inspection and have found the chassis is in very good condition, only requiring a minor weld to the rear crossmember (okay there could be other horrors I have not yet seen). The condition of the bulkhead was consistent with my initial observations; it needed new footwells and door pillars but I think it is certainly salvageable. Bodywork is really good, one of the straightest 109s I have seen, and thankfully this Land Rover did not appear to have been robbed of any major bits. Now for the engine...
Not being able to resist a bit of a challenge, I decided to see if I could get it to run. The seller claimed it ‘ran when parked’ but what he could not tell me was when it was parked. Judging by the amount of decay I would hazard a guess that this Land Rover had been parked up for nearly ten years. Now, you often hear about people dragging various Land Rovers out of bushes, putting some fresh fuel in and away they go. Well, that has never happened to me! I set about rewiring the ignition, cleaning up the distributor and resetting the points gap. I found that there was a very weak spark so I swapped the coil for another one and it was looking quite promising. Next, I hooked up a new fuel line leading to a jerrycan and braced myself. I felt slightly anxious as I reached across to try the starter motor – would the engine burst into life or would I end up in a ball of fire? The engine reluctantly turned over as I sprayed liberal amounts of Start Ya Bastard ( yes that is the product name). I could see the fuel pump was filling with fuel by the fact it was leaking everywhere. A few more attempts and she was running. It was actually pretty smooth.
Okay so it’s too good to break. The plan is to cover the restoration on my Youtube channel, jackuar_land_rover.
I am not in a big rush to get this one completed, so I can take the time needed to hopefully produce some decent videos. The first job will be to strip the Land Rover right back, get the chassis and bulkhead repaired then rebuild with new parts as required. Simple hey?
Hopefully it will make for an interesting Youtube series and no doubt I will be sharing lots on my @jackuar_land_rover Instagram channel.
“The engine reluctantly turned over as I sprayed liberal amounts of Start Ya Bastard (yes that is the product name)”
When Brit Jack Dobson emigrated to Australia in 2010 he brought his passion for Land Rovers along with him.