Rising to the challenge
Afew weeks ago I was asked by British explorer, and fellow expat, Tim Jarvis ( you can find him on Instagram, @ timjarvisam) to find him a short wheel Series IIA Land Rover. He had seen mine and seemingly developed the Land Rover bug. Relishing the challenge I jumped online to check my usual haunts. We are pretty fortunate in Australia, there are lots of Series Land Rovers about and thankfully most of them (except my other project) do not suffer the same levels of rust that you find in the UK. After a couple of days searching, a tatty-looking Series IIA popped up on Facebook Marketplace. As with most car ads in Australia, the description was extremely brief with no details on the condition of the car but as it was local I decided it was worth checking out. A viewing was arranged for the next day and to my surprise it was easily coaxed into life. Not having time to run it by Tim I took the plunge and paid the asking price, knowing it would be snapped up if I did not make my move. I paid $2500 (£1400) which for a 1966 Series IIA with original 2.25 petrol engine and no rust is a pretty sweet deal.
The initial plan is to sort out the front wings which are both heavily battered and repaint the entire car plus all the other recommissioning work required to get it roadworthy ( brakes might be a good addition).
I shared the new arrival on my Instagram page and, as expected, ‘patina’ came up in many of the comments. According to some, I am not to fix the bodywork or consider repainting it. Now, I do largely get the patina thing – often when a vehicle is restored it loses its history and becomes yet another shiny restoration job of which, there are many. But where does it stop? With this vehicle, the front wings are extremely battered and have been fixed with rivets where they have torn. Is that patina I should be preserving?
When reversing our Defender the other day one of the wheel arches caught on the gatepost and it now has a small tear. Does that now fall under the definition of patina and will I be chastised for fixing it? I think there comes a point where a vehicle described as having patina is in fact a vehicle that would really benefit from a refresh. This applies to my other project Series IIA, originally it was mid-grey colour but the previous owner
took to it with a paint brush and painted it cream. Once again when I shared pictures up of it on Instagram I had lots of people insisting it would be sacrilege if I were to touch the bodywork. Different strokes (in this case, brush strokes), for different folks I guess.
So we now have five Land Rovers in our household and to be honest I do not know how I managed to get away with it! Perhaps my wife has just resigned herself to my Land Rover affliction. The intention is to get the new one sorted out as quickly as possible and sent it off to its new home within three months (Leah may be reading this). In parallel I am also working on my 109 project which is now stripped to a chassis and awaiting a new crossmember. I want to have that one finished by the end of the year. I certainly feel I have a huge amount of work to do, especially when you factor in the needs of the other vehicles.
In the last two weeks Old Girl and Grandma had to have their annual roadworthy inspections. Thankfully the testing is not as vigorous as the MOT but it still causes me a great deal of anxiety when they start looking at oil leaks and brakes. In this instance I am delighted to say that both performed very well! Old Girl initially failed on excessive oil leaks but that was quickly addressed with the aid of degreaser ( yes I appreciate that does not solve the underlying issue). Grandma sailed through with just one advisory: a leaking front swivel housing, I will consider that a win!
The feeling of elation was shortlived when I found myself having to pay the next year’s vehicle registration fees. No tax-exempt status here, although there is the option to register your vehicle as historic, which means much lower annual fees. The reason I have not chosen to do that is because you can only use the vehicles 60 times a year – and I use all of mine much more frequently than that.
Next week I am off to the UK. I think I shall take an empty suitcase so I can fill it up with Land Rover parts to bring back with me. I am planning to visit Bearmach and Exmoor Trim, both having been extremely supportive over the years, so it is going to be fantastic to finally meet everyone. I am also going to be visiting Jaguar Land Rover for something that sounds incredibly exciting. More details on that next month.
“I largely get the patina thing – often when a vehicle is restored it loses its history and becomes another shiny resto job. But where does it stop? ”