Author Topic: 112-678 1963 2a 88" GS (Read 6026 times)

korg20000bc · « **on:** August 15, 2012, 10:29:51 PM »

Here is the current project I'm working on.
My wife saw it on a property nearby before Christmas. The owner was happy to sell it to me after he'd seen my other restoration. And then my wife offered to get it for me for Christmas!
How it was when I first saw it:

I got a temporary permit to drive it home- about 20 KM. The previous owner has only driven it around his 2 acre block for the past 15 years and while everything work he was a little worried about me driving it. His main concern was the brakes. But everyone home in one piece, taking it nice and easy. I only needed to brake about 4 times and they pulled to the right but it was ok.
Had fun going around a left hand bend and the door flew open when there was an on-coming car.

The revs were high and the mixture was rich with plenty of black smoke. I fiddled with the Solex carby a bit and the idle eased nicely but I'll have to more study as I'm only basically familiar with the Zenith. The linkages were all covered with crud and a wipe made the revs at idle drop too.

There are free wheeling hubs fitted. The steering was considerably lighter than my 2a GS 109". I suspect this was the cause.

There is also a bit of a knock noise from the engine but it seems to come down the exhaust too. I don't know what to make of that.

All the typical Land Rover problem areas were in pretty good shape except the doors and door tops. But that's par for the course.

Oh, and the previous owner said its name was Clancy.

Getting it home:

korg20000bc · « **Reply #1 on:** August 15, 2012, 10:43:28 PM »

Some things that revealed themselves upon closer inspection:

Repair to the chassis. I suspect that there was a collision to the front left dumb iron. There may be some bending of the chassis.

The previous owner said he used another vehicle to replace damaged parts on this vehicle. He had damaged the left fuel tank and removed it. The seat box may be from a Command Recon, perhaps, as it has original deep bronze green covered by olive drab paint..?

Interesting sound proofing method- carpet sandwiched between two floor panels.

The only decent bit of rust I could find on the bulkhead besides a few smallish holes in the footwells.

Rear tub shows spare tire floor bracket, mount and pads to stop wear, plus jerrycan thingy.
The steel stiffener on the top of the bulkhead looks to have been punched forward. Maybe from a load in the rear when the collision occurred.

It had civilian spring shackles that I have now replaced with military ones. There seems to be some impact to the chassis bottoms where the springs have made contact.

I'd like to preserve this:

Looking a little more correct.

korg20000bc · « **Reply #2 on:** August 15, 2012, 11:02:43 PM »

I stripped it down to rolling chassis plus bulkhead.
I was using the pressure washer to clean the chassis down. A little more rust has reveal itself in the rear crossmember. And, when I squirted water down the inside of the chassis rails lots of scale - some quite chunky, came out the drain holes.

The rails seem very sound and I cannot find any weak spots from the outside.

What I think I'll do is to get Penetrol on as much of the inside as I can and then hope for the best.

Civilian front diff?