I didn't have this posted in the old REMLR, but have decided to post it here because I know some would like to see it. It is the diary I posted to Facebook as we were working on the rebuild. Not having mechanical knowhow, we had to get a fair bit of work done by others but we had a fair bit of involvement in the whole process
Castrol, named for the copious amounts of oil he drops on the driveway, is a 1964 Series 2a ex- Australian Military Land Rover.
The Aussie ex-mils are noteable for their cut guards and 2 inch lift (extended spring hangers) and on some, such as Castrol, a removeable gearbox chassis cross member to make gearbox access & removal easier.
Many of the Aussie Military Land Rovers served in Vietnam, but Castrol never made it off Australian shores. After his military life ended he was sold for $2500 to the RAAF, and was used on their base at Fairburn, Canberra. After that he had a number of different owners before coming into my hands in 2007.
When purchased he had been sat on the side of the road for 3 years. He had a blown head gasket and no brakes, so these were the first things rectified. The head came off, was machined and hardened valve seats fitted. The brake and clutch master & slave cylinders replaced, brake shoes, drums, cylinders and lines replaced. His canvas canopy was rotten, but included in his purchase was a brand new one. He was blowing oil out of the oil filler, which turned out to be due to a leaking gasket and the fact that he had no backflow baffle behind the filler....that was an easy fix.
He has always blown clouds of black smoke, which we had hoped was due to the fact that the carby needed an overhaul, so this was done this week. BUT...it also turns out the head gasket was blown and the extractors were leaking at the block due to poor fitting, so these problems have been rectified, and he no longer blows smoke....and once again has some power.
3rd September 2010Soooooo........a sudden impulse to lose coolant has brought the bad news that Castrol has a cracked block. Cracked all the way through from front to back along where the welch plugs sit. So he's off the road until further notice and while I decide whether to spend the money on fixing him.
5th September 2010I've sourced a block (many thanks zulu delta 534)....just need to pick it up and take it up to the mechanic. Of course, I have no idea if it has been rebored, or if it has any damage or scoring until the pistons etc come out. No idea how much of Castrol's bits will go back on and how much will need replacing etc etc. Don't think I'll get out of it cheaply tho
3rd January 20112011 and Castrol is booked in at the local landy mechanics for a heart transplant soon...so today we started stripping down the donor block. Some of the components will not be needed, so we are stripping it back to the bare block and cleaning everything up, so that the things needed can be used and the rest put away as "just in case" spares.
Part of the reason for stripping the block down is that we need to transport it to the mechanic....stripped down, we should be able to lift it into the RRC without too much trouble. It was a hell of a job getting it in there to bring it home.
4 people, lots of ingenuity and 20kg of kitty litter required
I've ordered a new wiring loom (Aus mil spec) so that will go in while the motor is out.
Then all that is needed are:
Changing ignition back to push start, & installation of immobiliser of some sort
Putting the correct blinkers/parkers on, plus blackout lights & nato plug socket.
Getting the dash back to original configuration
Repairing the filler necks of both fuel tanks
Replacing the rear crossmember
2 new second hand doors
A complete repaint
By 4pm the block is fully stripped
Tomorrow's job is to clean everything up and pack it up to take up to the mechanic.
At least we can lift the block easily now it is stripped back
16th January 2011We cleaned up a couple of things for Castrol today......
Part of the battery/oil bath cleaner holder ( I only have the top half, going to have to get the base made) and the oil bath filter itself, and the horn for the top of the carby.
It's all had one coat of black paint
27th January 2011and that air cleaner painted nice gloss black
and poor Castrol, half apart
2nd February 2011New wiring loom arrived at the post office yesterday
The mechanic was impressed with it when we took it up to him
The block is away getting a rebore. The plan is, once the motor is out, the engine bay and front chassis gets a high pressure clean and we get in a paint it.
16th February 2011Spent the day at the mechanics workshop. He kindly invited us up to clean up and paint the engine bay and front of chassis while the motor is out.
So the day was spent removing things like steering linkages, miscellaneous electrical items attached to the firewall & scraping, sanding & wire brushing off layers of paint and mud.
Got it pretty well cleaned up and the firewall at the back of the engine bay painted with primer...my lovely GALVANISED firewall
Back tomorrow to finish wire brushing etc and degreasing the front of the chassis before some nice black bitumen paint and painting the inner guards.
17th February 2011Removed the brake & clutch master cylinders and the fluid reservoir. Rubbed back the primer on the firewall, sanded and primered the inner guards.
Quick drying primer on the inner guards so they & the firewall painted, along with the bits of chassis that are easy to reach at this stage.
so early this morning it looked like this
and by the time we came home it looked like this
18th February 2011More painting
the chassis looks shiny now shows up all the dirty dull black elsewhere tho
Removed the gardening tool brackets and the bonnet clamps, to paint ready for when the panels get done
When we left the workshop this afternoon the 2 junior mechanics were being instructed on rebuilding a series motor, because as the mechanic said....."they won't get much of a chance to do this sort of thing"
21st February 2011Spent a very hot Sunday afternoon doing some paint stripping. We had removed the front bumper and brushbar, in one piece on Friday.
Getting the brushbar off the bumper was a longer than expected process with some of the rusted solid bolts needing to be ground off. Coops is handy with an angle grinder thank goodness, but he was tryng hard to warm his front bits on a hot day!!
Once the bar was off we had a go at it with paint stripper....we found though that a flapper wheel on the angle grinder was much more efficient for removing the "at least 5 layers of paint" though. Then out with a small wire brush to get into the corners. One ready to paint brushbar
The bumper is badly bent. I would seem it has had hard contact with something on one end. So....new bar now being sourced!! I think this one too hard/costly to repair
23rd & 24th February 2011Cleaned up and painted the sump pan, the brake & clutch pedals, the brake/clutch fluid reservoir and the brushbar
Flapper disks on the angle grinder really eat through layers of paint!!
26th February 2011The bad news is that the head is also cracked, so yesterday evening was spent at the local landy wreckers sourcing some bits n pieces like another head, an oil filler tube (for some reason Castrols has had some hacked off the end of it) and a hand throttle.
Today I dismantled the hand throttle and cleaned up all the bits and sprayed them with primer.
2nd March 2011Back up to the workshop to clean up the dash. May as well do it now while all the instrument panels are out.
Took my very bent bumper to a fabricator today, along with a very straight S3 bumper. He is going to make mounting brackets on the S3 bumper so that it will fit my S2....only the very pedantic will know the difference
3rd March 2011Back up to the workshop. Neil put a 2nd coat of paint on the dash, while I stripped the instruments, switches & lights out of the instrument panel.
The motor looks soooooooooo good. I wish it could look this way forever!! Check all the shiney bits.
and a nicely worked and reconned head.....
