Back in 1998 @ Cooma I rekindled my affection for the Series 2A 88" GS, a friend had one back in the early 70's and I loved it better than my old Series 1 88", anyway it was @ Cooma
where I saw a few of them including Ross C's 'Castrol', he was in the parade with his wife & 3 kids, also seen was a lady I would meet years later and a forum user I AULRO 'Mallee Fowl'
aka as Mary she had distinctive rego plates 'KGB'-***, anyway I digress somewhat.
I was driving around Cooma and saw a bunch of ex-mil Land Rovers parked up at the Cenotaph, so a quick U turn Ross C was there as well as Graham D, but with my poor hearing I didn't know
that this was the first meeting of REMLR, anyway I came away with a resolve to try n find a Series 2A 88" GS, the hunt was on, it took me almost 8 months, and it was found almost in my
backyard.
A chance conversation with Graham D aka 'Judge Dredd' I mentioned that I was in the market for a shortie but not just any shortie it had to be ex-mil 2A, well anyone who knew Graham
would know that he doesn't suffer fools/idiots nor does he respond quickly (but I knew this from being around him @ maitland pistol club where we were both members at the time)
Graham's response was "I bought one of them about 5/6 years ago, I will make some enquiries n see if it's still there" I was a bit puzzled by that response, ?? why would you not know where
a vehicle was that you had bought !!!, I had to wait about a week for the reply, it's still there, where I asked, Seaham he said, I said lets go, we did the next morning.
What greeted me when I first saw it was a sadness as Graham had said it was this BLAH/blah/blah, but what had happened to it in the ensuing years was parts were sold off it etc., etc.,
this is what I saw
and from another angle
I took a deep breath and looked past the obvious, I lifted the bonnet grabbed the 8 blade fan, pressure on the belt the motor swung over, well at least it wasn't seized, so that was a relief
I noticed on the bonnet painted roughly was "Lot 359" that must have been it's reference number @ auction somewhere a long time ago, the person who's property it was on bought it
and transported it home to Seaham, only to let it rot where it stood (GUNNA) I've met a few over the years, anyway he gave us an ultimatum a week or I'll bury it, **** I thought he was fair dinkum
but I needn't have worried, next hurdle was to sweet talk the wife LOL.
Within the time frame (or I'll bury it) I rocked on up with the 'Judge' and picked it up, the tractor wouldn't start so he couldn't bury it even if he wanted too LOL
I dropped Graham at his home in Morpeth (NSW) and headed off, within an hour I had removed the rear tub and put my Stihl pressure washer to good use, getting rid of wasps/spiders ++
Now anyone who has been here will know how small my yard is, so I had to carefully pick where I wanted to start on this, as I was only going to do it up as a vehicle that was reliable to use
as a shooting vehicle, but that all changed the day after getting it home.
I connected a battery, and using 'start U bastard' sprayed down the throat of the carby, to my utter disbelief it started, oil pressure was 60psi+, the engine was quiet no noise just a whisp of blue smoke
valve stem oil seals went through my mind at the time, the mould was set, I was going to restore the vehicle not use as a shooting platform.
I started stripping it down, it was a mess from standing out in the weather for years
the bulkhead was a mess, rust n this horrible green stuff which was sprayed on it, it looked like compressed chip board, mixed with glue n painted green, I later found a few items that were 24V
so it could have been set up as a comm's vehicle, anyway the strip down continued until it was a bare chassis
around this time we had a small Pomeranian called Chloe, she suffered terminal heart condition and had to be put down I was heart broken as I loved that little critter and we were both 'Poms'
I decided to name the vehicle after her, she was a gorgeous little creature
Several locals quizzed me as to why I took on a Land Rover to restore, my answer was why not!!, I found Ross C through an add in a magazine and went to meet him, I took some photo's with me
now remember this is all before digital cameras Ross took one look and exclaimed 'Your gonaa restore that!!!!', I said yes I'm going to restore that and I think I mentioned That I would have it done
before Anzac Day 2000 (this was May 1999) the deadline was on, so was the pressure.
The chassis was grit blasted etch primed
(you may have noticed in other images chassis had been painted in red rust proof paint etc, I didn't like the way wire cup brushes left the steel so grit blast was the order of the day), the diff/housing were next
it was time to put the chassis back together so I could move it around
with Fluffy the wifes cat, this made the job a lot simpler as I could now move it about when I needed too.
the bulkhead was next on the agenda, it had significant rust issues, so I set about rectifying that situation, the footwells were removed,
new replacements sourced and after a week most of it had been tacked together, to check the alignment
and from the side with Sooty (cat) and Tookie (Pomeranian) in the image
It was all coming together nicely, no real issues that I can remember except that I don't have many images of it all going back together
here it is with most of the body work on it, but the head had been removed to do a valve grind, the rear main oil seal had been replaced
@ Modern motors Dungog, it still doesn't leak
Anzac day came n went 112-501 (or 109-088 as I had replica plates made for the occasion as we didn't know about the Big Blue Book @ the AWM
until Mike Cecil contacted me about the ARN I had on my Bloodbx, but that's another story in itself LOL) the vehcle performed faultlessly during the
parade, accompianed by Ross C in 'Castrol', here is the first image taken when she was first on club plates
The next show we went too was Corowa I towed her behind the 110 on an A frame, the Judge sat in her down n back, here he his driving her
Since her restoration 112-501 has taken part in a few parades in Newcastle, here she is with 112-655 ( a few years later)
and during the parade
Later that year 2000, we had the first R&R on Stockton beach, I just can't find any images in the storage thingy, but this one
it is a still shot from my video camera, of the bar treads off 112-501 as they left their impressions in the sand,
so I scratched 'Bartreds in sand' it was a great weekend, sadly we will never be able to do it again, not on Stockton
as it's now under control of the local indigenus tribe and other greenies, anyway I hope that gives newer members
an insight as to how to do a restoration, well it's my preferred way if I get time and I probably will as the rain has set in, cheers Dennis
