The Land Rover is a giant meccano set of a car, designed to be stripped in the field with nothing more than a spanner and a screwdriver.

I really wanted something tax exempt (vehicles built before 1973) but as I felt I couldn't deal long term with the non synchro (on 1st/2nd) gearbox in a SII and didn't want to be swapping boxes that really meant an SIII. As the SIII was only introduced in 1971 this meant there would only be a small window in which I was going to find the right vehicle. So I eventually abandoned the free tax idea and started looking at Series III's in general. After a few weeks of ringing round ads in the Autotrader it quickly became clear that there is a lot of choice out there of varying quality but you have to be quick if it's half decent.

On with the diary...

10 April 2003
Checked the Autotrader website this morning before work and spotted a 1980 SWB for £800 and it was local. I gave the seller a call straight away knowing how fast Landies can go and arranged to go and have a look at it at 2pm when he would be back at home. So 2pm arrived and I'm sitting outside his house waiting for him to get home (keen or what?). He turns up a few minutes later and I give the big blue beast a good going over and she seems quite solid and a good runner. The chassis has had a few repairs of course and there have been repairs to the bottom of the door pillars but nothing too drastic and this is what you expect when you are looking at a 24 year old vehicle for £800!

Pleased with what I saw I offered him £750, he thought about it for a few seconds and we shook on it. I was in my Ford Fiesta van at the time so I paid him, we did the paperwork and I left with the keys. 6pm saw my brother dropping me off to pick the beast up.

So what have I got? well it's a very original 1980 Series III SWB in Marine Blue, Deluxe spec with a Limestone hardtop and only 2 previous owners. It's got the 5 main bearing 2.25 Litre petrol engine and the clock reads 48000 miles which from the general condition seems as though it may be genuine. The previous owner also had documents for the last MOT which showed it only failed on a handfull of points and had cost under £100 to get it through, not bad at all. He also threw in a new drivers side door top as the inner steel bit of the old one is a bit rusty.

11 April 2003
Getting some insurance quotes in now, trying the usual mainstream insurers, some specialist classic insurers and of course the National Farmers Union.

Got it round the back this afternoon and gave it a good going over. Tried to fit the spare wheel back onto the rear door carrier only to find that it fouled the tow ball. Off with the tow ball I thought, I can always stick it back on if I find I need it. One bent socket bar later I gave that up as a bad idea and put the spare back inside (fixed to rear bulkhead behind front seats).
There was a hole in the roof where an aerial had been fitted so I filled it with a stud mounted CB antenna, no rig in there yet but atl least the roof no longer leaks.
Removed the horrible seat covers while I was at it, the drivers and passengers seat bases have rips but these are quite cheap to replace.

12 April 2003
Wow, insurance is cheap! Went with Lancaster Insurance on a limited 3000 mile classic car policy in the end, £138 TPF&T including breakdown cover and that is with zero no claims bonus (been driving a company car for the last few years). The best the mainstream insurers could come up with was The AA with £307!

12 April 2003
Ordered a Haynes manual from Amazon and downloaded some PDFs of the Land Rover Owners Manual.

15 April 2003
Picked up a copy of a Hi-Lift jack (actually a 60" "Farm Jack") on Ebay today for £28.
Haynes manual arrived from Amazon.

18 April 2003
It's been many, many years since I've gone for a drive 'just for the hell of it' but that is what I did today! I've now got to grips with most of the little eccentricities that an older vehicle picks up on its travels, I can even find 2nd gear reliably now!

20 April 2003
I'm not keen on the standard LR steel wheels so I've been looking at the options. I've decided to get some of the ubiquitous Weller style 8 spokes, Paddocks and other places online have them but I want to check to see if I can get them somewhere more local first as carriage probably won't be cheap on a set of 5 wheels.
Another thing I want to do fairly soon is to change the steering wheel for a slightly smaller one with a thicker rim. Not sure whether to go for a fancy Mountney one yet or go down the Montego or Maestro wheel route.

25 April 2003
Ordered a set of five Mangels 8 spoke wheels, a 15" Mountney steering wheel and two new seat bases today from Paddocks. Delivery on the wheels wasn't so bad after all at just £12.50.

30 April 2003
Order from Paddocks arrived today, fitted the steering wheel and seat bases tonight and I'm booked in at the local tyre place to have the exisiting 750 tyres swapped over onto the new rims tomorrow. I need new inner tubes as well apparantly as the valves are wrong for the new wheels. Also got some front and rear light grilles from the Land Rover Supermarket in Speke yesterday. Those will be fitted at the weekend, when I also plan on doing a bit of Hammeriting, the rear crossmember in particular needs some paint.

1 May 2003
Wheels are on and they look fantastic. I only needed two new tubes in the end so the bill wasn't too bad!

5 May 2003
Oops! Ran out of fuel just round the corner from home this afternoon! Must remember to check that fuel guage more often, and that when it says empty it means it!

25 May 2003
Replaced the broken radio aerial and installed a radio cassette this afternoon. Stereo went into the cutout to the immediate left of the steering column (not the centre guage area), it sticks out about half an inch as expected but doesn't look too bad with a bit of black tape around it. I put a pair of Blaupunkt speakers I had around into some old pods and mounted them on the back of the rear bulkhead behind the seats.
Whilst cutting the hole in the dash for the radio I found behind the clocks two petrol receipts from 1985 (one from a garage in Oswestry) and a receipt for a calf from Oswestry Cattle Auctions dated 5 November 1980. So it looks like my Landy started its life with a farmer in Oswestry.
Oh and I found the starting handle behind the seats as well.

02 August 2003
Nothing much new happening here, swapped the CB aerial for a Thunderpole Trucker 80 but that's it I think.

25 August 2003
This page is due to be featured on series123.com for the month of September!

14 September 2003
Finally got round to painting the rear crossmember in black Hammerite smooth this morning, looks much better now.

16 September 2003
Fitted a K&N performance air filter tonight which has freed up some room under the bonnet for the set of "Dukes of Hazzard" air horns that I picked up on Ebay last week (yes, I know I'm sad, and yes, I know they aren't legal to use!). Sounds a bit more 'throaty' now and seems to rev a bit free-er too but best of all no more horrible oil bath filter to clean out!
Also got a set of front & rear rubber floor mats to tidy things up a bit inside.

19 October 2003
Earlier this week I fitted a K&N style breather filter onto the rocker cover vent pipe which had been just left open since the K&N was fitted. I've also fitted the air horns into the space left by the removal of the old oil bath air filter. I still need to fit the compressor and pipe them up, I've just ordered a suitable button and a nice little fuse box from CPC so I'll get it polished off once they arrive.
After weeks of adjusting the passenger door catch I've finally got it into a position where it keeps the door shut instead of popping off onto the outer catch.

2 November 2003
Normally I don't have any trouble starting her up, first turn of the key and we're away, but last weekend I had a couple of instances I came to start her up and the engine would fire on the first turn of the key, cut out and then not fire at all. The first time it started after about 5 minutes before I'd even had a chance to fiddle with anything much but the following morning it just wouldn't go... I got it going after about half an hour, I'm not convinced yet but I think it was a dodgy corroded LT connection on the coil. Have to wait and see, it's not happened again since anyway.
I've been dragging my feet with the fitting of the air horns - got all the bits I need now just not done anything further yet and the dark nights aren't helping.

27 November 2003
Guess who forgot to keep an eye on his clutch fluid level! Well I've got air in the clutch hydraulics now which can make changing gears interesting... no clutch, pump pedal, clutch comes back, nice! Since I topped the master cydinder back up the level has only dropped very slightly so whatever is leaking is only doing so slowly so I'm just going to bleed it for now and see what happens.
Of course it's cold, dark and usually wet when I get home from work so I'm going to attack it this weekend with an Eezi Bleed.

8 December 2003
Gave up with the clutch and took it to the local Land Rover specialist round the corner yesterday (RWB Motors), one proper bleed through and adjustment of the pedal later and all is back to normal. Took it in for an MOT this afternoon which is always a buttock clenching moment but nearly fell out of my chair when the guy rang to say it had only failed on a worn drag link end!! £35 for them to put right so I left them to it! Excellent! The MOT man also commented that it is in very good nick for its year... always nice to hear!

23 December 2003
Just slightly inconveniently the clutch hydraulics went again 2 days before christmas! I had a rather scary drive across Warrington town centre without a clutch, managed to get it to the Landy friendly garage that did the MOT (Universal Services on Howley Lane for those interested) and had them replace the slave cylinder... now £65 poorer but mobile again! Hopefully that's the end of the clutch problem now anyway.

8 January 2004
Spoke too soon... with the increased pressure required to operate the new slave cylinder the seals blew in the master cylinder, well a lot of people do recommend replacing them as a pair for this reason... seems wise in retrospect! Back to my friendly local garage for a new master then, no point pissing around in the back alley in the cold and dark when it can be someone elses problem for a small sum.

9 January 2004
Dare I say it... clutch all sorted again.
I've been thinking of fitting some sort of speaker box and an amp as the stereo could do with a bit more oomph, should be able to get something cheap & cheerful from work, I'll have a look next week. Also still got to finish those air horns off (yes, the ones I started in October!).

16 April 2004
For some time now I've had a problem where occassionalyy, usually after having not been used for a day or two the starter motor just spins and doesn't engage the engine. Up until now it always worked on the second or third try but this week it has started doing it all the time. Sounds like the enertia doobrey (bendix gear?) is not moving out. Had to hand crank it a few times this week, dead easy when it is cold, usually get it on first or second try but when it's warm it's a different story... not easy at all, lots of effort required and I can't half feel it all across my shoulders today! Hopefully all it needs is a good clean.

27 December 2004
OK, so I guess I haven't been keeping this up to date but nothing major has happened! Since April I've had to replace a broken rear spring and the starter motor again! Not certain what is going on with the starter motor but the bendix was siezed, I suspect it might be clutch dust causing the problem, the thrust bearing is very noisy now and the clutch sticks slightly in the morning sometimes. Ouch!
MOT was in early December, typically, the tailpipe fell off the exhaust the day before and the middle pipe was blowing so both of those were replaced. It failed on rear brakes (needed a clean), a wiper blade and front shocks (needed replacing), not too bad really. I've also bought a full set of plugs, leads, points, distributor cap, rotor arm and condensor so I can treat her to a bit of a tune up in the new year.