Agreed. Ya gotta get up close and personal with it.
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That, if in your budget, could be a good find. Based on pictures it epitomizes a Series truck. Well worth having a 3rd party investigate for you. I can refer you to a couple people in area Boston area if you like.
The Toltec Coffee fleet....
96 FZJ80: 3XL, lifted, and shaved
94 FZJ 80: our Costa Rican coffee and surf mobile
70 Series IIA 88: After 18 months of wrenching, its alive and legal to drive!
70 Series IIA 88: in US on H-1B visa
56 Series I 86: a whole new type of rover hell....
Thanks - I appreciate it. Waiting for some more pics of this one...and trying to see one in Maine. Not easy making time. The one that got me hooked was 1.5 hours away so I jumped out of the office and ran to see it. Unfortunately, the ad wasn't very truthful. So, I really need to see what I'm getting into. Perhaps when I have a better idea of when I can make it out, I'd like another set of eyes with me.
The Toltec Coffee fleet....
96 FZJ80: 3XL, lifted, and shaved
94 FZJ 80: our Costa Rican coffee and surf mobile
70 Series IIA 88: After 18 months of wrenching, its alive and legal to drive!
70 Series IIA 88: in US on H-1B visa
56 Series I 86: a whole new type of rover hell....
With due respect, this is categorically untrue. I honestly have no idea where this started, but I suspect it stems from some very late (1988-1990) Santanas, long after the relationship with Solihull ended. For Series III and earlier vehicles, the idea that parts are unavailable, or that the vehicles themselves "aren't Land Rovers" is totally absurd.
I live in Spain and I buy, restore and sell Land Rover Santanas here all the time. For anything 1983 and earlier, 99% of what I need I buy from Paddock Spares, John Craddock Limited, etc. If the vehicles are in the USA, we buy from Rovers North. We have never had a problem with anything. Engine parts, brake parts, master cylinders, belts and hoses, clutches, springs, ball joints, electricals, switchgear, filters, glow plugs, prop shafts... EVERYTHING. Even accessories like roof racks and mud flaps. From seat upholstery to valves, and from main bearings to radiators, you just buy the part you need for your Land Rover and you're fine.
I stress again, I am not speculating here. I do this all day, every day. I am speaking from years of personal experience, restoring perhaps two dozen Series IIA and Series III Land Rover Santanas. But this prejudice is so widespread that I don't even tell the supplier I am working on a Santana, because I am tried of listening to them tell me how nothing will fit. I just say it's a Solihull truck and everything works perfectly.
Now, are there a FEW exceptions? Yes. Santana built a model in the late 1970's called the "Especial," for example, which had different tail lamps. But they are readily available online. Some 1983's had slightly different seat frames, so if you happen to have a 1983 Land Rover Santana and need a seat frame (which, let's face it, is rare) you just buy a Solihull part and drill four new holes to replace it. But the guts and even most of the details of the truck? All the same. And if you're talking about a Series IIA, as in this particular case? It is identical except for a couple badges.
Which makes sense if you stop and think about it, because they were built under license from Solihull, with tooling, stamping equipment and everything from England. Santana didn't reinvent the wheel and build different trucks. They had no motivation to do so, and neither did Solihull, who had licensed the whole operation in the first place. For everything built in 1983 and earlier, these were not badged as Santanas. They were badged as Land Rover Santanas. And with good reason.
Bill and I are in the very early stages of working on an article with Rovers Magazine about the history of Santana, which will hopefully put some of these issues to rest once and for all. But probably not, because when people get something in their heads it's sometimes very difficult to get it out again, regardless of evidence to the contrary.
But if anyone has any questions, I'm always happy to answer them.
- Paul
paulmisencik@gmail.com
Last edited by ValenciaCV; 06-18-2016 at 06:00 AM.
The number of pre-83 "Land Rover Santanas" in the USA is super super small. I would venture to say fewer than a hundred. Probably even way less than that. I have seen ONE here in my life and it's owned by my friend Freddy. It has a LOT of differences from a Land Rover 2A. He brought it here from Honduras or someplace like that about 5 years ago. Customs guy stepped on the sun sheet and bent the crap out of it. Idiots. I digress.
The later Santanas are surely not Land Rovers. They have steel bodies, leaf suspensions, different engines, blah blah blah....and certainly do not carry the Land Rover mystique.
Good luck importing and selling these. I'm sure you'll get a lot more traffic if you call them Land Rover Santanas than just plain old Santana. There are a couple of these floating around the DC area, and they are not selling.