New to me 1970 Santana 88

[mcconnellcs]

Hi,
Thought I would introduce myself since I am sure I will have many questions for this group. I recently purchased a 1970 Santana 88. I have owned and restored many European Cars, mostly Porsche and Jaguar, but this is my first Land Rover. I have very little information on its history other than the person I bought it from purchased it in Bogota Columbia, had it ¨restored¨ there and imported it to the US.

I am still going through it and learning about Land Rovers in general.

The Good:
-Starts, runs, and drives
-Chassis seems to be in good shape and mostly rust free
-looks good from 10´ away

The not so good:
-Brakes are almost non-existent and the brake lights do not function (I am currently in the process of replacing the brakes all around)
-According to the workshop manual there are 29 places that could leak. Luckily I think I only have leaks from about 25 of them, haha
-Coolant is brown (rusty) but doesn't show signs of oil intrusion. It´s clearing up after a few flushes
-Bogs and sometimes dies when I first hit the throttle, but only when the cold start is off. When pulled on there it is very smooth and responsive.
-Looks like it has a Weber carb and has an alternator added.
-There is no hose connected to the vacuum advance on the distributor. Not sure if it´s required or where it should connect
-There is much much more but this is most of what I have gone through so far

Here are a few pics. Let me know if you see anything interesting or problematic in them. I will save my questions, if I can find them in the search, for separate posts

[mcconnellcs]

[williamdmann]

My '77 Series 3 has similar looks, backstory, and quirks. I purchased it early Spring of '21 and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Like you mine came from Colombia with very little information. I've found some issues for sure but it's been worth the headaches and I've learned a lot!