Question on my IIa's Heater...

[J!m]

I added a second heater to my 110 for the trip to James Bay last February. It was from JC Whitney and was quite cheap. Made by Flex-A-Lite (the engine fan guys) and will melt glass if you let it.

We were in -40 degree weather, and we had the truck up to 78 degrees (F) inside when we couldn't stand it any longer. We wanted to see how hot we could get it... We had to turn it off and open the windows to cool off or risk heat stroke in sub-arctic Canada in February. Try explaining that one...

Now to be fair, I also have the truck well insulated, with foil-faced fiberglass above the headliner, foil-faced rigid foam (1" thick) on the roof sides, and foil-faced rigid foam (1/4") on the rear roof area. No other insulation (aside from the footwell "insulation" from the factory) has been added.

Mike has one of these on his 101 to replace the big, expensive hard-to find and welded to the truck stock heater. it works better, and is smaller with a better fan. Ther is another version with provisions for ducting as well if you want to get fancy.

And yes, it gets so hot because it recycles the warm air in the truck. The stock heater uses fresh air all the time, so the colder it is outside, the colder it is inside. My '71 is stil stock, and the heater is crappy because of this.

[AlohaRover]

'68 was the transition year, called a bugeye, because the headlights were moved from the radiator support panel (aka the breakfast) to the wings; they just kinda were mounted there, though. '69 is when the front of the wings became pressed like you see on SIII's... so, '69-'71 is a late IIa.

I thought the bugeyes were 69 and the sunk in headlights began in 1970?
I know of a Jun 69 that had the bugeye, but who knows if it was original.

[J!m]

As far as I know that is correct. The "late IIa" begins in 1970-1971, then the III started.

I have a 1971.

The "bug eye" was as far as I know 1969 only, until they got tooled up for the change. They just moved the headlights from the rad support to the fenders with no other changes, so they 'bug out' from the fenders a bit. Quite rare, as it was only the one year (and possibly not the entire year).

The change was driven by the Australian market I believe, where the headlights must not be so far in-board...

[Bostonian1976]

well...


I have an inboard-headlight, banjo steering wheel, horizontal heater (as mentioned previous), boosted-brake (dual-circuit), single wiper motor, black guage panel Series. Try and figure out what year that is! lol

[J!m]

Now we start to understand the down-side of part interchangability since the dawn of man...

[Leslie]

Gentlemen, you know as well as I do that Rover doesn't go strictly by model years....

The bugeye began in that latter half of '68, and the transition ended with the late IIa w/ the stampings in place before the end of '69.

"Hey Doogan, hand me another bit out of that bin!" "It's empty, Angus! But this other bin has the older type still in it...." "That'll do, then...."

You guys know I'm right......

[Luke]

As far as I know that is correct. The "late IIa" begins in 1970-1971, then the III started.

I have a 1971.

The "bug eye" was as far as I know 1969 only, until they got tooled up for the change. They just moved the headlights from the rad support to the fenders with no other changes, so they 'bug out' from the fenders a bit. Quite rare, as it was only the one year (and possibly not the entire year).

The change was driven by the Australian market I believe, where the headlights must not be so far in-board...

LOL - who actually knows..? I had a 'G' registered IIa with headlights in the wings, full pressings, the works. G reg was Aug 68 - Jul 69!

Cheers
Luke

[Luke]

Yep! As Leslie just said...

[Leslie]

Change from dual to single wiper was in '67.

Lights moved from radiator support panel to wings in '68.

Pressings of the front of the wings (non bygeye, late IIa) began in February '69.

Other changes that occurred around the same period ('67 t0 '69) was from gray to black seats, addition of sliding rails on the seats, the heater, the steering wheel, and, the change from being started with a push-button to actually using the key to start it.


FWIW...

[J!m]

Change from dual to single wiper was in '67.

Lights moved from radiator support panel to wings in '68.

Pressings of the front of the wings (non bygeye, late IIa) began in February '69.

Other changes that occurred around the same period ('67 t0 '69) was from gray to black seats, addition of sliding rails on the seats, the heater, the steering wheel, and, the change from being started with a push-button to actually using the key to start it.


FWIW...

And I'd like to add, in no particular order.

I used to be deep into older Chrysler (MOPAR) products, and you would often see the same things (although not to such an extent).

It almost seems as if there were several parallel lines running at any given time at LR, all making the same model, and one line may have a ton of part "X" while the other line ran out of that part last month and are now using the part "Y" instead, poerhaps stealing one from the other line once in a while just for fun... A better hope of nailing it down would be the VIN suffix, rather than the reg letter (in the UK) or "model year", as many mid-year (or more appropriately stated "when ever the hell we felt like it") changes took place, particularly in the late sixties/early seventies, when just about everyone owned Rover at one point or another...

Add to that the "Monday build" and "Friday build" factor, and well, all bets are off then!