Mid-1960's Santana

[danielsun]

Hello there
I'm new to the website and to the world of Land Rover.
I am likely going to buy a mid-1960's Santana in very good conditions (100k km - so they say) from a seller in South America.
I live in Miami, FL, USA and was planning on using the car for my daily 7 mile commute (each way).
I've never owned an antique nor do I have the expertise or tools to fix any problems should they arise.

Before I do something stupid, can someone please educate me on the following:
- how much would it cost to install air conditioning/heating?
- what is the average fuel economy? What can I do to have the car improve fuel economy a tad bit at least? Aprox cost?
- Will the commute to work on the highway be "bad" for this type of car?
- what are the parts that I can expect to give me trouble? ...and how hard-to-find and expensive are parts?
- is the above alleviated by certain parts (commonly known to break) being interchangeable with those from other readily accessible cars?

Please help me balance my emotional attraction to this car with some hard cold facts and warnings

[Les Parker]

Some pix ?

[danielsun]

Hi Les. When can we chat?
I emailed your Yahoo account last week.

[Les Parker]

Any time.

Direct # is 802-662-8042

Please remember we are on Eastern Time !!

[Partsman]

Not to discourage you or anything, but a Series Land Rover, isn't just something you can just up and throw some air conditioning in, if your not handy with tools, and at least have a modicome of mechanical ability, you may run into some major cost issues down the road at some point when something breaks, or some of the wiring shorts out, and burns out part of the wiring harness. Take a word of advice from Glen Coyne's buying guide: http://landroverv8.com/manuals/buyingguide.pdf

I get a lot of enquiries from people who have never before
owned a Land Rover, and who fancy one of the older vehicles
as an introduction to Land Rover ownership. Perhaps they
have a limited budget, only need the vehicle for occasional
use, don’t want to tie up a huge sum of money in a vehicle
that only gets used to take the dogs to the beach, like the
idea of saving £190 a year in road tax, or maybe they just like
the look of the older vehicles.
An older Land Rover, whether an early coil-sprung 90 or
110, or one of the classic leaf sprung ‘Series’ models, can
be a faithful and durable friend, but you really need to go
into the purchase with your eyes wide open and use some
common sense. Only a couple of weeks ago I was offered
a vehicle very cheaply by someone who had fancied ‘an old
Land Rover’ and had gone out and bought the first one he
looked at. It was, in every way, a bad purchase. It was a longwheelbase
model, so he could barely get it into his tightly
curved driveway. It was a 2.25 3-bearing diesel, and he had
bought it with a view to towing his boat down to the South
Coast once a month, a 400 mile round trip for which a slow,
noisy, underpowered vehicle was desperately ill-suited. The
chassis was a patchwork quilt of plates welded on top of
other plates, and the bulkhead wasn’t much better. It had
been through ten owners, none of whom had ever spent any
money on it, and mechanically it was about as bad as they
get. Every week it broke down, he took it into the garage
and was presented with a large bill. Now he just wanted to
get rid of the thing, and swore never to buy another Land
Rover again.
What is really sad is that, for the money he ploughed into
this rolling wreck, if he had done some basic research, taken
good advice and really thought about his requirements, he
could have had a nice, well-maintained older vehicle which
would have lasted him many, many years. (I didn’t buy his
vehicle by the way, but someone on eBay did...)
So what do you need to think about, and beware of, when
considering spending £2,000 - £3,000 (the most common
price range I am asked to supply) on an older Land Rover?
General points first. This kind of money will not stretch to
a post 1990 Defender TDi, at least not one that any sensible
buyer would touch with a bargepole. So the vehicles you are
looking at will be OLD. At least fifteen years old, possibly
forty or even older. Land Rovers are mechanically complex
and incorporate some very old fashioned technology. This
means that however clean, well-maintained and low mileage
your vehicle, it WILL break down at some point, and it
WILL require money spending on it, on a regular basis, to
keep it in good mechanical condition. If that is unacceptable
to you, go and buy a new Nissan X-Trail.
A Land Rover is designed as a fairly uncompromising offroad
workhorse for farmers, the military and construction
workers. By passenger car, or even modern 4X4 standards,
it will be slow, noisy, ill-handling, with an uncomfortable
driving position, minimal creature comforts and heavy
controls. This applies much more to the older vehicles, but
even a Ninety can be a bit of a culture shock if you are used
to driving a 3-series BMW to work every day.
This rugged, uncompromising, utilitarian nature is part of
the Land Rover’s enduring appeal, but it is not to all tastes.
Make sure you understand what an older Land Rover is all
about before you buy one. It isn’t a cool-looking alternative
to a Suzuki Jeep or Toyota RAV-4. It’s more like a tractor
that you can use to take the kids to school in.

[Boston]

Hello there
I'm new to the website and to the world of Land Rover.
I am likely going to buy a mid-1960's Santana in very good conditions (100k km - so they say) from a seller in South America.
I live in Miami, FL, USA and was planning on using the car for my daily 7 mile commute (each way).
I've never owned an antique nor do I have the expertise or tools to fix any problems should they arise.

Before I do something stupid, can someone please educate me on the following:
- how much would it cost to install air conditioning/heating?
- what is the average fuel economy? What can I do to have the car improve fuel economy a tad bit at least? Aprox cost?
- Will the commute to work on the highway be "bad" for this type of car?
- what are the parts that I can expect to give me trouble? ...and how hard-to-find and expensive are parts?
- is the above alleviated by certain parts (commonly known to break) being interchangeable with those from other readily accessible cars?

Please help me balance my emotional attraction to this car with some hard cold facts and warnings

To add air conditioning remove roof
Average fuel economy: about 5mpg in low range teens in high range and dependent on engine.
To improve fuel economy haha!
All parts can give trouble. That's why you need to be a good mechanic.
Santana parts are not necessarily interchangeable with Land Rover parts.