14 year old seeking advice!

[GeniusAndHisAssistant]

hi everyone-

i am 14 years old, and (as long as everything works out....) was just given a free 1972 series 3. (at least, we BELIEVE it is a series 3!) it has been sitting in a barn for 30 years, and will need lots of work (new frame, rebuilt motor...) i've re-built two motors and know how to weld, so this shouldn't be a problem BUT... i know nothing about land rovers in general! i figured that i'd try to pick everyone's brain on some things. first: how do you tell a IIA and a III apart? second: we're going to be dragging it out of a barn in the next few weeks, and soaking it in oil. then we're going to see if the motor will spin, and if it will we are going to check the electrical system and see if it'll crank... chances are it wont, but who knows! does anyone have any advice on things to do before that?

any general advice you have would be great too!

thanks in advance!

ebben in vt

[ThePhotographer]

Congrats, welcome to the LR world. Series III have plastic front grilles not metal, and headlights on the front wings. Late IIA bugeyes have the lights on the outter wings but are in a bezel. Have any photos?

[John O from Jersey]

This might be useful: http://www.roversnorth.com/t-how-to-...and-rover.aspx

Late IIA's (69-71) had lights in the wings too just like Series III but the biggest difference cosmetically is probably the plastic "safety" dashboard introduced with Series III. And as Zach said the plastic grille.

Good luck and welcome to the insanity!

JO

[HybridIIA]

More info here: http://www.eastcoastrover.com/INFOseries.html

[disco2hse]

YES!!!

A lad after my own heart. I was doing similar at your age and at 15 I owned my own commercial fishing boat, after having rebuilt it (it was over 100 years old at the time). What a fantastic journey of discovery you are about to undertake. Wish I was there with you.

About the Landie, yes there are specific design differences between II's and III's. Not hard to make the distinction.

What you will need are workshop manuals. There is the Haines book, but to be honest it lacks too much useful information about specifics. You are much netter off with the actual Land Rover Parts books, Optional Parts Catalogue and Series III Workshop Manual. These three contain nearly all the model specific information you will need. This assumes a level of workshop competence and access to appropriate and specific tools. Those two things you will gather as you go along your journey.

Here's a link to workshop manuals http://www.landroverweb.com/landrove...rover-manuals/.

The other thing you will need are parts. Generally speaking, most Series III parts are relatively cheap. They were built in the bad old days of British Leyland ownership, but the upside is that there a lot of the parts were interchangeable between BL built vehicles and that means you can often parts made for other vehicles and sometimes make minor adaptations to get them to fit (indicator switches, dash switches, gauges,...).

How about you post some pics, we'd all love to be part of your rebuilt

[GeniusAndHisAssistant]

Here's a link to workshop manuals http://www.landroverweb.com/landrove...rover-manuals/.

that link only has the manuals for series III, would it still be the same?

[cgalpin]

It should be good enough for most things, or at least until you get your hands on a hard copy of the IIA ones.

It was good advice someone gave to leave the drums off if you just want to get it rolling so you can put it in the shed. You'll want to pull the hubs and replace seals (and anything else needed) and grease up the bearings and once you have the hubs off, the brakes are much easier to get to.

That said, there are springs top and bottom that come off. Take note of how they are installed. Then the cylinder is held on by two bolts from the other side of the backing plate (and you'll need to disconnect the brake line). The bottom of the shoes are held by a retaining ring which will have two bolts holding it to the leading shoe. Undo those and the bottoms of the shoes will come off. It can all be done with the hubs in place but harder.

Well done so far!

[disco2hse]

Series III have plastic front grilles not metal,

Not strictly true. I have a metal Series III grill under the house. It is genuine Land Rover and has the Series III shape, but is metal.

[bkreutz]

Not strictly true. I have a metal Series III grill under the house. It is genuine Land Rover and has the Series III shape, but is metal.

I'd like to see a picture of that, I've never seen(or heard of) one, maybe they never came to North America?

[disco2hse]

Here ya go. It came from a Series III flat deck my wife's cousin used to own. It came to me with the Thomas winch now on the front of my Stage 1, which it why the solenoid box is still attached to the grill.

As a matter of interest, here is a snap of a recent score, capstan winch to restore (it's a heavy damn thing)