series II

[cherokeegraham]

A mate of mine has heard about a series landy for sale. Aparently it's an ex army '63 series II, £500. It's a runner, needs battery, & something to do with the front suspension. Does this sound ok? What should I look out for, I know nothing about Landies?

[Bob Ajob]

Does it have an MOT? If so bite their hand off...

Check the chassis for corrosion, especially around the spring hangers and outriggers.
Check the ventilation flaps work and there's no major rust around these.
Check for rust around the door hinges.

Being ex army, does this mean it's a soft top?

Check the front swivels are still chromed and shiny, and not pitted with black marks
Check the springs, the leaves should fit snugly together, they may be splayed apart with rust and debris - this is bad, but new springs are not that expensive.

A battery is not much, though this may be missing so that you can not see it running... Try get to see the engine running, watch for smoke on start up, and listen for it running smoothly. Don't worry it it doesn't run that smoothly, as these engines are cheap and easy to fit and work on.

Check all the electrics work including lights etc, the ex army ones used to have the convoy lights switch which may have been removed / re-wired in a funny way.

Also check out this website for the Series II club:
http://www.series2club.co.uk/

Failing that and you're not keen, let me know where it's advertised as I know an interested party  

Regards,
Rob.

[cherokeegraham]

Cheers Rob, don't know if it has MOT yet, it's a hard top. Will keep you in mind if it's not for me, cheers again for the promt reply.

[cherokeegraham]

It's been used regularly on a farm, but has no MOT, would it still be a good buy?

[matthew]

It's been used regularly on a farm, but has no MOT, would it still be a good buy?

Depends totally on condition and if it has things like an overdrive. As an example I paid £800 for my 109" without a test, but it had new parabolics, overdrive and disc brake conversion fitted.

Check the chassis, check the bulkhead, then check the chassis again. Most other things are cheap to fix.

[Bob Ajob]

Hi Graham,

Short answer - probably, maybe...
Longer answer below:

I would always be wary of one from a farm just because there generally are things on farms that love eating metal if not washed off.
They get washed very rarely, so check over the whole chassis with a little hammer - ting is good, thud is not. Hammer going through a bit of chassis is defintely not good.

Definitely check the electrics over that all the lights work etc. With it having been on a farm, it may have been neglected for a period of years. I would say the first thing to do would also be to give it an oil change. Oil changes may have been done frequently / infrequently depending on how much the Landrover has been used.

Do you know what they used the Landrover for? General run-a-bout, driving through fields, driving through cow muck, sileage?

Check the gears work in both low ratio and high ratio, odds are if it's been a field run-about, it's spent a lot of time in low box 4wd. Check high gears work, also high with yellow nob pressed down for 4wd. Red lever forward is high gears, red lever backwards is low gears. When in low it's always in 4wd. When in high, 4wd is turned on by pressing down the yellow nob. Pull the red lever back then forwards again to release the yellow nob.

Take someone with you to give you a second opinion that may have bought older cars in the past, it there's nothing you can find wrong with it then it may be a good buy. Will they do any kind of guarantee, or even pre-test it for you? It's at least useful to get a list of faults so you can see how much roughly it may cost to fix them.

Chances are also they're not in a rush to sell, it's not really the farming way to rush about. I don't want to put you off, just to make sure you are careful, especially with no MOT. Try to write down a list of faults so that you can roughly tot up how much it will cost to do up, or at least make road worthy with MOT.

Don't forget however, always make an offer, chances are they don't know what it's worth either, if they did they would probably MOT & advertise it!

Regards,
Rob.

[cherokeegraham]

Thanks very much guys, am looking at it on saturday, fingers crossed! will let you know what it's like.

[Bob Ajob]

Good luck mate, hope it's a good 'un for ya!

[tomarse]

it's a hard top.

which makes no difference since the roof just bolts off. get yourself a set of sticks and a rag and you can have a soft top instead if you like! :)

[cherokeegraham]

Well, I've just been to see it, WOW! Chassis is solid, body ok, runs well, everything works, spare set of wheels, full tank of fuel and a haynes manual, £450. Very happy & pick it up next weekend, can't wait! Cheers for all the advice guys.

[Bob Ajob]

Excellent news mate, always good to hear someone's found a pearl!.
Post some pictures will ya after you've picked it up?

Rob