Sometimes I get a voice at the back of my head and it says things like "come on then wise guy, walk your talk. Put your money where your mouth is." Seems good logic but then it chimes in with other things like "but don't actually put cash in your mouth.Imagine how many hands it changed, Its full of germs and trace amounts of other people gross DNA. Oh and by the way, you have lunch with the President of Mexico next Tuesday at 2." So, I listen to most of it, but I havent booked flights for Mexico yet.
My older brother who lives in ChCh mentioned purchasing a Series LR as a business promo vehicle.
When I hard about this I was like an ADD child who just took their whole weeks worth of his Prozac on empty stomach in one gulp, waited about 45 minutes and then had about 2 litres of Pepsi. Imagine the crazed combination of euphoria/confusion/nausea/akathisia - that's what I was like - dancing on the line of insanity. They lock people up for that of shit.
It had to be something tolerable on road, 'comfortable' even. Hello ex-Australian Army 'Skippy.'
He knows what he's getting himself into. Here is a brief summary: Age 7 in the early 90s parents were early owners of NZ Nomad Safaris in Queenstown. Introduced to offroad exploration and mechanics/LR then. Arrow River/Shotover every day. All Rovers leak - cute but if its losing oil, waters going in. Learnt much workshop procedures/wrenching while learning maintenance (a lot).. Intdoctrinated from young age.Initial fleet 2x LR 110 V8 & 1x Stage One. Parents sold business to single entrepreneurs who grew it, damn children
. Moved to ChCh, RRC & Series 3 full rebuild, CLROC etc. Certainly pretty privileged young people at that time. Of course the Father took off (bout 13 years ago). But the sad part is there has been no Rover since then 
(coping method??!)I Got a SWB MK Patrol and was like a limousine in comparsion. If I had more coffee I Could easily go into another rant about these vehicles and how underrated they are (and well behaved when climbing), but I digress. But LR and MK side by side made me curious. How could be so different (better?!) yet they both use the same basic platform of body on frame with slung under leafs.So I went on to study their engineering heavily, moved onto working on Japanese/American machines. Not that I put Japanese and American engineering in the same ballpark. Not even close. But British and American engineering, definate similarities there. But again, I digress.
The vehicle is in active use with current WOF and typical fanatic owner. Rover 3.5 diffs, soft springs/shocks, very rare albeit sloppy SIIA full synchro box (considered the best Series box they ever made). LWB brakes w/ aftermarket servo. Cert for everything. The purpose of the vehicle is to be (reliable), relatively comfortable on road and economical, and character/feelgood consumer value. If it was mine, I would put FJ40/MK Patrol axles + lockers and be done with it. But surely For this purpose, the standard diffs and axles will be adequate, at least for a while..
Front bumper has been replaced with when they did the front crossmember rust by the look of it. Meh, Thats cool. Lots of military extras, shackle lift, rear bumperettes and light protectors etc I think that roll bar is from a 109 V8.
Nissan LD28 factory turbo
With the tall gearing this puppy will do a safe 90km/h at barely idle and return about a million miles per gallon. IMO the LD28 is one of the greatest passenger car diesel engines ever made. It is wonderful in its design, construction and operation and very suited to a Series LR. Its revvy, OHC easy to service and refined and makes just enough power to keep the (Series IIA) gearbox happy & reliable. Theres a (slow) visible water leak from the head. This could just head bolt torque. Otherwise there is a new head included which will go straight on.
The first jobs - usual checks then fix cooling issue. Swap gearbox with reconditioned one that is included. Then pull all those bars off and do a Stage One V8 front end conversion, because it is the sexiest front end they ever did. Then pull the galv. trim pieces off, thorough prep and do a simple but high quality repaint with DuPont Acrylic Lacquer in the original Army colour. So I am looking for these parts if anyone can help - ex Army 109 owners?? Stage One V8 grille panel, wire grille & bonnet, and some Series 3 guards (will they fit with some minor drilling?) Straight but any colour. Also a larger radiator so the viscous fan can go back on the engine. One of those TDI ones with intercooler would be ideal.
Also will have quite a big stockpile of Series parts. Spare LD28 (I'm keeping the crank), injector pumps, starter/alt, internals, dshafts, electrics, gearbox with rebuild parts incl synchros, hubs, lots of stuff. More info to come
. Is it sitting slightly higher on the passenger side? Appears that way in some of the pics