Outside article on the Series 11a

I found a great article written by a Land Rover owner about the relationship he has with his truck.  Its a great description of the reliability and simplicity of these vehicles.  Check it out at outsideonline.com.

"As a kid, Sean Gorman lusted after the 1961 Land Rover parked next to his grandparent’s house in the mountains above Boulder, Colorado. In fact, when he was 16, he told the owner he’d buy the truck if it ever went on sale. Four years later, it was his. “I took that thing all over Colorado,” he says. “It was my only car for years.” " - Grant Davis

A New Old Left Wing in Birmabright!

I was surfing the web looking for Land Rover parts and I came across the Alberta Land Rover Enthusiasts Club. They have a forum as well for projects, buying and selling parts, and events.  On there I got in contact with a guy who was interested in getting rid of some old body panels.  To make a very long story short, I picked up the used panel yesterday after work.

The condition of the fender is slightly better than mine and I think that between the two of them I should be able to make one decent wing.  Plus I wouldnt mind having some extra Birmabright available for patching and welding.

The story of Birmabright is an interesting one, there is a ton of information out there on the web.  I am going to attempt to weld it with my MIG, another reason for the spare panel.

Highway Yellow

The original colour of this Land Rover is Highway Yellow according to the Heritage Certificate.  I have sanded off some of the old paint layers in a few spots to confirm it and it was definitely Yellow under all those layers of blue house paint.  And Silver, And Red, and White and Yellow...

I took off the Transmission access cover and sanded down to the original paint as best I could without going right down to the metal. Underneath the poorly matched yellow, was the original Land Rover colour, LRC.561 or Highway Yellow, also called Telecom Yellow. Its a nice muted yellow that is going to look great on the Land Rover once it is finally redone. My local paint shop couldn't find the Land Rover code (LRC.561) so we did a colour match with the help of the panel.

The access panel is on the left in this picture, and there are two shades of yellow on it.  The middle of the panel is the correct original paint.  The edges are what it was repainted with at one time.  I test painted a small area on the front wing with the colour matched paint and I think it is a pretty good match to the original shade. Its going to look good in its proper yellow paint.

Bye Bye 'Roo' Bars

Not sure what the exact purpose for these bars on the Rover are.  I am guessing they were added for off roading, bracing against trees, that sort of thing.  Or could have been to protect the car in the event of  an unexpected deer crossing on the highway.  Anyway, they are hideous and they are coming off.

I got a new reciprocating saw for Christmas this year, so time to put it to use.  A heavy duty metal blade should do the trick.

Cut through those bars in a couple minutes, and they weigh a ton.  Starting to look like a proper Land Rover already.

Clutch rebuild

I got a little distracted, was busy building a bathroom in my garage.  Photo taken part way through the reno, its done now, fully functional urinal and sink.

Now that is out of the way, I can get back to this Land Rover.  I got the clutch rebuild parts from Pegasus.  The kit was reasonably priced, ended up being roughly $5 with shipping.

I also picked up a brake hone.  The first one I picked up was good for 3/4" and larger bores and ended up being to big.

So I ordered a hone on Amazon for "Import cars" and it worked for 1/2 bore and up. It de-glazed the cylinder with no issue.

The clutch pedal has been taken out as well, gave it a good soak, scraped off the rust and painted it with black tremclad.  These pics are the "before" shots...

Clutch is rebuilt, it can go back in the Rover.

Clutch 2

The problem with the Land Rover clutch on North American models is you have to take the front wing off in order to get to the master cylinder.  The only upside is that the front wing is relatively easy to remove on these Land Rovers.  I am pretty confident that this front wing has not been off for a very VERY long time, perhaps 56 years.  There are 6 bolts that hold the fender to the radiator shroud.  I broke 5 of them attempting to take them off.  The last one I had to crack.

Once those were off, there was some additional bolts to remove and with the help of a can of penetrating oil I managed to get the wing off.

Now that the clutch master cylinder is in sight, you can see from the picture that it has not been looked at in a long time (56 years).  And it looks like it has been leaking for a while.  That beautiful highway yellow paint has been pretty much stripped off the bulkhead. (Note: I am desperately trying to convince myself its a nice color.)

I ordered a new seal kit for the master cylinder from Pegasus in the UK.  Once it arrives I will rebuild the master cylinder.

Clutch

I am pretty keen to get this Rover running again.  It will turn over, even attempt to fire, but there is no clutch.  It wouldnt make much sense for me to get it running in my garage without being able to put it in gear to drive it out!  First things first, I tried to bleed the clutch with a simple gravity bleed.  The original metal reservoir has been replaced by a newer plastic reservoir.  And where the original was a combined brake / clutch reservoir, each master has its own reservoir.

The bleeding didn't fix the issue.  Every time I push on the clutch the fluid level in the reservoir goes up and fluid tries to shoot out the breather hole on the cap.  That looks like a master cylinder problem to me.  The trouble is the master cylinder is under that left front wing.