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Good Evening, I have been lurking on here for a long time, but thought it about time I made a contribution. I particularly enjoy the commercial vehicle builds. I am an early Land Rover fan in particular and own a few of the breed, along with some other odds and sods, but my particular focus at the moment is the above prototype 5 door station wagon. I am embarrassed tp say I have owned it nearly 10 years now, but only really made a start on it summer of 2017. At the factory back end of 1954/ early 55 it looked like this.    Before I took it apart it looked like this.    |
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Last Edit: Jan 22, 2021 9:05:06 GMT by landieles
1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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I am not unfamiliar with early Land Rovers and back in the early 90's I rebuilt a production version of the station wagon which went from this </attachment> to this </attachment>   Sadly I sold it not long after purchasing the prototype as it was a difficult time and I wasn't working. Tough, but I felt I had to do it as rare beasts like this don't crop every day. |
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Last Edit: Jun 4, 2019 19:54:41 GMT by landieles
1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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I love the flat sided landys.
The series landys now really start to be taken seriously as a classic car, with prices soaring massively. It is only a few years back when you couldn't give them away.
Any pics from where you are now?
Daan
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I love the flat sided landys. The series landys now really start to be taken seriously as a classic car, with prices soaring massively. It is only a few years back when you couldn't give them away. Any pics from where you are now? Daan Yes series ones have gone up massively. When I bought my first, 35 years ago, I paid £650 as a runner on the road. I still have it and use it and probably worth i.r.o 26K now, Never spent that much on in, even accounting for fuel. I first got to hear of this vehicle back in the late 90's, where it had been re-discovered for what it was. It had spent a lot of it's latter life in the Cornwall area and had suffered badly from the sea air and the fact it would appear to have been used for pushing boats in and out of the sea, judging by the ball hitch that was attached to what remains of both ends. I have never seen a front axle so rotten before. Once the vehicle was "discovered" the guy who had it sold it on for a quick profit to a Dutch collector based on it's historical value. Jump forward around 10 years and I had a tip off it was going on E-bay. It had never been touched, but had had the benefit of being in good dry storage since being in the Netherlands. I contacted the owner a deal was done then went over with a friend to drag it back - a 22 hour day. Until 2 years ago it has been laid up in a shed, whilst life and other projects got tin the way. Over the last few years I have been acquiring bits and doing a lot of research. This will be going back to how it was at the factory, the black and white pictures are of this actual vehicle. Whilst the other 4 prototypes were used for testing and onward development. mine, No4 was used as the pre-launch demonstrator and for press photographs prior to the production vehicles being built. Production started 9th November 1955 with the first complete vehicle being booked out complete on the 18th November. No.4 remained as a factory hack until the series 2 vehicles started being produced, at which time it was sold off. More pics to come, just got to get myself organised. |
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Last Edit: Jun 5, 2019 16:59:30 GMT by landieles
1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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dellie
Part of things
Posts: 47
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Nice car, I really like the series ones.
Good luck with the rebuild, seeing the other SI you've done it will be nice when its finished.
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A few more shots of before and during strip down. Time in the latter years hasn't been kind to this old girl, seaside life has really not helped. It wasn't always like that as some one in the past clearly spent time and effort on it, quite a skilled interior re trim job, a full repaint in light green, which wasn't just a blow over because many parts would have had to be removed to get the light green paint where it was. It had also had a conversion to the latter 2,25 petrol engine from the original 2 litre side valve lump. Although there was a big hole in the engine bay when I purchased it, evidence of this conversion still remained. I don't doubt the love it was given then (sometime in the seventies) helped keep it alive into the eighties. My plan is to return it to the look in the factory photo's. No hot rod treatment for this one. It is unique, has has subtle differences that the production versions doesn't have I'm not a concours builder though and don't count every single rivet, just to make it look good and more importantly reliable, so I can use it as the breed was intended - by that I don't mean mud plugging, but travelling, camping and exploring - exactly what the Station Wagon was designed for. I have read plenty in the past that say these vehicles need to be upgraded for modern driving, perhaps for a daily long distance commute, but I have done plenty of trips in a Standard series one over the last 35 years, the only real modification is putting in a 2,25 diesel to improve fuel economy. I could get 30mpg from my old station wagon, one aspect I am not looking forward to is the 18MPG with this one.        |
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Last Edit: Jun 5, 2019 20:41:44 GMT by landieles
1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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Sorry road rover picture shouldn't be there. That was photographed at Gaydon, You may have spotted my engine crane in one of the shots.  |
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1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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big fan of these early defenders (sorry just trying to be ironic/ topical)
in terms of time line, the 107 already existed right? and station wagons existed in swb form in round abouts way, in the coach built tickford flavour. is it just the addition of 2nd row seats, doors, and being factory effort that is the prototype component ?
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big fan of these early defenders (sorry just trying to be ironic/ topical) in terms of time line, the 107 already existed right? and station wagons existed in swb form in round abouts way, in the coach built tickford flavour. is it just the addition of 2nd row seats, doors, and being factory effort that is the prototype component ? The 107 truck existed, as did the short wheel base stationwagon based on the Standard utility model, which came on the market late 53, early 54. I can't quite remember. The 107 station wagon had a whole new chassis developed for it. Unlike the 107 truck which was just a stretch of the short wheel base, a lower slung chassis was developed to allow for a lower floor hight for second row passengers and the rear springs were mounted outside the chassis frame on outriggers to improve the stability. On the long trucks and short wheel base models (right up to series 3) the springs are under the main chassis rails. The changes thus required some modifications to the back axle. This chassis design was very much the model for all series two and three long wheel base models. |
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1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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Some shots of the axles during dismantling, gives you an idea of the state of things.     Fortunately the diffs look OK, but the bearings in the hubs are shot from water ingress and the amount of rust inside the axle tubes and on the shafts were bad. The shafts clean up ok, the sleeves for the oil seals and inner bearing tracks were ground off and replaced. The front axle casing was in a bad way and rusted all along the underside with pin holes, so I replaced it. The rear casing was not so bad, but still needed work. Due to it's uniqueness not easy to replace either. The diff pan was pin holed, but rather than hack it off and weld a new one on, which might result in just as many leaks, I decided to epoxy dowel the holes and apply a further couple of coats inside the diff. Only time will tell if this will work. The brake back plates were also in a bad way. Adjusters seized and eroded away, brake shoe steady posts similar and brake cylinders needing an overall. sorting out the adjusters was a bad job as the nuts had been rounded off. The whole adjuster assembly is fabricated with the back plate and not straightforward to replace. After plenty of heat and oil they did free off. I took a file to the original adjusting nuts and converted them to 9/16th squares.   Rear axle case refurbishment, new axle strngthener fabricated and welded in along with the repiars to the axle bump stop pads. Youcan also see the epoxy.  |
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1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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 Just to give you some idea where I am currently up to. |
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1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
|
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Samage
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,467
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That's already quite the transformation, even though it's only a chassis!
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Great job you are doing there!
Daan
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i had it in my head that the axle reinforcing was reserved for MOD trucks. but i guess it makes allot of sense on LWB trucks with rover axles.
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Apr 30, 2020 19:11:36 GMT
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A while since I posted, but have still been plodding on. Its mainly been a case of cleaning up bits painting and bolting up to the chassis throughout last summer. Then in the Autum it all had to be shunted out of the garage into storage for some work at the back of the house. Access through the garage is the only way to the back. Then the rains came the ground got soft and I wasn't allowed to extract it all from it's storage which involved dragging it and my trailer across my parents lawn. So lets rewind a bit. I never posted any pictures of chassis repairs, largly because it seems I didn't take many. Although the chassis was well rot in places the big plus of these vehicles is that is all welded up from flat plate, so cutting out a section and letting in a new section is straightforward. There is quite a cottage industry in building replacement Series one Land Rover parts and some replacement outriggers were obtained. all but one needed repair or replacement. I did all the cutting grinding, fabbing and clamping bits up, but my old dad at 78 did the welding. The reason for this is I have a chest packed full of electronics which keeps me running and welding is not advisable. The NHS have a lot of money invested in me, so I feel it is my responsibility to look after it and not damage it through neglect. Anyhow my welding was rubbish anyway. I did find a shot of replacing the rear crossmember. 
And the chassis and bulkhead in primer.
  IMG_0888 by Les, on Flickr The engine was taken up to fellow enthusiast Mike at Meridian Engineering, cambridge, who has also supplied engines for Land Rover's Reborn project. This has been sitting in the corner of the garage since before Brexit, waiting to be reunited with other components. So end of 2019 before I moved it all out the engine was mounted in the chassis.   Sorting through all the rusty bits, to find all the pedal linkages,  
Remade the rod to the master cylinder 
Which finally when togeather looked like this
 Never fails to amaze me how complex this arrangement it. |
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1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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Apr 30, 2020 19:40:02 GMT
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So moving forward, with lockdown looming, I got the whole lot back home again. 
Over the winter I took the gearbox away to be rebuilt, this was a job I had planned to do, but with progress crawling along, decided getting this done would be a shot in the arm the project needed. The box went to a chap called Martin Laurie, who has a company called Fuggles Fettling. He works on his todd rebuilds gear boxes, wiper motors and numerous other components for older vehicles, often making new parts himself. Look up Fuggles Fettling on facebook, where you will also see the 1930's Talbot truck he is rebuilding amongst other things.
So the gearbox was the first thing to go in and then the bulkhead went on, This has been waiting around for ages, I sprayed it two years ago. I can't find a shot of the box after rebuild at present,  |
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1954 Land Rover 107 Station Wagon
1955 Land Rover 86 Utility
1956 Land Rover 107 Pick Up
1986 2CV
1947 Ransomes Crawler Tractor
2001 C15 Citroen Van
2017 VW crafter
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