Restoration of a Land Rover Series 2A 1968 Soft Top 4-cylinder Petrol – My Project

My old lady arrived in Austria in October 2016. She was transported on a trailer from Yorkshire close to my home in Gmunden / Austria. I just had to drive her to my house. Somebody had connected the distributor leads the wrong way round, which created some misfire, but I made it home.

I bought her via the Internet; she was supposed to be in good shape. However I realised that there was no way for her to pass the Austrian MOT. The rear end of the chassis was totally rusted, the bulkhead consisted mainly of body filler…. But she was freshly painted in limestone!

It turned out that the engine, exhaust, gearbox, axle and brakes were in good condition, but the bodywork and the steering needed extensive attention.

I decided to perform a frame off restoration, so I bought a new galvanized chassis from Richard’s, found a restorable bulkhead from a Land Rover dealer over here and contacted Famous Four for the supply of the spare parts needed.

After disassembling the whole vehicle I had all body parts stripped of paint. The cappings, window frames etc have been painted in silver; I had them zinc plated.

When reassembling the Landy I changed every bolt and nut, all the seals, all joints, the complete wiring harness. I had to rebuild the seat box, change all the oil rings and seals on the engine and gearboxes. Special attention had to be given to the steering system, all joints and worn parts have been changed.

Once back from the paint removing shop I discovered quite a number of body parts were badly corroded, such as floor panels, inner wing panels, front grill panel, doors, rear end panels etc. I replaced them all with the help of Famous Four.

I decided to paint the Landy once again in limestone as this is a color which is not very often seen here in Austria, and attracts her.

I paid special attention to use the right types and sizes of the rivets and tried to make the vehicle as close to the original as possible. I did not use any filler on the body parts, so one can see the spots on the panels caused from the spot welding.

After 6 months of work my old Lady was back to the road, and successfully passed the Austrian MOT. She is good now for another 50 years of service and is behaving as a real Land Rover Series 2A should.

The first job she has done in her new life was to transport 7 children from the local rowing club to attend a rowing race.

I have to thank Famous Four (especially Dave Funnell) for their great support and patience, my local workshop “Auto Thalhammer” who performed all the mechanical work including painting, and Richard’s Chassis.

Gerald – Austria