This 1961 Land Rover diesel pickup is a solid candidate for restoration and is currently for sale at $5,401 by 12 bidders. The reserve has not yet been met. While it isn’t known where this truck has been all its life, it currently resides in Orefield, Pennsylvania. No VIN is listed, but the title is claimed to be clean, and 122,000 miles are said to be on the odometer. Thank you, Russell G, for the tip. You can take a closer look here on eBay.
The seller says that they have been able to get the four-cylinder engine started and it maintains idling, but when an attempt was made to move it, the brake and clutch both go straight to the floor. They will not be fixing that. Considering that the truck had been sitting for an extended amount of time, and by the looks of the engine in the photo, it is impressive that everything fired up. A lot of things look like they need to be replaced though.
While there are some photos of the interior, the seller notes that the seats are available, they just are not shown. They indicate that two of the three seats are still in good condition, but one is too far gone. There is some surface rust on the floors as you can see in the photos but overall the truck is solid. The sellers also mention that the entire body of the truck is all original and there is no body filler anywhere.
The bed appears to have some fold-down seats. In the listing, it says this truck is a “troopy”. Since it is running, once you get the brakes and clutch fixed, this could be a great rolling project. My thoughts always go to promotional vehicles. It would be a good parade truck for a service shop or farm. Hot Wheels has recently made a casting similar to this truck, so if you are into Land Rovers, you can restore this one to look like the Hot Wheel and have a real-life version.
These are cool old vehicles, with loads of character and a real following around the world. But be warned (my dad had one of these, in Series III form) the small capacity, non-turbo diesel makes these incredibly slow. They make good off road “auxillary tractors” if you live on a farm or smallholding and just want haul stuff around, but ludicrously slow out on the open road.
Easy to restore though, everything unbolts and parts supply I believe is pretty good. r
No mention of the condition of the frame, nor of the bulkhead.
& these both look pretty rusty in the photos.
Buyer should probably plan on the expense of buying a new galvanized frame & a replacement bulkhead.
Gonna need a replacement front fender too.
& these will be just the 1st items on what will probably be a looooong list of parts to buy.
Nice Landy though. :-)
These were well-built vehicles. I often wonder how they survived through the years. Good ol’ Lucas electrics, which worked OK but ran into problems because the average north American couldn’t comprehend them. Probably more that the wiring diagrams were hard to understand. Dark wire? Who came up with that color? Earth to frame. Three-position switches: Smoke, Smolder and Ignite. And yet I wouldn’t mind taking a project like this on. I’d prefer the closed in cabin to the pickup body but it would be a blast. Diesel engine will last a long time; just remember to check the oil when it stops seeping…
Before Tatra came along…..