It’s not often you see a Series II Land Rover for sale as they were only produced from 1958 to 1961. This one is listed here on eBay and is being sold with an opening bid of $3,500 with no reserve — sounds pretty inexpensive, doesn’t it? You might want to read the rest of this post for some more details, and if you like what you see plan on traveling to Lewisburg, West Virginia to pick the vehicle–and parts–up.
Most older folks remember this generation of Land Rover (Series II and IIA) from Daktari, Born Free, and other movies and television programs that were filmed in Africa. This is the short wheelbase (88″) version. The seller chooses to share almost no information with us, and states they don’t know the year nor do they have a title to the vehicle. Negatives for sure, but not “litmus test” drawbacks for at least some of us.
If you go back and look a little closer at the first two pictures, you’ll see (if you didn’t already) that the rear wheel orientation to the body just doesn’t look quite right. I’m projecting here, but I’m guessing the frame has some issues, especially since a pretty solid frame is included with the project as pictured above. I’m sure there are some Land Rover experts among our readers that can tell us whether this is correct or not!
The more knowledgeable among you probably know that Land Rovers like this one have an aluminum body, which sometimes means you have little corrosion worries. However, there is an under-structure that has steel in it and unfortunately it is known for rusting badly. We don’t have many pictures to work from and none show the inner structure. I, for one, would be interested in knowing exactly where to look for problems — think the Land Rover equivalent of the C3 Corvette “bird cage”.
One thing this vehicle does have is that great Land Rover look! A grille would be nice, though. You can tell it’s a Series II by the position of the lights on the front fenders.
Inside, the four jump seats are present, although I’m sure the upholstery will need some help.
I’ve seen a lot of RHD Land Rovers at British car shows–the LHD is nice for our market, although I’m sure you won’t be taking this on the highway very often. Most everything seems to be present, leading me to further suppose that the reason this warrior was taken off the road has to do with the rear frame.
This is a petrol (gas) engine as shown by the spark plugs on the other side from this shot. Depending on the vintage, this can either be a legacy 2.0 liter unit with 52 horsepower or a later 2.25 liter, 72 horsepower engine. I did find images that lead me to believe it’s the later engine, but I’m not 100% sure. Either way, you won’t find many vintage Land Rovers for this kind of money–but are you willing to take it on?
I peg it as a 1966. Seat belt mounts but the old “banjo” steering wheel. It also has the later valve cover breather with the hose, which SHOULD be attached to the carb intake tube. What is going on with the “jog” in the bulkhead behind the front seats on the passenger side? Looks original or professionally done but they didn’t come that way….AND I don’t NEED one but it’s close enough and cheap enough……arrrgh…..Somebody stop me!
I’d bet somebody did that jog to the drivers side to give the driver more legroom. I had the opportunity to buy one of these a couple of years ago for less than a grand, but I passed because I couldn’t get in the darn thing because of my height/size.
I love these auctions with the starting bid at where they want to sell it, hoping somebody will offer more even though it’s probably not worth the starting bid.
I owned two Series II Landrovers, an 88, and a 109. They were great workhorses, but I was tortured with maintenance issues. The engine is bullet proof, but it is a low revving engine and a person would want to find an overdrive unit if they want to drive it on today’s highways. There was an integral overdrive unit available, but I don’t know if a person could easily find one. A friend of mine had one, and it made the Landrover driveable enough that he would tow a trailer from BC to Mexico every winter. The Warn locking hubs are also a real asset when the vehicle is not in 4wd. Driving around town is a much more pleasant experience without all that extra rotating mass on the front.
One annoying problem I had, was that the previous owner had probably done some pulling in 2wd low range, and overstressed the transmission case which caused it to jump out of gear on the highway. There were other minor issues, but I have to admit that I liked my Toyota Landcruiser 1000 times more for driveability,
There is no question that the rear wheel is too far forward, leading me to believe it is the locating pin on the spring, The spring hangers, or an issue with the frame. If the frame is provided, It wouldn’t bother me too much to transpose the body onto the new frame.
For someone that is willing to drive an excellent but slower utility vehicle, the Landrover would be a great acquisition. I always thought that the Landrover body with the Landcruiser running gear, would have been the perfect combination.
Bob
I’ve always been interested in a Land Rover similar to this one but whenever one came up for sale, it was beat to death. This one is worth restoring and should prove to be a lot of fun, albeit not very fast. You’re probably going to have to get used to Whitworth bolt heads and nut sizes. Not a real bad thing. S-K tools used to sell sockets and wrenches in /32’s sizes and you could get by just fine. I actually bought Whitworth wrenches and sockets some years ago because of my British bikes. I look at this and just say that I’m getting too old to take on anything more, although a guy in our car club restored a very rough Jaguar XK-120 when he was in his late 70s so one shouldn’t give up too easily.
You are testing my memory here, but I had everything with the exception of the bottom end of the engine and the transmission/transfer case apart on my 2 Series II Landrovers apart at one time or another, and I don’t remember anything on the vehicles that was Whitworth. I only know about the Canadian versions, and that might not have been the case for other export models. Even the differentials were well built, my only complaint being, that they annealed the axles so that they broke off at the differential, where they might not have failed at all otherwise.
The other thing I changed, was that I adapted a Delco alternator to replace the old generator and old style voltage regulator. This was a real plus in the winter time, because the heater needs to run full on because of all the air leaks around the windows.
These trucks were easy and straight forward to work on, and I believe that is one of the reasons for their long lived popularity.
Bob
The survival rate for early Land Rovers is pretty amazing. They have a large global following and excellent technical and spare parts availability.
Bob’s absolutely (and obviously!) spot on with his comments. I’d agree that the most likely reason for the rear wheel location is that the locating pins on the springs are missing.
Chassis changeovers are very straightforward on these basic, robust machines.
If you find a British land rover magazine you will find ads for galvanized frames
The series one trucks (’48-58) have BSF and Whitworth fasteners and a set of tools is an asset. Series 2 is fastened with UNC and USF. A frame swap can be accomplished in a weekend, though it’s taken me two years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpTKTwEQksE
The 2 1/4 engine is a durable motor and parts are not hard to find in the US for trucks after 1958.
The cjassis and firewall (bulkhead) are steel and subject to rust. The replacenment chassis is already starting to go…and they rust from the inside. Galvanize the chassis and you’re on your way. You can buy a running truck for not much more than this.
Had a neighbor back in the sixties who had one of these…although it may have been a long wheelbase …but had the same inboard headlights. As a “older” person….shoot me…I watched Daktari as a kid. Oh cripes.
Yeah, but what fun is there in doing a swap that fast??? yuk yuk..