1959 Series 2 Restoration

[richard94]

I thoroughly enjoy going through all the restoration threads that are on this forum and decided I should put up a bunch of photos of my project of the past 4 years. But first, the backstory.

When I was still in university I was scrolling Facebook Marketplace and stumbled across someone getting rid of an old Land Rover. It was at a scrap/junk yard and had apparently been removed from an estate cleanup where the shed had partially fallen on it. The body damage that there was had been caused when the person at the yard decided to use an excavator to offload it from the trailer. As the story goes, the person that had owned the Rover prior had been slowly restoring it (or at least had done work on it). There was a new suspension setup and the frame only had minor surface rust, the chevy block paint color and a box of parts with an used timing chain, valves and other goodies. Here are some photos of how it came to me like.

[richard94]

Here are some strip down photos.

[richard94]

I scoped the engine cylinders and checked compression and decided not to take the head off as everything looked to be in really good shape.

[richard94]

Engine, meet frame.

[richard94]

Written along the inside edge of the hard top were a series of very relevant inscriptions. I am still trying to figure out how to incorporate them on the restored Land Rover, maybe a custom bumper sticker? Any suggestions?

[John]

Well done for saving that one. It looks worthy. Many would not see past the body damage.

[ANDYD]

Yes, I second what John said, its great you weren't deterred by the way you first found it ("never judge a book by its cover" they say!).

Nice work so far, its wonderful to see them coming back to life again 8)

keep it up ....

[RobinS]

Great job , looking forward to more pictures.

[richard94]

Thanks for the encouraging comments. I'm close to starting it back up after rewiring it from scratch. This is one of my more proud customizations. I have swapped to an alternator and no longer needed the voltage regulator so I removed the coils and 3D printed a bracket to hold blade fuses (I knew a 3D printer was a sound investment). I then soldered the wiring into the regulator so I could attach the fused lines to the original exterior connectors. Now I have modern fuses hidden nicely in the old package.

[richard94]

Here are some more photos of the progress, a lot of work went into the difference between bulkhead going on and front rad.

[richard94]

Yes my frame has flowers on it, all 4 wheel wells have a different theme that will quietly be visible past the wheels. This is the build as of last night (Feb. 28, 2022).

[Wilfpower]

Awesome work! What a great vehicle to save, that one was really nice!
Can’t wait to see it driving, also nice cat.

[Wilfpower]

And I like the flowers too!

[oldgravy]

Nice work with the 'voltage regulator.'

[mepham55]

Looks great! Look forward to seeing this in person. Maybe at founders day this year?!

Matt

[ANDYD]

..... Or maybe the Sunshine Coast ABFM in May !!!

[richard94]

I hope to drag it out to a lot of those events, although I still have bodywork to do... I flashed it up and drove it around the yard this weekend so that warranted a few celebratory beers. I am going to restore an old 1976 Trillium travel trailer next to tow behind the old girl.

[RobinS]

Congratulations on the first drive , it's quite a milestone. I still have a celebratory beer every time mine flashes up and we go for a drive. the beer after the drive of course. Cheers Robin

[richard94]

Thank you! It's been a long time coming (not the beer).

I would like to pick the collective brains of people on here. I converted my LR to a 63 amp alternator instead of the generator. because of that my 30 amp gauge would always be pinned which is not good, but I still want it to work. I have been doing some reading and think that if I use a shunt resistor in the main battery cable which takes a fractional voltage change to measure amps, I can make my 30 amp gauge read 60 or 100 amps as a division, so when the gauge would read 14amp input it's really 28amps and so on. This way I can keep the old gauge and still have it work with the higher amperage.

Has anyone tried this? I'll let you guys know if it works, I'm not electrical engineer so my grasp is strictly youtube based.

[jacobko]

Thank you! It's been a long time coming (not the beer).

I would like to pick the collective brains of people on here. I converted my LR to a 63 amp alternator instead of the generator. because of that my 30 amp gauge would always be pinned which is not good, but I still want it to work. I have been doing some reading and think that if I use a shunt resistor in the main battery cable which takes a fractional voltage change to measure amps, I can make my 30 amp gauge read 60 or 100 amps as a division, so when the gauge would read 14amp input it's really 28amps and so on. This way I can keep the old gauge and still have it work with the higher amperage.

Has anyone tried this? I'll let you guys know if it works, I'm not electrical engineer so my grasp is strictly youtube based.

Hi Richard,

Nice work on this build! I've been checking it out for a while, but this is my first comment.

There is definitely a way to do this by using a current division circuit using only resistors, and you are not the first person to have asked (even Ike Goss from Pangolin 4x4 called me and asked this exact question a few weeks ago). Your current division circuit would shunt across the terminals of your current gauge, not in your battery cable. Send me a PM or an email and I can get back to you with a schematic, and an explanation of what resistors and other stuff you will need.

Jacob