1956 Series One Rebuild Project

[ANDYD]

The gauges cleaned up nicely, I used a Q-tip dipped in soapy water to clean what I could. Repainted the gauge bezels black and repainted the panel Bronze Green
I researched the 3 lights, I needed 1 green, 1 red and 1 amber. The new ones I could order from England were plastic and over priced ($20 each :shock: ).
I really preferred to find some metal rimmed ones and remembered from my boat building days that Cole Hersee made some very similar looking ones that were marine grade. I was able to order all three lens colours with metal rim's, the correct dimensions and better quality than the originals for $10 each. I have listed the part numbers for the lights if anyone is interested. The bezels come in silver(which some people like) but I sprayed mine black.
Cole Hersee Part numbers;
PL-20-AC - 12v Amber lens
PL-20-GC - 12v Green lens
PL-20-RC - 12v Red lens

[Dave_F]

Nice work. There is something extremely satisfying about renewing the gauge cluster isn’t there?

[cbalme]

Andy that gauge cluster is looking great! But isn't the speedo supposed to be on the other side?

Looking forward to seeing the finished project.

[ANDYD]

Hey Colin,

Yes, I did look into that and I couldn't find confirmation that they moved the Speedo over to the left side on a Left Hand Drive but it did make sense to do this when sitting on the left side. I'm wondering if the new wiring harness would still work either way, will have to look into that. Was yours on the right side Colin?

I'm sure our Guru Matt will let us know if Speedo was moved to the left side for LHD. Wonder what others have in their LHD's???

-Andy

[mepham55]

I'm sure our Guru Matt will let us know if Speedo was moved to the left side for LHD. Wonder what others have in their LHD's???

-Andy

The speedo never moved for LHD vehicles. I have spoken.

Matt

[ANDYD]

Oh wise one, thank you for your wisdom, I will reverse my decision and move it back to the right side!

Cheers, Andy

PS- Should the badge say Birmingham or Solihul ???

[mepham55]

The Birmingham badge was used on trucks (not 80”’s) up until 1959 on the early series 2’s. I have a 1959 built late 1958 with Birmingham badges and a 1959 built oct 1959 with solihull badges.

Matt

[RobinS]

Hi Andy, Just wondering if you had installed the new seals on your vent flaps. I am Just about to do that on my 1957 88" Looks like it could be tricky so I would like to talk to some one who has done it Cheers Robin

[ANDYD]

Hi Robin,

I haven't done the vent flap seals yet, I see them readily available at various locations in the UK but have put them on the back-burner for a while.
I have seen others use just a simple square shaped self-adhesive foam strip but not sure what direction to go in yet,

If you do yours in the meantime, let me know how it goes,

Cheers
Andy

[troy]

very cool ,its looking good

[RobinS]

Hi Andy, I have been avoiding these seals for a few weeks. As far as I know the series one seals are the only ones that are not a one piece seal. The kit I purchased has four individual parts , one is bevelled that goes in the top. The parts were tightly rolled up in shipping so I am pressing them under some heavy books in a warm place to try and get them straighter before the install. I hope the weather stripping glue I was told to use is good or I am anticipating a mess. Cheers for now, Robin

[ANDYD]

Thanks Troy, do you have a LR project on the go?

Robin, yes four separate pieces for the seals as far as I know, looking forward to seeing how yours turn out.

Back to stripping all the thick black paint off the galvanized windscreen frame and adjoining parts. It wasn't a pleasant job at all and make sure you wear a respirator and gloves when using that aircraft paint stripper. It took a couple of days to remove all the paint and then another couple of days cleaning the galvanized metal with a white vinegar mix. It came up not too bad but a lot of vinegar soaking and "elbow grease" was needed. The glass was in not bad of shape but does have a few scratches and one piece has bubbles in the glass? I have never seen bubbles in glass before but I will likely change it it down the road, easily enough to change.

[rayhyland]

Keep the bubble glass. Adds character, like an old farmhouse where the windows are thicker at the bottom than the top.


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[ANDYD]

Ha, yes your likely right Ray... maybe I will keep it :)

It was good to get the windscreen on as every big part that gets installed opens up precious space in the garage. My Rubbermaid bins of parts has been reduced from 12 bins down to 8 bins, so thats good progress.
It was time to turn my attention to getting the engine running, after the full engine rebuild I want to make sure it runs smoothly before getting too far into putting all the body parts on. I made a list for what I needed to get the engine running, Fuel lines, Fuel pump, Radiator, hoses, carburetor, Distributor, accelerator linkages, at least some wiring for starter motor etc ... ok, so that would be the focus for then week or two.
I started with the radiator as that was another big item along with the front grill panel which supports the radiator. The aluminium front grill panel had 4 layers of paint (green, orange, red, green) which was pretty bumpy so had to come off. It also has a couple of extra holes which I wanted to repair.
So back to paint stripping (sigh) then I repaired a couple of "extra" screw holes with metal epoxy and prepped for new paint.

[ANDYD]

While waiting for the paint to dry on the front grill I jumped over to cleaning and painting all the accelerator linkages, there are lots of these as the pedal is on the left side and the carburetor is on the right side. Then on the Carburetor end there is multiple levers that connect to choke, fuel mixture and accelerator controls.

I also took a moment to install and connect the windscreen vents and hoses (its amazing what you can get done while waiting for paint to dry!)

[rayhyland]

Really looking fantastic Andy!


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[ANDYD]

Thanks Ray, have you been working on your S1's during this "lull"?

Once the front grill panel was installed I moved onto the Lower Dash Control panel as this had a bunch of engine controls mounted on it. All very strange to me as this is my first Series 1.
My Lower Control panel had been cut and chopped by a past owner so I found a replacement from Ebay UK. When it came it didn't have the optional heater switch hole (apparently all Canadian models had the heater as standard as we live in the frozen north!) So I had to drill a new hole. The rectangle cover (not used) is for a Throttle Control Lever which is used more on the Diesel engines to keep the revs higher when stationary for farm equipment etc ..).

[ANDYD]

Back on the front grill panel again, the radiator was apparently flushed & pressure tested by the previous owner so I plan to just install and see how it performs.
It was a simple bolt on procedure so that was easy enough.
I got a little distracted by working on the headlights, this is not going to help me start the engine I thought but it is very satisfying for moral when parts go on that make it look more like a Land Rover. The headlights were made up of a surprising amount of parts, which had me puzzled for a while but I eventually figured out the order of assembly, cleaning and painting the parts as necessary. The bezels around the lights should be the colour of the vehicle the book told me so they were finished in bronze green. I was able to un-solder and re-solder the bakelite electrical plugs onto new wiring. After 64 years the bakelite plugs are still better quality than the new plastic ones you can buy today.

[bsa_m21]

Looking good Andy. At this rate she’ll be on the road in a few weeks.

How are you spray painting the parts? Rattle can or small compressor?

[ANDYD]

Hi Martin, as its been basically small or interior parts up to now I have just used spray cans. I will likely send out the large outer panels to a shop when I eventually get to it.

Next I switched my attention to the Carburetor and Distributor. In the parts box I had a Solex (right) and a Webber (left) carburetors, from what I can ascertain the previous owner replaced the Solex with the Webber. I think for engine start up I will use the Webber to get the engine up and running with the option to rebuild the Solex and eventually switch back to the Solex for originality. I expect there are differing opinions out there on which is the better carburetor to use?
The distributor cap and leads came in a kit :shock: I had always just purchased them all ready assembled in the past so this was another first for me, having to make up my own set. After reviewing a couple of YouTube videos I felt empowered to give it a try. The plug lead kit I had went together very easily and I was surprised how well it turned out. I metered out the leads to make sure I did them correctly. One thing I couldn't find out was if the leads should be all the same length or kept as short as possible? In the end as they are all quite short I just made them all equal length, except for the lead to the coil which needed to be an inch or so longer.

[mepham55]

Looks great Andy. I’ve got some of that braided wire as well I plan on fitting to my 107”. I have a spare set of the correct spark ends for the 2L as well if your interested. They are nice because they plug into the head casting and stop crud from collecting in the spark plug well. I have a NOS cap but it’s missing one of the pointed fixture screws, do you have an old cap lying around?

Matt

[ANDYD]

Hi Matt,
Sorry, no old distributor cap, the previous owner must of chucked it out! :roll:
Yes thanks, I may take you up on the plug ends, I will send you an email.

Back to the Land Rover I thought its time to pull out the new S1 Auto-Sparks wiring harness. There wasn't any paper work or instructions with it but the S1 is a very simple vehicle for wiring so I'm not expecting it to be too challenging. I spread the new wiring harness out on the floor (which is actually about 12 pieces of wiring) and started cross checking the colour coding to the wiring diagram in the workshop manual. Apparently the colours on the new harness are made to match the original colours. There are a few options you can order with a new S1 wiring harnesses, things like the optional passenger wiper motor :shock: as only the drivers one came as standard equipment. Also you can select Positive Earth or Negative earth, Alternator or Dynamo, Optional indicators etc ... I wasn't quite sure what I had (it was purchased by the previous owner) so the investigation begins....
The largest part of the harness runs along the top of the bulkhead and you just have to figure out which wires pop through into the area behind the dash and then the rest stay in the engine bay, half going to the left and half going to the right. Then 1 section will run in the chassis to the back lights, another section goes forward to the grill area and front lights. Once I figured that out I used a couple of "P" clips to hold it in place why I manipulated the wires into the direction I wanted them to go.

[ANDYD]

A lot of the wiring along the bulkhead terminates at the Fuse holder and the Voltage Control Box, so it was time to dig that panel out of the box of bits and assemble the panel along with the Fuel pump which I had ordered from 3 Brothers LR parts as the original pump was AWOL.
After some fresh paint, on went the Fuel Pump, Voltage Control box, fuse holder (thanks for finding me the missing fuse box cover Matt :occasion5: )
The wiring harness then runs in behind the panel and the wires loop over to the terminal blocks.
I had earlier connected up the headlights and couldn't resist a quick test, connecting them up to a battery to confirm my connections and provide a boost to keep me going.

[troy]

Nice job , it is going to be sweet !

[RobinS]

Hi Andy , back when you were installing your vent doors you asked me to post how it went when I installed the vent seals. I layed them out flat back in the spring to try and get the curl out of them. Yesterday I thought I would stop putting it off. With the warm weather I feel it went very well as I think the weatherstripping glue worked much better on warm metal and seal material. I had to hold each piece by hand for a minute or so until it stuck. I couldn't get the upper piece in with the vent installed so took it off , installed the seals and put it back in and closed it on the rubber to hold it in place. Don't use too much glue or you run the risk of glueing the vent to the rubber. Looking forward to seeing what you have got done since your last post and hope this info might be usefull. Cheers Robin