The Rover-Landers of BC

This is quite the tale so sit back and enjoy. That said I'm still not sure how this will end.
This all starts with a girl...my dear wife Karin. Karin grew up in the town of Nelson BC, traveled and during the course of her travels while she was in Australia she was swept of her feet by me hehehe. Cut to the chase... she convinced me to come to Canada and visit her family and her small town. While I was on this trip I saw something buried in the snow, see attached picture.
What I saw was her late grandfathers 1967 series 2a. It had been parked under a tree the day her grandfather left to go to hospital and sadly he never came home.
Two years later we returned to Nelson to get married and I got to see the Landrover without all the snow. It looked like it would make a great project. But we lived on the other side of the world. So it was just a pipe dream.
But things were about to change...

Another two years went by, we had two small children and my wife who at that stage had lived in Australia for almost 14 years was missing home. So we made the decision to up stumps and move our family back to Canada to make a go at things.
Both my wife and I are teachers. In Australia I taught Design Technology and I was a body-man by trade. So I was lucky enough to secure a job as the new shop teacher in Nelson.
My principal told me that he felt the students needed a project that would challenge them, did I know of any that would be suitable? I sure did, and the Landrover project began.
The following pictures are of how I found it when I arrived here in Canada and getting it to school.

Sounds like a great start to a epic story, looking forward to lots of updates as the project gets going.
Hopefully the students are as enthusiastic as the teacher ...

Cheers, Andy

I knew that pitching this project to my students may be a hard sell. The Landrover is not your average street machine, muscle car. So I needed to come from a different angle. I showed my students old footage of things like the camel trophy and old National Geographic African safaris. I basically generated their interest in a truly iconic piece of motoring history.
Then I personalised it. This Landrover belonged to my wife's late grandfather Lee Bronaugh. Lee was a geologist from Texas who moved to British Columbia when he retired back in the early 70's. He bought the Landrover in 1972 and he had kept every single receipt for anything he ever did or fixed on the Landrover. Not only that, Lee kept a log of every time he drove the Landrover and where he drove it, right up to the day he parked it under the tree, where I came across it some 20 years later.
This project was to be a gift to my wife and to the memory of her late grandfather. For my students it was merely the challenge to breathe new life into cool old truck that had been long forgotten.

And so it began... the disassembly stage.

I will be watching this thread closely (and jealously). Great backstory... And great truck!

I am an LV Rogers graduate from 1994.

Glad to see the project!

Wonderful, please keep the updates coming.

It's Time to Finish What We Started!
A decade ago, I shared this story of my wife's grandfather's 1967 Series 2a Land Rover, a vehicle that had been frozen in time since the day he last drove it. It became a project for my students, a labour of love, and a source of frustration for me. Life, as it does, threw some curveballs over the years, and the Land Rover took a backseat to family and work. But it was never forgotten. Other passions and projects have come and gone, but the Land Rover has remained a steadfast goal, always calling me back to the garage.

Ten years later, I can see the finish line. The kids are older, I've been at another school for 8 years, and I'm feeling that itch to get this Series back on the road where it belongs. It's been a slow process while navigating the challenges of a somewhat isolated Land Rover scene here, but I'm determined to see this through.

This thread will document the final push to complete the restoration. I'm not afraid to ask for help when I need it. I'll share photos, and progress updates, and hopefully inspire others who have a project that's been sitting on the back burner for too long. It's never too late to finish what you started!
I have added a couple of pictures of progress over the Decade.

It looks really nice , love the yellow paint! Cheers Robin

I finally, after 12 years (life gets in the way a lot), finished the restoration of this series 2a. Thanks to Phil Brown for helping me over the line. Yes there will always be some tinkering to do, but I'm up and running now and couldn't be happier.

It looks fantastic! Well done!

Great to see another one back on the road. I hope it provides many more years of miles and smiles.

Awesome 👏