More work on Benson, this time it's the rear corner pillars. Later Range Rovers have vinyl covered rear corner pillars. Benson also had vinyl pillars until recently. However Range Rovers built before October 1973 should have metal pillars that are painted the same colour as the rest of the bodywork. So I picked up a pair of secondhand vinyl pillars at an Old Sodbury Sortout. Carefully removed the plastic vents and their clips, removed the vinyl covering to reveal the aluminium pillar beneath. Cleaned off all the old glue, knocked out a couple of dings and handed them over to my local friendly bodyshop who gave them a coat of paint. After that I refitted the plastic vents and swapped them over with the old vinyl pillars. Above and below are the results.

Next up it was time to get that elusive tailgate badge that all early Range Rovers except for Benson seem to have. The badge is fitted to the bottom left corner of the lower tailgate and is a brushed aluminium oval badge that reads "By Land Rover" in embossed black lettering. You can't get these badges anywhere, at least that's what I thought until I heard about a 1973 Range Rover that was being broken for spares. I contacted the owner who confirmed that the tailgate was in mint condition and did in fact have one of these badges, so a two hour drive and a hole in my wallet later I had a badge, only trouble was it was still attached to the tailgate! Although the tailgate I had bought was in good condition I would have had to do quite a lot of work to it to get it on Benson. The badge was also in need of some work as parts of it had started to oxidise. So instead of risking damage to the badge by trying to remove it, I went to a local sign makers who were able to copy the badge and make up a nice new reproduction badge for Benson. I think they did a superb job, you can just see the badge in the photos above and below.

Below is a close up of the repro badge. I've since talked to the owner of the sign makers that created the badge for me, and they're quite willing to make a limited run of the badges if there's enough interest. I said that I'd put the word out to see if people would like these badges. So if you're interested in one of these badges for your early Range Rover, contact me at the following email address (dale@dalesworld.com) and I'll organise getting some more badges produced.