This is Wumbat the Land Rover, he's a 1956 86" Series 1 Land Rover belonging to my friend Twit. This first set of pictures were taken when we went to meet Wumbat for the first time. As you can see Wumbat was fairly tidy, but would his mechanicals be up to scratch? Four hours later we decided that Wumbat was in fine mechanical condition, all that was left for Twit to decide, was whether to purchase Wumbat or not. I'm glad to say after much Umming and Arring he decided to buy Wumbat. Still if he had said No, I would have bought Wumbat myself, much to the horror of my wife Rosey.
Hmmm, interesting interior, canvas/vinyl front seats, and blankets covering the rear bench seats, lovely. Still it's only cosmetic, and Twit had already devised a plan for the seats even before getting Wumbat home!
Here we are after picking up Wumbat from his previous owner on our way back to Wumbat's new home. It's quite a trip for little Wumbat, the four of us, Twit, Jo, myself, and Rosey only took an hour and a half to get to the previous owners house. The return trip in Wumbat with Rosey and Jo following took over four hours!, most of time was spent crossing London. Still it was better fun than sitting on the M25. We decided to finish the journey by travelling up the M4 to Wumbat's new home. We cruised along at 50mph whilst cars zoomed past us at well beyond 70! Meanwhile, Rosey and Jo were sat behind us the whole time in Rosey's company car praising Wumbat's high top speed!
Twit's concentrating on driving, whilst I'm waving here, trying to smooth things over with our VERY understanding wives, who have now been sat behind a smelly old Land Rover for about three hours!
Here's Twit and Jo, obviously very happy to see Wumbat make it safely to his new home. Well almost, this is my parents driveway, but he did make it all the way home without a hitch, honest!
Twit not content with being a Land Rover owner once again decides that Wumbat needs a fresh coat of paint to help him settle into his new home. Therefore armed with several tins of paint, a brush, and a roller, he sets about giving Wumbat a fresh coat of paint. Here's some photo's early on after Twit has cleaned and painted the front bumper and chassis.
There is a bit of a gap here between when Twit started painting Wumbat, and when he finished, I'll fill in the gaps as and when I get copies of the photo's. So anyway, here's Wumbat getting the finishing touches to his makeover, a lovely new spare wheel cover. How many Land Rover owners does it take to put on a spare wheel cover?
One good thing about driving a Series 1 Land Rover is that you always have a clear road ahead of you. Just spare a thought for the poor souls stuck behind you, about 15 on average!
The only time we got stuck behind traffic was when we joined the queue of Land Rovers trying to get to the Old Sodbury Sortout. The Sortout is held every six months and is great for finding new and used Land Rover parts to keep your pride and joy on or off the road. There are even complete vehicles for sale. Our shopping list this time was slightly smaller though!
Among all the stalls at Sodbury we came across this 1949 Series 1 Land Rover for sale. It's seen better days by the looks of things. It does however come with a spare front bulkhead, good thing too as the original one looks like swiss cheese (see below) Yours for £850. I won't tell you how much Twit paid for his Landie, but it wasn't a great deal more, bargains are there to be had if you shop around. This however is a serious project for someone.
The spring below belongs to a Series III Land Rover that was also for sale at Sodbury. Although the Series III was in better condition than the Series 1 we'd seen, there were still areas that would need attention. For instance, it would need a new set of rear leaf springs, as you can see rust has taken it's toll on these springs and forced the leaves apart. These springs would be dangerous to use as it is possible that they could come apart. If you look closely, you can see the metal band that holds the leaves together has been bent outwards.
This last shot is of two Land Rover owners, pleased as punch with their Old Sodbury purchases. I picked up a brand new hood stick set so that I can use a full canvas in the summer with my Series III, whilst Twit picked up some canvas which he'll use to re-upholster the seats in Wumbat. We also got some other smaller goodies to play with, such as wing mirrors, reflectors, and a decent tow rope.
