Paul Bandelier shared these beauties. I’ll update with the particulars in a few days.
Category Archives: Cars & Trucks
Land Rover go fast
Dan Poettgen and Chief Mechanic Scotty worked some magic on the Land Rover.
Every so often I’ve had to take it in for them to adjust a cable (?) that fed fuel to the diesel engine. As it slipped, I had to push the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor and still wasn’t going very fast.
Like so many things with the Land Rover, this bit wasn’t really done properly the first time. So Dan and Scotty ordered some parts…made some parts and voila!
I have way more “throw” on the accelerator and it feels like the engine is (for the first time?) getting the fuel it needs. Drives like it has twice the power and acceleration it had before.
A great car needs a great video
The handful of readers who followed my Land Rover adventure will recall Grayson Wolf was the young man who found the Series III Rover that has been my daily driver for the last few years.
Based in the Bay Area, Grayson works on high performance vehicles for the well-heeled and finds buyers and sellers for just about any thing on four wheels. He’s been working with a friend to produce videos used to show and sell. I was particularly impressed with the music in these videos, original compositions by Grayson’s buddy. [2000 Ferrari 360 Modena, 1967 Jaguar E-Type, 2001 BMW Z8 Roadster]
Toyota Land Cruiser FJ55
Mr. Wolf is still out there finding, buying/selling, restoring vintage automobiles. This week he shared some photos of an FJ55:
“FJ55s were rare to begin with and had zero rust prevention, so they all evaporated. When you do see them they are usually a collection of rusty parts held together with Bondo. So an original paint 55 is a rare sight. That one now has fuel injection, a 5 speed, disc brakes, AC, beefier axles, lockers, etc.”
“Original paint with heavy patina, so we did a satin clear coat on it.”
Land Rover Hardtop Rack
In a couple of weeks it will be time to remove the hardtop from the Land Rover. (The first true sign of spring.) For the last few years this has involved gathering a crew to remove the top (video) and move it to wherever I could find to store it. If the ceiling of one’s garage is high enough, you can simple winch it up until it’s time to drop it back on in the fall. Insufficient head-room on my garage forced me to store the hardtop in a rental unit which worked fine until a tornado swept through Jefferson City.
After repairing the banged up hardtop I stored it in a basement room, a tedious and cumbersome process. So the next year we suspended the hardtop under the deck. Which worked fine but, again, took a half dozen people. What I really needed was a way to unbolt the hardtop, lift it up, and drive away. I needed a LRHR (Land Rover Hardtop Rack).
A local machine shop has constructed a simple steel frame and it should be ready in a couple of days. I found a good spot for it on our recently acquired acreage. While raking away old leaves and wood chips I discovered big cement slab that was part of a dog run 40 years ago.
It’s almost in the exact right spot and here’s the strange part: the hardtop rack will be seven feet wide and twelve feet long. The slab is 7’5″ wide and 25′ long.
The plan is to back the Land Rover up to the rack, unbolt the top, and back the truck under the frame. We’ll then use tie-down straps to suspend the top to the rack and ratchet it up off the body of the truck. We won’t be adding the hoop kit this year because I discovered I liked driving the truck topless.
UPDATE 4/26/22: The rack has been delivered and assembled. Still have to bolt the rack to the cement pad but the plan is to lift the top this weekend.
NYC Land Rover
Spotted on 71st Street in Manhattan, where –I’m told– physicians can park anywhere. This is a thing of beauty. I would love to know the story that goes with it.
Road rot? Where?
When I purchased my 1977 Ford F150 pickup truck it was comparatively rust-free, having spent it’s life in Colorado where — I’m told — they add corrosion inhibitors to the salt they put on their highways. Had the truck spent those same 40+ years on Missouri highways, it would have rusted away long ago. But my truck did have (does have) some rust spots which I’ve successfully ignored. But the two holes in floor of the cab are getting bigger and sucking some cold air in.
My buddy George Tergin — the master of the automotive hack — suggested I patch these using old license plates, silicone, and self-tapping screws. Before and after photos below.
Hadn’t planned to do much about the other rust spots until Mr. Wolf pointed me to POR-15, a rust preventative coating that I can “glop on the other rust spots. Like so many things in my life now, the pickup only has to last as long as I do.
BBC’s Top Gear Lost Segment – Greatest Car Vote
“The greatest car vote segment was cut out of all re-airings and streaming versions of BBC’s Top Gear. It was aired only once in 2003, and most of the recordings of it were lost.” Segment 5: Land Rover (5:45)
Topless
I’ve had the Land Rover for three years now and this is the first time I’ve gone completely topless. We’ll put the hard top back on later this month and I decided to remove the mesh top hoop kit early. Really kind of fun driving around with nothing between me and the sky. If I’m out and it starts raining? Everything gets wet.
Land Rover top swap
On Saturday a few friends came out to the house to help me take the hardtop off the Land Rover and put the soft-top on. Didn’t do this last spring because COVID was rampant. Really missed driving around under the mesh top. Last time we had the top off was in 2019. Took more help to get the hardtop back on that fall.
I’ve stored the hardtop in different places. After it was nearly destroyed by a tornado, I kept it in the basement but that meant removing the top from the sides. With a little help from my friends we were able to squeeze it in under the deck. Going to see if I can improve the look with a section of plastic lattice. (see below)
My thanks to the crew: George Kopp, Dave Kempf, Gaston De La Torre, and Dave Trammel.
