From the shop of Paul Bandelier: “Essentially, every part had to be created or custom fit to work. Virtually no easy bolt-on equipment. The engine is a new crate motor from Cummins called the R2.8. It’s a pretty popular re-power option for a lot of vintage trucks.” Here’s a great video of the Commando on (and off) the road.
An ex-Forest Service truck. The entire drivetrain is from a 1992 Dodge Cummins donor truck. Thus there was no need to fabricate and engineer every single piece. With some work, all of the ’92 parts fit in the ’72 body and frame. The pride and joy of Paul Bandelier.
Dr. Tergin discovered a leak (red oval) where the exhaust manifold connects to the exhaust pipe. This rebuilt 300Tdi engine was supposed to have a turbocharger but there simply wasn’t room and I knew I wasn’t planning to do the sort of driving that needed the turbo. It was still a bitch to get the exhaust system connected. And it appears somebody sort of skimped on the Turbine Inlet Flange (red arrow). George will have Andy Cain at Capital Machine fabricate a most excellent flange and then make some improvements to the exhaust system. Larger diameter exhaust for starters and we’ll probably do away with the muffler altogether since there’s general agreement the truck could not possibly be any louder.
This is one of those “I left my phone/coffee/purse/baby on top of my car and drove 10 miles without it falling off” stories.
Couple of months back I forgot to put the gas cap back after filling up the pickup and drove home.
When I discovered it was missing I went back to the convenience store but if anyone found it they hadn’t turned it in. So I purchased a “universal” cap because there was no way to replace the original which had been on the truck since 1977.
Yesterday my neighbor flagged me down and held up a gas cap asking, “Is this yours?” He had been raking gravel from his yard back into the road and discovered my gas cap. It somehow remained balanced on the bed of the truck for five miles of turns and hills and only our steep, bumpy gravel road shook it off.
Powerful forces at work here, friends. I’ll come up with some sort of chain to insure this doesn’t happen again. Minty Fresh is once again perfect.
UPDATE: I replaced earlier image with the one above.
Link to this beauty (I assume they were all out of every other color) showed up in comments on another post. Restoration by Classic Car Studios in St. Louis. Figured it deserved a post. But I’d be much more likely to buy this truck before one of the new Land Rovers.
“This is the sort of vehicle that most of us need, one that is entirely practical… there is no carrying about of weight more or less uselessly devoted to fashionable appearance and not really essential luxury.” — The Autocar (1948)
Came across the quote above in a magazine. True in 1948, less so today (okay, not at all). I’ve been driving mine almost daily for seven months and still having a blast. More Rover love:
“Perfectly reasonable people seem to take leave of their senses upon first meeting a Land Rover. It is less a car than a state of mind. Its owners are the most partisan group imaginable and its would-be owners are legion.” — David E. Davis, Car and Driver
“Yes, it’s loud, and rough, and slow, and unreliable. Yes, the Jeep Wrangler is better than the Defender in every objective way. But that’s the point of the Defender: it’s unique. It’s special. It’s unusual. The Jeep Wrangler is for people who leave their dealership license plate frame on. For people who drive past six gas stations to get to a Texaco two miles from their house because gas there is three cents cheaper.” (Jalopnik)
Several months ago I bought an old (’77) pickup truck. Just for fun and hauling stuff. Like me, it’s a little beat up.
While stopped at an intersection today, waiting for the light to change, I got a little bump from the car behind me. (A Hyundai, I think.) In my mirror I saw the woman making cringing “I’m sorry” signs so I just smiled, waved and drove on. Don’t know if it did any damage to her plastic car (and don’t much care since she wasn’t hurt). It was just a nudge but who knows how much damage it would have done had I been in a ‘nice’ car.
George had me bring the truck back in for a follow-up to last month’s deep dive. The front and rear axle U-bolts were still good and tight; a tiny leak from the front of the transfer case but we decided not to mess with it. (It’s a Land Rover. You gotta have a leak.) Oil levels in the the transmission and transfer case were perfect.
When warm weather is here to stay we’ll pull the hardtop and replace it with a nice mesh tilt. To make that task a bit easier, we removed the inside panels from the front and rear doors. Had to drill some pop rivets. Getting the hard top off is going to be a piece of cake.
I really enjoy these sessions with George. He patiently explains what he’s doing and why and it’s a great way to get to know the truck (and not fuck it up by trying these things on my own).
UPDATE (February 22, 2019): Spent a few more hours with George at Tergin Motors today and finished up the first service on the Land Rover. I hesitate to call this a “service” because George was so exhaustive (in a good way) in going over the truck front-to-back. All told, more than 20 hours over the three days and he let me watch every minute. This was not some wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am GoofyLube service. George approached this like it was his own truck and along with the routine maintenance, he found some stuff that wasn’t done right during the restoration (go figure) and could have been big problems down the road.
I’m confident the truck is now in the best shape it has been since it rolled off the assembly line in Spain back in 1979. We’ll do follow-up inspection but the truck is already driving better.
What started out as a routine service has turned out to be more like a visit to Mayo Clinic. But in a good way. Several times today George exclaimed, “Oh shit!” as he found several things that were done poorly by the people that did the original restoration. Something of a regular occurrence.
We drained and filled the front and rear diffs as well as the front swivel joints.
While I pumped (I’m now an expert), George patiently and carefully fixed each problem. He took the leaky rear wheel apart — right down to the axel — and replaced seals.
We should finish up tomorrow and then we’ll follow up on the transmission/transfer box issue. Do we have a bad seal between the two or was it a matter of having the wrong gear lube, improperly filled. Stay tuned.
UPDATE February 19, 2019: Yesterday we drained transmission and transfer case (the transmission was very low on fluid) and refilled with the correct fluid. Wow, what a difference. Shifting gears now much quieter and feels almost ‘silky.’ Still have to do the diffs and there’s an issue with a leaky seal in one of the wheels. George Tergin did the work but I’m proud to report got some transmission fluid in my hair.
Coming up on six months since I took delivery of the Land Rover. Even as my daily driver I’ve only put 5,333 km (3,313 mi) on the truck so it really isn’t due (according to the manual) for a service until 10,000 km. But my mechanic pal George had a rare open window so we pulled it into his shop yesterday for a service and check up.
Those of a certain age will remember servicing your car every 3,000 miles. I think that’s frequency we’re gonna shoot for. Should work out to every six months and more often is more better.
George is a meticulous mechanic. No detail too small to examine. Probably spent half an hour just on the oil pan drain plug. It was my dime so I instructed him to pretend he was working on his own vehicle.
The truck has an oil bath air filter and Philippe must have been double-jointed to make it fit with the newer engine. Once George got it out he explained how it worked. Simple yet effective technology.
Replacing oil filter and fuel filter was pretty straight forward. The lubricant level in the front differential was little low so we topped that off.
We hit a snag while checking level on the transfer case. I won’t bore you with details but it seems like the kind of thing the guys at JiffyLube might have missed. George is doing more research so the truck remains in his shop for a bit. Just the eventuality that prompted me to add the pickup to my fleet.
All in all a fun day. Having watched George I think I could probably change the oil and filters on the truck but I doubt I will. Much more fun — and educational — to do it with George.
