The truck is mine! By that I mean I paid the last installment and the paperwork is on the way. Still a few items to take care of but the restoration is mostly complete. I received a detailed, two-page description of the disassembly and reassembly that might be interesting to fans of vintage cars and trucks.
“Down to the last nut and bolt. Every component was completely removed, beginning with the engine.”
The restoration seems to have moved to the interior of the truck which — I hope — means we’re getting near the end.
The original three-across bench seats have been replaced with bucket seats (vinyl) and storage compartment. These seats are about as modern as I would care to go. Would have been fine with the originals but then I have never ridden on those. I’m sure these are better.
All of the original glass has been replaced with safety glass. That suggests the original glass was not safety glass!
The side windows on the rear of the truck slide horizontally to open and close. Just like the side windows on the cab. Suspect sight lines might be better than the MINI.
There are four vents in the ceiling of the hardtop. These can be opened and closed to control airflow that’s scooped in from the top of the truck.
When Luke Richards started restoring this truck he was going to make it a soft top to take full advantage of the beautiful California weather. And my first thought was for a soft top, too. Missouri winters be damned! But in the end I decided to invest the extra money (and time) in a hardtop which I can remove in warmer weather. Six months on, six months off.
Can’t tell from the photo above but it looks like the seats might be in, so I’d say we’re getting close.
Since I started my search for a Land Rover. Seems much longer. Serious time distortion. If I get the truck by October 1 it will have been 5 months from beginning to end.
I’ve never given a thought to having a car stolen. No annoying alarm, no Club. And I’ve never owned a car that would be particularly attractive to car thieves. In a couple of months I’ll be driving a truck that might very well catch a thief’s eye. My friend George pointed out few car thieves could drive my Land Rover because it has a manual transmission. Could that be right, I wondered?
According to U.S. News and World Report “only 18 percent of U.S. drivers know how to operate a stick shift” and “only about 5 percent of vehicles sold in the U.S. today come with a stick shift. That’s down from 25 percent of cars in 1987.”
I have a little trouble picturing a car thief pushing a car unless the chop shop is around the corner. I suppose a truly sophisticated effort could involve a flat-bed truck. They’ll need to be quick about however, because my tracking device will alert me if the truck is moved.