If there's one thing that Land Rover really messed up, it's making a bulkhead or a firewall that collects water and is prone to rust. Whilst these cars do last - there's examples from the late 40's and '50's still on the road - because they're largely made of aluminium, the chassis and bulkhead are notorious for not lasting well at all. It's the first thing you check when you buy one.
Our chassis on the 2A was unusually perfect - just some surface rust and one tiny dent at the back which was not really noticeable. Jamie got it sandblasted, then he painted it and the engine is back in and back to a rolling chassis in five weeks. Nope, he definitely does not mess around!
So currently, it's looking a bit more than a rolling chassis - bulkhead in place. That's that big cream or 'limestone' coloured thing in the middle. FYI, in Australia they painted them a sandstone colour but we liked the limestone better, which is an original Landie colour. Don't even start the whole pedancy about the duckeggblue/lightadmirality grey engine.
There has been a LOT of sanding of parts and rustproofing and painting to get to this point. Lucky his mate has a sandblaster!
We also have the wiring loom, made especially with the braided tape around the wires. Expensive, but it'll look amazing under the bonnet.
We are slightly delayed because the weather has cooled down, which means it is hard to paint all the panels, which are being painfully sanded and primed one panel at a time. Still, hopeufully it'll be done by August/September!
We also worked out the budget - so far it's come in at 5k, with the car costing us 4k to begin with. We still need to get the radiator restored and pay for rego and roadworthy, but most things are paid for, so the whole car should come in at under 15K AUD, which is pretty good really. When you have your own free labour, it certainly keeps costs down.
If you're new to my blog and/or have missed what we're doing, this is the original car we bought back in February. She's all pretty original and she's going to look a dream when she's done - watch this space!
With Love,
Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here
Its gonna be a nice tractor! (At least, as a rolling shell, it looks like a tractor!)
My (late) father was a fitter and turner, he passed when I was 19 (almost twenty years ago now..), and I regret not spending more time in the shed(s) with him learning move about mechanical contrivances and torque tolerances, and milling, and etc.
It is something that I really appreciate the mathematical beauty of engineering in now, and these old vehicles have it in droves.
Yes there's something inherently fascinating in how old machinery works. The skills of fitter and turners are next level and translate into other practical skills as they just have a good understanding of how things work. I know one who retired from Fords at 50 and went on to build his own planes. It's a little sad Jamie can't pass on his own skills in that way.
Some guy in the staffroom yesterday, dubious of even Jamie's skills (the guy had a Land Rover he was rebuilding, a first for him) asked me whether I liked cars. 'Well, I know a lot about Land Rovers and really enjoy learning about their mechanics' I said, putting him in his place. Jamie went on to say he'd rebuilt many engines and does his own wiring and so on. The guy was a bit gobsmacked. His version of the rebuild, we found out, was outsourcing a lot of the work to mechanics. Jamie's theory is that he can learn anything, and once you have done a number of mechanical jobs, the skills and knowledge translate to any shed job that turns up.
It does make me appreciate anyone working on this kind of mechanics. I worry these skills are being lost but there's always some kid coming up with a love of practical mechanics. And these old cars being restored are keeping the old skills alive.
There's bound to be a dark age at some point in the future where we lose the sum total of human knowledge due to someone clicking a wrong button on a computer.
Lucky, we have books, and for now, at least, people can still read, but well, our society is so fragile without practical knowledge.
I always think of a sci fi book Mum got called The Feed by Nick Clark Windo - Ai summary because time poor:
The thing I remember most about it is that when the Feed goes down, some peoples minds just broke. They'd look for how to do things on the feed but it wasn't there - a consant searching for maps, guides, resources. People who didn't go on it all the time fared better. To survive, they had to learn everything from scratch. It really appealed to me - not particularly brilliantly written, but good enough to stick in my mind for years to come.
I hope the library has it, I'll add it to my list :) Thank you.
I read a few academic books on the digital dark age when researching my thesis (which was about the representation of death in Art) - so sounds like this would be up my alley.
One of my favourite parts of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is the analogue for TV where people rot their brains.
Today we've just got it in tiktok shorts, and in the palm of people's hands.
Even the news eg ABC are doing shorts! It's crazy. I mean, The Feed isn't as well written as DADOES, but it's a good read with food for thought. My Mum was always a fan of good stories of any kind of post apocalypse or speculative fiction - and still is, so I rely on her to find them for me, ahha. If it's a damn good story and a good read, I can put my love of literature aside :P
Science Fiction /is/ literature. I just finished my re-read of Ender's Game, and I'm about to start on Children of Time by Tchaikovsky. I have sixteen days on my loan and its 981 pages... I'm off to read at least 65 pages. :D
Are you sure the author isn't M.T Anderson ? I found a book called "Feed" available at my library with a similar synopsis.
Yes I am positive.
And lol - just went looking and realised the BBC had made a miniseries based on the first chapter, which is likely terrible, but there you go
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feed_(British_TV_series)#:~:text=The%20Feed%20is%20a%20British,novel%20of%20the%20same%20name.
It doesn't seem like the library has this. I've put a hold on the other one, keep an eye out on my blog, eventually there will be a review :D
good luck with your truck restore.
Thanks.
Wow, looking good! And pretty amazing that the costs are so low! Are you going to keep the interior barebones, or update it a bit with modern stuff?
Original as possible, but with a few surprises!
Rocket ejection seats!
Very impressive restoration work!
Hey mate, we must catch up!
Yep, back on the high seas for another season of plunder. ⛵🏴☠️
✌️😎
Wow 😳, this is pretty impressive. Will be watching out for the end result
It'll be amazing, promise!
Okay 👌
Yeah, I sure miss the free labor... It's what kept us going for decades.... Jamie sure does excellent work! Love seeing the progress on his projects.
Ha, I bet he's missing doing the labour for you 💕💕💕 Jamie gets more amazing every year. I do admire this man! How he can remember where everything goes is beyond me...mind you I did help him out all the bits in labelled bags and on the weekend I even scrubbed some body panels!
It is coming along really nice. Jaimie is a real skilled. I can take care of little things with my truck, but could never accomplish something like this.
He IS really skilled, I am just in love with the guy!! 😍 Hahah if he died there would be massive boots to fill ... I don't think anyone could beat him for practical skills imo. Biased!
Thanks for pointing out the 'bulkhead' in the photo; I had no clue until you showed it. Jamie is making some good progress! That is awesome!
It's a very specific word! It's often called a firewall too.
Does the budget include another pop top roof sleeping space?