113-372 Series 2A 88"GS ex-Provo St Vietnam

[DJM110]

G'day All, This will be a ongoing thread re the restoration of 113-372 a 1964 Series 2A 88"GS, Army Census 6005

Nomenclature Truck Utility 1/4Ton GS

Contract C110350

Chassis number 24305444b

I have seen this Land Rover in and around where I live since the early 1970's, it was owned by a local sawmill company 'Craft Bros' Millfield NSW, I just knew at the time it was a ex-army Land Rover, it always looked and sounded good as it motored around, at the time I was married

no kids as yet, I had a Series 1 86" and I lusted after a better looking Series 2A especially ex army, anyway I didn't get one until 1999 (Chloe, my 1st restoration see Land Rover gallery) anyway this Land Rover didn't come my way until 2000/2001, I had heard that it was for sale, but I ended up getting the run around so to speak and I bought another S2A 88"GS (see Wee-Wullie in L/Rover gallery) so my old mate Graham Dunlop bought BLR-626, a picture of it sitting in Millfield NSW in 2000

and kept it for me until I could afford to start work on it.

Now jump back to the late 60's, the place Sth Vietnam, a young Nasho (National Serviceman) had just completed his tour of duty in country (12 months) he is at Tan Son Nuht airfield just outside Saigon waiting for a bird to fly him out back to Australia, when all of a sudden as is what can happen at any given time in a war zone, the Vietcong attack the airfield with rockets n mortars, he is issued a weapon to help defend the area against the Vietcong, anyway as it came to pass Stan M (the Nasho) is waiting at the perimeter of the airfield next morning after the all clear, along comes a Land Rover with 4 Aussie Provo's in it, of course Aussies being a bit cheeky towards each other in a friendly way, the Provo's were ripping him off about RTA (return to Australia), he whips out his camera and snaps this shot

Stan thinks nothing of the picture, as the lads who served in Sth Vietnam got a raw deal by the Govt of the day and successive Govt's until the welcome home parade in the late 80's, it was a disgraceful state of affairs, then along comes the internet, people/mates etc all start looking for each other, Stan lives in Victoria and now runs a website 2AOD, lots of really good pictures in the site donated from ex serving soldiers, so it's a good site to look at if you are into re-enacting etc. A fellow member from REMLR informs me that there is a in-service picture and not only in-service, in country to boot, now thats a ++, so I got in touch with Stan telling him that I now own that Land Rover, here is a snap of it the day I had it moved from Morpeth to Cessnock a distance of approx 20 miles, Mr Dunlop in background

a short video clip of 113-372 travelling along the New England hwy West Maitland NSW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rDXhT4_qDM

Back to Stan M, once a month at his home they have a Sunday arvo BBQ, all the participants are ex servicemen + wives, after I had told Stan about the Land Rover and what is going to happen and the approximate time frame etc, he noted the ARN (113-372) and put it in a prominent place near his computer, well one Sunday not long after one of the regulars at the BBQ, brings along a box of 35mm slides telling Stan he was going to dispose of them, but decided to give them to Stan to copy and put up on the web, well 6 slides in this one jumped out and hit Stan in the face, he rang me to tell me to check my emails, this is what awaited me

*&^%$# was I excited, I now had 2 pictures of 113-372 in country, I only know of 1 other Land Rover owner who has more than 1 picture of his S2A 109 Wksp vehicle, the MP who took this picture in downtown Saigon in 1967, he lives in Victoria, Graham B is his name, they are trying to find out the names of all the personell in the picture.

The Land Rover has undergone quite a bit since that Saturday on the tilt tray truck, anyway much much more to follow cheers Dennis

ps for anyone who has not seen any of my restorations here is a clip from 2009 with all 7 Land Rovers in it,, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72S13O_j3KI, cheers,,.

Edited June 26, 2011 by DJM110
added a picture BLR-626

[chevpol]

allways nice to find in service piccys, very nice

 

Mark

[DJM110]

G'day All, Day 1, 9th January 2010, 113-372 aka BLR-626 was taken from it's resting place in Morpeth NSW on a journey to breath life back into it, BLR-626 has had a hard life since demob on 10th August 1970, it has traversed the Wattagan and Broken Back Ranges for almost 20 years carrying men and gear to resupply logging equipment for 'Craft Bros' sawmills Millfield NSW, until it was semi-retired due to the owners health status, when it came up for sale as previously mentioned.

Some pix from day 1, the strip down begins, easy parts first

I don't know why I always start with lhs wing :nut:

as can be seen a hole or two in footwell, this is caused by not cleaning out the splash guard, crap builds up in there moisture resides there + humidity = rust:( anyway cheers for now Dennis

[DJM110]

Day 2, it will be no different to day 260 (if I live that long LOL) it will be a full on slog to strip 113-372 down to a bare chassis.

We have had more than our fair share of crappy weather here, I feel like I live in England or some other wet country, anyway most of the nuts n bolts undo without too much hassle, those that hesitate, well they have 2 holes drilled in them, then they lose their head.

The rear differential must have had a very bad leak around the pinion, as there was dry oil n dirt attached to the chassis in copious amounts, when I dropped all the oils from engine/transmission etc I noted they were all below what should have been in each area, but as I would discover later, everything was A OK, thankfully.

Note the civvie shackles, most likely because they couldn't get shock absorbers to suit, or it could have been because of the late owner and his ever present medical condition

The tub was checked over and it was decided at a board meeting (me, myself & my alter ego (all 3 of us)) that the rhs was a write off.

The rhs tub was full of BOG, Land Rovers and BOG don't mix full stop, hark back to the pic of 113-372 in downtown Saigon looking very shmick n smart

to looking like this when 'Stan M' took the photo on his way back to Oz after completing his tour of duty in Sth Vietnam

I discovered that 113-372 MUST have had an accident in Saigon, the 'Provos' would have requisitioned another Land Rover, 113-372 went to ?RAEME for repairs for an unspecified period, during this period the rhs of the tub was removed and very expertly put back into place by an unknown RAEME fitter, and I must say, what a expert job he did at that, tub side refitted with Csk alloy (solid rivets) filed over etc etc, anyway to cut a long story short, 113-372 had been replaced by another Land Rover and was now relegated to airfield security as you can see by the pic, and 113-372 was just another truck,,.

In it's life after the military, it was bought at auction by a chap (now deceased) called Allan Howarth (Newcastle Land Rover Owners club of which there are probably no L/R's in, and the area up in the Barrington Tops aka 'The Lease' is named after him), he bought it as stated, ?? did some titavating, then sold it to 'Craft Bros' sawmills.

Somewhere during it's life with the sawmill, it had a heavy vehicle back into the rhs side of the tub, punching a rather large hole (approx 3" x 3") this was bashed over and bogged up, which over time, as previously stated Bog n L/rs dont mix, it cracked from vibration etc and it looked sh***ty, so I decided to remove the offending panel completely,,,.

more to follow shortly cheers Dennis

[DJM110]

Continuing on LOL:D

I set about removing the rhs of the tub because of it's badly damaged side etc, the floor didn't fair much better either, it was bent n buckled from years of having heavy machine parts dropped in and onto it, and you guessed it the tailgate was US, a total basket of bent alloy with steel bolted onto it etc etc, it was scrap.

It takes some time to drill through spot welds/rivets etc and just when you think you have them all theres always another LOL. note the change in design in registration plates BLR-626 from the older style, these were ?centenary plates not that 113-362 was 100 years old:nut:

 

I refitted the corner gal/bits with new rivets

and the fuel filler is easy to do as well

I then trial fitted with 3/16 pop rivets the rhs donor section and checked it for square etc, it wasn't too bad, but the alloy extrusion across the rear was badly out of shape and I couldn't get the tailgate opening correct, so with a bit more brute force etc (heavy angle iron and G clamps) + my FBH (flamin big hammer) we managed to get the gap equally spaced, off then down to Newcastle to buy a section of aluminium to refit the floor, it fitted like a finger in a glove :blush:, anyway cheers Dennis

[DJM110]

G'day All,

After fiddling with the tub for a period, I still needed to complete the strip down of 113-372, i.e to remove all other mechanical parts and store them in such a way so as not to hinder my progress, now I live on a small block so space is at a premium and is utilised to the max!!!.

I removed both differentials and front axles from their respective housings and found a space for them to co-exist with other stuff LOL

the rear axles were left in place as I didn't have any spare drive flanges to keep water out of the bearings, we have had a very wet time of it here in the Hunter Valley this year.

Next it was time to remove the transmission, I had found a rather large (extra) hole in the bellhousing, at the time I was unsure as to what had caused it, even after the transmission was out albeit in 2 pieces (I can't lift heavy objects, buggered back) it still wasn't obvious until the engine was out

on it's stand with the flywheel/clutch assembly dismantled, and lo n behold, in the crud from the leaking rear main bearing oil seal, I found what had caused the hole.

the circlip on the end of the starter motor had let go at some time in it's past, this in turn let the Bendix Spring come off as well, it would have been picked up by the spinning clutch, and jammed/smashed a hole in the casing to get out and be free :cry:, it would have made an almighty racket in doing so wouldn't you agree, anyway cheers Dennis

ps more 2 come

pps the engine block (water jacket) was filled with water to keep the water pump seal viable,,.:goodidea:

Edited October 19, 2010 by DJM110

[DJM110]

G'day All, Next in my sights was the bulkhead/firewall, in my opinion it is a basket case, it has major rust in the A pillars x 2, both footwells are shot, and it has severe rust problems across the top of the bulkhead under the windscreen seal, around the multiple panels that hold the vent openings, so I was also on the hunt for a suitable replacement but thats another story in itself.

both doors were similar, but doors and door tops are not a problem, I have many door frames and a couple of NOS ex-mil doortops.

With the bulkhead/firewall removed, all old brake pipes put in the garbage, all brake pipe clips and ancillary fittings collected/tagged n bagged, I moved the chassis to where my 110 usually parks up, it was looking a lot like rain at the time and I needed to get on with it,

with the chassis at this stage (after removing front diff/assembly) attention was turned to removing the very stubborn steering relay, it has copious amounts of penetrene poured around it etc all to no avail, so on with the thinking cap to figure out a cheap n easy solution using materials at hand I only had to buy a couple of lengths of threaded rod and a heap of nuts,

as you can see I removed the relay, but at a cost, I now needed to replace the 2nd cross member (1st x member is the front bumper bar) the relay let go in spectacular fashion, with a very loud rip/bang, and just for the curious amongst you, the porta-power is not pressing directly on the steering relay shaft, I machined a piece of steel to encompass the shaft and press on the body of the relay, anyway more to follow, cheers Dennis

Edited October 24, 2010 by DJM110

[DJM110]

G'day All, I needed to move on the chassis, to repair it asap, so I could park my 110 out of the weather. I had a donor section from a S2A 109 ex-mil chassis, so out with a few extra tools from the shed, marking out where the chassis rail is situated mark lines and dot them with a center punch top n bottom so you know where it has to be, then I measured between the chassis rails and cut a neat fitting heavy wall pipe, tack weld in place, out with the gas axe on the donor section first

 

and in the meantime, on days when I've been at work and can't afford to get too bloody dirty (I am a Reg/nse remember, skin integrity is paramount) I attend to all manner of little insignificant jobs of cleaning nuts n bolts, washers etc, in fact anything that has to go back on/into the Land Rover, all cleaned/grit blasted/etch primed some parts painted Gloss Black others left as 'etch primed' for a DBG top coat, all this work helps when putting it all back together rather quickly, I work like this most days, today being an exception, I had to babysit for a short period and it is rather cold n wet outside, bolts in this pic are through the chassis bolts to hold bulkhead/firewall support brackets,

anyway cheers Dennis

ps my arthritic hands get a work out running taps n dies over countless numbers of nuts n bolts, I like the nuts n bolts to screw together without spanners, until the need to tighten up at jobs end,,.:-D

[chevpol]

G'day mate,

 

looking foward to the day it is back together, brilliant work so far!

 

I like the last picture, my father collects miners lamps, what can you tell me about those 2 hanging up next to the bolts?

 

Mark

[DJM110]

G'day All, I can't believe it's been over a year since I have posted in here, must admit though I have been busy to say the least, anyway a few pix to update the thread, is there a problem with the site as I'm having problems putting text n pix in sequence, anyway cheers Dennis

 

[Richard Farrant]

hi Dennis,

Looking great now, thought we had not seen you on here for a while. Will it be ready for Corowa in March?

 

regards, Richard

[DJM110]

G'day All,

Well quite a lot of water has passed under the bridge since my last visit here, Richard, I didn't make it to Corowa this year, mainly because of way too many things to do. On a brighter note, 113-372 is now on historic registration and did participate in our local Anzac Day parade.

Veteran numbers were down this year, I personally knew of 3 persons deceased (R.I.P) that usually rode in Land Rovers provided, I will endevour to include some pix over the next few days if time permits me, anyway hopefully here is a clip of the parade

 

it took me about a fortnight to prepare the Land Rovers for the day, my son in law helped out in painting all the tyres, including the inside walls, at around the 1.38 mark, the driver of 113-372 gave the siren a little tickle, anyway cheers for now Dennis

ps 113-372 is not quite finished as yet, as you could see it needs door tops,,.

[AndyFowler]

Glad to hear from you again mate ! Your restoration threads are some of the best on here ! Whats in the pipeline for the future ?:-D

[RattlesnakeBob]

not seen this thread before mate but what a cracking job you've done on her!...Loved you 'tool' for removing the steering relay too !.........

[DJM110]

G'day All,

At present I don't have any future projects in mind, but in having said that I am rather partial to the International range of 4x4 & 6x6 trucks that were used by the Australian Army back in the period from 1960 1980's (late in the 80's) before they were replaced by Mack 6x6 & Unimogs. I'm catching up on some home maintenence, i.e. painting etc (mainly inside):-|

what you see in that last youtube clip represents almost 12 years of my life, not included in that clip are two variants of the No5 trailer, anyway thanks for the compliments re the restoration/s, but I'm just an amatuer, cheers Dennis

[DJM110]

G'day All,

Just catching up on some home maintenance (you know painting etc) well it has been let go kinda sorta for 12 years or more, mind you our house is not a dump etc, but I thought I had better freshen up some of the rooms LOL.

Here is a picture of all my Land Rovers lined up waiting before the parade

the Land Rover at the rear did lead the parade, a parking issue mean't that it had to go around the block again, but the driver was instructed, that when the parade marshall called "Parade" he was to move up and take the lead.

You know none of the Land Rovers have left the yard since Anzac day, between work and working in the house and a short 4 day trip to White Cliffs in far Western NSW, I haven't had much time to even look at them, anyway hopefully that will change, anyway cheers Dennis:-D

[AndyFowler]

Wow mate what a fantastic collection you have ! They must give you a lot of satisfaction ! Have you any that you'd like to add in the future ! I always liked looking at your restoration threads ! :-D