Why would I put myself through this?

I have dreamt of “doing a car” since my early 20’s. I did mess around with cars, re-built a Morris Minor, hacked around a few Fords, changed clutch’s in the road with the car parked up on the kerb and various other reckless things that would be frownded upon today.

My original dream was to build a Kit car, starting with a Jago Jeep and later a AC Cobra kit car.

But that all changed when I met Neil at work, who I now consider a good friend who is a passionate Land Rover Advocate. His wife was “Lead instructor at Land Rover experience Solihull” and is now an engineer developing the new vehicles.

After seeing his Defender 110 go through a complete rebuild,

I got to thinking!

“What about a Land Rover, that could be a lot of fun..“

So the journey began late 2022.

I started quizzing Neil EVERY DAY, reading loads of articles, watched loads of videos (all will be credited in later articles) about Land Rovers, joined LR Series forums, and have to say was completely sold immediately, the history is fascinating, the attention to detail some people go to is phenomenal, the community seems friendly and helpful, so that’s it, it will be a Land Rover, even though I have never so much as sat in one.

The first question for me was how do I make it personal, how can I make this project much more than just a car?

I decided on a Series 2a as close to my Birthday as possible, how cool to have a Land Rover pretty much the same age as me. So the hunt began early 2023.

I set the bar quite high, not too fused about the amount of work needed or to a large degree the amount of money, but importantly it needed to be close to SWB, Petrol, as original and not messed with as possible, the right age, and if possible the original engine and running gear and so on.

I asked everyone I knew who might come across one to keep an eye out, I scanned the Classic car sites, auction sites, Facebook, eBay and anywhere else I could think of to find the right one. That’s when it dawned on me, as someone else commented in one of the forums I read, “It’s Like looking for Hens Teeth”, but also felt patience would pay off.

I came across a very few, tried for a couple, didn’t follow through on a couple for various reasons, until I found one, not a 1963, but April 1964, that’s close enough, and it seemed pretty close to what I was looking for. Spoke to the seller, planned the trip to go see it, pretty much convinced that there was not much that would stop me buying, only to receive a message that morning, “sorry, I’ve sold it”, I was gutted, and really did start to think I’m looking for Hens Teeth.

Then one came up on FB Marketplace, advertised as a 1964, humm, that’s close but on further investigation, it was a 1965. Had a chat and it seemed pretty close to what I was looking for, mostly complete, chassis & engine numbers looked good, and I was sure I could make it personal, so my mind was made up, I’m going for this one.

So that is where it really started..