Story & Photos by Bob Rusnak

[Bob Rusnak, Morrisonville, NY, is a mechanical engineer who adores “old equipment” – his John Deere and International Harvester tractors. To further enjoy his trout fishing and deer hunting, he convinced his wife they needed a ’73 Series III HT. Here’s how he got one –ed.]

It all started about 8 years ago. I was looking for an older four wheel drive vehicle at the time. I had owned a number of four wheel drive vehicles in the past including a Willys Jeep, original style Bronco, Jeep Wagoneer, and International Scout. I knew very little about Land Rovers. I was at a reunion party for my wife’s college and got talking to one of the men there about Series Land Rovers. He was in the process of restoring one. We talked for some time on his Land Rover and how they were built, aluminum bodies, parts availability and so on. I was intrigued and added a Series Land Rover to my list of possible vehicles along with a Willys Jeep and International Scout… A few months later, I got a call from my brother-in-law whose parents were from England. He told me about a Series III Land Rover that was for sale in my area that he had seen on the Land Rover Exchange. I went and looked at the vehicle and decided to buy it. I had driven the vehicle for total of about 10 miles when I pulled it into the garage to look into a coolant leak. I determined that the leak was coming from the gasket on the bottom of the thermostat housing.

Having heard of Rovers North, I gave them a call and placed my first order for a thermostat, gaskets, and bolts. I had no idea at this time that this would be the first of many many calls to order parts. The parts showed up the next evening, so I went out to the garage to install the parts. I opened the door to the garage and smelled gas. The gas was coming from the tank area and there was a small stain on the floor where it had leaked. While I was under the Rover to look for the gas leak, I started poking around to see the condition of the vehicle underneath. After scraping away some crud and doing a little cleaning, I saw that the frame of the vehicle was not in as good shape as I first thought. There was some substantial rot around the front spring shackle area, just behind the front horns, and the outriggers. At this point, I decided that I had to do something about the frame problems. My first thought was to clear the body panels from the area and hire someone to do some weld repairs to the frame. On a parallel path, I started looking into the cost for a replacement frame. I found a new frame for sale online that was not too far away and about the price of what I would have expected to pay someone to do welding repairs to the frame. Not having much experience with welding, I decided to go with the new frame. I could do this work myself and the end product would be better. What a can of worms this decision opened up.

Well, to replace a frame everything must come off! I started my disassembly of the vehicle. As I got along on the disassembly, I realized that I needed to make a decision on what standard I wanted to work toward. Every part I took off needed some level of attention. I decided that I would strive for a rust free, clean vehicle with all parts functional. For the 10 miles I had driven the vehicle, it drove well without any engine or gearbox problems that I was aware of. I would limit my work on these to a thorough cleaning, new seals and the auxiliary equipment including the clutch slave, starter, alternator, carb, replacing intake manifold (cracked), and fuel pump. I pulled off the body parts and found a number of areas that would need to be addressed to live up to the standard I was striving for. The tub had some bad galvanic corrosion where the steel supports contacted the aluminum, the radiator panel had rot along the bottom and the bulkhead had corrosion problems at the bottom of the pillars. Besides these items, everything needed a good cleaning, disassemble and inspection.

I spent the first winter disassembling the vehicle. Most of this went along without many unexpected problems. A good set of break bar extenders (pipe), a good sized persuader (large ball peen hammer), and some PB Blaster were all necessary. In hind sight, a hot wrench and a grinder with a cutoff wheel would have also been a big help. There is something to say about how oil leaks preserve parts. Anywhere there was any oil leaking, things came apart great. By the time spring came along, I had the entire vehicle apart and the new frame sitting on jacks in the garage. It was at about this time that my wife said that the Rover reminded her of the Scarecrow on the Wizard of Oz. “They took a part off and threw it over there, took another part and threw it over there. “Ha-ha”, I said ruefully. I had Land Rover parts everywhere – side yard, back yard, and all over the garage and basement.

Every part that was removed – and that was every part -got the same treatment. They were cleaned, disassembled, inspected, worn parts replaced and all seals replaced before reassembly. I can’t venture a guess on the number of hours spent cleaning and rehabbing all the parts.

The first parts installed were the springs and axles. This was a milestone in the project. I was actually putting something back on the vehicle. This was followed by a nice clean engine and gearbox. I installed them with rehabbed motor mounts and new gearbox mounts, yet something looked askew. Thank goodness I have been obsessed with taking photos of every step and documenting every moment of the disassembly. After some head scratching and some measurements, it appeared like I had reversed the gearbox mounts. I jacked the engine/gearbox up and switched the mounts and everything fell into place.

With the body parts out of the way, I next took care of the items that mounted on the frame: fuel tank, fuel line from tank to pump, exhaust, speedometer cable and emergency brake parts. The tank looked good so I plugged the openings with tape and applied a little air pressure to the tank with my shop vac to check for leaks.

I sprayed all the seams with soapy water and could not find a leak anywhere. I installed the tank and would address a leak if there was one later. I thought it must have been one of the seals or a fuel line that was leaking. The bulkhead was not up to my standard. I had been shopping around for someone to repair mine or a good replacement. On the internet, I found a bulkhead that was advertised as perfect and rust free. I called the seller and purchased the part. After a lot of anxiety and a long delay, the bulkhead was finally received. It was not what I would have called perfect but it was rust free. Another reason I went with this bulkhead was that the seller told me it included the dash parts and that they were in good condition (my lower dash panel was rough where the hole for the heater is located).

On went the bulkhead next along with the steering box/column, brake booster/master cylinder, clutch master cylinder, heater box and blower. The steering box/column and bulkhead were left loose at this time. With these parts in place, I ran all new brake and clutch lines and hoses. I also installed all the engine auxiliaries at this time. As part of the brake work, I put in all new wheel cylinders, brake springs, and pads.

Next came the dash components, along with completing the wiring from the instrument panel to the engine harness, rear harness, stop switch, fuel sender, reverse switch, oil pressure gauge. Now for the body parts: I replaced my tub with a Series II tub I purchased with no corrosion. Again, this tub was not quite as nice as I would have liked. The person I bought it from sand blasted it for me and made some repairs. The sand blasting was too aggressive and it deformed the sheet aluminum. Prior to installing the tub I cleaned, repaired, primed and painted all the inside surfaces. This was done to all the body parts before installation. The new tub required some new mounting holes to mount to the tabs on the frame. The radiator and restored breakfast were installed, along with the hoses and pipes to the engine and heater core. Now on a roll, I installed the seat base, floors, tunnel cover, and cowling. The windscreen and top installation required some shimming and shifting to get the top to line up with the windscreen. The doors, wings and bonnet came next.

Next came the big moment – starting the engine. I topped off all the fluids, primed the carburetor and turned the key. It started sputtered and coughed and then stalled. I repeated the process a few times but could not get the engine to idle. If I kept my foot on the throttle, it would run, but the second I backed off, it would stall. After many attempts to adjust the carb, I still could not get it to idle. I removed the carb and found an open port where there was a solenoid valve missing. I rebuilt the carb and plugged the open port. This corrected most of the idling problem. What a nice feeling to hear the motor run!

Now came the hardest part for me, the bodywork and painting Because of the sandblasting, the tub required filler work to make it look decent. As a rookie at this, it took forever to get the car ready for paint. I finally got the Rover ready for priming and paint. I must say that after working and working on the tub and some areas on the wings, my acceptable standard dropped off from what I originally was shooting for. Given the parts I was working, with this was a good compromise. As part of the body work, I had primed all the parts. This was the only way to really see how well it would look.

Paint day was next. I took the vehicle to a friend’s shop for the painting. We sand blocked down the entire vehicle with pads and tack clothed it off. We got right to the painting. This all went well and what a transformation in the appearance of the vehicle!

Since then, I have installed all new window tracks in the door tops, installed and tested all the lights, some of the trim parts, repaired some radiator hose leaks, and some general tidying up. There’s a longer list of “next steps”: install a new headliner that was damaged by mice, install the window tracks/glass in the back windows, new door seals all around and remove the upper dash to move the wiper drive so the passenger side wiper goes in the correct direction.

I still don’t have the body alignment totally correct. The passenger side door hits the windscreen mounting bolt just before it closes all the way. There is not enough clearance between the tub and bulkhead to move the door on its hinges where it needs to go. It looks like I need to pull that side of the bulkhead forward a tad to get the correct alignment. This is also showing up with the top. It is raked a little in the same direction.

Reflecting back on this project brings back a lot of great memories. When I bought the vehicle, I had no intention of doing a frame-off restoration. I pulled it in the garage that day and kept removing bolts until there were none left. Everything took way longer and cost twice as much as I anticipated. After just less than 5 years of time and over 180 parts purchased, I have pretty close to what I wanted from the start, a clean, rust-free Series Land Rover.

If necessary, I would certainly do it again – it was a blast! I like the no bells and whistles simplicity of this Rover. Now I can’t wait until spring to put it on the road and start driving it! Living in the salt rich northern NY area, I’ll wait. Just as I sat thinking about what standard I wanted to restore the truck to when I started the restoration, I now sit here thinking how I want to use it.

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