A rare opportunity to obtain an original patinaed series 1 88’ Land Rover!
 
Model History
The introduction of the ‘Jeep’, a small reconnaissance vehicle mass produced by Willy’s and Ford during WW2 had shown that a compact and versatile 4x4 could be useful to the domestic market. One such person who thought of this was Rover’s then-technical chief Maurice Wilks who started sketching the basic design for the Land Rover in 1947 while driving around his farm in his Willy’s MB Jeep. The first prototype was unveiled at the Amsterdam motor show on 30th April 1948. It featured a centre mounted steering wheel, Rovers 1.4 litre engine that was beefed up to 1.6 litres, newly designed transfer case and boxy aluminium body work painted in military cockpit paint left over from WW2 plane manufacturing, all of which was mounted ironically on a WW2 Jeep chassis.
 
The first production Land Rover rolled off the assembly line in 1948 with an 80 inch wheel base, a 1.6 litre 4 cylinder petrol engine and a boxy aluminium body. Due to scarcity of raw steel after WW2 and large stockpiles of aluminium from ceased plane production, aluminium was extensively used in the construction of these early Land Rovers and subsequent models after that. This was a basic vehicle with tops for the doors and a roof (canvas or metal) being optional extras. The engine was Rovers existing pre-war design 1.6 inline 4 cylinder with an overhead inlet and side exhaust valves making about 50hp which was mated to a 4 speed gearbox and a 2 speed transfer case with permeant 4wd system. A key selling feature of the Land Rover was its versatility with a PTO attachment for various types of implements that could be used from farming to firefighting attachments. The Land Rovers versatility as a vehicle is what saw it successfully launched all over the world
 
As years progressed the permeant 4wd system was replaced in 1950 with a selectable 2wd/4wd in high range and in 1952 the engine was enlarged to 2 litres (1995cc) with Siamese bores. 1955 saw the 80” wheel base extended to 86” and a long wheel base was introduced at 107” with station wagon variants being added a year later.
1956 saw the wheel base extended yet again to 88”  for the swb and 109” for the lwb in which these lengths would remain throughout the rest of ‘series’ production until 1985.  
 
The Vehicle
This Land Rover Series 1 88 inch has been sympathetically restored over a period of 4 years by the current owner which now presents in fantastic original patinaed condition.
 
The Landy was bought in 2018 from a grazier in western QLD who was friends with the current owner. The grazier had bought the Land Rover brand new from ‘Annand & Thompson’ in Newstead Brisbane in 1958 (distributors for QLD and norther NSW) and used the vehicle on the farm up until it has served its useful life, in which it was then parked up in a barn and left (for some 30+ years).
 
The Land Rover was stripped the down to its bare chassis and painstakingly restored to retain as much of its patinaed originality as possible (bar the tattered seats and canvas!). Owing to the dry environment in far western QLD – the Land Rover had very minimal surface rust to repair on the bulkhead and chassis.
 
The restoration included:
Overhaul of the original engine, gearbox, differentials and suspension
All perishable seals, buffers, canvas replaced with New Old Stock / John Craddock (UK) quality parts
Exmoor trim full canvas hood and sticks
Exmoor trim seats in elephant hide grey
Electrical system rewired and restored
Restored original radiator
Entire brake system replaced/restored
5 new period correct tires
many more small parts to mechanically restore the Land Rover back to it’s former glory
 
The Land Rover now exudes charm wherever it goes showing its battle scares (particularly the passenger side front fender) as a badge of honour with every dent and scrape telling a story about its past life as a working vehicle.
 
Now offered for sale for only the 2nd time in it’s 68 year history – this Landy would make a perfect edition to any collection or usable vehicle to continue its story.
 
Sold as is.
 
Walk Around Video (coming soon)