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Neals' Land Rover pages
We
have owned Land Rovers since 1973.
This is a bit of our history.
If
you're good at sums, you'll work out that I was 16 when I
bought my first Land Rover in 1973. I took the first few
months to rebuild it from close to scrap to a working
vehicle that took me through the last year of school and
university.
These
are scans of rather poor quality photos - all were
originally taken between 1974 and 1978.
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This is around 1974 or early
1975 I think. I was 17, still at school and this
is at a mate's farm in Norfolk. This is me
driving in the finest style for a Series 1 - top
off, windscreen down. We regretted having the
windscreen down, as will be explained in the next
caption. The one driving
apparently wearing a black hat is me (and that's
not a hat, it's my hair); cream beany hat is
Chris Riches and blue bobble hat without the
bobble is Dick Frost.
Mike Saull took the picture and
sent it to me very recently. Memories! I'm very
appreciative of these pics, Mike - the oldest
that still exist I think.
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Same day as above, in the
farmyard. I'm the one leaning over. The two guys
in my Landie are Chris and Dick. The macho one on
the left is Dave, who is my mate's younger
brother. If I remember correctly, we were washing
down after a run round the farm. I should point
out that the farm was mixed livestock and arable,
so had plenty of cows, and their products, about
- so the hose down was very necessary to remove
the 'mud'. |
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Around 1976. This
is in a car park at Keele University. The vehicle
went through a number of reincarnations - at this
point you'll see it had a truck cab on it, and
nothing over the back. Later it had a tilt over
the load area. On the roof is Lucy, who later
became a flatmate. I'm not sure why she was on
the roof, but it made a nice pic! The badge on the nearside front is from
the Breckland Land Rover Club - I was a member
for some years (they still exisit -
http://www.brecklandlrc.co.uk/). The one in the middle is the Rover
Owners' Association who had a brilliant rally
every year. They don't exist any more but were
superseded by the Association of Rover Clubs.
The horn below the nearside
headlamp was from a scrapyard and was VERY loud!
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Probably 1978. The
obligatory "Land-Rover-on-hill" shot.
I'm not sure where this was or who took it, but
at a guess it was around Stoke on Trent
somewhere. Obviously the truck cab has been left
behind - we used to have long hot Summers in
those days! The girl is
Jane - again she became a flatmate and we
continue to exchange Christmas cards.
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I think this was
about 1974 - this is the "Land Rover down a
quarry" shot. |
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1975. This got a
laugh or two. I overhauled the engine, doing a
full top and bottom end overhaul including
regrind of the crackshaft and rebore. However, it
was very, very tight when I'd finished, and
during the running in period it got hot and it
seized until it cooled down a bit. The bike in
the back was just in case it didn't unseize, and
the notice was to apologise for the slowness of
the vehicle. It read "I have a tight big
end. Running in. Max 30 MPH SORRY". It kept
everyone happy. After 150 miles or so, it was
fine, by the way. The
caravan in the background actually belonged to my
grandmother. A mate and I towed it to Southport
and the Lake District for a great holiday just
before University.
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Here's a couple of pics just for fun. In
2011, we returned to the place where I'd bought
this Land Rover - Poolewe in the North of
Scotland. It's still a caravan site, although
it's changed hands now, being part of the Camping
and Caravanning Club network. Click here for the details of the
site as it is now. The pic on the left is the
shed where the Land Rover was kept until I
collected it in 1973. The pic on the right is the
actual sign that was there in 1973. We
trailered it down to Norwich between Christmas
and New Year 1973, arriving home on 1/1/74 in the
early hours. That was a cold but exciting trip
about which I'll tell you if you ask.
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