The Stage One Register - Restoration
by Annette Flottwell 
Here are three restauration projects in Germany, England and France
Stage Ones rebuilt by register members, we'll keep you posted
Klaus
Darrelmann, Berlin: The vehicle has been standing for nearly two years
now, the chassis is well rotten but not beyond treatment, the engine seems
to be in need of a camshaft/ top end/ carbs overhaul and the rest looks
quite normal for an abused vehicle of that age. I´m about to start
the restoration of the car this year, if I ever finish I´ll inform
you about the regained roadworthiness of my lovely truck.
Good luck, Klaus. Belgian MOT never noticed that we repaired
the chassis of my 1981 Yellow Cat, fitting 12 pieces of steel up to 02*0.6
m...
109 Stage 1, V8 Regular, RHD
Body: Truck cab/ softtop
VIN: LBCAV1AA121098
Year of first use: 1981, March (most certain)
Former owners: 4, first owner: British(?) or London(?) Water Supply (rumours...)
Steve
(UK) found his Stage One in a wreckyard. He had to search for all the
bits and pieces, so he has to find the dashboard and the doors, windscreen
and a wiring loom elsewhere. He is doing a great job, facing a complete
rebuild in his yard! No way he can find the chassis number, it was gone
when he had brushed off the rust.
One
cold March morning Bernard stopped by the roadside in a sleepy village.
He rubbed his eyes when he saw three Stage Ones by the roadside. Do you
know these 4WDs he asked my husband. Well, Takeo answered, I had this
one for 22 years. Five years ago, Bernard continued, I bought one of them
of a Dutch guy, he couldn't get it running so I got it cheap. We towed
it home, no brakes, so my son pulled the handbrake till it was glowing.
Later I have changed the distributor and some other parts but she won't
start. Now that I'm retired I'd like to get her going. Would you like
to come and have a look?
Oh yes. We tried to tow-start her in a meadow near the barn where she had spent 5 years, reluctantly she started a couple of times while we raced in circles on the swampy, bumpy ground. Lots of black smoke. It didn't look good but we wanted to look closer. In the engine we found 10 (!) litres of a genuine blend of petrol and water. Takeo drained the sludge 5 times, he repared the oil pump and then she ran just nicely.
So
how did a genuine Safari Station Wagon, originally painted in sunny yellow,
with genuine nice oil pressure gauge, a sun shield and very wide tyres
end uo in a barn in the Dordogne?
She was first registered in the Netherlands in October 1979, chassis number
LBCMV2AA100844 and belonged several years to a company taking youngsters
for a work holiday in France. The previous owner must have been a mechanical
genius, we found three oil pressure gauges under the seat, which he had
replaced instead of checking the pump.
Now she is Bernard's first Land Rover, soon she will go on her first trip
to Africa.
The chassis needs some welding and we had to order all the parts for a complete brake exchange, the window channels need repairing, but we could already take a small register souvenir photo:
I
have 2 Stage 1 V8's both of which are genuine factory cars and both of
which are RHD.
NED 196W was 1st registered on 31/12/80 and left the factory as a truck
cab ( although now a hardtop van ) The chassis number is LBCAV1AA117547
and I have owned it for 4 years: It has had 5 previous owners before me.
When I bought it I was very "green" about series Land Rovers,
but believe me I have learnt an awful lot about them since !!!!!
It has obviously had quite a hard life and in many respects is far from
genuine. It is fitted with a 3.9 RR engine and is running on SU carbs
along with the standard LT95 transmission. The chassis on it has been
plated in several places and really needs to be replaced. It is also fitted
with a Husky Superwinch. I decided some time ago to take it off the road
and find a new chassis for it to replace the old one and this is where
the other one came into being.
YKH
35X was 1st registered on 01/01/82 and left the factory as a County Station
Wagon. The chassis number is LBCMV1AA150442 and I bought this one in September
2002. It was advertised on Ebay in the UK and the thing that attracted
it to me was that it had a brand new Marsland galvanised chassis. I contacted
the person that was selling it and found that he had owned it since 23/05/85
and that he had taken it off the road in 1990 to do a rebuild and had
never finished it. It has only had 2 other owners from new and 1 of these
was the supplying dealer who used it for a demonstrator.
It has only done a genuine 44000 miles from new. It was also fitted with
a Fairy Overdrive from new and although things like the bulkhead were
badly rusted I decided to strip it completely down to the new chassis
and totally restore it.
Progress so far has been slow as it is far too hot here on the Costa Blanca
to work on it during the summer and I also have to work as well. I have
now spent 10 months collecting together most of the parts that I need
and hope to be getting on with it over the winter.
I have a long way to go on it yet and don't realistically see it being
finished before the end of 2004. When it is finished it will hopefully
as good as new again and should last another 30 years.
To be continued with your help!!
About thirty other Stage One owners have sent their chassis numbers. I'll make a nice database of their contributions, but I'm still hoping for more Stage Ones and more Photos. PLEASE send me more!!!
Annette
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