Finally Ive made good and escaped from colditz a bit early, well, they were nice enough but five weeks in hospital is enough to drive anyone to want to escape.
Anyway, I'm also now cursed that the local hospital told me I couldnt touch anything dirty, no cars, building or gardening not even wearing gloves. I think thats bull but I'll wait till the next appointment with the specialist unit on the 12th and ask them instead, as they are much more clued in.
But... It doesnt say I cant stand in the barn and look at the 101... And I have.
The cab is in a very bad way, its not just flattened a bit at the front, the whole front bulkhead in front of the seats is twisted, the screen is fubar, the dash is bent like a bannana but crucially the chassis looks fine from what I can see, it hasn't even bent the frontmost outrigger. I think its going to need a new cab, and I've started asking about trying to find one already. See, being good, not touching. They didnt say dont go in there and weigh it up did they?
Someone has offered me a spare windscreen assembly (surround, and glass) and other parts already, so will now start the slow gathering of parts. And also I've found a lt95 pto drive for the winch, just because it seemed like a good idea. I dont have to find a nokken, any capstain winch could be mounted now I have the proper pto which sits on a side cover and still leaves the rear output free for the overdrive. So 3 throwy levers here we come.
Ok, I cant take any more being good, and last visit to the specialists they cleared me for "light diy, no more than 30 minutes at a time wearing a glove".
Since then a mains water pipe ruptured inside a wall in the house and nearly had the celing down requiring me to do emergency plumbing for most of a day solid, and a second incident involved the mains water distribution manifold into the house developing a leak, which required every single cold water connection in the house to be remade in a tiny crawl space behind the furnace, again a solid days work. And the shower started leaking so I took it out yesterday ready to put in a new one this weekend.
Now, my mrs can't say "your not well enough to go in the workshop", so I can start to tinker a bit, wearing a tig glove on my right hand as the skin is still very fragile. Daughter is fine about it being worked on and we talk about the accident with her joking about it occasionally, and even my lad said he'd go in it once its proved itself, but my mrs is still adamant she wont go near it. I think shes as much being stubborn as anything but we'll see if time heals things up.
I took these a week or two back, the cab itself is more poorly than I thought, its actually twisted the B bulkhead behind the seats, so its going to need another cab, not a repair to the main front panel area. Happily Ive located some of the parts I need but have to work a way out how to get them here next. Since this photo I've started stripping out the seats/interior etc in preparation. Floor plates are wrecked, front bulkhead, rear cab, rollbar, the transmission tunnel and the engine cover is actually warped with the heat on the left hand side at the front. I've had a bit of housemaids knee too since the shunt and my doc said it was because I was lying round confined to bed then active again, but I found a knee shaped dent in the right of the dash so that explains things there. I've always had it a bit anyway since motorbike accidents as a teen, just amuses me to find the docs wrong
This also followed me home, its a genuine 101 pto drive for the lt77 transfer case. It lets me keep the fairey overdrive on the pto flange, and still have a side mounted pto out to a winch etc. It also lets me have 3 levers on the front case for that festooned with levers appearance
What I want now originality is gone is a hydraulic winch + pump and I can drive the pump from the pto and mount the winch drum behind the front bumper area with a fairlead and a way to spool backwards too, and that will keep the space where the nokken mounts for a lpg tank, but for now I want to focus on getting it roadworthy again and this I feel is the hard part of the jigsaw to find anyway, the rest is just a winch.
I start physio in a fortnight to recover lost motion my knee and hand. I somehow suspect that there's not going to be much left for them to do, by the time I get there having spent weekends crawling round a cab undoing bits, but best physio you can do right?
Glad your on the mend Mr McF. When your looking at the 101 sometime, could you count the leaves in the springs & measure the overall length for me please. When my son had a series 3 it was fitted with the most humungous springs you've ever seen. When we took it for mot the guy looked at them & said I don't know what there off, but not a Landy. We fitted parabolic springs in their place & the old ones are in the garage waiting for a scrap run. Been there about 3 years now! It just struck me that as the length was right for a series maybe there off a forward control or something.
If that's what they are, it would be a pity to scrap them as they could be of use to someone. Free to a good home if I can identify them.
Mark, no theyre safety glass & kitemarked, in fact one of the last jobs before the mot I did was to change out some dodgy unmarked too thick household glass for the correct original part. I actually have a spare door top sans glass and the stuff to glaze it, so its lucky they didnt break. Someone has promised me a door when they remove their originals to fit nos ones, and I'll blast it to get the rust out and paint. Yes it needs a full cage before it gets used in anger again by me although the roll bar stood up pretty well to it being sat on its side wedged in the ditch.
For now I'm stripping out bent bits and removing all the brackets etc and storing them in boxes so I can find stuff when I need it later. Lots of drilling off of heads of rivets, must be a land rover!
Cobbler, the 101fc has parabolic springs with two leaves out the factory and thats what mine has, the earlier forward control 2b I think had regular multi leafs and is much closer to a series landy than the 101 in a lot of ways, another thought might be a military lightweight ambulance but not sure.
Thanks for that MrF. I don't know one version of a forward control to the other! I just know these springs must have come off something pretty heavy judging by the number of leaves, they are about 5" deep. It seems a pity to chuck them when someone may be looking for them. Just trying to identify them is the problem