55HG98. Para Recce Rebuild.

[AR4412]

I know a few of you out there have been waiting for me to start a thread for the rebuild of this lightweight since I bought it. Now that my self imposed ban on working on it is over and I've actually started work on the vehicle I thought I had best start this thread.

But first, for those not in the know a bit of history.

At Peterborough last year, (was it really that long ago? ), I was stood chatting to Rob next to his Recce when I mentioned in passing that I would love to build a Recce replica as I've always loved the look of the vehicles. Little did I know at the time that Rob had a 'spare' one in his garden, as you do. Just happens that this spare one is one of two Para Recce vehicles pictured in MJC's book 'The Half Ton Military Land Rover'. So a 'real' one then

A little while later Rob contacted me to say that he was thinking of selling on this vehicle and that if he did have to I would have first refusal as he knew I wouldn't break it for parts and it would be rebuilt. Of course I said yes I was interested in it, due to it's history I'd have been mad not too.

A little while later Rob contacted me to say it was for sale and asked if I still wanted it before he advertised it for sale, my answer was of course 'Yes'. Rob sent me all the pictures he had of the vehicle sent to him by it's previous owner and gave me a full description of the work it would require. I think he secretly wanted to put me off so he could keep it.

The deal was done and in mid March I skived off work, borrowed a car trailer and went and collected it. True to Rob's word everything worked on the vehicle and after coaxing it into life it drove onto the car trailer under its own steam.

Here's some pics of the vehicle as I first saw it.

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After an enjoyable evening of curry and beers with Rob and Gordy I set off for home with my new project in tow.

Regards,

[AR4412]

The first thing I did once the vehicle was safely at home was to swap this,

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For this,

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It just happened that the only glazed doortop I had was for a 90/110, a spare for my other lightweight.

As this swap was neccessary for the purpose of security and keeping the lightweight in my ownership not anyone elses I didn't see it as breaking the no working on it until I retire rule.

Regards,

[AR4412]

Although I was stopping myself from actually working on the vehicle, apart from running it up every week, I didn't tell myself that I couldn't go around looking at it to see what needed doing, making plans and ordering parts.

The next few posts will show what work needs to be done.

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I think a new rear crossmember was the first part I ordered for the vehicle, the inside looks as bad as the outside.

Regards,

[AR4412]

The next two shots are of the main chassis rails between the rear bumpstops and the rear crossmember. A couple of finger sized holes appeared when tapping with a hammer.

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What cannot be shown as it was a bit tricky trying to take the pictures are the holes to the rear and inside of the rear spring hangers.

Regards,

[AR4412]

A couple of holes were found hiding in the bulkhead outrigger as well.

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Along with the holes you can see the front and rear faces of the outriggers deformed when pressed with my thumb but I'm hoping to be able to cut out the rot and weld in some new steel as opposed to having to fit new outriggers.

Apart from these areas the chassis seems quite sound. I'll know for sure once the body is off so I can check the topside and can give it all a grit blast.

Regards,

[Tinweasel]

At last, its started

Good luck with the touch up job, if you find you need a spare pair of hands you have my number, I am more than willing to help out

[AR4412]

Thanks Shaun,

I might take you up on that when it comes to the time to take the tub off.

Regards,

[AR4412]

Enough of the underside, what about the bodywork I hear someone shout from the back.

As you can imagine a lifetime in the hands of the Paras and a couple of years with the RLC, who in my humble opinion having served with both, are even worse at equipment care and fault reporting there are a few dents to be found on the vehicle. I won't show pics of these here and now but I will show them and their repair as and when I tackle them. For now I'll just show the usual suspects found on a lightweight.

Starting with the vent panel.

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Yep, scrap.

Regards,

[AR4412]

The footwell and hinge panel on the passenger side have seen better days too.

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The hinge panel this side carried the spare wheel and showed signs of exactly where the studs for the wheelbolts where situated, these have been measured, had pictures taken and the info stored for later use.

Thanks to Rod, the landy man, I have pictures and dimentions taken from a real mounting so I can fabricate my own in due course. Thanks mate, it was appreciated.

The drivers side has faired better with just one small hole on the hinge panel near to where the wing meets it. I will soon be ordering some replacement panels from Les. The rest of the bulkhead seems to be solid.

Regards,

[AR4412]

Well I think that's enough history and showing what needs to be done. What have I actually got up to in since I started work on it at the weekend.

As some of you may have seen elsewhere I started by removing the pioneer tool brackets from the tailgate, these were all bent and need replacing. I have the brackets but do need to get hold of the straps. I've also removed the bumperettes, NATO hook, lash down plates and the trailer electrical socket. This will need to be replaced as it's sat there merrily corroding away since the day it was built and where it sits in the crossmember resembles a clump of damp talcum powder with wires sticking out.

The rear end now looks like this.

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So far all I have done is rub down the corrosion where the brackets sat and given it a protective coat of etch primer until I remove the tailgate to repair it and it's bent mountings. The lights will stay in place until I've workrd my way around to the back with my sanding block.

Regards,