Subject: Re: parting out landy for free...

Some punter posted to the list that there was a Rover being parted out - for free just South of Utica. I and Mike L. both planned to head over and pull some bits off. Originally scheduled for the first weekend of Spring, with a foot of fresh snow and temperatures below freezing, we both bagged, and decided to try the following week. Here is that story...

Barely a week form the vernal equinox, every stream was fast with water from the snow melt, low feilds still flooded with water, the temperature was quickly climbing toward seventy as the sun was well up when Mike L paged me just after 8am. Seems he'd gone to tune-up his brakes and done wrong. Bad pedal to worse. More had transpired since I last talked to him Friday, but it wasn't the stuff of cell phones or pagers.

Mike Relates the story:

Oh.. Friday night.. All the usual fun.. and, my girlfriend (who I live with) informed me that it's over with us and she is in love with someone else. So, Saturday morning I wasn't in the best frame of mind.. and had no sleep, either.

It goes like this.. The brakes had been getting bad for a while.. I had adjusted them a few months ago and I figured a quick adjustment was in order. Now, I know how to adjust brakes, so I was pretty suprised when I pulled out of the garage and the pedal hit the floor..

Back into the garage for a re-adjustment.. and that's when I noticed the crack. The mother of all cracks. Nasty..

There's a welding shop in town and one of the owners owns a '69 IIa 88, so I figured I could get some help there. Frank said sure, but he had to paint a 30 ft equipment trailer first.. By the time he got done with the Rover it was after 1PM..

Tired as I was, a road trip seemed like the best idea - given the circumstances on the home front. It's only about a 1 1/2 hour trip for me, so off I went.

I arrived at John's slightly before noon, a Maine-registered Saab was there and two college men were busily removing parts. before our arrival, the Bonnet and door sills had gone, the previous owner seemed to have dropped the rear white bed a onto a 69-72 SIIa, formerly poppy red. Matt and his friend had come down from Rochester, and had removed the right front wing, and a number of 'finds' including the dash vent screens. I introduced my self and went up to say hi to John.

I went back and started removing the window class from the door tops, as they were barely together, both door tops folded over, with very little push. I salvaged the glass and spacer trim bits. Then I salvaged bits of the dash, and Matt and his friend returned from the house. They very kindly volunteered to help me pull the bed, and with Mike delayed for an indeterminate amount of time, it would have been stupid to refuse their offer.

First off was the rear door, which Matt took, then windscreen bolts, and to our delight, few of the many bolts that ought to hold the top on were present. It was off in no time. Next was the bolts holding the remains of the rear cross member. The outer points were gone, the righthand set was not attached at the body, the left had no cross member below the tab, and the middle was all that remained. Which Matt and his friend undid.

I emptied out the back, and we undid the row along the seat box, after removing the mouse-digested seats, acorn shells, deritus, complete with beetles and centipedes. So far so good. Next we removed the rear bench seat frames, which Matt wanted for his brothers vehicle. Then the front body to outrigger bolts. But the right hand side had the gas tank in the way. Matt dropped the front, I the rear, then we set to work on the outrigger bolts, which I forgot to punch through the holes. After a few minutes of pulling and hammering and we came to the sudden realization that I did indeed not punch the bolts thourgh. That done the bed lifted off. We tipped it over, to dump the remaining debris out, and Matt then pulled the windscreen. After placing the bed on the Rangie the lads took off.

I pulled a few more bits off, dash switches and that. Mike L. finally showed up and filled in the blanks of his story for the day. He evaluated the petrol tank...

I missed all that fun... When I arrived the Rover was pretty sad looking. Bill was getting a few more odds and ends and tying up the rear box to the roof of his Range Rover..

It *looked* like a good tank.. One of the lead sealed ones. But, the front end had way too much rust between the tank and skidplate for my liking.. And, there was something evil looking inside it.. I've got a '71 IIa awaiting restoration and it's radiator is shot. The radiator on this roach looked pretty good, as did the breakfast, so off it came. Whoever had this Rover did a marvelous job of installing a mud shield to protect the wing-mounted headlamps.. Unfortunately, it was pop-rivited in. Bill did have a cordless drill, which saved me a lot of chisel work.

We pulled the upper door hinges, as I don't have a mirror support for my left side.

We were talking to John before we left, and he happned to mention that the 'donor' vehicle had been purchased from one Mr. Eric Zipkin. If we had known, would we have made the trip ?

Sure... Free Parts? Say no more.

Bill Caloccia, Mike L. & John K.
Utica, N.Y.
29 March 1998

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