Land Rover
Forward Controls
Brought to you
By DasLandRoverMan
‘Kermit’
DasLandRoverMans IIA FC
Kermit,
named after the frog of the same name (long story) is a IIA RHD home market 109
FC, sitting on chassis number 28600334B.
Kermit isn’t entirely original, and was acquired as a
‘Blank Canvas’ vehicle, on the premise of not having enough of the original to
be compelled to restore it, but instead build it to suit my requirements, and
above all, get another FC back on the road.
Modifications to the vehicle include a
Jeremy Jackson, whom I acquired the truck from tells me
that the vehicle came to him with a large hydraulic pump fitted to the back of
the gearbox, and this was to be returned as part of the sale agreement.
This information, along with the extra metal work along the
back of the vehicle lead me to believe it was at one point being converted into
a Hydraulic tilt bed transporter vehicle.
If Anyone knows different I would be interested to hear
form you/
The positioning of the headlamps in the front panel is also
interesting to look at, but removing it from the vehicle, and taking a closer
look at it, in my mind, makes it look more of a bodge job.
The picture on the left shows the front panel as removed
from the vehicle, the right hand headlamp is set down slightly from the normal
IIA position, whilst the left hand lamp is set down much further, and slightly
inward. I didn’t notice this myself until I had taken it off the truck.
The right hand picture shows the left hand headlamp from
the rear. It’s clearly visible that the panel has been chopped to lower the
lamp, and the resulting gap filled in with sheet steel cut to shape.
The use of steel to fill the gap in an aluminium panel
suggests to me that it wasn’t a factory modification, I would like to believe
that Land Rover would have used aluminium to fill the gap, along with having
the lamps level in the panel.
It does however occur to me that this modification may have
been made after the discovery that the IIA FC’s headlamps were actually
somewhat higher than legally permitted by Construction and Use regulations.
This discovery was made by technicians working on the IIA based BBC mobile mast
vehicle.
The vehicle has been dismantled to begin the rebuild
process, some pictures of which are shown below.
Current plans for the rebuild are to repair the chassis
something near to how it left the factory, fit a set of polybushes,
Both Axles have now been replaced with ENV units from a
IIB.
It will be powered by a 3.5 Efi V8 from a Discovery driving
through an LT95, to give a similar (although taller geared) setup to the 101
FC. It willbe fuelled by a gas system, supplied by two tanks (to begin with)
mounted between the rails of the top chassis.
Cooling will be achieved with a Heavy Duty Discovery
radiator and electric fans.
The rear body will be a custom fabrication made to look something
similar to the factory dropside effort with a marine ply bed, the cab will be
standard IIA/IIB fare, with a single wiper motor conversion, and a modification
of the current front panel, allowing both headlights to sit square, lower down
the panel from the normal IIA position..
Gear linkages will be of a custom fabrication, based on, if
not the same as Mick outhwaites linkage system employed on ADD 249 B.
Hopefully, once it’s all done I’ll have a good looking, and
usable Forward Control capable of carrying the full 30cwt, and towing 3500kg
behind it.
Some more recent photos from the rebuild.
Top left; Front axle mounted, and a little puzzled as to
how the rear one goes on.
Top Right; All Together and Cab mounted, It’s rather tall.
Bottom Left; Some blatant advertising
Bottom Right; The new rear crossmembers,
Stay tuned for more updates.