[Painting.]

Ok thanks can all colours be done that way or not?

Max

Personally I'd recommend using tractor or plant enamel - it's not (how shall I put this?) quite as sensitive to the preparation and application as car paints, sticks very well, is ideal for brush / roller application, covers a multitude of sins and is available in a wide range of colours at reasonable prices (check out eBay, your local agricultural suppliers or Google "tractor restoration" / "tractor paint"). I know that this will have some people spitting feathers , but with tractor enamel you can even get away without rubbing down on a reasonably well weathered Landy, just wiping over to make sure there's no oil or grease!

Most important thing is to make sure that there's a good key (rub down with wet and dry paper if the paint is all shiny) and clean grease-free surface (wipe over with white spirit / thinners or meths as available). There's no need to create a perfectly sanded base as per more traditional car paints.

I did my last Series IIA in dark blue with a yellow roof (approximately coastguard colours) and she was still looking very presentable when I sold her three years later - that was without sanding down at all, but the original paint was well weathered.

[Anyone out there seen / got XRP 669?]

My first Land Rover back in 1982 was a Series II diesel (2L, which caused a bit of confusion at the motor factor's when they'd only heard of 2.25s... ) hardtop in grey, registration XRP 669. Just wondered if she still exists, and if anyone out there has seen her lately, or whether she's now only a memory and maybe a few parts living on in other Landies? (And a username in cyberspace, of course - the one on eBay is also mine, by the way.)

After a while I sold her to a friend of mine as a proper 4x4 restoration project to replace the Dutton Sierra kit-car which he'd lovingly built and then seen go up in flames due to a fuel leak and / or electrical fault thereby demonstrating one of the drawbacks of non-corroding glassfibre bodywork!

(My replacement IIA petrol was blue soft-top 948 JWP, but I know that one had her registration sold on after I parted with her.)

["Handed" Parabolics?]

Hi none of the ones i have seen are handed so i think it's unlikley.Have a look on The Rocky Mountain website, as i recall they suggest loosening all the spring shackle bolts, jacking the vehicle to correct (or slightly overcorrect) the lean and then tightening them.Then when you let the jack down Bob your uncle.Well worth a try at least.

Hope this helps Bill.

Thanks - plan of campaign involves a new rear 1/4 chassis in fairly short order, so I was planning to do a bit of loosening and relevelling then...

The good news is that the "horribly noisy rear diff" that the (very honest) vendor told me about was, as I suspected from the description, actually the exhaust knocking on the chassis at certain revs...

["Handed" Parabolics?]

I've just acquired a Series III SWB diesel (1983) as a towing / utility vehicle after a break from Landy ownership forced by lack of parking space.

It's been fitted with parabolics quite recently by the looks of things, but still suffers from the infamous "Land-Rover lean" - there's a distinct list to starboard , when one would expect that on new springs there would be a lean the other way when parked up .

I just wondered if the parabolic springs come in handed pairs in the same way as the original multi-leaf springs (and I seem to recall that the diesel SWBs had a different set of front springs to the petrol ones in the original spec)?

Have searched the forum, but can't find an answer!

[dixon bate adjustable tow info please]

cheers mate........was thinking should i use a back plate behind xmember but it look quite caperble of pulling anything......thank you again for your help

Dixon-Bate do a backing plate - I'd advise using it as I have seen the two large (lower) bolts which go through the crossmember pull into the holes even with fairly substantial washers behind them...