October 2005

Dear General, 

You had asked me to write out the history of your 1965 Land Rover 109 Station Wagon. Unfortunately, my computer hard drive failed soon after I completed the task but prior to printing it. Thus I have been delayed, and I apologize for that. However, I will now attempt to document what I know and how I come to know it. I will begin with when I acquired the vehicle and then tell you what I know about the 25 years prior to that.

I came into possession of the rover in 1990. Rovers had been in my blood since seeing them as a child. Why that is, has no logical reason. You either see the beauty of function over form or you don't. At the time I owned several series trucks, and needed another one like the proverbial hole in the head. In fact my girlfriend at time put me on a 4 rover limit as a result of the purchase. We didn't even live together, she just new that if I acquired a fifth she would never see me.

Why did I buy a vehicle I didn't need? Simple unlike all the derelict rovers I have owned, this one had provenance. To start it was obviously not a North American Specification vehicle. All the trucks brought into America prior to 1973 were fairly similar. Rover was not very competitive compared to US manufactures so their sales were very small. What they didn't sell in a year they would simply hold onto and change the paperwork when New Years came. So the model year was the year it was sold. Something obviously not done today, where the year of a vehicle is tied to the date it came off the line. Also, most vehicles didn't come with a lot of options and what accessories were available were dealer installed not factory. This was due to the value of the British pound and the high import duties. Because the rag tag group of dealers were trying to sell their more expensive foreign 4x4's against higher powered and cheaper US made jeeps they did everything to keep the cost down. Including adding US heaters, locking hubs, winches, est. This 109 on the other hand, was optioned to the max. Many, I had never seen before. It was obviously some type of factory special order. Thus if I was going to spend the time and money to do a ground up restoration, so that I could have a brand new rover, this was the best candidate. I would have something; no one else at the rallies could match.

What were these options? I will attempt to list them here. Safari roof, deluxe hood, front mount jerry cans with wing mounted directionals, Koenig King winch with crank driven PTO, 165 amp Lucas positive earth split charging system, Fairy overdrive, Kodiak Heater, Windscreen visor, speedometer with 10ths and trip meter, dual fuel tanks, dual handles front and rear, side steps, hand throttle, 16 rims, gurney style beds, hatches in the roof for photography. I did not save the beds because they did not seem to be rover and today a roof top tent is more desirable. The roof hatches were by then replaced with plexiglass. I tried to find photos showing this option so I could fabricate the needed pieces with no such luck so I got a good safari roof to use instead. 

The vehicle was taken to Maine to the home of Ron Morry where it was disassembled. Ron was a infamous rover guy in the 80's and 90's who later moved to Poland where he was murdered. There is lingering doubt as to if he truly did die or faked his own death to avoid paying alimony. Either way it became clear that Ron was all talk no work so I retrieved the vehicle as a pile and brought it to the shop of a good friend Chris Laws aka the Badger. In his West Dennis Mass. shop, over the next ten plus years the truck was restored. The project moved at varying speeds over that time depending on my financial and social situation at the time. For example, the need to build my own rover was put on hold when I got the opportunity to buy the first Land Rover sold new in North America since 1973. That was Defender 110 6/500 sold to me in 1992. This was the result of a cold call to Charles Hughes the president of LRNA begging him to import defenders. He gave me the inside track that they were coming in limited numbers in the coming year and if I wanted one to order now. After letting that truck pass through my garage I owned a very rear US spec 90 and later a diesel 90 of my assembly.

All during this time the work on the "museum piece" went on. I would spend one weekend a month at Chris's shop working on the truck and would take work home to do at my leisure. As a result the work was an effort of love and therapy. There was no deadline other than "someday. Although it was originally gray we used Coniston Green because the gray was anemic. Also there are no color codes on rover vin's so I could live with it because all of the original paint was removed. The leather was also a deviation from the factory. I did this because Chris Laws is such a good interior man I thought it worth letting him explore a better canvas than what was true.

We started with the original frame which was sandblasted, welds were ground down and then painted with 2 part epoxy primer and 2 part epoxy top coat. A nasty paint used on the hulls of ships. All repairs to the frame were done as to keep the front horns which had the original vin and special order number stamped on them. From there every nut bolt, sub assembly, gasket was removed, repaired and or replaced. For example the custom wiring harness was sent to British wiring where a schematic was made, sent to England where a new one was fabricated using pvc coated wire covered in canvas to look like the original. The pvc being a better insulator. The result is a truck where the color codes on the wires are accurate. Purists may not agree with some of the things I did but it was important to keep in mind that I wanted to drive this truck not just put it in shows. so we also over-restore some items. For example power coating did not exist in the 60's but was used on many of the wrinkled surfaces to get a durable finish that resembled the original. Also the tar based undercoating was removed because it traps moisture and was replaced with a German undercoating now used by Rover to cut on road noise. The same with the bonnet liner which was custom made to resemble what we felt the rover should have been. We also added what would have been then current rover reverse lights and front or tops.

The motor was completely rebuilt. The original block was board .0400 for better power I did not have to do this but because rover blocks do not align with vin numbers there was no value in not modifying the block. I also went with a 2.5 Itr cam as opposed to a 2.25, this also gave additional horsepower. The head was a rebuilt head from Turner Engineering in England via Rovers North, who provided most of the parts. It is 8:1 for further speed and is equipped with stelight valve guides to work with unleaded fuel. A Weber carburetor was used because of its dependability. The original equipment is a zenith but today you can only get a copy of the original and the Weber works better anyway. Of course we installed a new clutch, pistons and the like while we were in there. The reseats I sent you should reflect all this as well as the pictures. However, the bottom line is that this is the fastest series truck I have ever known. Not to say it is as fast as a 90 or 110 but it certainly will cruise at 65 although like all series trucks it is underpowered on the hills.

When the restoration was done my life had changed much from the bachelor days when it began. I was now married with two kids, a house and a dog. The rovers were still important to me but they needed to stay in the perspective of my alter ego. My commitments to others now trumped my desire to satisfy my eccentric fantasies. How could I justify being late to pick up my kids because I choose to drive a 40 year old car. Thus I liquidated the fleet. It is not a permanent situation but a temporary one. One that I make freely out of a sense of willing obligation to those I love and respect. Over the years I have learned great quotes that define "rovering" to me. One is, "if you drive a rover you will meet people and go places you never would otherwise". This is true and it is the people you meet that are the important part. They are still with me therefore the loss of the trucks is not really a loss at all. The other is " you can't own them all but you can let them slip through your fingers". I guess any car nut could say this about their passion vehicle. This is also true. And is true about life as well because in the end we never own anything we are simply people passing through. You come in alone and with a lot of love and hard work hopefully when you go out you aren't alone.

When it came time to show and sell the truck I felt both entitled to and obligated to find out about the history prior to my acquisition. Fortunately, the internet has become such a resource. I found out that rover had a department to research vins. So I sent a request for the build data. What I received back is included with the receipts. It was not very enlightening but did give me the date of the production. However, I was more fortunate when it came to the original owner. I knew the vehicle had been purchased new in England, driven across Europe and into Africa. I knew this because it was documented in the service log, which documented service in all sorts of exotic places. On the cover of this log the name Oscar Buros in pencil. Using several search engines I located Oscar Buros who was in his 70's; out west. I contacted him and to my surprise he contacted me back. He said it wasn't he who I was looking for but his late great uncle and namesake. He remembered the truck and had in fact driven it in Africa. His uncle who had died in the 1970's had taught at the University in Nairobi Kenya. He was a gadget nut and had got the Rover with every possible option he could. He used it to travel around Africa. I included his letter to me in the package I sent you.

Letter from the Owner who undertook the restoration to the new owner.