Land Rover Project
Kenyan Hospital Land Rover 110
Introduction / How it came about
About two years ago whilst lying under my old series III Land Rover replacing the exhaust system for the umpteenth time, I decided that I could do with a new project to get my teeth into – rather than the rust that was falling off the exhaust! In addition I wanted the project to have real purpose and flavour, such that it would prove beneficial to other people in some way. Combining these requirements with my long term interest in traditional products from the Solihull factory, I hatched the idea of restoring a long wheel base Land Rover for use by a hospital in Africa. Fortunately, my wife Kathryn had some empathy with this idea, mainly on the grounds that it would keep me quiet for a year or so. Unfortunately, by agreeing to the venture, it has meant that I've been even more resident in the garage than usual, which she has kindly endured – most of the time!
The OGRA
With this in mind I set about finding a hospital that would be interested in being presented with a restored vehicle. After some research on the internet, I was put in touch with the OGRA foundation, which is a small non government organisation that runs a 35 bed hospital in Kisumu, situated on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria in Kenya. The OGRA also run mobile clinics in order to reach people living in rural areas, and it is this part of the operation that makes use of four wheel drive vehicles. The OGRA were very enthusiastic about my proposition and provided a basic specification of the vehicle. Namely it needed to be a long wheel base Land Rover, preferably diesel, with seating in the back but with the option to carry a stretcher. If the vehicle was over ten years old it could be imported for charitable use, provided that it had a UK MOT and was in good general order.
Vehicle acquisition
Finding a suitable vehicle was the next task and given that it is likely to have quite a hard life with limited servicing, I decided to look for a machine that was structurally and mechanically sound, but still relatively straightforward to maintain. This pointed towards an early 110, and after some research it seemed like a trip to Witham Specialist Vehicles in Lincolnshire might be a good idea, as they deal primarily with large volumes of ex-military stock, so there would be a fair degree of choice. So one Saturday, I headed down there and enjoyed an entertaining few hours, taking in the wide range of vehicles on offer and almost forgetting what I'd gone for. It would have been very easy to come away with a Green Godess or a Bedford 'four tonner' or even a tank! How would my wife react if I returned home having bought a fire engine? However, I ended up looking closely at two diesel 110’s, both of which had excellent chassis and sounded reasonably healthy on a short test drive around the site. One was a soft top and the other a 'fitted for radio’ (FFR) hard top, but with 12v vehicle electrics. After a bit of thought and consideration of costs, I plumped for the 1985 hard top model with military registration number 91 KE 10. A week later the 110 showed up at our home on the Wirral, riding on the back of an articulated low loader, which gave the neighbours something to talk about!
A large delivery from Witham Specialist Vehicles
Restoration work
Bodywork
The main issue with buying an ex-MOD vehicle, is that during its life it will have been painted many times with little or no preparation between coats. As a result, if you sand through the paint down to the metal, it’s like looking at a section of sedimentary rock, with alternating bands of green, black and sand, which no doubt tell a story about how and where the Land Rover has been used. The problem is that to restore the body to anything like a decent finish, all that paint has to come off. Seeing this as the major hurdle in the project, I decided to tackle this first, as I had to be sure that I could convert the battle weary looking machine into something that would be accepted by the Kenyan bureau of standards, who would inspect the vehicle on its arrival. Not keen to immerse myself in the fumes given off when using copious amounts of paint stripper, I decided to use a power sander in order to remove the bulk of the paint from the panels that I’d decided to keep. After purchasing a high quality mask, I went to work and stripped the front wings, bonnet, off side rear wing and the rear quarter panels. It took many hours and was probably the least enjoyable part of the project. As the roof was badly dented and the vehicle needed to have windows fitted in the back for ventilation, I decided to acquire a replacement hard top, which I sourced from the very friendly chaps at Buckley Brothers near Blackburn. Getting the roof home on the top of our Astra was interesting, as it behaves like an aircraft wing, generating a fair bit of lift. Of course, it had to be a windy day, but fortunately my father had come along to help and being an ex-seafarer, the roof was roped down like there was no tomorrow! In addition to the hard top, both door bottoms were replaced along with the rear left hand wing. At last the Land Rover started to look half decent and I decided to finish it using pastel green coach paint. I’d removed the windscreen prior to painting, but getting this back in with a new seal was difficult to say the least. Fortunately my brother was staying with us for the weekend, so we made good use of his technical skills and got the screen back in without breaking it. However, he hasn’t been to see us again since!
Bodywork restoration well under way
Mechanical work
After crawling around beneath the Land Rover a fair bit, I’d come to the conclusion that the chassis was indeed in very good condition, which meant that the vehicle had probably spent a lot of it’s life in a dry salt free environment. The suspension looked in good order and there was hardly any oil leaking from the swivel housings, gearbox or engine. This raised the question 'was there any oil in there to start with?’ As it turned out it was only the swivel housings that were dry and on filling them with oil nothing leaked out, so it was all good news on this front. Without a proper test drive, which was not possible until the Landy was legally registered, the only obvious area that needed work was the braking system, as the pipes were corroded. I therefore re-piped the whole system and fitted new slave cylinders and brake shoes on the rear axle.
MOT
Having prepared the vehicle as best as I could without being able to do a proper test drive, the day arrived for the dreaded MOT test, the result of which would determine my fate for the next few weeks. Although it failed, it could have been a lot worse, in that it was only a case of improving the braking efficiency, which I achieved by replacing the master cylinder. A week later, an MOT was acquired and I was able to set about getting the vehicle registered, for which form V55/5 had to be obtained from the DVLA via post, as it’s not downloadable from their web site. The form is a bit of a monster and involves fifty questions, the majority of which you haven’t a chance of filling in. Numerous items such as nitrous oxide levels, stationary sound level, drive-by sound level etc, all leave you scratching your head. In fact you wonder how easy it would be for Land Rover themselves to provide some of the information! However, after filling in all of the obvious stuff, a trip to the local DVLA office lifted the curtain of doom and a very nice lady processed the form and a registration number was issued.
Test drive
For a test drive weekend we chose the Yorkshire Dales, as my wife’s parents have a caravan in Wensleydale, which offers wonderful scenery and some legal bye-ways on which to test the suspension. It’s also a great walking area, so we had a very memorable late summer break, driving the more remote tracks and then walking in areas that we’ve not explored previously. The only obvious issues that came to light on our travels concerned a difficulty in engaging first gear and a bit more smoke from the exhaust than you would like. Otherwise it seemed to be a very serviceable machine both on and off the road.
Enjoying a bye-way in the Dales
On our return, I decided to have the cylinder head fully reconditioned, which was carried out by ACR Engineering in Deeside, who I can highly recommend. I also engaged the help of my good friend Simon, who is responsible for getting me into Land Rovers 25 years ago, to help me take the engine out in order to replace the clutch. It took an hour to extract the engine, but about three to get it back in again, along with a fair bit of Anglo Saxon! All clutch hydraulics were renewed as well.
Simon taking a well earned break after we’d spent a couple of hours wrestling to get the engine bolted back up to the gearbox..
Engine re-installed.
Following the above work, further test drives in icy conditions over the Christmas period showed everything to be running smoothly, although like most of the older Land Rovers, the heater is not quite up to the mark in sub zero temperatures. However, this should not be a major concern in Kenya.
The last task was to apply the OGRA lettering on the side of the vehicle. This was supplied by The Sign Studio in Middlesbrough, who offer a very efficient service.
Applying the signage
Kathryn & Andy reflecting on a successfully completed project.
A forest track in Denbighshire
Finished and ready to go, complete with roof rack.
Shipping
The Land Rover departed from Tilbury docks in mid March and headed for Mombasa. It was shipped on a roll on roll off vessel, which is about half the cost of using a container. The container is only of any real advantage if you are sending other items of kit with the vehicle. To help alleviate some of the shipping cost, Kathryn has over the last year, used her renowned baking skills to make and sell cakes at the school where she teaches, which has resulted in the staff now being one size larger!
The Land Rovers New Life
The Kenyan Land Rover, is now in service with the OGRA hospital, based in Kisumu. The picture below shows the Landy with George, who is the main driver.
It took a month to ship the vehicle, a month to clear Kenyan customs and a further month to sort out problems caused whilst the Landy was stranded in the port of Mombasa waiting for a deal to be reached with customs, but that’s another story. At least it’s now there, in use and the OGRA are very happy with it.
They’ve even had a serious bull and extra driving lights fitted, so I think that it will see some proper off road action!
Summary
Despite involving a fair bit of hard work, the project has been great fun at times and assuming the vehicle makes it to its intended destination, it should prove to have been a rewarding experience as well. The restoration work has resulted in some useful and friendly contacts in the Land Rover world, including Grease Monkeys in Birkenhead who are a great help with second hand parts, Land Ranger Services in Deeside, Buckley Brothers near Blackburn, LR Centre in Speke and Simmonites near Bradford. Family and friends have of course been very supportive of this venture and I’m very grateful to all concerned.
