You guys are such experts -- dare I say 'obsessive' in the nicest way! I grew up in a 1954 swb, (GNV 454) owned by my father's farm employer
--- I had to use both legs locked straight to push the clutch in, (I was only 9 or so). Dad used to leave it idling along in the fields in
1st, low-range, while he hopped out to look at work in progress; I'd steer the thing!Summer memories of lifting the doors off, folding the windscreen down. Holiday trips four-abreast on those Dunlopillo seats, with the gas cap under the driver's seat! Our biggest luxury was a heavy steel WW2 military vehicle "clock" that told the time within half-an-hour's accuracy. When my father was run over by a combine, requiring both broken legs in plaster, he had a m'cycle hand throttle fitted, and drove from the centre seat, using a crutch to poke brakes and clutch. (Not on the public roads, mind you----).
Those LR U-channel bumpers: two car thieves in a Consul Mk II sped past as my father was turning right --- his bumper gutted the Consul down one side like a fish --- the bodywork's metal was packed in the channel of the bumper!
Something about the high level of tech expertise on this ng makes me suspect that there are few farmers posting ---- most tech solutions I witnessed were of the sledgehammer and crowbar variety. But if I won the lottery today, I reckon I'd plump for a brand new LR Defender to drive, and a 1950's shortie as a nostalgic garden ornament. Long live the 'Landie'. DK, Canada