A Lightweight for civvy street

www.thelandy.co.uk

Issue 114: June 2023

Words: Tom Alderney

Pics: Ken Watson

Of all the various leaf-sprung vehicles Land Rover made during its first 35 years, the Lightweight has a special place in the heart of many enthusiasts. It’s a rarity now, because the enthusiasts in question tended to beat them to death off-road, but there was a time when they were ten a penny and cutting one up wasn’t the equivalent of lighting your smoke with a tenner.

More modern than a Series I, but similarly slim, the Lightweight was made for trialling. Except it wasn’t – it was made for the army. However popular they proved after demob, Land Rover never did a civvy version.

If they had, Ken Watson reckons the result might well have looked a lot like this. It’s a 1970 IIA Lightweight that’s been ‘civilianised’ – not grafted on to an old Range Rover chassis the way so many were, but much more than just put on the road with an age-related number plate.

Ken’s Lightweight was already a bit of an oddity way before he got his hands on it, in that it was one of the later IIAs with its headlamps mounted in revised wings. Time for a brief bit of history. The total number of Lightweights built between the start of production in 1968 and the vehicle’s replacement by the 90 is 37,897, if you believe Wikipedia, or around 18,000 if you believe the Military Lightweight Club. Hmmm, tough choice. Of these, 2989 were Series IIAs (Military Lightweight Club) or ‘between 1500 and 2000’ (Wikipedia).

We’d like to hope that none of you are actually taking the word of Wiki over that of a Land Rover club, here. But even just under 3000 from a total of 18,000 says that less than one in six Lightweights were Series IIAs (known as ‘Rover 1’ to the MOD). Of these, fewer still have the later wings. Ken believes that his may have been modified after delivery to its first owners, the Royal Marines.

It was first delivered in 24-volt FFR form, proudly wearing the registration 53 FJ 34, before cutting its teeth with

29 Commando Royal Artillery, alongside the RUC in Dungannon.

Then in early 1972, 29 Regiment was shipped to St George’s Barracks in Malta, along with its vehicles. This was a period when British troops were being gradually withdrawn from the island following the Marlborough House Agreement, and 53 FJ 34 stayed for most of the process. ‘She appears to have remained on station between February 1972 and April 1977 as the various Commando batteries came and went,’ says Ken.

Finally, 53 FJ 34 spent about a year in reserve as part of a NATO rapid reaction force, before being disposed of at the Ruddington MOD auction in July 1978. It went on to the road wearing the registration mark DFK 277T, with the plate relating to the date of first registration as was the custom at that time. That was its identity for about 40 years, until a previous owner to Ken decided that when it needed was a

personal plate. Needless to say, he retained this when the time came to sell the truck, and with the norm now being for a car’s identity to reflect its year of manufacture it became WW 160J. There can’t be very many motors on the road to have had four different titles in their time.

That’s not all that’s changed about this Lightweight. As we said above, it’s been civilianised (if that wasn’t a word already, it is now) – to the extent that apart from the trademark bumperettes, every trace of its military origins has been removed.

‘Since her demob,’ says Ken, ‘she’s undergone a number of changes and is now a six-seat station wagon with 12-volt electrics.’

Being an FFR, these would originally have been 24-volt to power the radios.

‘Although it’s not difficult to convert the military FFR spec engine to 12-volt GS/civilian spec,’ says Ken, ‘this car has had a complete engine swap for a 2.25 petrol Series III civilian unit. Perhaps the military spec one was sought after by an enthusiast, or alternatively perhaps it was in poor condition?

‘Mechanically, there were no engine design changes between 1961 and 1980. So, apart from having an alternator and electronic ignition, the current engine will be identical to those fitted to 12-volt GS-spec Rover 1s.’

In this way, yes it is civvy but it’s also hardly out of military spec. Elsewhere, on the other hand, things start to get very non-standard.

There’s the fact that it’s a station wagon, for starters. Lightweights with Hard-Top conversions are nothing new, but you don’t often see one done like this with alpine windows, a side-opening rear door and side windows from a 90 Station Wagon. Inside, there are rear bench seats and inertia reel front seatbelts, and while they haven’t been fitted the wiring is in place for a rear wiper and heater rear window.

‘She came to me with a rather non-standard facia arrangement incorporating the top shelf from a civilian Series III above a centrally located Series IIA instrument panel, which is also civilian,’ comments Ken. ‘Although it’s certainly unusual, I grew attached to it.’ As with all the best modifications, converting it back to original wouldn’t be hard – though if you wanted an original Lightweight, it’s hard to see why you’d choose one like this with such a unique character.

This is aided by a rather unusual colour scheme which looks a bit like RAF blue in some lights. Not as obviously civvy as some of the eyeball-burning hues we’ve seen on Lightweights in the past, but definitely a change from the olive drab of old.

Keep looking and you’ll see 205R16 radial tyres, Defender-style door mirrors, freewheeling hubs, a lockable bonnet mounting for the spare wheel, an LED reversing lamp and, when you climb underneath, parabolic springs with long travel dampers and a stainless steel exhaust.

So it’s definitely not just about an image – this is a Lightweight that’s been built to perform, and keep performing, in civilian life.

To this end, Ken has also had the rear chassis repaired properly.

Note that last word, there… he describes it as ‘extensive, full strength repair work’ which involved grinding off some previously lashed-up patches and removing the rear crossmember before refitting it on the rebuilt chassis rails. Ken reports that the front chassis is ‘reasonably sound for the time being’ and that the bulkhead vent panel, hinge panels and footwells have all been renewed. So has the wiring loom, which was remade using the correct colour cables to match a civilian harness at the back, heavy-duty seven-core trailer cable runs through the offside chassis leg to the rear lights.

Talking of those tyres, Ken found that by a happy fluke, fitting them made the speedo read right. ‘Its gearing should be set up for the original 6.00x16 cross-plies, but having checked using GPS it’s as near as dammit spot on for the 205R16s. I think it is fair to say that in the 1960s and 70s, it was normal for speedos to be very optimistic – and with no easy way to check them, we didn’t realise just how inaccurate they were ’

Most of us who’ve driven a Land Rover of this age are used to assum- ing that the speedo is probably right at some momentary point during its never ending gyrations back and forth whenever the vehicle is moving, so that sounds pretty impressive. As does the very idea of a civvy Lightweight. It’s very well documented, of course, that the ‘Rover 1’ was created to fit a very specific set of criteria laid down by the MOD. But with its stripped back specifications, narrowed body and axles and easily removable panels, plus, crucially, its strengthened chassis, it can be seen as the Wolf of its day –with a bit of Jeep-style attitude on top. Land Rover made it that way so it could be slung under helicopters and carried two abreast on military transport planes – but in the process they created what, to a great many people, is the coolest, more desirable and most usable leafer there ever was.

Thanks to Ken Watson for his help in compiling this article. His Lightweight is based in Lancashire and is currently is ed o sa e in ou assified ad e s i an as in i e o ou find i on a e o is issue