This article originally appeared in the Chicago Land Rover Club magazine Rover Tracks in April of 2003.
Written by my dad, Sonny Bassett.
Rolling Restoration Part 1: In the Beginning.
My name is Sonny Bassett, and I joined the club in 1999 at the British Car Show then held at Oakton Community College. I have almost always been interested in Land Rovers, especially Series, but most that I saw were either out of my price range or needed a new frame, etc.
I started going by Cooper Technica and meeting people who drove their Series everyday. Upon hearing of my desire to own one, they offered their condolences. So I knew what I was getting into, but did it anyway. I saw an ad in the paper for a 1972 Series III from Central American in Barrington. My daughter and I drove out there to test drive it.
It was a fairly decent truck: decent frame, good springs, body OK, speedometer in kilometers, only $5000. I took it for a test drive (first Land Rover I ever drove). Not too bad, the steering was a little loose, but otherwise OK.
I made an offer and went home. Then I waited a call. After a few weeks, I called back and found out it had been sold to someone else. Oh well. I found a couple of Land Rover from Bill Knauz, but they were not what I was looking for.
In April of 2002, David Cooper called me and gave me the phone number for a Series III in Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee. I called the person, and he described the truck as a daily driver, but he needed to sell it. I told him I would be up to see it that Saturday to look at it and test drive it.
When I visited his shop that Saturday, he had it on a lift checking fluids, so he handed me a light and said to look at anything I wanted to. The frame was very solid, just two very small holes in the very rear of the frame by the rear cross member. The interior was decent, and the engine was very strong. The body has a dent in every corner, various gouges, and painted a pale blue with a brush. Except the hood, which was primer. But it was a solid little truck. I bought it and came back up the next week and drove it home with my daughter following in ther Freelander. The truck made it all the way home (100 miles), then it wouldn’t start, gaining the name “Mr. Cranky”.
I gave David a call to see if he wanted to see it, and he said yes. So we jumped it and drove it down to Cooper Technica to get David’s opinion of it. He actually liked the truck, and said the engine was very sound and the starting problem was probably bad or loose wire (very cheap battery cables, etc.). I also made the first of many purchases that day, a proper gas cap. I brought the car home, took the alternator off and had it rebuilt.
I was very lucky in getting the original paperwork from when the truck was new, an actual California car from the San Francisco Bay area. I even got the original metal ID card from the first owner.
To be continued next issue. . .
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