AutoRAI Land Rover. Lost, recovered and back on the road after 50 years

One of the three cars with which Land Rover made its world debut in 1948 at the AutoRAI in Amsterdam, was technically restored to its former glory after a one-year restoration. The car was lost for years and was found in 2016. In 2018 it was officially established that the car is one of three pre-production models that were on display in Amsterdam at the time.

The old Land Rover has been restored by the specialists of Land Rover Classic in Coventry. They specialize in the conservation and restoration of Land Rovers that have been out of production for ten years or more. For the restoration of this specimen they used traditional skills, original drawings and the most modern technologies.

Authentic

This historically important specimen was lost for years. He was found by chance in 2016 in a garden near the factory in Solihull, England, where he was built in 1948. The car was kept as authentic as possible and returned to the specification that he had in his birth year. In that year, this Land Rover, which was first registered in 1955, was fitted with the controls on the right-hand side. During the restoration, the Land Rover series once again had control on the left, as was the case with the original construction. Land Rover Classic also mounted the specific control levers for the four-wheel drive. Before the restoration, the car was completely stripped and it was investigated which components could still be used, which could be repaired after not being used for fifty years.

4WD levers in dashboard

Some components hardly needed to be repaired. The specialists examined other components with X-rays and other modern techniques. They did this to determine whether they had to be replaced or whether they could be repaired and reused. The characteristic controls for the four-wheel drive, which were placed in the dashboard only in a few pre-production units, have of course been retained.

Great reliance on expertise

The engineers at Land Rover Classic had to use all their expertise to bring the underlying system of rods, levers and transmissions back to the state of 1948. The original braking system, which was different from that in the production version of the Land Rover, had been removed over the years, but was completely reconstructed by Land Rover Classic specialists based on original drawings. The parts were made by hand and carefully assembled in the same way as in 1948.

70 year of patina

It seems that the body has escaped Land Rover Classic's attention, but that is certainly not the case. Land Rover Classic thought it was important to preserve the patina of this seventy-year-old car. The restorers repaired cracks, holes and sharp edges. A nice detail was that new plate parts were made with 2 mm thin aluminum. That happened in 1948 too. The new paint was made based on the original light green color that had been preserved under the seats. The newly painted parts were transformed in an old style, so that they match the rest of the bodywork.

Reproduction

Land Rover Classic even went so far as to reproduce an original logo that had been lost on the basis of a photo taken at the RAI in 1948. For other parts that had to be replaced, the specialists also made use of the extensive archive of Land Rover Classic, with original drawings and images, and of other preserved pre-production copies. In this way, all parts could be mounted correctly in and on the car. The Land Rover will be used on a rolling basis in the near future. It becomes part of the moving collection of classics at the Classic Works facility in Coventry.