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The African is for sale.
It's time.
Well, didn't want this day to come. However, you know the routine... no time, no money, etc. etc.. The fact is, I just can't keep up with her anymore, and to be completely truthful, I don't enjoy working on her like I used to. It's been a wonderful ride so far, and I've really enjoyed the owning this beastie, but I think someone else would get alot more fun out of The African than I can these days.
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Here's the details:
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Here is where The African gets her name. Where this lettering came from, is a bit of a mystery. Neither Paul, nor Granville (the previous two owners) knows who put it there and why. I haven’t been able to find out either.
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In this picture you can see the original dash, with the original dual water temp/oil pressure guage. Both still work… although the oil pressure guage is a little sticky after all these years, sometimes you’ve just got to give it a tap with your finger and the reading will pop back. Also note the Kodiak heater, MarkIII if I remember correctly. It doesn’t put out a lot of heat, but it’s a whole lot better than what most Landies got. Also note I have replaced the thermostat housing with one from a series IIA so that you can use the common thermostats. She still had a bellows thermostat in it when I did this.
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This next picture shows the driver’s side interior, it is LHD which is nice to have this side of the pond. There is some rust in that footwell. There are two quarter size holes there, you may want to replace these at some point. The passenger side is fairing better, but no by much. Also see the seats, we covered those with canvas for our wedding. The original Rhinovinyl is underneath.
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This is a picture of the cargo area… mostly used by my dog. Not a whole lot to say here really.
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This picture shows the rear of the old girl. Again not a whole lot to say. There is some rust in this rear crossmember, as usual in an older series. This is however the original frame, and it should be noted that although I live in North Carolina now, for a major portion of The African’s life, she was a California girl. The rust is not that bad really.
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Here’s the front right side, the body work is a bit dinged and bent, and most of the paint has faded away, but these aluminum body panels don’t really rust so, if it doesn’t bother you… Also, those tires need to be replaced, they needed to be replaced when I bought her 5 years ago. The spare is no good, more of a bonnet weight really.
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Smiling away. Those aren’t plastic turn indicators, most of them are the original glass Sparto type. Here’s where I should mention two things: The wiring harness was completely replaced, from those indicators to the rear turn and brake lights. Also, nearly the entire steering system was replaced not long ago. Six new tie rod ends, and one steering relay. The steering box I did not replace as it didn’t need it. Oh, and I also got it aligned… steering is relatively light and she tracks pretty straight. Could use an adjustment in the steering box, and I think it’s come a little loose and should have the bolts tightened up.
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And here we are again on the driver’s side. I should mention at this point, in case you haven’t seen it. I was saving up for parabolic springs. It does need these, or at least new factory springs. She rides way rougher than need be. And it was always a plan for me to replace these… but you know what happens to the best laid plans. Take a look at the windscreen, I replaced both plates of glass I got from Wise Owl. It was seriously a safety hazard driving into sunlight with the old ones. Oh, and I rebuilt the both wiper motors and they putter along fine. Relatively speaking of course.
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Well that’s it. I’ve done a lot of work to her, and it was my weekend routine when SWMBO didn’t have other plans for us. Let me add a few things that’ve been replaced that weren’t mentioned above. I rebuilt the Rochester carburetor and it’s running well, except for the usual Rochester hesitation problem. I replaced the rubber boots for all the handles, and the high/low shifter boot has fallen apart after a year… I had the Kodiak heater recored as well as the radiator itself, and replaced the gas tank. Fixed leaks here and there where I could. The brakes are all moderately new. The engine has been rebuilt, and if I had to guess I’d say it has about 60 some thousand miles on it. The reason I’m uncertain is because I had to wait for Santa to bring me a replacement speedo cable for the one that broke. I know there’s more but I just can’t think of anything else at the moment.
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If that hasn’t scared you off yet, let me tell you the rest of the story. It’ll need new tires as I’ve mentioned, new springs, a new/nother distributor/vacuum advance because I broke the one that’s in there now. Oh, but it does have Pertronix electronic ignition. The body and paint could stand to be reworked, but I always liked the way it looked, even though no one else seemed to. If people ask about the dents and what not, just tell them a rhino did it. That usually shuts ‘em up. It’s a lot of fun to drive, and it makes people smile and point every where it goes.
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