Land Rover 109 in Car Show!

 24 July 2021

My neighbor talked me into putting my 109 in a small local car show. I kinda cleaned it up in the days preceding and packed some of my camping stuff to set up for display. You know a table and chair, some pelican cases. I also made a poster board of a simple timeline for the rebuild.

So I was up at the ungodly hour of 0620 had a quick bowl of oatmeal made a sandwich for later packed the last few things and was off at 0700. Met my neighbor on the way and drove the 3 miles to the car show, checked in and parked in my space. Got lucky we would be under the redwoods most of the day.

I started setting up and watched other cars pull in.

    Mostly American cars from the 50's-60's, there was a Hillman and a Lotus and some loud rat rods.

I didn't think many peoples would be interested in a Land Rover and for the most part it got passing stares from the hardcore car guys.

But, there was always someone coming around and asking questions. Mostly about the engine and what are all those knobs for, do I have a PTO? Have you been any where with it?

Lots of the peoples asking questions were female! Usually with a guy.

It was a big hit with kids, I let them(and adults) climb in and sit in the drivers seat. The kids got in the back and checked out "all the stuff" sat on the open cot and had to be coerced into getting out. 1 teen boy told me it was his best of show!

Many of the men were surprised at all the work I had done. Some women expressed a desire to get something and go car camping.

I enjoyed the pancake breakfast to benefit the local volunteer Fire Dept.

There were peoples I knew from my past that stopped by and were recognized. A stranger talked to me for about 5 mins and then told me he knows of a pick up style Land Rover in someone's back yard he is going to make an offer on.

When quizzed on the engine I would tell em it has a neck snapping 113HP!

The day went by pretty well, but my bad ankle was really tired from standing.

Overall I was truly surprised by the number of peoples who came by and looked at Fluffy and asked good questions, took pictures and thanked me for bringing it to the show!

By 4pm the crowd had died down and a third of the cars left, so I packed up and left at 4:30.

All in all a nice day and I was out of the house, I have my jabs for covid and hope I don't get sick. There was maybe 1% of the peoples there wearing masks.

Got a couple more pics;

Land Rover lantern hanger

 22 July 2021

     My neighbor talked me into entering my 109 into a local car show this coming Saturday, Not really my thing , but it will get me out if the house. I was thinking of what I wanted to take along the lines of camping gear as most likely I'll be the only non American Iron car.

So I was looking at my hurricane lamp and thinking how to display it. I've thought in the past of making a hanger I could hook on the rain gutter. What I really wanted was something that was lower and wouldn't burn my awning.

      It hit me that maybe, just maybe, I could make a folding hanger off the back door. 

I needed to know how hot the lamp got.

    We (me and the lamp) went out to 109 and I fired it up and after a bit checked the temp with my IR gun. The glass was OK and putting my hand above it was not bad, the real surprise was the temp of the metal top,

Taking some measurements led me to believe that I could hang the lantern off a folding bar connected to the top frame of the door. I took a piece of 3/4" x 1/8" flat stock and cut a 6" and a 12" section. After a trip to the hardware store to buy a hinge.

It is a 1" hinge, the smallest I could get, I'll see if it holds up. I cut the ears off and welded one side to the bar.

Next I had to cut the ear off the 2 part side, I did this with a dremel tool cutoff wheel leaving a little sliver to keep the holes aligned. And welded that to the other piece of flat stock.

As above I did have to notch the single side so it would fold flatter when closed.

Arbitrarily I chose to put my mounting holes 1" from each end, I marked and drilled them, notched the hanging end and rounded it to make it less likely to damage me when I ram my head into it.

Clamping it to the door allowed me to drill pilot holes the same size as the ones in the mount, and try a test hanging.

Once the pilot holes were in place on the door I went ahead and drilled the mount holes out and chamfered them for a tapered head machine screw. My riv-nuts for this are 10-24. With the holes all done on the mount ai painted them to match the Rover, believing that if the mount was yellow I might see it open before I slammed the door shut........

Ahhh, time for lunch!

After a sandwich, I came out and drilled out 1 of the mounting holes and installed a riv-nut. In the middle picture you can see that using a round file I made an irregular hole. This stops the riv-nut from turning once installed.

I let the mount hang so I could be sure the pilot hole still lined up and then I put in the last riv-nut.

I set the screws in and tightened them up.

Unfolding it I hung the lamp.

I am thinking I will use a magnet to keep it stored when not in use.

Once I get the right size shape magnet, there is a Covid shortage, it will sit here when open.

Final thoughts; 1/2" was too small 3/4" is too big, I couldn't get 5/8". I should have made the arm the full length of the door top with a couple of notches for lamp hanging. I may be able to use this inside with the arm at 90° to the closed door, and maybe it will help with heat.