Cruising Sailors Forum Archive

Projects like this rarely make any economic sense

My friend, Mike, has been restoring old series Rovers for more than 30 years. He says they can be done for $10,000 to $15,000 in parts. Not bad for what will be essentially a new 4 wheel drive when it's finished. When compared to the price of a good used Civic or Corolla it seems pretty silly but I don't see this being used as a daily driver, more like an antique car to be used occasionally. Much of the engineering on these make you wonder what they were thinking. Some of the stranger configurations begin to make sense once you realize the car was designed as a right hand drive with conversions made for left hand drive markets. This is a late 1950's design so it's quite primitive when compared to current 4 wheel drive vehicles. On the other hand there are still quite a few 30 and +40 year old unrestored Land Rovers out there still going strong. Like my old Alberg which is worth, at best, 1/3 of what I have spent on repairs and upgrades, this is as much about doing the project and learning along the way as it is about the end result.

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