Found Down Under
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This landrover dormobile was recently spotted by a fellow landrover owner, looks to be in good condition considering it’s not in use. I have a friend who lives not too far away 😆 so hopefully I can persuade the owner to sell it to me. I’ve missed two already so fingers crossed it’s third time lucky.
You need to get it if only to bring it out of retirement.
Looks great, and a novel (for uk) adaptation for the roof rack.
What is that under the bumper?I just blacked out the number plate 🙄 Don’t want anybody trying to trace it !!
It looks in good condition, I’m hoping the interior etc is all good too. I’ve heard today that it’s standing with 15 other vehicles and that the people of that area don’t like scrapping cars.Fingers crossed he’ll swap it for some hundred dollar bills 😀
Turns out that it belongs to a lady who lives approx 2,000 kilometres from the dormobile and she wants to leave it to her sons :shock:( who in turn would probably sell it anyway) I’m still trying to locate her to see if I can persuade her that it will have a better home with me 🙄
After lots of phone calls and $$$ helping to persuade the situation 😆 I’m now the new owner of this vehicle. I set off last weekend with my 13 year old son, on an outback train journey to collect the vehicle and “drive it home” 🙄 On arrival, the condition of the vehicle turned out to be worse for wear as the Australian heat had taken it’s toll. The sun had literally melted all the rubbers to windows and doors,so that when it rained the vehicle had been getting very wet internally 🙁 especially through the roof. Australia certainly is the country of extreme weather.
So basically the curtains have rotted, the headlining ruined, rear seats water damaged to squabs, the roof canopy was actually stuck together on the folds and to the aluminium roof. However, after lots of gentle persuasion I managed to free the canopy and there is luckily only one small hole in it now. The bunks have rotted too, along with the door trims. Luckily the front seats have survived with a little damage to the tops of the seat backs only. The cooker / sink unit is in reasonable condition,I opened the sink unit lid and found a pair of “marigold gloves” melted and stuck to the sink bowl 😯 I wonder what the temperature has been up to in this vehicle.
This vehicle was fitted with the “Fridge Option” so has no wardrobe fitted, as you can imagine the fridge is buggered too !!Now the good news 😀 the chassis and body are rust free, the brakes have been completely renewed including brake booster,drums,cylinders,etc etc. New suspension, new wheel bearings, new seals here there and everywhere, new battery,new starter motor, new tyres, new oil to everything and it’s registered to drive it home !!
The original 2.6 litre engine had been replaced with a 3.6 litre Holden engine,this was a popular conversion in Australia and is probably no thirstier than the original engine.
The gearbox is fitted with a fairey overdrive , also free wheel hubs are fitted. The engine bay is probably the nicest remaining feature, very clean and tidy.The journey home was reasonably trouble free, the only problem being the indicator stalk broke the first time I used it. I purchased an on/off switch further down the tracks and after a few hours we had indicators again. Come night time though it turned out the headlights were stuck on main beam, after lots of fiddling and swearing I couldn’t get them on dipped so I had to cut the headlight wires and swap them around. The landrover drives really well and has plenty of power to pull it along,it even accelerates uphill which took some getting used to 😆 Only problem seems to be a noisy spiggot bearing ?? making the gearbox a bit noisy.
We drove until about midnight and decided to test those Dormatic seats, they took some time to set up as the frames were seized up. A little oil and persuasion and we were ready for sleep. Back on the road by 7am we had a trouble free drive for the rest of the day and arrived home by 10pm. We stopped and took in a few sights on the way and apart from the noisy gearbox it was an enjoyable drive. We covered approx 1200 kilometers on the journey home so I think the old landrover did extremely well.
We only had one scary moment , as we approached an oncoming truck he hit a very large kangaroo which got thrown directly into our path. I couldn’t avoid it and ran it over with both wheels. It could have been a disaster but I managed to keep control of the landrover,although the front passenger door flew open and my lad nearly fell out !! No damage to vehicle either only a small dent to the headlamp guard which is easily fixed.The vehicle has an interesting history, it has travelled almost around the world before ending up in Australia. I’m told also that it was the last “Dormobile Produced” by Martin Walter as they were no longer in business 🙄 and that at one point the vehicle nearly didn’t get finished. They did finish it however, giving the owner a spare front seat, a tent annexe,mosquito screens, and a heater ?? Could this be a gas item ?? I’ve yet to take possession of these items at a later date. Interestingly, Martin Walter fitted no id plate or “dormobile” badges to this vehicle.I wonder if there were none left in the factory when this vehicle was converted ?? I’m hoping that the original owner can let me have any documentation that she has on this vehicle.
So it looks like a restoration is on the cards at some point, luckily it should be fairly straightforward . Here’s a couple of pics taken on our journey home.
Australians sure take their roof racks seriously! This Dormobile came to California from Australia a few years ago and it’s got a beaut:
Carl K.
I thought I was purchasing this Dormobile located in Brisbane, but as we were talking about it with the owner and talking about payment somebody in the usa pressed the “buy it now” button on ebay. Consequently the owner refused to let us have it even though we were there with a large deposit 👿 It was a very clean example too
Great story and glad you got the vehicle and yourself back safely. I read with interest that this was the last Dormobile built, however there are some facts which may contratict this story. The landrover conversions were stopped around 1975, but dormobile continued with motorhome conversions till 1982 at which point that switched to public utility vehicles (small buses) this continued till 1992 when they went bust, all the records were lost at this time.
All the later conversion did have a Dormobile plate on I had a 1980 Sherpa Deauville which was plated. A lot of the Landrovers have had parts swapped and the plates go missing, I would like to see photos in the inside please.
Cheers
JohnHi John,
I’m only relaying info about the landrover as I’ve been told by it’s lady owner. I’ve found an id plate today on the end of the dash,not visible unless the door is wide open 🙄 It’s a black/silver stick on type with – ref no 44426 -76-626 stamped on it.
The vehicle was manufactured in 1976 and then sent to Martin Walter, the owner told me she had lots of train journeys from Landrover to Martin walter and was concerned about the vehicle. As of yet I haven’t met her, but when I take delivery of the spare parts I’ll try and find out more. Prior to this vehicle she owned a 1969 Landrover Dormobile which she had sold to upgrade to this new model.
I’ll get some pics of the interior over the weekendSounds interesting, we know Dormobile did carry on Landrover conversions on request up to circa 1978 so yours could be a on request version which would explain the spares.
I look forward to seeing the spares as some of these are rare.
Regards
JohnI spent the weekend clearing out all the rubbish that was in the vehicle and fixed a few electrical gremlins. I even managed to get the roof warning light to work too. Adjusted and fiddled with the door locks / latches as they weren’t shutting correctly and have managed to sort out three doors. Looks like one or two of them are worn out and will need replacing 🙁 cost around 70 pounds each here.
Here’s a couple of pics of the interior remains, my camera got too wet during our recent floods so doesn’t work anymore so these are taken from my phone.Quality not too good !!Looks good, it has most of the trim panels, seats look ok, the sink and cooker unit will scrub up. It definately looks like an original conversion no question about that.
REgards
JohnI’m afraid my french is “non-existent” but “g’day from down under” 😆
Here’s a pic of a faded window sticker, one of many I might add. Question is should I keep them on the windows or remove them when I restore the vehicle. ??
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