Here's the text, courtesy of Mr. Kellogg, hisself.
For the uninitiated: http://www.land-roverco.com/
Subject: [PCRC] Text of NY Times Article
A Ride That's Old, Rough and Ready
By STEPHEN P. WILLIAMS
JUST a decade ago, before the sport utility vehicle emerged as a
supercharged family supply barge, it was safe to typecast devotees of
four-wheel drive as rugged people who preferred the most difficult
fork in the road. Four-wheel drive spoke of boulder-strewn mountain
switchbacks, rough tracks in the bush, adventurers on safari.
As S.U.V.'s have gone soft and mainstream, it's only natural that
some drivers seeking to project the old rough-and-ready image are
buying the new Hummer H2 S.U.V., with its military swagger. But
others are searching out the rugged old models themselves,
especially the most glamorous of the old four-wheel drives: vintage
Land Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers.
Shops across the country find themselves rewiring electrical systems,
rebuilding carburetors and even installing modern brakes, satellite
radios and seats in pre-1980 Land Rovers and Land Cruisers - not for
storage in some collector's warehouse but for day-to-day driving.
While these old workhorses were never built for speed, the refurbished
versions do well at 60 miles an hour on the freeway and can be pushed
to do 65. Some of their buyers think they perform better off-road than
their modern offspring, able to winch themselves out of a snowdrift or
ford a flooding stream.
"There's a mystique around them - they really turn heads," said Cathy
McGowan, 49, an artist who owns a fully restored 1979 Land Cruiser and
drives it around Boulder, Colo., as well as in rougher country outside
town.
The mystique comes with a long history. The first four-wheel drive was
made by the French company Latil in 1898. By the early 1930's, a
four-wheel-drive Citrokn was tracking Marco Polo's route from Beirut
to Beijing. In 1948, inspired by the Jeep, the workhorse of World War
II, the British automaker Rover introduced the aluminum-bodied Land
Rover to keep its factories running during the postwar steel
shortage. It took off, and Toyota followed with the first Land
Cruisers in the early 50's. Eventually the Jeep evolved into the
sporty vehicle we now see everywhere, and Land Rovers and Land
Cruisers became the hard-working vehicles of choice in road-poor
countries and backwoods locales.
Because of their rarity and their quirky British design (body panels
that can be removed with a screwdriver for replacement; windshield
wipers in some models that can be operated by hand from within the
vehicle), the old Land Rovers have special cachet today. About 16,000
Land Rovers were sold in the United States between 1951 and 1974, when
the company abandoned the American market (the brand returned in 1987
and is now owned by Ford). Perhaps 4,000 of those are still in use,
the majority of them from model series 2a, made from 1961 to 1971.
"At least 85 percent of all old Land Rovers on the road today are
patched back together with odd parts, just like the American cars in
Cuba," said Charles Kellog, owner of British Northwest Land Rovers in
Olympia, Wash., which does restorations rather than patch-ups. "They
are owned by people who don't have a clue how beautifully and
magnificently a properly turned out Land Rover can run."
You might find an old Land Rover for sale by an owner for a few
thousand dollars but you would be buying problems. With a restored
engine and electrical system, a two-door (plus rear hatch) pre-1971
series 2a is likely to be $30,000, and a mint-condition restored model
can be much more. A Land Cruiser may be cheaper - Toyota sold about
350,000 of its FJ-40 model in the United States between 1961 and 1979,
and many (the actual number is hard to guess) remain on the road. The
Land Cruiser's steel body is more vulnerable to rust than the Land
Rover's aluminum husk, but Cruisers have a great reputation for
reliability and endurance, with engines routinely lasting for 200,000
miles.
TLC4X4 in Van Nuys, Calif., sells mechanically restored Land Cruisers
with imperfect bodies for as little as $12,000.
Since old Land Rovers and Land Cruisers lack modern options and
provide an old-fashioned, bumpy ride, buyers sometimes install power
steering, air-conditioning and an undercoating to reduce vibration,
noise and rust. But many think the quirks are part of the charm.
"There are more belches, wheezes and bumps that make noise in the
night with this vehicle," said Greg Carrot, 52, a Chicago management
consultant who is gradually restoring his 1969 2a. "But all that stuff
grows on you."
Nuts and Bolts
BELOW are some sources for vintage Land Rovers and Land Cruisers, and
help with parts and restoration. All of these shops work with
customers from around the country.
ROVERS NORTH
a leading parts supplier. (1319 Route 128, Westford, Vt.; 800-403-7591.)
COOPER TECHNICA
All levels of Land Rover restoration. Its Web site,
www.coopertechnica.com, this week was offering a 1961 Land Rover
outfitted as if for an epic journey for $190,000. (1385 North Branch
Street, Chicago; 312-440-0711.)
BRITISH NORTHWEST LAND ROVERS Parts, restorations and repairs. (1043
Kaiser Road Southwest, Olympia, Wash.; 360-866-2254.)
TLC4X4 Toyota Land Cruiser restoration. (14743 Oxnard Street, Van
Nuys, Calif.; 818-785-2200.)
COOL CRUISERS OF TEXAS Land Cruiser restoration and sales. (5041
Grisham Drive, Rowlett, Tex.; 972-463-0556.)
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