Many a Series Land Rover can scrub up quite well when required to do so, yet underneath may lie a bag of bones. Rikki and Lucy's Series II circa 2009 looks quite presentable, but they knew that in reality she needed a new chassis, bulkhead restoration, engine rebuild, replacement gearbox and re-wiring.
Series Land Rover renovation/restoration philosophy varies widely amongst enthusiasts. Bertha has always been a working girl, so it was decided to retain the character-invoking dents and wrinkles of earlier life adventures, rather than go for having her reborn in showroom condition.
It was decided to allocate the work to the Land Rover restoration specialist 4x4LRS of Redcar (www.4x4lrs.com) and provisionally allocate 4-6 months for the restoration process. Well, we all know how Series Land Rovers have minds of their own and operate within their own time frame and budget. So, understandably, the rebirth is still in progress at the time of writing.
For a detailed photographic account of the excellent restoration work being carried out at 4x4LRS visit Rikki & Lucy's Project Bertha blog . The blog is quite comprehensive in its coverage of the work being carried out and is written in a refreshingly humorous style by owners who freely admit that they don't know much about mechanics and regard it as an art that simply leaves them "bewildered and befuddled".
So,
hopefully, it will not be too much longer before Bertha is once again slowing down the traffic on the local roads - as is the perogative of an ambassador of the more sedate lifestyle many of us crave, yet find elusive to achieve. But, this time, it will be possible to steer with both hands and not have to use one hand to encourage second gear to remain selected - oh such bliss!

Bertha .....circa 2009

Rebirth of Bertha .... circa June 2010

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