In the weeks following the purchase of my Q plate Lightweight I was and still am on a massive learning curve and it was slowly but surely becoming apparent that I may have bought a Bitsa (bits a this & bits a that)

SEARCH

Once I had established that it was in fact a late Series IIa as opposed to a Series III (which was really what I wanted) or worse a Q-Plate Bitsa, I set about hunting for an Original Series III Lightweight, looking at first in the local paper or free ads papers like Scot Ads, Magazine’s although this was mainly LRO (Land Rover Owner International) and also on the internet using sites like Autotrader, Exchange & Mart, and Ebay or just searching on search engine sites like Yahoo or Google for “Land Rover Lightweight”. Internet advertisements also come up in searches and besides all would be good interesting reading for a budding enthusiast anyway. I also had an absolute maximum budget of £2000

E-BAY

Eventually several suitable contenders did slowly start to appear either on the net or in the magazines, however most were over or well over my £2000 budget. A lot were under my budget but would require not only a rebuild but an extensive amount of parts! The more I looked at the specification of 50 HG 50 the more I wanted this lightweight, It was looking more and more like my ideal project vehicle with the added bonus of a military registration of 50 HG 50 however the £2450 price tag was just too high.

The lightweight was in on a 10 day listing (On Ebay, an item can be put up for auction for 1, 3, 7 or10 day’s depending on the seller’s choice) I watched the lightweight for a few days and noted that it wasn’t getting any bids, I eventually sent the guy an email towards the end of the auction basically offering him £2000 (following Viewing) if at the end of the auction he still had no bids for his lightweight. The owner was not keen on this, as his mechanic had advised him that the lightweight was worth £2500 and informed me that he would rather place an advert in LRO than sell it for £2000. So sure enough in the following issue here is an advert for 50HG50 in LRO for £2450.

FORGOTTEN

The magazine that the advert appeared in was left in the family Discovery because my son likes looking through the mag when out on runs and stuff, I also went away offshore and so this particular lightweight was as good as forgotten about, until that is I was clearing out the disco at least 3 weeks after buying the LRO and came across the magazine again. A quick gaze at the advert and I thought I’ll send the guy an e-mail and see if he has managed to sell it yet.

Sent the e-mail and sure enough within a day or so I had a reply saying that he had not sold it yet and with little or no interest he would be open to offers. I replied saying that as originally proposed I would be willing to give him £2000 following a viewing. I was working offshore in the southern sector of the North Sea which meant the company I was working for flew me down to Norwich and onward to digs in Great Yarmouth prior to mobilising offshore the next day.

I would try and arranged for the company to hire me a car instead of flying me back to Aberdeen, I would drive to Dorking where the owner lived, pick him up and continue on to Farnborough (South West of London) to view the Lightweight. If all was good I would head off home to Aberdeen and he would drive the hire car back to his address for the hire company to collect from there.

TRUST

Through many discussions with the owner by e-mail and phone we agreed that I would send him a cheque for £1000 and upon clearance of the cheque he would remove it from sale.

Dodgy I know! But I had been talking to the guy for some time and he was very accommodating with regards to information or photos I requested i.e. if I asked for a specific photo of a part or area of the vehicle then he would return it by e-mail ASAP which, would sort of indicate that he must at least have the vehicle to be able to photograph it. Wouldn’t it?

ROUTE

All went well, planned a route using an Internet route planner while offshore following some advice from a guy who lived in Leatherhead (between Dorking and Farnborough ish!) Picked up the hire car on arrival back onshore in Great Yarmouth and headed off on the pre-planned route getting lost or more to the point taking a wrong turn or missing an exit was more the case on several occasions.

Eventually got to Dorking gave the guy a quick call, picked him up and off we set to Farnborough to view the lightweight. It’s around 25 miles from Dorking to Farnborough and so the usual idle chitchat commenced my conversation mainly focusing on information regarding the lightweight. How long he had owned it, why he owned it, what has he fixed, replaced, bent or broken on the lightweight since owning it etc.

The more information I gathered from him the more I realised that this lightweight wasn’t being used or maintained in any way shape or form, for instance one of the things I asked him was “so when was the last time you used the lightweight?” to which, he replied “Oh a couple of months ago when I got it’s MOT”

I’m thinking to myself oh no you are joking I have to drive this thing almost 600 miles back to Aberdeen.

To Be Continued!

 Site Last Updated 03/05/05