As told by David Lynn... in 2006!

I then found out that there is another side to the ‘quiet man’.  With no formal training he has taken on a project that many would baulk at!  He is creating a Land Rover 90 hybrid in his own garage (albeit, still at chassis stage).  No fancy equipment, no access to detailed land rover workshop manuals just his dogged enthusiasm and problem solving abilities.

It’s taken about two years of his valuable spare time and it isn’t finished yet.  Costs have been kept to a minimum by recycling the various bits n’ pieces that would otherwise have been discarded.  I saw a ‘before and after’ brake calliper that looked as if it was just off the shelf – such is his attention to detail.
The engine is off course a Rover V8, it was the sound that captivated him at an event, and with a full straight through exhaust – there will be plenty of it.

Having been introduced to Mig welding, David has taken it in his stride and set about sorting out the chassis that required more than a little work including a brand new fabricated rear cross member together with raising the rear chassis rails to allow more rear clearance.

At that instant David ‘blipped’ the throttle…… that grin appeared on his face again and the motor rocked with the awesome V8 bellow!  This is what it was all about.  With new ‘made to measure’ floor panels and seat bulk heads, you can see the time that he had spent on it had all been worthwhile.  Time all the same has been his nemesis; talking to him, I understood that he has had some frustrations in the past.  He has been unable to have a ‘good run at it’ because he’s been so busy at work.  He said that “…even if I could have a whole night working on it, then that would be progress”.  Notwithstanding that, what we had in front of us was an extremely capable off-road machine which only really needed finishing touches.

Time marches on and Mr Lynn made a return visit sometime ago to see how the wee beastie was getting on.

Standing on enormous Fedima Sirocco tyres , the V8 engine burbling with excitement.  It seems that every panel, cross member, rock slider and the entire undercarriage was bespoke for that vehicle.  The attention to detail and quality was evident from one end of the Landie to the other.  What had been painted and welded had all been sand blasted first leaving an ‘as new’ finish.  The rear cross member was made by David himself with a clever bit of invisible welding of box section resulting in an improved and much stronge r version of the original

When asked what precisely needed to be done to complete it, he said that he wanted to do the obvious stuff like fitting headlamps, exterior fittings etc and finally paint it all (he thinks blue will be the colour).  In addition, he wanted to design and fit a front winch bumper however, not until he’d chosen a winch – so that he could marry the two together.  Ultimately, he did have a picture in his mind of how he wanted it to look but he definitely didn’t want it to end up too ‘bling’, less is more sort of thing.