My collector friend in Germany has been looking at his Land Rovers again. What he's found this time is a distinctly different roof on the cab of some models. Some of those with a sort of 'plate' on the roof have quite different bars - the middle one being shorter - or it may be an optical illusion and all three bars are shorter than on the other plates. Whichever is the case, they're different.
I have found the 'short bars' on the 357 Weapons Carrier, 438 deep green boxed issue, GS2 fawn issue and red issues from either GS17 or GS19 (or maybe both, I can't tell).
So far, I have not seen them on the 406S or Farm green models, the very earliest Series II issues, nor have I seen them on a 351S or 416S. As there are so few of the former, I am inclined to conclude that they did not appear on that one either and that they will be found not on the very early Series II Land Rovers but maybe later ones from 1964 for a year or so. The 416S may well have them - I just haven't seen any yet.
Every 'short' bar edition has had the same 'h' shape window lever, not triangle shape. Whilst I don't think we will find these 'short bars' editions to be at all uncommon they do represent a distinct variation which I shall include in my catalogue for the models referred to above.
If anyone finds them on any of the others do let me know.
Incidentally, I have just noticed how different the deep green models are in the last photo! One is a sort of dark blue-green and I guess I shall have to look at listing this as a difference too! With a bit of luck, though, we'll find that all deep/dark green 438s with short bars have the same shade and I won't need yet another section for these!
Just as trivia, on the 1:1 scale Land-Rovers, these bars were top hat shaped ribs that gave strength to the roof panel. And, were only on Series One Land-Rover pick-up tops, as with the Series II, the pick-up top (rook and rear panel) changed in design for one that was curved and not angular. The full length roofs had these all the way through the Series III.
ReplyDeleteThese grab handles on either side of the rear cross member were on the first Land-Rovers in 1948, and survived all the way to the end of production in 2016. While they were possibly useful on a fairly light 80 inch and a couple sturdy lads to move the rear end of the vehicle, I'm not sure how useful they were on a late model Defender that weights significantly more!
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