Last weekend saw the arrival of “The Great British Land Rover Show” at Stoneleigh’s National Agricultural and Exhibition Centre (near Coventry).

It’s been a while since we went for a wander around a Landy show so I booked a couple of tickets for Dick and myself.

Lucky (my D2) appreciated the blast up the M69 but Dick’s P38 DSE (“Reg”) didn’t make it. He blasted up from North London in his Astra with the grandkids – gotta start ’em young.

If you’re in the market for a roof tent then you’d have been in the right place. The number of businesses there selling roof tents outnumbered everything else combined.

The short version is this: it’s not something either of us would go to again.

If you want to kit our your Pretender (the new Defender) so you look like a real adventurer on the school run then you’re in the right place.

If you wanted to cough out a couple of grand on a roof tent then you had mucho stalls to choose from (my nephews had a blast climbing in and out of all the roof tents, though).

It just wasn’t all that. Dare I say… boring?

Not many stalls. Not much in the way of old Landys, either – although there was a lovely 1964 Series 2a Forward Control…

(sadly, shots of the front were out of focus)

Like I said, not something we’d bother going to again. We’re more ‘Normous Newark Autojumble kinda people.

(last one of the year this Sunday, 1st Dec)

That said, it wasn’t a total waste of time…

…it’s been obvious for a while now that Dorothy (my 1976 Series III) needs a new bulkhead – or some extensive patching. Bulkhead repair panels have been around for aeons. Small plates. Big plates. All the plates you could want, except what I need.

The problem is Dorothy’s rot has crept into the inside and eaten the steel away both inside and out. And the air vents are mostly rust.

Not something the typical bulkhead repair panels will fix.

Cue: “LR Bulkheads” (https://www.lrbulkheads.co.uk/).

A small family run firm who produce a smorgasbord of different repair panels for Landys. And, more importantly, some bulkhead repair panels that outshine anything I’ve seen on the market so far.

Unlike your usual repair panels, that you weld over the top of the existing bulkhead – but leaving the original air vents in place, these bad boys replace the whole thing.

The air vent apertures are pressed in to the repair panels. Even the hinges are spot welded on, making it one less thing you need to do.

And the cherry on top? A pair of ’em (left and right sides) cost no less than the lesser repair panels.

Result.

It’s not perfect, because Dorothy still needs some internal steel-fettling. But using these newly discovered repair panels will save me a shed load of time and trouble by not having to fabricate the new air vent apertures, myself.

Result.

So while the show itself was a ‘meh’ experience, turns out it was worth going just to learn these repair panels exist.

“Dear Santa…

Old Landys Rule!

Phil.