I found the 1970 Land Rover IIA 88" in the Auto Trader — a magazine we got mainly for entertainment purposes. It was listed at $1,400. No roof, no back seat, paint in poor condition, and the third gear synchro was broken, so you couldn’t shift into third or fourth. The guy who owned it was a surfer who’d only driven it from home to the beach, maybe a mile.

I was a senior in college. Someone dropped me off and I drove it home across LA on surface streets — no top, no roof, windows open. PCH to Santa Monica Boulevard. Best topless driving ever. Then about 20 miles in, somewhere around Highland Park, it vapor-locked and stopped running.

I pulled into a gas station, pulled the top of the carb apart, had no idea what I was doing, but after it cooled down and got dark, it started again. I made it about ten miles at a time the rest of the way — Arrow Highway up through Covina to Pomona, then out to Claremont — and limped to a parking spot on campus.

I got a Haynes manual and pulled the transmission out from between the seats using an engine hoist (you can do that with an old Rover — no lift required). Spread the guts out on the dorm room floor. Took the broken bits to British Pacific, who sold me everything I needed — which turned out to be much more than just the broken synchro. Gears like to be replaced in sets. Put it all back together with a new clutch too, rebuilt the carb. After about 20 test drive miles, running fine.

Then I downshifted from third into second and something spun out and “grenaded” the transmission.

The solution this time was a fully rebuilt unit, which cost more than I’d paid for the truck. Should have done that first — but it was genuinely fun to learn how an old manual transmission worked. I rattle-can painted it too, which I would never do again. The original patina was better.

I never intended to restore it, but sometimes you start a project. We ended up with it completely disassembled, so we figured we might as well repaint it properly — so we sent all the body panels to an airplane shop for walnut blasting. The aluminum (“Birmabright”) panels are similar to aircraft parts, so it made sense. Their policy was planes first, everything else when they had time.

Two years later I called to check status. The shop had changed ownership. The parts were done, but they had no idea who they belonged to and were planning to recycle them.

Recovered every single piece.

The result was an old Land Rover that was too pretty to drive off-road and beat to hell — which is what they’re meant for. I sold it to a consignment place and got $10,000, which was less than I’d paid for restoration services and parts. At that point I needed it gone.

In retrospect: enjoyed it. Would never do it again.

The truck’s name was “RHINOTF” — from the “Rhino Tough” ad campaign. The ad claimed (probably apocryphally) that rhinos are nearsighted and try to mate with Land Rovers. More likely they’re just trying to scare them off.