Its been a while since I worked on the Rover. Over the summer it sat while I tended to other priorities. Since I had a little free time this weekend, I decided to apply some of that time to getting the Rover back on the road. The brake restoration and addressed in another post, so today I turned my attention to the wheels & tires which will eventually need to go back on.
The truck came to me with two sets of wheels. The set that the Rover was rolling on when it arrived in my shop were 16″ wheels. The previous owner had purchased these along the way to improve the drive-ability of the truck. But he also sent along what he reported to be the original 15″ wheels. My own research suggests that the original wheel size would have been 15″ as Land Rover switched to 15″ wheels in 1969 on what the factory called the “Federal 88 inch” models. The “Federal 88 inch” introduced a series of safety related updates that were mandated by US federal regulations. The switch from 16″ wheels (standard issue prior to 1969) to 15″ was attributed to better availability of 15″ tires in the US.
The 15″ wheels are shown above. 3 of the 5 are stamped with the code LP861 – shown below. The other 2 have no similar marking. The LP861 marking appears to be common to Land Rover 15″ x 6″ factory wheels as I’ve found several references on the web for Series IIa wheels manufactured after 1967 being marked this way.
Today we took the 15″ wheels to the tire shop to remove and dispose of the old tires. The tire shop also removed all wheel weights and the valves. While only 3 of 5 wheels were marked as LP861 on the face of the wheel, all 5 were similarly stamped inside. Each wheel was stamped “RS”, then “67”, then “6 x 15”, then “MADE IN ENGLAND”, and finally a Dunlop logo as shown below. From this I am assuming that Dunlop was the OEM wheel manufacturer for Land Rover for at least the 6″ x 15″ wheels.
Land Rover 15″ Wheel Stamp “RS” and “67”
Land Rover Wheel Stamp “6 x 15”
Land Rover Wheel Stamp “Made in England”
By the time I took possession of the Rover, the original 15″ wheels had been painted black. With the tires removed, the original “limestone” finish is revealed. The wheels are now ready for a trip to the powder coat shop to get stripped and finished in the factory color.
15″ Bare Land Rover Wheels – LP861