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RICHARD HALL bought his first Land Rover, a Series III, just after his 18th birthday and has since owned, maintained and restored these vehicles for over 30 years now. He runs a small Land Rover repair and restoration business in Norfolk and every month he lets off steam in LRM.
IF you spend any time restoring old vehicles for money, one of the lessons you learn the hard way is that the last 20 per cent of the job takes around 80 per cent of the time. This 80/20 split is known as Pareto’s Law and turns up in many different areas of life: for example, many businesses get 80 per cent of their income from 20 per cent of their customers. In Land Rover restoration, that last 20 per cent of the job is all about detail: ensuring cables and pipes are properly routed and securely fastened, adjusting hinges and latches so that the doors shut properly, hanging the exhaust system properly so that it does not rattle against the chassis, centring the steering and making sure the tracking is spot-on, and so forth.
The problem with this kind of work is that the customer doesn’t see it. Fresh paint and upholstery are easy to appreciate, likewise a smartly painted engine in a clean, tidy bay. But doors which don’t fly open on corners are taken for
