So I bought a 1983 Series III Santana, and Lola is her name

[archaeology_student]

Hello,

I have a story to tell about my new 1983 SWB 88" Series III Santana with a 2.25 diesel engine. Lola is her name, and she comes from Medicine Hat Alberta.


I was getting into 4x4'ing and had a 1983 Toyota Landcruiser BJ60, a 5 speed diesel loving named "Bob" this past Summer, and loved the experience. I had to sell Bob because Toyotas have an issue with rust... you wash your Toyota and it rusts *lol*. Bob had a really bad case of frame rot on the whole back half, and had over 500,000 kms on him.

I was itching for a new vehicle, and I was swayed by a friend who also used to have an identical Toyota landcruiser, and now has a Defender 90. I was looking for what I could afford being a student and all, and lucked out to see a nice LR series III Santana on Land Rover Exchange and I fell in love back in September of 2006.

No one seemed to know what made a Santana, except that it was from Spain and assembled by Santana for LR. I got into a great email dialogue with the seller (Stuart) for about a month prior to us meeting in person. Stuart lived a whole province away, about 1273 km and we decided to meet halfway, at the end of October, in Sparwood B.C..

You can see Lola in the second picture in Sparwood and my first look at her up close, with the huge Titan mining truck in the background. When we got to Sparwood it was just starting to snow, and Stuart was coming in from the Crow's Nest Pass, which was where the storm was coming from.

Lola arrived on a flatbed with the help of one of Stuart's mates, and was frozen solid *lol*. We had to plug in the heater, let her warm up, and use hot water to unfreeze her throttle cable. She even had about an inch of solid ice across the whole front.

We started her up after a couple of hours, and then I got to drive Lola around. I was in love! I was also noticing how quickly the snow was piling up, and thinking that it might be best to take her another day.I was all set to drive Lola back, but was not expecting the extremely bad weather.

I left a deposit with Stuart, and would decide what to do when I got back to Vancouver. It took another two months of deciding what would be best to get the rover over here, and I finally decided to ship her via rail (SeaRail). Stuart was gracious enough to drive her one last time to the train yard and see her off.

On December 22nd I was informed that Lola had arrived, but I could not get her until the 27th. I was itching to get her, but I patiently waited.

On Dec 27th, I received the paperwork, got a temporary driving permit, and picked her up and drove her home. What a beautiful vehicle! I am just waiting on an "out-of-province vehicle inspection" and then she becomes my main vehicle

I am pleased to introduce Lola, a 1983 SWB 88" Series III Santana Land Rover with the Santana Overdrive







I will also be creating my own website, with a tonne more pics, and also have a tonne of pics located at my blog just scroll down and click on the picture with the number count of roadkill to see more pics of her

Cheers

[Jery]

Congratulations! She looks awesome!

Jery

[MuddyRangeRover]

Mint lookin' truck!

[Burns]

Aww... she is adorable! And I love the name Lola!
Congrats!


Melissa B.

[daway]

nice looking rover! is that your dump truck to (lol)?
yotos and rovers have something in common, they like to rust. i had a 1992 4runner and it liked to rust to. i read they rust easy because of the recycle steel that yotos use and the type of paint and etc.

[kellijo]

Lola is a beauty! Congrats and good find!

[archaeology_student]

Thank you I am happy that we found one another

Originally Posted by daway

nice looking rover! is that your dump truck to (lol)?
yotos and rovers have something in common, they like to rust. i had a 1992 4runner and it liked to rust to. i read they rust easy because of the recycle steel that yotos use and the type of paint and etc.

Daway I learned that the early "yotos" (like my landcruiser aka landsnoozer) used 3 layers of sheet metal, and the material used to bond the sheet metal together was pretty weak stuff. When you start to bend and wrap that around edges, pockets are created in between layers and water eventually finds its way into over time.

[Badger1]

Wow great find! Your a lucky person to have found such a nice truck. Someday I'll have something like that. Congrats and enjoy.

[cellulararrest]

Very, very cool.

[OkieRover]

with envy

[archaeology_student]

Does anyone read Spanish btw? I found all the manuals, including the factory manuals for the Santana SIII online, but I do not read Spanish :P

[Funrover]

What a beauty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Freeloder]

Originally Posted by archaeology_student

Does anyone read Spanish btw? I found all the manuals, including the factory manuals for the Santana SIII online, but I do not read Spanish :P

You might want to try this.

[deeker]

Is it close enough to a Series that the manuals are the same? That would solve the language issue if they are essentially the same vehicle.

[ajS3]

Originally Posted by archaeology_student

Does anyone read Spanish btw? I found all the manuals, including the factory manuals for the Santana SIII online, but I do not read Spanish :P

Yes ---where ---- I am busting a gut to get these things in any language, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, even German.....

Incidentally Abraham speaks far better spanish than me. S3 manuals similar in alot of respects but there are some differences.