old 1967 Austin Champ Jeep?

[cmjordan77]

Hey, I have a chance to buy a 1967 Austin Champ Military Jeep 4X4.
Its cheap but needs restoring.
It has a Rolls Royce engine.
I want a Willy's Jeep, but I wanted to see would this be a good jeep to restore??
Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section,

Thanks

[41jeeps]

Stay away from it, it is a very complicated jeep with almost no market value.
Other than that it is made very sturdy.

[cmjordan77]

Thank you
Its about 15 minutes down the road from me.
I want a Willy's WW2 anyway, but I thought this might be rare with the Rolls Royce engine and some other stuff.

Again, thank you for the reply!

Now, if I could just find me a WW2 Jeep in my price range
I hope one of these days I will (fingers crossed)

Thank you!
Chad

[Richard/SIA]

I have no clue where you are, if you were close I might be able to help.

I've owned Champs, great vehicle to drive, very smooth ride.

If it runs well the engine will last forever, or until some one starts doing unnecessary work to it!

The engine is a RR design, but only the first few were actually built by Rolls, later cars were assembled by Austin.
The RR engines are just a fraction different than the Austin engines, mostly thread pitch and nut sizes.

The Champ has fully independent suspension, using torsion bars.
The suspension parts are designed to interchangeable for all corners.

The trans synch-roes wear fairly quickly, so shifting is leisurely, but with the Champ engine torque it's not much of an issue.

Some of the waterproof seals are no longer available, tons of Champ spares were dumped into landfill's when the MOD stopped using them.

A Champ engine cost the MOD as much as an entire Land-Rover, so it's no wonder that gave them up.

If you get a good one, and are fairly wealthy to maintain it properly, they are great vehicles.
If you are young, poor, or not mechanically talented, do not get it.

A friend of mine in Kalifornia has all my old Champs, plus another, so I think he has four.
ONE runs, another could run with some work, the others are parts.
He could probably take another if it is mostly intact.

How many here knew that Sir Alec Issigonis (Designer of the original Mini) was involved in the Champ design?

[Tony Robertson]

Hi,
I don't think it will be a 1967 Champ, I think they stopped making them in the late '50's. It could be a UK registration date as all remaining Champs were cast by the British Army as that was 1967. The comment about them being complicated was correct.

However I would go for it, they are becoming a rarity and dare I say it something different from the norm.

Tony

[Conny]

It is an "Austin Champ". NOT a jeep anything.