You have to double-clutch each gear, pump the brakes every time you want to stop and need serious strength to handle the steering wheel, but when Leo du Plessis of Stellenbosch gets into his yellow Landy, he can’t stop smiling. Except of course, when he needs to fill up.

Students usually don’t have money for anything other than cheap red wine – let alone their dream vehicle. But this didn’t stop Leo du Plessis from buying and fixing Fifo, his 1956 Land Rover Series 1.

Fortunately he had some help along the way: some generous Land Rover enthusiasts took pity on the poor student; his dad joined him on numerous evenings to work on Fifo; every now and again his mom lent him money for parts, even the family snooker table was donated to the cause.

Luckily, Leo’s girlfriend shares his love for Landys (everyone in her family drives Land Rovers), so she wasn’t too bothered when he paid more attention to Fifo than to her.

“It all started in primary school,” Leo recalls, “when I got the chance to drive in a family friend’s Landy on the sand at Pearly Beach. After that my life started revolving around Landys.”

In high school, he opened a special “Landy account”, putting away every available cent towards his dream of one day owning his own one.

He started researching and reading everything he could lay his hands on to improve his knowledge of Land Rovers.

He looked at several Landys with a view to purchasing, but could never find anything he really liked. It was at a friend’s house that he saw an advertisement for a 1956 Landy Series 1.

At first he thought it was for a standard wheelbase, but when he phoned the owner, he learnt that it was indeed his dream vehicle – a Landy short wheelbase Series 1.

The owner wanted R18 000, but Leo had only R16 000 in his Landy account. After raiding his piggy bank, he was at last able to buy the Landy of his dreams.

Smiling all the way, he towed it back to his parents’ house in Stellenbosch.

How long did you work on Fifo?
I bought him in June 2005 and his maiden journey was in early 2006.

In what condition was it when you bought it?
Luckily the previous owner was also a Landy fan, so he kept as many original fittings as he could.

The owner before him had had to replace certain parts of the chassis, due to rust. This unfortunately included the part with the chassis number.

It was therefore quite a process to register the Landy. At one stage the traffic department even wanted to confiscate it because they thought it might have been stolen and the chassis number filed off.

The guy I bought it from painted it yellow, and I decided to keep it that way. He also fitted General Super-All-Grip 235/75/16 cross-ply tyres – apparently the original tyres looked like Marie biscuits.

Did you always know what to do?
I only had  basic knowledge. Luckily, I met some people along the way who had a great deal of knowledge about Land Rovers and they were more than willing to share their expertise with me. I learned a lot from them.

My father helped quite a bit, often working alongside me, deep into the night. And when I had to buy parts, it was mom who lent me the money.

At the end of the day, I believe that if you really want something, then your passion will pull you through. You will find a way.

Does it still have its original engine?
No. The Series 1 originally came out with a 2-litre engine, not Land Rover’s best.

I bought Fifo with a Land Rover 2.25-litre petrol engine, but the block had a hole, so the whole engine was full of “cream” (a mixture of oil and water).

We removed the engine, welded the hole, gave it a complete overhaul and then put it all back together. When we tested it, it started fine, and for a minute or two ran like a dream … then the welding conked out. Right there I knew, we might as well throw the engine away.

After recovering from the shock, I removed every part of the engine and bought a sub-assembly (the block, pistons and camshaft) from another Land Rover 2.25 petrol engine, dating back to the sixties (55 kW and 155 Nm). I reground the crankshaft, rebore the cylinders and then put everything back together again …

Schalk Burger of Schalk Burger 4x4 in the Strand offered to help, taking me step-by-step through the reassembly process. I spent the entire June-July holiday in his workshop, from early morning till late at night.

If it weren’t for him, I don’t think I would ever have been able to fix the vehicle. All he asked in return was a bag of biltong!

His wife supplied me with all kinds of parts, at a nominal fee.

I decided to paint the engine its original fire-engine red.

The original Solex carburettor was in really bad condition. Fortunately my granddad had recently given me a Nikki carburettor from a Mazda 1800. It works perfectly, radically improving the power delivery and petrol consumption.

An engineer quoted me R600 to build a new adaptor plate. It was too expensive, so I designed my own.

The gearbox is still the original.

Apart from changing the engine, what else did you do?

• I galvanised all the metal (apart from the chassis), including the plates beneath the seats, parts of the firewall and the gearbox cover.
• I sanded down and painted everything except the rims, roll cage and frame of the windscreen.
• I sanded the manifold and tappet cover and spray-painted it.
• The Landy didn’t have the plate which fits over the petrol tank (just beneath the front seat) – so I made one myself.
• I made the seats – on our snooker table – after having read some magazine articles on the topic.
• I rebuilt the dividing plate between the seats and load box with aluminium.
• I modified the suspension, adding steel plates between the springs – homemade parabolic springs!

How much did everything cost you?
Less than R25 000!

• The soft-top, which I designed myself): R2 550 (material, labour and aluminium frame included)
• Sub-assembly with pistons, crankshaft and camshaft:R1 500
• Crankshaft regrind: R350
• Reboring the cylinders: R280
• New Welch plugs: R64
• New petrol pump: R210
• New thermostat: R60
• New big-end bearings: R90
• New exhaust: R500
• New rings: R300
• New gasket overhaul set: R220
• New rear main oilseal: R40
• New petrol filter: R10
• New main bearings: R160
• I made the seats at a cost of R70 a piece. The imitation leather cost R80, the wood I got as a “gift” from a building site and the sponge cost R80. I bought a staple gun and did everything myself.

What do you use your vehicle for?
It wasn’t built as an exhibition vehicle, it’s made for off-roading. But at 6 km/litre (about R1.20/km) it is expensive to run, so I tend to keep it for special occasions or when I want to do some serious off-roading.

What do you enjoy about it?
Apart from the fact that I’m driving a vehicle with some history, I’ve also enjoyed getting to know the Landy community – I’ve learnt so much from them.