Wood and Pickett Range Rover (1981)

[Paracetamol]

I recently purchased a project 2 Door Range Rover which I believe was built in 1981. To my pleasant surprise it has a plaque attached to the front slam panel reading "Coachwork by Wood and Pickett". I cannot see any major changes to the car. Would anyone know what options were available in those days and is the a repository or the like of the W&P work?

Edited by Paracetamol on Monday 28th June 09:42

[ClaphamGT3]

W&P were well known in the 70s and 80s for a range of upgrades to the Range Rover. From an Evoque-style convertible (as seen in Octopussy) and 6X6 conversions, through re-worked interiors and standard bodywork (like the infamous 'Harrods' edition Range Rover) all the way down to waving a bit of dralon and a mota lita steering wheel around the interior.

I'm pretty sure that W&P aren't in business any more so the best bet would be to find the W&P owners club, give them your chassis number and see if they've got any records

[aeropilot]

Paracetamol said:

I recently purchased a project 2 Door Range Rover which I believe was built in 1981. To my pleasant surprise it has a plaque attached to the front slam panel reading "Coachwork by Wood and Pickett". I cannot see any major changes to the car. Would anyone know what options were available in those days and is the a repository or the like of the W&P work?

Count yourself lucky then as W&P did some pretty horrific conversions of RR's back in the day....I used to live only a few miles away from their place back in the day, and saw some ghastly creations parked up outside their place when going past.

There were no options as such with W&P, it was all bespoke, and you could basically have what ever you wanted, the only limitation was the depth of your wallet.

[paintman]

http://www.range-rover-classic.com/Home/land-rover...

[Andy 308GTB]

paintman said:

http://www.range-rover-classic.com/Home/land-rover...

Some of the stuff there looks like it's straight out of a Top Gear Challenge.

[paintman]

Or Scrapheap Challenge!

No accounting for taste - or lack thereof.

[P5BNij]

I don't know if facebook is your thing OP but there is an excellent W&P group on there which is worth joining to ask about anything you need to know....

https://www.facebook.com/groups/WPLTD

[LargeRed]

as a young salesman, I visited Thorn EMI, who were next door to W&P. I would always schedule my visit for early afternoon, so I could walk round the W&P production line in my lunch hour. They were very obliging. mainly built Mini's then with Merc stacked headlamp fronts and wood dashboards.

https://margrave-mini.com/gallery_one/expensive/ex...

[Paracetamol]

P5BNij said:

I don't know if facebook is your thing OP but there is an excellent W&P group on there which is worth joining to ask about anything you need to know....

https://www.facebook.com/groups/WPLTD

Not my thing but I am indeed a Member. Will follow. Thanks for the tip.

[P5BNij]

LargeRed said:

as a young salesman, I visited Thorn EMI, who were next door to W&P. I would always schedule my visit for early afternoon, so I could walk round the W&P production line in my lunch hour. They were very obliging. mainly built Mini's then with Merc stacked headlamp fronts and wood dashboards.

https://margrave-mini.com/gallery_one/expensive/ex...

Made me chuckle looking at that again, they've used three of my photos of John Hammel's W&P Mk2 Cooper S in one of the galleries

[Paracetamol]

I bet they wished they got a royalty for every Vogue Range Rover! Who would have thought the name would have stuck. I didn't put 2+2 together in respect of the Magazine's involvement too.

[Joscal]

paintman said:

http://www.range-rover-classic.com/Home/land-rover...

Unbelievable, can’t say it’s surprising they’re not in business any more! Probably had big customers in oil rich countries?

[LargeRed]

The other company I visited was a coachbuilder for Jankel, who built variants for the P38 RR.

http://www.roverworld.com/jankel.htm

This company built two of every variant ordered. I remember seeing the 3-row hunting vehicle. and a 6-door stretch for an Oil based customer.

(Those were the days)

[Paracetamol]

We 'oil based customers' are now looking for lovely original 2 door cars !

The world has definitely moved on here.

[Bobo W]

paintman said:

http://www.range-rover-classic.com/Home/land-rover...

That's fantastic.

How much fun would it have been to be in their product development team coming up with new versions!

[grumpy52]

I, like a couple of others here used to live a few miles away from W&P back in the day . I do remember all sorts of Mini and Range Rover conversions parked up outside their premises. I built up a tweeked mini with big arches , wheels , big bore Exhaust, W&P front and rear nudge bars and a 70bhp 1100cc engine .
I seem to remember that W&P accessories were available through selected outlets once they went mainstream. Didn't they introduce those wire lighting protectors for the RR?

[aeropilot]

grumpy52 said:

I, like a couple of others here used to live a few miles away from W&P back in the day

The old W&P building is a Kwik-Fit centre now.

[IAN1967]

aeropilot said:

The old W&P building is a Kwik-Fit centre now.

Victoria Road in Ruislip?

When I was a kid one of my friends lived next door to someone who must of been high up in W&P, saw a few of their cars on the drive

The above is probably going back mid-late 70's

[aeropilot]

IAN1967 said:

aeropilot said:

The old W&P building is a Kwik-Fit centre now.

Victoria Road in Ruislip?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Eddie Collins, MD from the mid 60s for about 20 years, and who is now in his mid 80s, is a friend of mine. Still living in the area (Harrow).