Freelander 1 My 4th Freelander. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

After swearing off Freelanders a few years ago I now find myself with Freelander number four. It's out of necessity, not desire, though. My wife's car has been out of commission for a while and will be for some time longer so we were in need of something to keep her going in the meantime. This was the only suitable cheap vehicle for sale when we needed one so here it is.

It's a TD4 van, automatic. It's been fitted with Mitsubishi wheels and Insa Turbo Ranger tyres. It has a private plate which a PO had put on. The interior has been changed for an early model light grey leather one including the back seats and trim panels. It also has glass panels in the roof, rather than plastic ones, which is nice. I picked it up the day after it's MOT and it was suffering from sticky back brakes so the first job to do was replace the handbrake cables. This cured it.

While I was underneath I also found that the bracket holding the fuel pump in the wheel arch was falling out of the chassis. The chassis had corroded around the captive nut and it was just hanging on. A few wiggles and out it fell. I cleaned it up, straightened it and drilled a new hole in the bracket and chassis. I tapped the hole in the chassis and fitted a new bolt. Fixed, although this will require a more permanent fix in the future.

It's a bit tatty around the edges but drives nicely and doesn't have any rattles. We plan to keep it as a spare car once my wife's car is back on the road so that means I get to do what I want with it so there are plans afoot for it. All in good time though. I'll start a project thread in "Members Vehicles" when I get started.

I be happy with that as a daily runaround.
Good find.

Cheers. I am acttually pretty happy with it. The guy I bought it off is a friend of mine in the local Landy club and he did loads of good work to it for it's MOT. He even supplied the handbrake cables free as he was a little embarrased that the handbrake was seized when I picked it up.

Nice little toy, it's rare to see automatic vans, and the 3 doors really suit the roof racks. It's also a nice bonus that it's a facelift, nicer looking dash, and room for a double din stereo. Those are 5 door seats, so don't have the tilt-forward mechanism to make it easier to access the back seats, but that's not a deal breaker, just slide the front seat forward. Those trim panels in the back are actually the original van ones

I'm not fussed about the front seats being 5 door ones and I'm probably going to remove the back seats to restore the load space. It's just me and the missus and we very rarely have passengers. When her car is back on the road we'll have a sensible 5 seater for if we ever need that.

I thought the rear panels came from the same motor as the seats as they match in colour. I've never seen a Freelander van until this one so wasn't sure what would have been in the back.

DefenderPilot said:

I thought the rear panels came from the same motor as the seats as they match in colour. I've never seen a Freelander van until this one so wasn't sure what would have been in the back.

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LR only did 2 colours of van trim panels, those being smokestone (yours) and black.
Smokestone might not be so practical where showing dirt an grime are concerned, but definitely make the interior less dark than the black trim does.

Ours was a van to begin with, but when I put the 3-door leather interior in it, I put the "door cards" and windows into it, although the hard top remains unglazed. Even glazed, I find the courtesy light to be utterly feeble, one little festoon bulb behind the drivers left shoulder, it's as dark as the black hole of Calcutta. But you can easily upgrade it to crazy bright with some cheap LED panels, I put two of these in our hippo.

Could be the best £8 you spend on the car.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/323913438157

I had noticed it seems really dim inside when you get in at night. I'll probably do that upgrade.

Well, I bought one. Just arrived today. I'm on night shifts so it'll get fitted when I have the inclination.

you'll notice a world of difference

And now I have Freelander number 5. This was a total bargain. It was someones hack for just driving around his croft so no MOT and a total **** tip inside. It requires far too much work to be worth putting back on the road but I wanted it for parts anyway. So now the plan is to use the hard top, rear windows and all the interior trim from the rear to convert the black one from a van to a car. I will also be taking the side steps and one of the rear lights to replace a damaged one. And last, but not least, it also has a tow bar which will be going on the black one, as that had been removed by the PO. Oh, and I'll be having one of the wheels for a spare as the two back ones have nearly new tyres on. The one currently fitted to the black one is ****. I'll be starting a project thread for this soon.

DefenderPilot said:

And now I have Freelander number 5

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That's just being greedy.....

It's just the 5th one I've owned. I only have two currently and it will be one again when I've swapped all the bits over. Unfortunately don't have room to keep it for spares.

DefenderPilot said:

It's just the 5th one I've owned. I only have two currently and it will be one again when I've swapped all the bits over. Unfortunately don't have room to keep it for spares.

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There must be loads of space up there on Shetland where you can keep a spares car.

KInd of. But it all belongs to someone.

I've started a project thread for this now.

Here.