200tdi rebuild

Hi all,

A while ago I asked whether or not to bother rebuilding my defender, and eventually decided to bite the bullet in December and start the strip down, looking to start the rebuild on a new chassis.

So far I've got most of the car in bits and a new chassis (which was completed 4 weeks earlier than expected), and ill be looking to finish the strip down and begin work on the new chassis this weekend

Interested in this.

That looked similar to mine when I undressed her, not a pretty sight, good post though

Yeah, I knew it was fairly bad but things just got worse the more I took off. I was hoping to save the tub and seat box but a combination of corrosion and previous bodges means I'll have to find replacements

This weekends progress:

With help from a mate it didn't take long at all to remove the remaining large components.
As you can see we found lots of lovely big holes in the old chassis.

wow! good call on the new chassis!

that looks like it could have been a service vehicle for a salt mine!!!

Yeah, close enough. A lifetime covered in cow muck has definately taken its toll.

Save the sliders and put them on your new one if they're still solid

Yeah sliders are good. But of fresh paint and they'll be good as new

Bit*

My god that chassis was f*cked!! Also the rear axle radiusarm mounting points look really scary!

When i compare this to the state of my D-reg 90 I count myself quite lucky it is still very good.

I was gonna try and keep it on the road a bit longer, it was only because the exhaust fell off that I had a good look underneath and decided it was a bit dodgy.

Do scrap yards accept 200Kg's of rust?

Ill find out when I've finished stripping it down

Defo good call on the chassis , wish i could do the same to mine but its used every day for work . are you going to town with it as in strip axles and paint up or just clean up and paint ? .
New cam belt etc or clean up and refit ? . Ill be following your progress bud

Going to do as much as possible within reason, front axle has been pretty much rebuilt over the past few years and I've got a new casing for it. Ill give the engine a goin over (timing belt, rocker gasket, steering pump etc) I've set a reasonable budget with a bit of allowance just in case the unexpected happens.

I've been in a similar situation with it being my main car, so I eventually had to invest in a runabout to cover for it. I am missing being able to use it for collecting large stuff though

Nice and shiny new chassis......
Until I paint it that is

Just the job, looking forward to following the rebuild. Hope all goes well.