The title makes me sound like a football player, but no, i live in Adelaide South Australia and own a 1996 300tdi Defender 110 Wagon and a 1993 200tdi Defender Wagon. Also a 72 series 2a ute and 76 series 3 wagon with the rover 6. And if that doesn't keep me busy enough i have a number of old Mercedes, 50's era Brit bikes and also the 20's era with an Amilcar and a Whippet. And still married! I have 2 boys 8 and 10 and you guessed it, not much interest in old cars and bikes! By that age I could recite just about every make and model on the road and the discreet differences. I got my first motorbike when 12 and from that point spent most of my spare time pulling cars and bikes apart and putting them back together again. I do most things myself, paint, panel, mechanical etc.
We live in a high bushfire risk area and i needed a ute to carry a tank and pump unit. And as fate would have it there was a Series 3 panel van at the side of the road close by and at the right time. It was cheap enough for me to venture into the unkown and I was able to pick up a cheap ute roof for it. It all worked pretty well and i liked the originality of the car. The landy bug did bite a bit and when a 2a ute became available it made it so much easier to get the tank unit off and on (slide rather than dropping it in the ute). We have a large scrub block in the SE and with the van roof back on the 3 became a storage facility come car to get around the property that has deep sand dunes and other obstacles that prove no problem for it. Now with the Defender and a big old van on the block i am running out of excuses to keep it, but being a nice original car and with so many of the rover 6's converted to holden motors here, it would be nice to fully restore it and preserve that history. Not knocking the holden conversions either that i think are an interesting bit of australiana to landrover history.
I am an ecologist and for many years worked in remote arid areas in central Australia. Mostly Nissan Patrols or Toyotas, that through the 90's and into this century proved to be very reliable. But in recent years we had some crippling and expensive repairs and not once would the manufacturers accept any level of responsibility. When i left work to do contracting, there was no way I was going to pay out $5k for a new dual mass clutch or replace entire front end diff housings that had bent on a car that had done less than 10k km! So I did my research - I thought of past Nissan reliability but hard to find something that hadn't done heaps of miles and of course back then i wasn't paying for the fuel. I need to be able to carry enough gear to last me a couple of weeks and good fuel range. And getting into an older car, parts availability at reasonable prices. Also I wanted a front live axle having used independent front end 4WDs on rough tracks and knocked hell out of them -when you hit a bump that cross member goes down but with live axle just the body goes down.
So landrovers I really liked the idea of the simplicity of the 200/300tdi, but load area was small and the TD5 seemed worth it just for more space. But I looked at a number, all with issues, fixable, but then with an older car that complexity had me concerned. The S1 disco I also looked at but once again hard to find one that inspired confidence with most seeming very well used. I looked at a couple of Defenders but they seemed much more expensive and all with rust. The load area was super impressive though and I don't mind its simplicity, draughts etc. And then out of nowhere a low mileage but very rusty 200tdi defender came up for sale cheap in country Victoria. I figured if i was going to fix rust it is not much harder to cut out big holes as small ones, and for parts prices I bought the car sight unseen and hopped on a bus and the guy met me in the town and i drove it 600 or so km home. I was so impressed with its performance but was incredibly cold and draughty. Once i started pulling it down it was clear why, the front floor section was completely rusted out, great gaping hole.
By the time i compiled a list it was quite daunting, but at least at the end of it I would be using my time to produce a long term keeper. I started cutting out rust and kept a search going for parts like doors and as fate would have it, in the next suburb the 300tdi came up for sale with 200k km on it, much tidier, didn't look like much rust and had ARB locking differentials and a PTO winch. First owner was 'Dept of Army' although the car is white. Some Army guys i know cant explain that but maybe it was like an administrative car, still the winch is strange for that. Between the two there were great parts like maxidrive axles and long range tank on the 200, so i ended up with both.
Of course once i started digging, door trims off etc, I still found little bits of rust all over the place so ended up spending a lot of time repairing all that and painting anyway. But as time goes by, more and more this convinces me this is the right car for me and worth the effort to make it all good. I've had a great 10k km or so, fit heaps in, very economical, great for towing even with big old cars on trailers etc. A bit of a setback as described on my post in the defender forum, but hoping a new headgasket will fix that. Im really impressed with parts prices though and if it doesnt work i will do a full rebuild on the engine.
And as for the 200, it just seems too good to break up and it is just time really to weld in new steel and paint, so the aim is to rebuild that and sell it on as a properly sorted and rust free defender, something i had great trouble finding. And my thinking is that if the 300 runs ok for a while longer, then once the 200 is done i can use that while doing engine and box on the 300 to sell on later.
I really appreciate the support i have been given so far on here - i am a great believer in these forums with the car community helping each other out. I am a moderator on Ozbenz, a mercedes forum and it is a great feeling when you can help others out. It takes a bit of time to take that seriously, check every day, approve premembership posts etc so with a range of vehicles and forums sometimes I am not very regular on the others. I was a member on Aulro, great advice and people, have helped others including donating parts etc, but between car club fees etc it is hard to justify fees on one forum that i visit only occasionally - even if it isn't very much. I think it is a shame they didn't go the road of Ozbenz where businesses that can benefit from the association pick up the tab. But i don't want to judge too much on things i might not know the full picture on. Still it was great to come here and be welcomed with great advice when i needed it in a hurry.
We live in a high bushfire risk area and i needed a ute to carry a tank and pump unit. And as fate would have it there was a Series 3 panel van at the side of the road close by and at the right time. It was cheap enough for me to venture into the unkown and I was able to pick up a cheap ute roof for it. It all worked pretty well and i liked the originality of the car. The landy bug did bite a bit and when a 2a ute became available it made it so much easier to get the tank unit off and on (slide rather than dropping it in the ute). We have a large scrub block in the SE and with the van roof back on the 3 became a storage facility come car to get around the property that has deep sand dunes and other obstacles that prove no problem for it. Now with the Defender and a big old van on the block i am running out of excuses to keep it, but being a nice original car and with so many of the rover 6's converted to holden motors here, it would be nice to fully restore it and preserve that history. Not knocking the holden conversions either that i think are an interesting bit of australiana to landrover history.
I am an ecologist and for many years worked in remote arid areas in central Australia. Mostly Nissan Patrols or Toyotas, that through the 90's and into this century proved to be very reliable. But in recent years we had some crippling and expensive repairs and not once would the manufacturers accept any level of responsibility. When i left work to do contracting, there was no way I was going to pay out $5k for a new dual mass clutch or replace entire front end diff housings that had bent on a car that had done less than 10k km! So I did my research - I thought of past Nissan reliability but hard to find something that hadn't done heaps of miles and of course back then i wasn't paying for the fuel. I need to be able to carry enough gear to last me a couple of weeks and good fuel range. And getting into an older car, parts availability at reasonable prices. Also I wanted a front live axle having used independent front end 4WDs on rough tracks and knocked hell out of them -when you hit a bump that cross member goes down but with live axle just the body goes down.
So landrovers I really liked the idea of the simplicity of the 200/300tdi, but load area was small and the TD5 seemed worth it just for more space. But I looked at a number, all with issues, fixable, but then with an older car that complexity had me concerned. The S1 disco I also looked at but once again hard to find one that inspired confidence with most seeming very well used. I looked at a couple of Defenders but they seemed much more expensive and all with rust. The load area was super impressive though and I don't mind its simplicity, draughts etc. And then out of nowhere a low mileage but very rusty 200tdi defender came up for sale cheap in country Victoria. I figured if i was going to fix rust it is not much harder to cut out big holes as small ones, and for parts prices I bought the car sight unseen and hopped on a bus and the guy met me in the town and i drove it 600 or so km home. I was so impressed with its performance but was incredibly cold and draughty. Once i started pulling it down it was clear why, the front floor section was completely rusted out, great gaping hole.
By the time i compiled a list it was quite daunting, but at least at the end of it I would be using my time to produce a long term keeper. I started cutting out rust and kept a search going for parts like doors and as fate would have it, in the next suburb the 300tdi came up for sale with 200k km on it, much tidier, didn't look like much rust and had ARB locking differentials and a PTO winch. First owner was 'Dept of Army' although the car is white. Some Army guys i know cant explain that but maybe it was like an administrative car, still the winch is strange for that. Between the two there were great parts like maxidrive axles and long range tank on the 200, so i ended up with both.
Of course once i started digging, door trims off etc, I still found little bits of rust all over the place so ended up spending a lot of time repairing all that and painting anyway. But as time goes by, more and more this convinces me this is the right car for me and worth the effort to make it all good. I've had a great 10k km or so, fit heaps in, very economical, great for towing even with big old cars on trailers etc. A bit of a setback as described on my post in the defender forum, but hoping a new headgasket will fix that. Im really impressed with parts prices though and if it doesnt work i will do a full rebuild on the engine.
And as for the 200, it just seems too good to break up and it is just time really to weld in new steel and paint, so the aim is to rebuild that and sell it on as a properly sorted and rust free defender, something i had great trouble finding. And my thinking is that if the 300 runs ok for a while longer, then once the 200 is done i can use that while doing engine and box on the 300 to sell on later.
I really appreciate the support i have been given so far on here - i am a great believer in these forums with the car community helping each other out. I am a moderator on Ozbenz, a mercedes forum and it is a great feeling when you can help others out. It takes a bit of time to take that seriously, check every day, approve premembership posts etc so with a range of vehicles and forums sometimes I am not very regular on the others. I was a member on Aulro, great advice and people, have helped others including donating parts etc, but between car club fees etc it is hard to justify fees on one forum that i visit only occasionally - even if it isn't very much. I think it is a shame they didn't go the road of Ozbenz where businesses that can benefit from the association pick up the tab. But i don't want to judge too much on things i might not know the full picture on. Still it was great to come here and be welcomed with great advice when i needed it in a hurry.
