Artistic people :) Wheel and Bonnet Choice

Garrick110 said:

All,

I am not artistic in anyway

Option one bonnet - Offered a TD5 Bonnet or a 200TDI Bonnet - both are in great condition but have to travel a fair bit further for TD5 one. I have 200TDI engine and no plans to upgrade. Which bonnet looks nicer ?

Option 2: Wheels - I fancy the off-road knobbly tyres and I want to wheels to fill space a bit more from the suspension uplift. Get standard wheels on it painted black with tyres (Best option ?) or go for Alloys and tyre option.... would love some suggestions?

She will be used in winter to get me in and out of farmers field (get's muddy and boggy ) once a week hence tyres

Any advice from artists most welcome

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Turboman said:

As far as I know, a Td5 bonnet and a Tdi bonnet are the same. Tdci engined vehicles have a bonnet with a bulge.

Any wheels and tyres on a Defender should get you into a field with Centre Diff Lock engaged. Extreme Off Road tyres will be good off road, but may be noisy and impair handling on the road.

I would get rid of the lift kit, but if you like it that is up to you.

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dag019 said:

Looking at the picture you have put up there is nothing wrong with the wheels you have. I would just give them a tidy up and a new coat of paint. i did that with my modulars about 8 years ago and they are still going strong now. Remove the tyres (plenty f you tube videos on how to do that yourself if you don't want to pay a tyre fitter), wire wheels all the rust off, a complete coat of red oxide (inside and out so the whole rim is painted), 2-3 layers of a good machine/tractor enamel in a colour of your choice. I like black personally as all accessories and bumpers are black and feel that matches nicely. You will nneed to leave about a week after painting for the enamel to fully harden before you can fit your choice of tyres to it.

Even with a 2" lift 265/75 should fill the arches fairly well. In terms of tyre choice I would be looking at an AT if yo do a lot of road miles, an MT if you like the look and can put up with the increased noise and would only be looking at something more extreme if you spend all your time off road. I personally like BFG but they are expensive to buy in the first place. Having said that I have had two sets of their AT's first set of four did 100k miles and the second set of six has done 150k so pence per mile they are not too bad. And that is not all road use, they have done a couple of trips to morocco and around the alps as well as green laning etc.

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simondance said:

@Garrick110 - Love the colour.

What colour is this? and did you have the hinges spared black?

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miktdish said:

TD5 and 200/300tdi bonnets are the same on the outside. On the inside the early 200/300tdi bonnets used a flat bar with a central pivot style bonnet support and the TD5's a round bar (that sits across the top of the radiator) fixed to a bracket on the side of the oil cooler.
Your photo shows a later (TD5/300tdi) style front end (no air intake inlet on the nearside wing) so I suspect it's the TD5 bonnet that will best fit, but without more info/pics i'm unsure.

@Turboman nailed it with the tyres, @lynall with the wheels ... BFGoodridge KO2's on Wolf wheels would be perfect (IMHO).

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Garrick110 said:

I like the no bulge look ( I think I am rare in that

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Garrick110 said:

Pictures below of one I am looking to pick up and refurb to Grey, I think remove lettering

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Turboman said:

Not that rare, I think the bulge bonnets look horrible. Like a 1970s Capri, but on a boxy body. What were they thinking about.

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miktdish said:

I think they needed more air flow around the Ford engine than the standard design allowed...

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