Billy's budget defender project

Evening all,

After a day on the land rover experience in honiton about 4 years ago I decided that i would be getting myself a land rover.

But work commitments put the stoppers on that for a while, eventually my good lady wife agreed to let me have a project and use the back garden as a work space, so I went out a bought a 1987 90 defender back in November

So I thought I would start a thread mapping progress

I have very little mechanical knowledge and had only done gas welding until I started on the landy , but my uncle has agreed to help teach me about engines, i am learning pretty quickly but would appreciate anyone pointing out my cock ups

This is what it looked like when i picked it up, It's a little rusty on the outriggers and the bulkhead and the doors are pretty fooked but the chassis is sound(ish)














Why did no one tell me that land rivers are highly addictive

Progress pics to follow

Good man! These make great threads.

Excellent - get it stripped down!

Keep the pics coming.

After attacking the drivers side outrigger with a wire brush it became obvious that a new one was required



Which was lucky because there was a fukcing great hole in the chassis behind it



Off to brookwells for a new one, not a good start for my budget project



New one in and painted

The passenger side was repairable which cheered me up a bit





Then I found another hole



Paint on, very pleased with my weekends work

Neat patching, thats what we like to see

Managed to find the pics of the bulkhead repair that I thought I'd deleted







This was my first go at welding so be gentle





The vents had to go, it was beyond my ability to repair them and I thought it was one less place for water to get in







Weather permitting I will have a crack at the doors this weekend

Great stuff!!!!
moaaar!

Looking good, wish I was partially talented to do that..

First go at welding? That's pretty impressive. Need to get myself a welder.

Very impressive for a first go at welding!

What welder are you using?

It's my uncles snap-on 130

I've done a lot of gas welding which isn't that different and I haven't put all the pics of the stuff I cocked up big time

I decided to leave the doors today and start cleaning the chassis and front axle








I removed the shocks and springs and found that the springs were either different sizes or one has worn more than the other, I assume this is bad and I need to change them?

springs are handed

These don't look handed to me

Front ones should be, rear should be same size IIRC

Someone might have replaced them with odd ones though

The one on the left is off the drivers side and is meant to be a bit higher, its for the weight of the driver so sits level when your sat in the drivers seat

Dr_evil said:

Front ones should be, rear should be same size IIRC

Someone might have replaced them with odd ones though

Click to expand...

Some are handed some aren't but let's not start the whole spring debate again

Personally I'd replace them while you've got it all stripped apart.

barmatt said:

Some are handed some aren't but let's not start the whole spring debate again

Personally I'd replace them while you've got it all stripped apart.

Click to expand...

Agree with that!!

Oh has he only removed fronts ?

In that case nevermind my bit about the rears but yes as I said OEM and certain replacements will be handed on front

Replace with Bearmach HD Blues