Deans Defender rebuild

New to the forum but thought id start my rebuild thread just as its getting underway.

So in November 2011 i decided to purchase a defender 90 with the intention of using it offroad and over winter, as i couldnt drive my car for 3 weeks in 2010 due to snow. Winter past and the defender has pretty much sat there since with not much use due to having my job and starting a business venture. Now ive got some time i have decided to fully strip it down and give it a new lease of life. Heres how i brought it in 2011:



Looked quite a mess so a quick rattle can job and 4 days later it turned into something a bit more respectful:



Thats how it stayed till about a week ago when i started to strip it down. So Progress began buy stripping the dash down and finding some quite butchered wiring as you do:



This was all cleared out.Even some twin and earth and lots of 12v bare cables touching metal etc:



Then proceded to strip out the rest of the interior:



Then came time to strip the body work down:













Now im at the point of taking the engine and box out. Due to having my engine crane nicked so trying to source one or wait for a digger to come along. So far the strip down has taken me 12 hours. More updates to come tomorrow if i can work out a way to get the engine out!

All that in 12 hours on your drive? well done.

I wish I could take mine apart that quickly! Every second bolt on mine was rusted to the car

somones been lucky with the bolt, nice job, keep us posted...

looking gd..whats the plans with paint colour?

Most of the places where things were bolted was rusted through, either that or nothing a grinder or cold chiesel couldnt sort out. Because im replacing most parts it didnt really matter.

With regards to paint i was going to keep it satin black with the orange guards. As it will be used off road quite a bit now (I hope) it will soon be scratched up.

Plans for it:

Replace any rusty/ corroded panels.
All new wiring throughout.
Body work sorted out.
Winch installed
Possibly wading kit installed
Engine service and good check over- Use to puff out black smoke on start up and higher revs.
Change gearbox to Lt77 box.
Change rear prop uj from rubber donut type to the solid type.
Remove top spot lights from roof.
New bushes all round as mine are fubbered

Not sure what else just yet see how progress goes over the next week and what the bank balence is like.

looks like a nice project, brave move to do it all outside your house on the drive

defenderdean said:

Change gearbox to Lt77 box.

Click to expand...

Why do you want to change to a lt77? if its because where the gear stick is you can convert the R380

nice job mate

Very brave move but its the only place i can do it at the moment. My garage is housing my track car.

Theres a localish lt77 box for sale quite cheap and my current gearbox jumps out of second and sometimes the transfer box hi/low jumps out. So needs looking at. what do you do with regards to gearbox mounts if your purchase the smaller bellhousing for the R380?

is that a home made rear cross member mate

O dont think so. Nothing looks like its been tampered with. Just outriggers with welding all over them. Chassis seems in pretty good condition for its age.

Tops ! I do like these freds ! Keep it coming

defenderdean said:

Very brave move but its the only place i can do it at the moment. My garage is housing my track car.

Theres a localish lt77 box for sale quite cheap and my current gearbox jumps out of second and sometimes the transfer box hi/low jumps out. So needs looking at. what do you do with regards to gearbox mounts if your purchase the smaller bellhousing for the R380?

Click to expand...

As far as I'm aware the bell housing is the same on all R380 gearboxs it's just in a defender the engine is mounted closer to the front than a 200tdi using the LT77, also meaning if you fit a defender lt77 you will need to chop off the engine mounts and weld them further back, and you might have to modify the flywheel housing on the engine

Yea, i no you can get a shorter bell housing so you wouldnt have to cut the seatbox. however will require moving the mounting positions. I may decide to stick with the R380 and just mod the new seat box.

My corrosion issues:











The worst part of the chassis other to this it seems fine.



The bulkhead needs a bit of work. A new A pillar, footwells and some repair work at the top by the mounting holes.

looks a familiar tub site lol... my last one.....









got there in the end

Cheers Steve

STEVES SITE

Bet your neighbours love you!

Haha it will only be for a few weeks. Should have the new outriggers welded up thursday and hopefully the chassis prepped and treated by next sunday. Then ive just got to repair the tub and bulkhead and it can all go back together the following week. Well providing the weather is good!

someone's beat me to it, was gonna say I bet your neighbours are longing you at the mo

hope it all works out tho, good job so far!

A bit more progress from thursday. Now up to 18 hours on the build. Quite alot done:

Engine out:



Rotten outrigger. The two rears were just as bad:





Replacement:



And now the chassis completely stripped:



This week should see the surface rust removed from the chassis and primered up. Think this will be one of the longest parts of the build. Luckily there are no parts rusted through and the chassis is solid after 24 years of living.

More progress to come middle of this week.

Excellent fred