If I decide to sell my defender...

Is it worth sorting the bodywork out?

Mechanically it is perfect and everything I put on it was OE or decent quality, but I didn't bother with the bodywork as; 1) it didn't bother me, 2) it deters thieves and 3) I couldn't afford it

I would have to:

- Change the wings
- New doors/skins
- Complete respray as the job is average/bad
- Maybe new bonnet



The current plan is to possibly sell it to either fund a couple of months trip around Australia, or buy something more suited to expeditions...

Thoughts?

No - sell it at a market value & let the new owner choose to have the body revamped if they want.
You'll have a larger no of potential buyers with a lower price.

arc said:

No - sell it at a market value & let the new owner choose to have the body revamped if they want.
You'll have a larger no of potential buyers with a lower price.

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Ok, ta.

I can't decide what to do tbh, I went to S. France in it last week and it is a lot of effort to do long distances in. I will be sad to see it go if I do sell it though.

Does a valuation of £8500ish seem fair? I'm struggling to work out market value on this! They seem to vary from £6500 to £12000!

£8.5k seems a tad high to me since I paid that for my TD5!

Agreed though leave the body work as is let the new owner sort it.

bankz5152 said:

£8.5k seems a tad high to me since I paid that for my TD5!

Agreed though leave the body work as is let the new owner sort it.

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Galv chassis though, and complete rebuild of everything inc a refurbed transfer box and replaced anything that even looked old...

Best you can do is look at all the prices of current & completed items on ebay, autotrader , piston heads then find closest , be fair, advertise it well & hope for the best!

You'll always get people telling you it's worth far less because they've seen one down the road for £500 or far more because they've got an identical one & john offered them £1m for it.... Do your homework & advertise it for what you want + the standard £500 haggling discount!

arc said:

Best you can do is look at all the prices of current & completed items on ebay, autotrader , piston heads then find closest , be fair, advertise it well & hope for the best!

You'll always get people telling you it's worth far less because they've seen one down the road for £500 or far more because they've got an identical one & john offered them £1m for it.... Do your homework & advertise it for what you want + the standard £500 haggling discount!

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Sound advice, thanks.

I hadn't thought about sold items on ebay. Might just do an auction, though I don't have much luck with those...my chassis that was better than most 90s still on the road sold for £50 :doh:

I still can't decide if I am better just keeping it and finding the money from somewhere else, they seem to be going up in value pretty quickly at the moment. I kind of fancy a D2 for expeditions, though don't have anywhere to keep one...

To be honest if you can hold on until mid next year you might be better off, considering the end of the Defender.

Must be gutting to sell after all the work mate :frown:
I wouldn't say £8500 is over the top on current prices.
Someone will buy it it's just waiting for the right person who wants to buy something that's already done and going to last along time, as opposed to the usual nobbers who want everything for nothing, just got to weed them out and take your time to find the right buyer.

To give you some sort of idea I sold my brothers 90 that I rebuilt a couple of months back and took £8,000 for it.

aaronmorris said:

Must be gutting to sell after all the work mate :frown:
I wouldn't say £8500 is over the top on current prices.
Someone will buy it it's just waiting for the right person who wants to buy something that's already done and going to last along time, as opposed to the usual nobbers who want everything for nothing, just got to weed them out and take your time to find the right buyer.

To give you some sort of idea I sold my brothers 90 that I rebuilt a couple of months back and took £8,000 for it.

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Yeah, I am a bit gutted. I'll do another project tho, like you I am addicted to it now! Maybe a vw beetle or another defender.

bankz5152 said:

To be honest if you can hold on until mid next year you might be better off, considering the end of the Defender.

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I'm kind of thinking the same thing actually. If I put some tools in the back to clear some space it should fit in my garage, so I could get something as well and keep it for a while.

Becstar a new lz member is looking for something like this. Maybe give her a pm she may be interested.

I'd personally sell it how it was. Looks tidy enough and adds character

IamRobbie said:

Becstar a new lz member is looking for something like this. Maybe give her a pm she may be interested.

I'd personally sell it how it was. Looks tidy enough and adds character

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Yeah, true. It is a totally sorted 90, just isn't quite right for what I need it for.

I still haven't decided if I 100% want to sell it or not!

It does look nice! Looks like you may even be able to get those dents out with a plunger!

bankz5152 said:

It does look nice! Looks like you may even be able to get those dents out with a plunger!

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Easier to buy new wings I reckon. They both look like that...

From the other thread I started the decision is that I will prob keep the 90 for now, but look at building an expedition trailer

Hi James, I was gonna suggest a custom built trailer for expeditions. You could always leave it in the garage and go play in the mud.
And when your expediting, you leave the trailer set up complete with roof tent,,,,,,,,, and go play in the mud.
Same thing I've allays thought about the caravan versus motorhome debate.
Its a bugger when your set up if you want to go somewhere.

Have a look at this for inspiration....

land rover trailer offroad / overland / expedition / camping trailer projectl | eBay

james6546 said:

Yeah, true. It is a totally sorted 90, just isn't quite right for what I need it for.

I still haven't decided if I 100% want to sell it or not!

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how is it truly sorted? it all fell apart shortly into your trip, hence you wanting to flog it

nm the other threads about cb noise and light relays failing.

if you are going to say something is sorted, then it can't have any faults. else it needs some work

did you do all the work yourself?

trax said:

how is it truly sorted? it all fell apart shortly into your trip, hence you wanting to flog it

nm the other threads about cb noise and light relays failing.

if you are going to say something is sorted, then it can't have any faults. else it needs some work

did you do all the work yourself?

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Thanks trax, you always know the right things to say

My list of stuff to sort is:
Leaking steering box
Feedback on cb
Click when accelerating
Slight weep on the back diff.

That's it. So for something that I built not too bad!

Though saying that my faith in my mechanical abilities was knocked slightly...

XRIZLAX said:

Hi James, I was gonna suggest a custom built trailer for expeditions. You could always leave it in the garage and go play in the mud.
And when your expediting, you leave the trailer set up complete with roof tent,,,,,,,,, and go play in the mud.
Same thing I've allays thought about the caravan versus motorhome debate.
Its a bugger when your set up if you want to go somewhere.

Click to expand...

I think I will make one eventually, there is a chassis on eBay from mudstuff that looks awesome. It is £3600 mind...

Marmaduke said:

Have a look at this for inspiration....

land rover trailer offroad / overland / expedition / camping trailer projectl | eBay

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Yeah...no thanks!

james6546 said:

Thanks trax, you always know the right things to say

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that made me laugh

on rereading, i sounded way more ****y than i meant :bounce: