Just 20 years old with 3 LR's, what am I doing ?!?

Hi

So me and my brother-in-law went off-roading last year for the first time on a pay and play day in Bala (Wales) and we immediately became hooked !!

First Land Rover bought was a 2015 Defender for the farm, but after putting a few dints in it on the first go we decided best to get our own cheaper ones to do some bigger damage on.
So three weeks later we found ourselves on a 8 hour round trip to pick up a £900 rust bucket of a SWB 1988 Defender with a pretty solid chassis from Bristol...
Then came last week when we decided it was a good idea to go buy another, so within a few days we were off to Doncaster to pick up a LWB ex-mod 1982 series III.

Now with the barn filled with extra parts galore and one Land Rover lifted up on breeze blocks our engineering/automotive knowledge has dried up (even with the assistance of the original manuals and the internet).

We are still loving it but now are needing many different pieces of advice.

Hopefully we can be of some help to some of you on here too as we have been doing a lot of learning by experience, so by all means ask away.

I'm sure you'll see many of my questions in the coming weeks !!

Chris.

Ahhh the rock and a hard place..

Buy a new one.... don't want to dent it...
Buy an old one..... put blood sweat and tears in it..... now don't want to dent it..

Welcome.

Dents add character, depending on size of course, I contemplated sorting out all the body work/dents/what have you over the summer but each time I came to repair one it reminded me of what caused it and brought back fond memories. So left them all be

Yes after paying less than 1/20th the amount for my 1982 LWB than my new Defender I don't want to cause damage to either haha.

Anyone have any suggestion on good, easy, cheapish upgrades for playing around with my new 1982 series 3 ? (One of my own first full upgrades haha!!)

That's impressive. Lucky you got space to work on them. Can I make plea to respect the S3 and refurb it properly instead of using it for mud plugging. Good luck.

John S said:

That's impressive. Lucky you got space to work on them. Can I make plea to respect the S3 and refurb it properly instead of using it for mud plugging. Good luck.

Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong with this I want to keep all the original design and looks of the series 3 because I think it is one of the coolest looking cars I have ever owned and is something I'll be keeping for years !!
But I am torn between making it more modern and putting an engine in it that does 70mph and more than 8mpg or keeping the original to make it more authentic.

I would like to be able to use it as a van and camper rather than it just sit there and it look pretty.

Any suggestions ?

Good ideas there. Go to the series an engines section of the forum. The 2.5l diesel is a possibility and would give more poke. Loads of scope to customize but still be original.