MD0MDI
Member
- Posts
- 85
I am so new to Land Rovers, always loved them, always wished I owned one, but never got round to it, mainly down to cost, and availability, but also because I have never had the space to restore one, and even now this will be a challenge as I will explain further down.
I am after ADVICE.... and as you read on I hope that a few of you lot out there who are more landy-savie than I will be able to point me in the right direction every now and then...
First off me! I'm a biker, always hated cars, all the cars I have ever bought cost less than £100, and I never serviced or looked after then, I just would drive them till something terminal happened and then swapped them for another, very easy over here (Isle of Man) as we have no MOT to bother us...
This said I can strip down a bikes engine and gearbox and rebuild then with my eyes closed, OK, well maybe not with my eyes closed but I am certainly above average when it comes to maintaining Bikes, their engines, and all the other stuff bolted on to them. So Mechanically I feel I am OK, and although a 2 Tonne Land Rover is slightly larger than a Yamaha R1 I am not afraid of getting my hands dirty and working on anything under the shell!
As for the Car itself, I just managed to pick up a Defender 110 200Tdi 1991 Ex-Army / Electricity Board Landy that was sitting in a Farmers drive and not been used for nearly 2 years.
Cost of the car: £400
My thoughts are this:
It’s in OK condition, it needs a Bulkhead, and possibly the Chassis as well, Doors are shot and there are a few other nice patches of rust, but then what do you expect for a car left out in the Manx weather!
The Engine looks sweet, I have seen a lot dirtier ones, and even though we needed to replace the battery, it started on the second go, and runs sweet.
It has a Built in 5 KvA 21 Amp 240V Generator built-in running off the engine, I know that this seems a little stupid to many but for me this is a real bonus as I want the car for Amateur Radio use, i.e, when it is finished, it will hopefully have a Heavy Duty Roof Rack fitted with a 30ft Windup Tennamast on top for the times that I want to go up the mountain to operate.
Although the seats are passable, they do need to be replaced or repaired, but there seems to be quite a few nice places that I have seen that produce some very sexy looking descent seats in nice leather for these.
So I think as a Donor vehicle this is quite nice, and it hopefully will not kill me in the process.
The Aim of the project!
To Strip the beast down to the chassis and then check out the running gear and replace anything that needs it, and at the least restore anything I feel that I can.
Sand Blast EVERYTHING Metal! Sounds a bit extreme, but we have a rather large sand blaster that I purchased to do the outside of the house, so this will find another use soon as I want the car to be as cosmetically sweet as I can make it, I used to spray so the paintwork will not be an issue for me.
As for the insides of the car, I hope to find a good alternative to the basic layout! I am looking at matching leather seats and door panels, Sound Proofing the entire vehicle, and good carpets or rubber matting etc. I would like to clean up the Dashboard a bit, and hopefully move the Generator panel from the dash to the rear of the car somehow. I also want to revamp the rear of the car, mayby find a way to have a removeable desk on one side of the rear, and nice removable chair to operate radio from, meaning that all the stuff can be removed when I need to cart stuff around.
The front seating is very basic and middle front seat needs to be removed and a nice cubby box installed which will match with the rest of the interior, and as for the rear (middle seats) I hope that I can replace the standard seats with just 2 seats similar to what will be in the front and then I may be able to fit another center console in there.
So that is the project, and yes to land Rovers I am a complete novice, but I am hoping that a few nice people here will be able to guide me through the next few years of this rebuild!.
For now….
James
I am after ADVICE.... and as you read on I hope that a few of you lot out there who are more landy-savie than I will be able to point me in the right direction every now and then...
First off me! I'm a biker, always hated cars, all the cars I have ever bought cost less than £100, and I never serviced or looked after then, I just would drive them till something terminal happened and then swapped them for another, very easy over here (Isle of Man) as we have no MOT to bother us...
This said I can strip down a bikes engine and gearbox and rebuild then with my eyes closed, OK, well maybe not with my eyes closed but I am certainly above average when it comes to maintaining Bikes, their engines, and all the other stuff bolted on to them. So Mechanically I feel I am OK, and although a 2 Tonne Land Rover is slightly larger than a Yamaha R1 I am not afraid of getting my hands dirty and working on anything under the shell!
As for the Car itself, I just managed to pick up a Defender 110 200Tdi 1991 Ex-Army / Electricity Board Landy that was sitting in a Farmers drive and not been used for nearly 2 years.
Cost of the car: £400
My thoughts are this:
It’s in OK condition, it needs a Bulkhead, and possibly the Chassis as well, Doors are shot and there are a few other nice patches of rust, but then what do you expect for a car left out in the Manx weather!
The Engine looks sweet, I have seen a lot dirtier ones, and even though we needed to replace the battery, it started on the second go, and runs sweet.
It has a Built in 5 KvA 21 Amp 240V Generator built-in running off the engine, I know that this seems a little stupid to many but for me this is a real bonus as I want the car for Amateur Radio use, i.e, when it is finished, it will hopefully have a Heavy Duty Roof Rack fitted with a 30ft Windup Tennamast on top for the times that I want to go up the mountain to operate.
Although the seats are passable, they do need to be replaced or repaired, but there seems to be quite a few nice places that I have seen that produce some very sexy looking descent seats in nice leather for these.
So I think as a Donor vehicle this is quite nice, and it hopefully will not kill me in the process.
The Aim of the project!
To Strip the beast down to the chassis and then check out the running gear and replace anything that needs it, and at the least restore anything I feel that I can.
Sand Blast EVERYTHING Metal! Sounds a bit extreme, but we have a rather large sand blaster that I purchased to do the outside of the house, so this will find another use soon as I want the car to be as cosmetically sweet as I can make it, I used to spray so the paintwork will not be an issue for me.
As for the insides of the car, I hope to find a good alternative to the basic layout! I am looking at matching leather seats and door panels, Sound Proofing the entire vehicle, and good carpets or rubber matting etc. I would like to clean up the Dashboard a bit, and hopefully move the Generator panel from the dash to the rear of the car somehow. I also want to revamp the rear of the car, mayby find a way to have a removeable desk on one side of the rear, and nice removable chair to operate radio from, meaning that all the stuff can be removed when I need to cart stuff around.
The front seating is very basic and middle front seat needs to be removed and a nice cubby box installed which will match with the rest of the interior, and as for the rear (middle seats) I hope that I can replace the standard seats with just 2 seats similar to what will be in the front and then I may be able to fit another center console in there.
So that is the project, and yes to land Rovers I am a complete novice, but I am hoping that a few nice people here will be able to guide me through the next few years of this rebuild!.
For now….
James
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