What is it?

its worth waiting for man , and better a wait than a bag of old rusty crap.
and you dont need to have sun to whip the roof off , its actually loads of fun in the rain as well.

Better a rich numpty than a poor one. keep ur money in ur pocket till ya find a good un. unless yer a rich welder & mechanic or have lots of friends who are, Then buy a cheap one and invest £4k and end up with exactly what you want. otherwise keep looking an learning and one'll come up that really takes ur fancy follow the tips on here and ya'll be a happy chappy.

Thanks for your advice gents, clearly this is more involved than buying a ford focus!

Jus a bit. Problem is, yer looking at a 40 year old vehicle that's likely to have had a doz owners who've all repaired it in their own way some well some diabollicaly crap. and it's likely to have spent a huge part of it's life up to it's diffs in mud and crap. so it's gonna have been abused and abused and abused. If the person your buying it off (or a recent owner)hasn't sorted all it's problems. Then you'll have to which is where deep pockets will be required. If the chassis is knackered it'll cost you a grand for a decent new one, plus when ur stripping it down you'll find loads of other thing that "could do with renewing" and before you know it you've done a nobber and spent £4k.

I honestly can't see me buying anything older than 15-20 years. So a defender with some series doors I guess.

Actually, do I legally need doors?

#23 said:

I honestly can't see me buying anything older than 15-20 years. So a defender with some series doors I guess.

Actually, do I legally need doors?

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probably not.
my 90's 22 and already its had a new chassis. ive seen landys half its age needing new bulkheads and major chassis repair work.
top tip , stay away from 5 door lwb series and defenders.

nobber said:

probably not.
my 90's 22 and already its had a new chassis. ive seen landys half its age needing new bulkheads and major chassis repair work.
top tip , stay away from 5 door lwb series and defenders.

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so all lwb? why is that?

#23 said:

so all lwb? why is that?

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No just the 5 door station wagon ones the 3 door hardtops & pickups are better because the door posts on the 5 doors rot. as do the doors.

#23 said:

so all lwb? why is that?

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just the 4 door ones , for one thing you cant take the roof off without a very expencive conversion , also , thers a lot of very expencive body parts on them that does rust.

5 doors.

nobber said:

5 doors.

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Aye keep up son. Ah thought yu'd been taught to count.

ma dear old mammy was scootesh , she use to shoot at me when she was learnin me stuff , coont , coont she wad shoot , i thought she wa joost callin me names.

and did she teach you how to spell expensive

slob said:

and did she teach you how to spell expensive

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nooo , she didney teech me nuttin ,sha just kept shootin coont at me.

Ok.

this one looks uber cool! any thoughts from the experts???

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=792&cat=2

#23 said:

this one looks uber cool! any thoughts from the experts???

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I'm no expert but I don't think this one is for you. You ought to be looking for something a little more standard - i.e. not one with a non-standard engine and diffs. Some conversions and modifications are done really nicely but tere are signs that this one isn't - the converter never got the hand of wiring in the transplated engine's thermastat, for example, and that is one pretty essential thing. Also, you need to declare mods to your insurer and that can get expensive.

I think the sort of thing you are looking for is either a:
- Series III (109 = long wheel base; 88 = short wheel base) with a 2.25 petrol engine
- Ninety or 110 (2.5 petrol or diesel)

The latter will be easier to drive and may even have power assisted steering.

Look for quality in the base vehicle and don't be put off by a good vehicle that doesn;t have the seats you want - you can add them later.

Good luck - there's a lot of fun in the search ... but sometimes the best ones come to you!

Cheers

Blippie

OK, that makes sense. Cheers.