Obviously Britpart source their parts as cheaply as possible, as others have said, and the result is lower quality. A door mirror I bought sheared off its mounting arm within a few miles - just poorly cast and low-grade steel. That said, cosmetic and accessory parts are fine - it doesn't matter...

Pretty sweet ride. Like those seats especially.

:nopics:

Well done if you managed to get it undone from the top. Mine was rusted solid and nearly impossible to get off even from underneath (on axle stands). I broke two oil filter wrenches on it, including a chain wrench. Tried the pump pliers but you can't get any room to turn them because the prop...

Take the shotgun along with you when you go to look at cars. It's a big help when negotiating. £500-1000? Sounds like a bit of a shed, but then there's no Defender that can't be fixed up with a welder, an eBay account, and a little time.

Yep, I know it's a standard feature, people have to pay extra for that on modern cars. Still, I think I'll be out and about with the Sikaflex trying to reduce the leakage to modest, Olympic swimming pool-size proportions, if only to stop my lady passengers complaining about their shoes getting...

I've just noticed that loads of water is coming in via the passenger door. It's evidently dripped out of the bottom of the door and then pooled in the passenger footwell. I had a look at the door - there's a hole in the very bottom of the door which is clearly where most of the water is...

It gives you great visibility and less blind spot. Plus it looks nice (I think). It does fold back if you need to get through a narrow space. Or if it gets clonked by a lorry :D

Replaced rusty old hinges with all new zinc plated ones plus stainless steel fittings (Stigs). All went fine except the last bolt of the last hinge which was rusted solid, bust its J-nut, and had to be sawn off in the end. There's always one!

Nice new Wolf mirror.

I'm fine with that, it makes sense and they've done this in the past with no problems. But putting glass bulbs loose and unprotected into a box with heavy things rattling around? That's just a lack of common sense. I should have gone to Halfords and paid ten times the price, at least I'd...

Makes one slightly more likely though, doesn't it.

The 'From LA' bit refers to the last two letters in the VIN before the serial number. The VIN breaks down like this: Characters 1-3: Manufacturer ID Characters 4-9: Vehicle Type Character 10: Model Year Character 11: Where Built Characters 12-17: Serial Number My VIN is...

I ordered a few bits from Paddocks, having previously been happy with their stuff. When the order arrived it was a complete disaster! I'd ordered a cubby box, which was very nice. But inside the cubby box they'd packed some sachets of one-shot grease, which had exploded and covered everything...

A 110 is ideal for expeditions. I like the station wagons as the windows in the back give you better visibility when driving and makes passengers happier (if and when you carry them). You can always take the seats out to reclaim the space. But if you need to park and leave it somewhere full of...

My other car is insured with Admiral for about £500, so I contacted them to ask about adding the Defender on. They quoted me another £500, including mirrored NCB. Lancaster quoted me about £250 with no NCB, so the two car policy didn't work for me in this case. I suppose my advice would be...

Get the 90. You know it's the right decision! It will hold its value, but that won't matter, because you won't want to sell it :D

The Haynes book is great, especially for the routine maintenance stuff, but the crucial photos always seem to be tiny, smudgy and black & white so that you can't actually see what it's of. Also, they tend to assume a fair amount of knowledge - e.g. "Check crankcase breather hose for security &...

If the socket driver keeps slipping out it is probably because the plug is full of junk - give it a good spray with WD40 which should also help to loosen the thread a little. Then clean out the plug as much as you can and the socket driver should go in squarely and give you a bit of traction...

It can be a nuisance to get those little brackets to slot into the holes in the side panels - I found the easiest thing is to do up the bolt nearly tight, so that you can still rotate the bracket a bit to get it into the slot once the seat is in position. I just secured the cushions to the...