Scrap or Keep ?

lynall said:

Not being rude but a 99 D2 cant be worth enough to justify a galv chassis?
If anyone I knew told me they had spent that sort of money on a chassis for a D2 I would think they were nuts.

You can sort of justify it on a Defender as they are never really going to depreciate like a disco.

People always says its a keeper/car for life etc etc and then some time later they sell it for one reason or another, so the trick is to invest as litlte time/money as possible into any old car, its hard to admit that sometimes its an old car not a classic car, and people get wrapped up in it for some reason, but its not old enough to interest any classic followers (maybe in 20 yrs time), the herd dont want it as they see it as an old heap.

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I must have real problems then seeing as I am £13k in on my 1992 D1, it was never all in one go but things cost money and it all mounts up over time, winches and winch bumpers, wheels and tyres, body panels and steel work. Going to rocket over the £16k mark soon with the locking diffs & HD half shafts

When it's a hobby then you can play with it on the weekends, but if you intend to daily it then I really do think you're nuts to consider a 20yr old Land Rover that hasn't had a bucket load of cash thrown at it first, even then I doubt I would daily mine again unless I found a job on the island but then again a job on the island and I could ride my bike

My D2 is also around £8k now but for me it is a hobby car. And it is not a car used on daily basis. I am sure it is different in the UK where you have a lot and cheap ones but here in hungary they are quite expensive. I use to say it to everyone who wants to buy a Discovery that even it can be cheap when they buy surely will be expensive to keep it in perfect condition or improve it. It is old but quite complex car with lot of features which surely will broke after 18-20 years.
Lot of people in hungary buys old BMWs or Audis because they think it is "cool" but soon they recognise why they could buy them cheap...and they do not even have money to refill them and crying when the repair cost is times more than the value of the car.

berg450 said:

My D2 is also around £8k now but for me it is a hobby car. And it is not a car used on daily basis. I am sure it is different in the UK where you have a lot and cheap ones but here in hungary they are quite expensive. I use to say it to everyone who wants to buy a Discovery that even it can be cheap when they buy surely will be expensive to keep it in perfect condition or improve it. It is old but quite complex car with lot of features which surely will broke after 18-20 years.
Lot of people in hungary buys old BMWs or Audis because they think it is "cool" but soon they recognise why they could buy them cheap...and they do not even have money to refill them and crying when the repair cost is times more than the value of the car.

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The guy my girlfriend used to work for has a horse truck building company in Hungary, when ever he sends down a fresh chassis to be built into a horse truck it gets loaded with car parts to take down and sell off, engines and transmissions that are cheap in Holland but are very expensive in Hungary can make him a lot of money and all in cash too

My D1 is a hobby truck and will stay that way, when the body rot gets too bad then I'll turn it into a utility truck of some kind and keep it going that way.

I've always said to people who bought Range Rovers and now the likes of D3s & 4s Range Rover Sports etc that they were expensive to buy when new and cost a lot of money and need technical equipment and diagnostics to keep them in good health and on the road. There are a lot of cheap cars out there that need a lot of work and expensive parts to keep them on the road, cheaper to sell it off and buy something else unless you can do all the work yourself but the parts are often not cheap either.

I think a hobby motor is a different thing altogether and not what the op was asking.
The fact he hasnt replied since says to me hes thought long and hard and maybe come to his senses.

dieseldog69 said:

I must have real problems then seeing as I am £13k in on my 1992 D1, it was never all in one go but things cost money and it all mounts up over time, winches and winch bumpers, wheels and tyres, body panels and steel work. Going to rocket over the £16k mark soon with the locking diffs & HD half shafts

When it's a hobby then you can play with it on the weekends, but if you intend to daily it then I really do think you're nuts to consider a 20yr old Land Rover that hasn't had a bucket load of cash thrown at it first, even then I doubt I would daily mine again unless I found a job on the island but then again a job on the island and I could ride my bike

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Wow, I think I might just be 1300 in on mine

I started doing a few buts to mine like power steering pipes at the front. all front end out, new aircon fan and radiator needed, new springs, shocker bushes, brakes and discs. then rear 1/4 chassis with bits and bobs then brakes and discs.
2K in parts altogether but no labour as me and a mate did it. 14 days labour in all. I just drove it to work for the first time and the rear wiper stopped working and is MOT tomorrow. Bummer. I recon it has been worth it so far. roof and sunroofs next.

There cannot be many out there left that do not have any chassis rot now?
I spent months looking before I bought mine. And they all had some rot there. Some more than others.
I have since welded a long piece of fresh steel to replace the rotten lower sections on both sides. It seems many people do not look under the car before buying? And it’s a surprise when they find rot there?
I went to the MOT today.
Passed on the welding, but the SRS light decided to turn on during the test! Sonthats another story.
Anyhow. Sooner or later I think they all need chassis work? I remember when I was looking, there were even some with 75-85k on the clock, looked great, advert sounded good, seller “did not mention” anything about a rotten chassis, until you read the MOT history online. And it’s got the classic warnings going back the last few years.
It can happen at any mileage I reckon, regardless. It’s likely more age.

Why not just fit a D1 chassis? Seen a few pics online of a hybridised D1/2 apparently it's just a couple of body mount points in addition to all the usual crap and you can at least fit bull bars to enable you to intimidate fiat 600 drivers

Buy a series 3 as a hobby car, slower, bumpier ride but much cheaper to maintain and more fun. Also, people often stop in their tracks and watch you drive by. The chassis on mine is 42 years old, never treated since new and its in better nick than most 10 year old discos. It's also more versatile than a cherished disco cos I can fill it with rubbish for the tip, put my wet dog in it and it never seems to affect the interior. It's worth more now than when I bought it a few years ago.

Col

Naki kouyioumtzis said:

There cannot be many out there left that do not have any chassis rot now?
I spent months looking before I bought mine. And they all had some rot there. Some more than others.
I have since welded a long piece of fresh steel to replace the rotten lower sections on both sides. It seems many people do not look under the car before buying? And it’s a surprise when they find rot there?
I went to the MOT today.
Passed on the welding, but the SRS light decided to turn on during the test! Sonthats another story.
Anyhow. Sooner or later I think they all need chassis work? I remember when I was looking, there were even some with 75-85k on the clock, looked great, advert sounded good, seller “did not mention” anything about a rotten chassis, until you read the MOT history online. And it’s got the classic warnings going back the last few years.
It can happen at any mileage I reckon, regardless. It’s likely more age.

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Nice job, I bet that was one fiddly fcuk cutting the old bottom plate off?

Just come across this thread, I have a 110 Defender but the struggle is real!
The garage spotted two tiny holes, I mean one you could barely get a screw driver in, the other was about 20p sized... little bit'o welding and jobs a guddun.
Nearly a whole month of fixing stuff later and I am still waiting for it back.
The entire rear half of the chassis is FUBAR, the 2nd row cross member is falling to bits, the C pillar at the base has more holes than swiss cheese.

The good news is it will be solid for (hopefully) a long time, the bad news is its costing me a fortune, though thankfully I am buying the parts myself so just paying for labour.
Its reached that point where I am starting to wonder if I should of just sold it on, but we have gone so far now there is almost no turning back.

Ahhh well. Sod it.

19_Hue_95 said:

Just come across this thread, I have a 110 Defender but the struggle is real!
The garage spotted two tiny holes, I mean one you could barely get a screw driver in, the other was about 20p sized... little bit'o welding and jobs a guddun.
Nearly a whole month of fixing stuff later and I am still waiting for it back.
The entire rear half of the chassis is FUBAR, the 2nd row cross member is falling to bits, the C pillar at the base has more holes than swiss cheese.

The good news is it will be solid for (hopefully) a long time, the bad news is its costing me a fortune, though thankfully I am buying the parts myself so just paying for labour.
Its reached that point where I am starting to wonder if I should of just sold it on, but we have gone so far now there is almost no turning back.

Ahhh well. Sod it.

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The difference is a defender will always be worth money unlike any old disco.

Great fred

My first LR bought sixmonths ago... luckily the chassis is solid, light surface rust only as in the before and aftet images attached. The vehicle had been well cared for and that care was extended to the underside also but i viewed some rotten D2's before this one, clean and shiny on topbut a mess underneath.... walk away

A mate over here bought a 1998 D1 for $2,500 then proceeded to spend another $17,000 on it, but he wants it to last him the rest of his life, not sure how that will work out.
It's a lot of money on something that will probably turn to rust in the end.

Gazbo said:

A mate over here bought a 1998 D1 for $2,500 then proceeded to spend another $17,000 on it, but he wants it to last him the rest of his life, not sure how that will work out.
It's a lot of money on something that will probably turn to rust in the end.

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I have the same aim with our D1's.

I might have spent £6-7K on both of them, plus some time.... NOT $17K!

Both professionally valued, and both on agreed value insurance. ( essential IMHO ).

I really don't care what they cost to run*..... given a NEW engine is a few thousand, a recon gearbox a grand .... etc .... compared with the rather obvious costs involved in "new" cars ... it's a done deal. (* - I do keep a close eye on the costs, largely as part of proper maintenance and servicing )

Also, should the worst come to the worst, and one (or both ), of them get written off - they will be replaced with something older, NOT something newer.