Thread: internal fire damage - 130 TD5

Paddock spares would charge a fortune!

May well be worth it depending on what the insurance company wants for it.

As a guide my interior door trims from paddocks were about 600 bucks, before freight which was another fortune.

My instrument cluster with speedo and fuel gauge second hand from TR spares in SA was 245 bucks.

The best way to tackle it in my opinion is if you can score another written off defender and steal its entire interior if you want to do it cheap. The only difference in interior between tdi and td5 130 is the speedo gauge and some of the wiring. Depending on the damage/origin of the fire some of the ECU wiring may not even be damage. or it could ALL be damaged.

Id say you could just buy only what you need, being a dash, aircon unit and wiring to instruments etc (Ive got a spare aircon unit from a td5 130) and then go full custom on all the superfluous crap like door cards and roof linings and floor matting.

If you want to look around my td5 to see what a running example entails PM me mate.

Thanks guys,


So the ecu is under the drivers seat ? does the wiring travel inside or run under and along the chassis to the engine ?


Would be great to buy a wreck and change it all over but defender wrecks are not that common in Darwin. I did see 1 that looked to have been rolled but the dash was smashed so no joy there.


Will speak to the guys at TRS and see what they say, bought the D3 and a lot of other stuff from them so they may give me some options.


Cheers Ean

Yep " under and along the chassis to the engine"

For example
MUD Defender Console
Just need to browse
And a bit of custom metal work

It comes down to what price you can get it for and apart from the fire what condition is the rest of the vehicle. What mileage? Any service books?

Unfortunately wrecks still get a bit of interest as breaking them out can still get a bit of money.

If the damage is well contained you may have a chance at a sought after tourer or work vehicle.

Depends on how tidy it is, and how tidy you want it... There is an early 110 in storage here that was bought for parts... The engine, box and a few other things have to come out of it, and then it'll b sold.. Perhaps send Offender90 a PM as it belongs to him....

I will go back and have a closer look tomorrow. The other wreck I seen which looked like it had been rolled is going to auction as a non repairable wreck so might even go along and see if any interest in that.


Cheers Ean

before handing over folding stuff get an absolute commitment from the insurer that it will not go on the written off vehicle register (WOVR). Or if it will that it's registered as a repairable write-off.

I raise it because if you plan to sell it to someone interstate the WOVR status will cause consternation for registering it in, say NSW and QLD. An interstate buyer will expect a significant discount to compensate for the regulatory hurdles and uncertainty to transfer rego. I went through that with my 130 from VIC and it was a pain. Luckily i had an understanding engineer to sign it off.

best of luck if you take it on, plan on a complete wiring harness. A fire damaged dash will inevitably have compromised insulation on the harness leading to an never ending trail of electrical gremlins.

don't discount a Puma dash transplant. They do it in the UK so it's possible. No idea of the fiddle factor.

MLD