Thread: The resurrection of 'pat'

LoveB
Don't be put off by all this
At the end of the day any 22 year old vehicle will be more of a hobby than a necessity, particularly a Land Rover. They all need work but that is exactly the point
How much would golf cost you every year? $5k? And what have you got to show for it after a couple of years? Nothing.
Maybe it won't be the daily driver that you want straight away but it eventually could be.
Get out there and enjoy it! That's what's it's about.
Regards

Originally Posted by Phil B

LoveB
Don't be put off by all this
At the end of the day any 22 year old vehicle will be more of a hobby than a necessity, particularly a Land Rover. They all need work but that is exactly the point
How much would golf cost you every year? $5k? And what have you got to show for it after a couple of years? Nothing.
Maybe it won't be the daily driver that you want straight away but it eventually could be.
Get out there and enjoy it! That's what's it's about.
Regards

Agreed completely. My series is supposed to be my 2nd car. $25 000 later is still not registered but I've enjoyed working on it and when it finally gets on the road it'll b awesome

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I agree as well. $40,000+ later (doing all of the work myself) my 300TDi Deefer could be put into service as a daily driver for the next 20 years. Instead it will be used for remote travel and weekend drives.

But pays to know what you are up against. Lot's of people buy old Deefers and think they'll be an easy/cheap project, when the reality is old Deefers are generally completely worn out and need to be rebuilt IF you want a usable and reliable end result.

I spent the time and money without a second thought and would do it again in a heartbeat. Great project that is lots of fun and very therapeutic. And you end up with a classic Deefer or 90 or 110 that is all Land Rover and very cool

The values of the 'older' ones are on the rise around the world, so one day it might be worth what it cost, maybe. No way I'd sell it though

So yes, get stuck in and enjoy but keep eyes wide open!

Not too put off really. I mean.... I do now have 4 defenders among my other landies. So who am I to really think of being practical with my spending lol.

I've driven the car around. it drives good really. brakes work fantastic. its just freshening it up. its done 80,000miles which is 160km i think, which all in all is low for its age I gather. I dont mind it taking a little while to do. I just want a defender 90 in my spec done to look new-ish knowing you can no longer get them

Just over 133K km Paulo.

( miles /6 x10 gives approx km)

Cheers,

Pete

i suppose one thing that will stop this from happening is if i end up buying the td5 90 on here and converting that to auto lol

Nice find!

I restored a 90 panel van of similar vintage a few years back. I cheated a little and had it done in the UK before shipping it over.

I had rust in the bulkhead and steel body cappings. Stripping down the body is simple bolts and rivets. If you are looking for a good result without spending a fortune or time is limited I would take all the body panels/doors off and leave just the tub, bulkhead and seatbox in place.

The panels that come off, you strip, clean up, send out for paint. The bulkhead, seatbox, tub is cleaned up in situ. Rust removed, patches welded. The inside of the tub and seatbox you can paint yourself or leave as is. You don't see the paint inside when its covered in mats, and your wife will only see the underside if she is doing the servicing.

I recommend getting the exmoor/wright moulded rubber mat. This covers all the visible interior paint on the bulkhead/seatbox. Rubber mats in the back will also hide any effort you put in painting the interior.

Mudstuff do some plastic interior panels for van sides and the rear door which tidy up the interior nicely.

When you have re-assembled the body work drive it to the body shop and have them spray the outer visible sections of the bulkhead and rear tub. This will also cover the new rivets, tub cappings.

When you lift the bonnet you will see the old red on the bulkhead behind the engine but how often will your wife look in there?

For the cappings, you can buy new from UK. Or if your cappings are not too bad you can blast, galvanise and paint. All my steel cappings were galvanised, painted and riveted back on. My bulkhead was removed and galvanised but there was no time to paint before re-assembly so just the outer visible sections were painted to finish.

Your doors look good, mine were bubbling so I got hold of some Puma doors which are all steel and do not suffer from this reaction. That's an option, but if they are good just strip them, clear out the rust , paint and fill the tube sections with rust prevention wax of choice.



Motor: 200tdi is the go - but if hard to source or not ideal position for the autobox you will need to weld new mounts to your chassis for the 300tdi. The 200tdi drops straight in and sits further back over the axle which is a bonus, but the cylinder heads cannot be replaced with a new one if you overheat and warp/crack one.

Looking forward to see how you get on.

Here's mine on Morton island last week - just clocked 30,000 tough Australian kilometres . Well worth the effort

Awesome. Have someone offering me a done up 200tdi and just found 300tdi with auto currently in an rrc. The 200tdi tho has been rebuilt with new turbo in the last 20000km
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Edit: my doors seem ok but seem to not sit flush. Any adjustments I can check? Or do I just need new rubbers? They seem to be bent lol I know there's a bit of a dint on the rhr quarter. It's dented outwards tho