Thread: Defender warped rear door due to spare wheel are these pics typical?

"Never happened before" - haha ...

Even the more substantial older defender and county door mounts copped this too - and it is well known to be exacerbated by accidentally backing into another car, a tree or telegraph pole

While it is a handy place to put the spare - an unstrengthened Deefer rear door on its own is going to be marginal.

Disappointing on a new motor car I know

The only solution that I am aware of is one of the swing-away mounts of various descriptions which have have reinforced mountings onto the body and the better ones of these also reinforce where they are connected onto the rear door.

I have put an external layer of 3mm chequer plate over a substantial part of my rear door to address the problem but you wouldn't want to do that to yours I guess

Isn't the a land rover part number for the strengthening kit.....or were they aftermarket.

I would reckon Land Rover would have seen this plenty of times

It looks like the spare wheel carrier is just tek screwed there haha.

Any chance of popping the door trim off and taking a photo of the inside of the door?

It's not tec screws. They are bolts taht go through into the structure of the door. Thing is the structure of the door isn't very heavy.

Solution:

That is not normal The earlier doors would crack most of the internal frame of the door and sometimes split the outer panel .
Id say either some one backed into something and aint saying anything or some low life hit the back of your car and shot thru

Originally Posted by rangieman

That is not normal The earlier doors would crack most of the internal frame of the door and sometimes split the outer panel .
Id say either some one backed into something and aint saying anything or some low life hit the back of your car and shot thru

Actually that sounds pretty plausible.

I didn't change to the swing away because the door was broken. I changed for the jerry carrier and to preempt the damage. I have to say though that a rattle disappeared when I changed over.

Problems with dead flat surfaces:-

1. The skin provides little rigidity.

2. The slightest deviation from dead flat looks like a major distortion, especially if the surface is shiny.

Not a concern with a body designed as a workhorse, and part of the character. As long as the internal load bearing frame has not cracked (not uncommon), nothing to worry about.

John

Originally Posted by rangieman

That is not normal The earlier doors would crack most of the internal frame of the door and sometimes split the outer panel .
Id say either some one backed into something and aint saying anything or some low life hit the back of your car and shot thru

No nobody has bumped it, it is parked on the farm in my car port and only I drive it. No supermarket car parks as the missus does that in her car and the only other trips are to the fire station in town and two a couple of shoots and it was parked in front of my caravan.
The ripple is behind the tyre. When the door is shut the tyre wobbles the panel this is what I think caused the crease at the top.
Chris