Defender rust....how scared should I be?

[Carnut1100]

Well in my continuing search for a Landie to suit me I have come across a TDi300 Deefer 110 VERY cheap.
Mechanically looked after by a 4x4 specialist an a diesel tech and it's one owner from new.
New clutch, timing belt and head gasket we're done 60k ago as a precaution, it never blew.
New rad, good tyres etc.
Seems mechanically sweet.

The fly in the ointment is that the original owner is a fisherman....
He said there is rust in the floors, sills, rear windows, and the rear chassis near the bumper.

Is there going to be more hidden away that's gonna be a bitch to fix, and are those areas particularly tricky to repair?
The price is great and I know it will be some work, but I don't want something that will need months of weekends or triple in price before it passes rego...

[debruiser]

THe floors, and sills should be just bolt on replacement. not sure about the rear windows.... I've never done a rear chassis, but there are plenty of threads on here about people fixing theirs.

The only other place I could think of would be the fire wall....

[AndrewGJones]

doors would be shot too.

Mine was from england and had rust in it from the salted roads, not too bad, a bit of Ranex to keep it at bay has done wonders. Someone had done some welding repairs to the rear when a towbar was added. but overall mostly surface rust.

chassis on your potential buy would be the main one to look at, could be a deal breaker if it has enough rust in it If I was looking at.

depends on how cheap is cheap and how handy with a welder you are. I'm just good enough to blow holes in the steel and weld the stick to the work, so personally I wouldn't buy something with alot of advanced chassis rust.

and 60K means that the timing belt is about due to be changed if you are the careful type. (60K is about the recommended 'adverse conditions' distance to change it)

[Chucaro]

My suggestion is to take it to Justin and ask him for his opinion ;)

[Carnut1100]

I would indeed take it to Justin....but it's the wrong side of Bass Strait!

Mechanically good Deefer for $3k though I'm happy to do a mainland run and put a fair bit of work in it, but I don't want a really nasty surprise!
Welding I'm pretty handy at...but I'm not keen on pulling the body off or anything like that if I can help it!!

[Sitec]

The other way of looking at it is... There's $2000 worth of engine, and $1000 worth of gearbox... Maybe spend an hour with the camera and stick some pics of the rust up on here.. Another 3k would go a long way to rid it of rust and you would still have a cheap Defer at 6k.....

[AndrewGJones]

3K!

Wow.



If your handy enough to do a bit of cut and paste, how could you go wrong?

Over here they go for 9500 in that sort of condition. Looked at one that was full of rust , said no, it was sold for that price next day.

[Carnut1100]

Hmmmmm.....I've got an uncle and cousin a few kms from where it is....I better start tryin to rustle some cash before it goes....

[Didge]

Give you an idea. In Sydney I searched and searched for at least 6 months. Finally saw one for $13K and it had 202,000km on the clock. I went up to look at it the same day and by the time I did the 1 1/2 hour drive the seller had a page full of mobile numbers wanting it. I did the usual test drive, didn't look too hard for rust but then had to spend
around $1000 fixing timing belt kit, new rear axles and flanges, ball joint to the rear diff, new brake pump ( one that goes in the side of the block), new brake vacuum servo, new front brake disk and pads all round, some front ball joints, water reservoir tank, etc. I then found rust in the front passenger footwell and bottom of doors and also in some other strange places on the doors. Doors and floor easily fixed if you're handy with a mig welder. I reckon I could still get my money back so if you get it for $3K, it sounds like a steal but I believe the rear cross member could be a bugger to replace so even if you had to spend $6K on it, you'd probably still be getting a deal. :)

[Carnut1100]

Is it a body of job to fix the rear chassis?
Can the new sections be found easily or is it a full fab job?

I'm not too bad with a welder, regularly welded 1.6 steel with an arc welder for a while...and I've repaired exhausts with an arc but it wasn't pretty...
MIG is easy and I do have one.

I'm convinced on this one, if I can scrounge the cash before he sells it I'm coming up to visit the rellies and drive a Deefer home...

[Sitec]

Buy it man!! :). You can change a rear quarter chassis without removing the body. With a truck like that you'll know it inside out when done!! I've been looking for an excuse to visit Tazzie!! Put me and SWMBO up and we'll be down!!!

[Carnut1100]

I'm going to see the bank today....

[Carnut1100]

Was looking like I'd have the cash in a few days but someone else had it in their pocket....
Oh well...back to looking at Discos!