another silly defender question

[djambalawa]

I see on various posts that you need to do look out for rust in various places when shopping for a used defender (as you do with any car). Just probably a silly question but you hear from a lot of people around who don't really know that defender panels are all aluminium but this is obviously not the case.

So what is aluminium and how does it vary between models going to back to say the tdi300?

[Psimpson7]

This is not necessarily 100% comprehensive, but using a 300tdi as a start point the basic panel changes roughly are:

2002 (td5 on) - Steel rear door

2005 (td5 on) - Steel front doors

2007 - (puma on) - Steel rear side doors on 110's
Steel bonnet

The steel doors are a lot better than the steel frame / alloy skin ones.

[newhue]

Tdi. all panels alloy except bonnet and firewall. Actually the bonnet could be alloy. The problem lay in a steel frame work that rusts under the alloy sheet. It reacts with the alloy sheeting and causes bubbling and decay of the alloy.
B pillars are steel.

TD5 about the same as Tdi I think.

Tdci doors are all steel pressed, as to the bonnet. Firewall, B pillars steel.

If you see bubbling on any door tops or bottoms of a Tdi or Td5 then the inside frame work is not going to be the best. They also rust around the windscreen hinge, bottom of A pillars, and footwells. Can get a bit in the bottom B pillar as well.
Tdci, to new to say, but can have a decent guess being steel. I have heard the doors are zinc coated, but cant verify.

[numpty]

This is not necessarily 100% comprehensive, but using a 300tdi as a start point the basic panel changes roughly are:

2002 (td5 on) - Steel rear door

2005 (td5 on) - Steel front doors

2007 - (puma on) - Steel rear side doors on 110's
Steel bonnet

The steel doors are a lot better than the steel frame / alloy skin ones.

I must have a strange one then :D My 2006 Td5 has all aluminium panels. I thought the steel doors came with the TDci from 2007

[Blknight.aus]

the end of run of the 2006's starts getting you steel skins.

the frame work hasnt changed but the sheeting has.

they are more or less interchangable so you might see steel skin fitouts on ealrier vehicles if they decided the frame work was U/S and required replacing rather than the effort of repairing.

all of the frame work and bracings are steel.

essentially look for evidence of rust anywhere there is a joint in the ally that isnt riveted (b pillars, radiator frames, firewall, the edges on the floors.

in some cases you might find that someone has replaced an ally floor panel with a steel sheet cut to shape, my advise it to walk away from these vehicles as mostly the firewall, door framings and tunnel will be on the way out as well

[Psimpson7]

I must have a strange one then :D My 2006 Td5 has all aluminium panels. I thought the steel doors came with the TDci from 2007

I have posted up on this before and have just been trying to find it. link here - the change over to the later doors on the front was prior to the puma. The better ones have round internal corners in the frame. some 05's may not have them but some do. I would expect all 2006 to have them. (frames, skins and internals are different)

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/technical-chatter/118176-defender-vs-110-front-doors.html#post1380792