pre-purchase, advice wanted on cost of repairs

[ninchi]

hi folks, I inspected a mid-90s 110 300TDI today and was wondering about the cost of fixing a few things I noticed that would likely be outside my capacity/equipment to fix myself:



bullbar/recovery point mounts are very rusted and likely need to be cut out and rewelded (see pics)
ball joint chrome is flaked and likely needs replacing on both fronts
about 1/8 turn of backlash in the front propshaft, which didn't look like the uni joints, likely the diff
I couldn't turn the rear shaft (I've subsequently learned this is caused by the handbrake). Likely as worn as the front. that said, I didn't notice any particular clunking during the drive
had some front wheel grind on full lock (with 265/75 R16 AT tyres), I'm assuming the 265s need a more offset wheel than the standard LR alloys.


Any rough idea on on the cost of these fixes from a decent shop? What are the typical things that fail roadworthy on LRDs of that age? The frame is pretty good and the engine runs well so it feels like a decent project car. Thanks

190839190840

[POD]

That chassis rust looks extreme for an Australian car, if it had been launching boats in salt water I'd maybe expect that at the rear but how it got that way at the front is a worry. What does the rest of the chassis look like?
There's a whole industry replacing chassis on these vehicles in the UK due to salted roads, rare here and very expensive ($20k+).

[ninchi]

It's odd yeah, the rest of the frame looked solid to me, including the outriggers and all the usual places. There's quite a bit of rust in the door sills and the lower doors but it's otherwise pretty clean. Bulkhead and footwells were clean.

I put it down to a poor bullbar job, that's really the only major structural rust I can see. Guy said it's been garaged for the 10 years he's had it. But now I'm wondering...