Thread: My battered Defender: Update

Well, it was written off and the cheque is in the mail. Wreck was valued at $4500 so I bought it back. I have $9k to repair it before it starts coming out of my pocket. Which it will, I have to face it

Went to see the panel beater to discuss ways in which we can keep the costs down. The bonnet can be re-used and the roof can be left etc. He seemed to think it was possible that the firewall could be repaired but thought it unlikely and that is gonna be expensive to remove and replace.
He'll know more when he strips it back and can have a proper look

The real issue is chassis damage and he wants to measure it up. Before he gives me a serious report on the damage costs. I told him I drove it 100ks home and it was tracking very well went straight down the road (seriously I think it was better! 8O ). Alledgedly if the damage was bad it would have been all over the road. My own guess having driven it home was that there was "something" different and a slight sense of tightness and it steered fine but just felt different almost like the steering was firmer. I thinking it will need some minor work there (is there such thing as minor chassis work?)

Hi All

I am no expert either though sadly am on my way up a steep learning curve.

My feeling is the gouging that damaged the firewall while being expensive and tedious to replace and repair was not structurally significant. If there is any damage to the chassis it would have been caused by the initial impact on the upper tip of the bullbar. Dr Hamilton, world reknown physicist says remember the steel ARB bar is bolted right to to the chassis and because it was the first point of impact it was the hardest and hitting high as it did it gave a good amount of leverage to work on the chassis. The bull bar is bent about 30 degrees so even though it was slow it still had a loaded defender behind it in low range. I was so taken by surprise by the event I was not off the pedal so while it was slow there was some momentum and some torque. Hence the large amount of visible damage whish absolutely flabbergasted me when I got out of the car and saw it.

BEN: The wreck was valued by an auction house and yes my accessories (aux tank, reece tow bar, bull bar UHF everyting was declared on the policy) - the new bilsteins and the maxi drive rear axle was not declared. To be honest I don't think they paid much attention to all that though - I think they looked at all the panels and doors and bits and bobs and pulled a figure out their backside - did not even notice the $1000 fuel tank or the reece hitch. Having said that, I don't feel that the figure they gave was unreasonable.

Incidentally they valued the car undamaged at just $14000! 1996 Defender with logbooks, 150k on clock, covered in fruit. If you see one like mine for that price - buy it. Add a thou for your trouble and sell it to me please.