The REAL cost of restoring a Series Land Rover

Your making nervous guys,,, I'm not sure I want to work that long to find the money needed by the sounds of it,,, but wait, ohh, I still need to find my baby yet [bighmmm]

Agree with all the comments but as others have said it is a journey
My S3 had a bad motor (it ran but had a bad bottom end knock). I had it overhauled and it cost under $5k but that was because I did some of the work myself.
Resto's take a lot of time (mine took 18 months) and if you budget properly the cost spread over that time although high in total is manageable as a monthly spend. The trick is to work out what you need and how much each item costs very early on and then apply them to you budget. Does it really matter if it takes another 6 months because of cash constraints? Probably not.

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Originally Posted by AJF

Guys - I am just getting into my restoration and am at the stage where I realise my budget is not enough but don't yet know where it will end up. I was hoping for something less than $20k.

One of my cost blow outs has been a realisation that if I am going to all this effort I should buy the best quality parts I can find. The gearbox was the start.

But as you say, it is the journey not the destination. I am enjoying the process, learning something new and researching the history of the vehicles. I even bought a copy of the Leyland Brothers DVD on their 1960's across Australia journey because they were driving Series 2s.

Cheers
Angus

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More good reading is Across the top and anything else by Malcolm Douglas and of course Len Beadell (whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Birdsville in 1985).

You're scaring me off, but I'm too busy now for a project anyway. Maybe when I retire.
Is this like the bloke who described yachting as 'Tearing up $100 bills and throwing them in the water'?

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Originally Posted by DiscoMick

You're scaring me off, but I'm too busy now for a project anyway. Maybe when I retire.
Is this like the bloke who described yachting as 'Tearing up $100 bills and throwing them in the water'?

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The actual quote is more "Yachting is tearing up $100 bills while standing under a cold shower - except that with yachting you are seasick as well!".

All kudos to you for your determination.....but I wish you would STOP calling it a truck.

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Originally Posted by whitehillbilly64

$10.000 Engine rebuild ????
Thank God for Forums and Local Knowledge.

whitehillbilly

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Not wrong! Mine will still cost about $5K and that's doing everything myself apart from the machining of the block - and I've managed to find all the parts much cheaper than what most are advertised for, so $10K would be on the money for a 2.6 if you were paying someone to do it for you.

Scary when you think about it.

Im not keeping track of costs on this build but I know I've spent nearly $10K already and by the time the engine is done and everything else, about $20K will be about right. Given that I'm never selling it, it doesn't really matter I don't think. As John pointed out, new cars take a far bigger hit - I lost about this much in 4 years of Range Rover ownership...

Ah the joy of blowing a budget.

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Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

All kudos to you for your determination.....but I wish you would STOP calling it a truck.

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Sorry if I offended you...
What would you like me to call it??

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Originally Posted by OneOff

Sorry if I offended you...
What would you like me to call it??

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an SUV🤣