Major modification to back door

[rijidij]

Well, I love my 110 County, and Defenders in general, BUT, there's always been one thing I don't like about them.................the small rear door.
For the last couple of years I've had this modification in the back of my mind, wondering if it could be done.
Around Christmas time, I removed my storage system, basically gutted the back of the car, with the plan to at least build a more efficient storage system.
This gave me an opportunity to have a good look at the structure of the rear body from the inside.
This is when I decided to go for it, so out came the measuring tape, then a lot of time on the computer, and eventually the angle grinder

Six months later, this is the result, and I'm pretty bloody happy with it.

I've spoken to an engineer about the mod (before I attacked the car with the angle grinder ) and I'm confident it will be ok, but he's yet to inspect the finished job.

Next............new storage system.

Cheers, Murray

[rijidij]

And this is the whole build compressed into 1 minute and 10 seconds.

[Larry]

Genius!!!!!

[DiscoMick]

That's very cool. Hopefully it will be rigid enough to satisfy the engineer.

[rijidij]

That's very cool. Hopefully it will be rigid enough to satisfy the engineer.

After I cut the body away, and before I fitted any of the new RHS structure, I was quite surprised just how rigid the rear opening was. I couldn’t move it at all.

[DieselDan]

Noiiiice!

[Plutei]

Fantastic mod! What were your reasons for going with a top hinged tailgate over side hinge?

[W&KO]

Awesome work as usual.

We have a Poptop and will be living out of it for 1-2years, rear doo seems adequate ATM.

[rijidij]

Fantastic mod! What were your reasons for going with a top hinged tailgate over side hinge?

There’s pros and cons for both.

My main reasons for top hinging were, instant cover if it’s raining (or sunny for that matter), and I wanted the maximum open space at the rear.

A side hinge would allow things to be fixed to the door, for example, a fold down table.

As usual, everyone will have different ideas and requirements, that’s the great thing about customising.

[pop058]

Awesome, when will it be available ??