Factory installed bent chassis in post 99 defenders

[BilboBoggles]

Has anyone noticed that the rear cross member of post 99 defenders is bent like a banana from the factory. Most noticeable on the TD5's but even the new PUMA's are bent to a degree.

You can see the gap between the ends of the chassis cross member at the rear and the alloy body work. The Td5 has a gap of around 1-2", the PUMA seems to have around 1". The ends of the chassis cross member are bent forwards towards the driver seat.

Just run a straight edge along the rear cross member and it's very visible.
Apparently this happened once Land Rover swapped Chassis suppliers in about 1999, and was never corrected. Older Defenders/110's etc were nearly perfectly flat.

Just curious is yours bent too?

[TimNZ]

My 08 is bent inwards also.



Cheers,

[jimbo110]

Holy crap

[Sprint]

had a look at a 2004 deefer wagon a couple of weeks back, didnt notice the bend, but i did notice the pathetic quality of the paint on the rear crossmember, i mean, ffs, it looked like it had only ever been sprayed with a spraycan, and only then one coat!

[BilboBoggles]

Yes my TD5 the rear cross member paint faded and eventually wore off - so it rusted all over - I succesfully got Land rover to cover it under their rust warranty, when it was 5 years old!....

It's been painted properly now.

Sadly my 09 model PUMA has an equally bad paint job on the cross member.

[PAT303]

Plenty of tojo's around here with welds so back the paint is holding them together. Pat

[Lotz-A-Landies]

It's the Pommy paint, it just doesn't cope with the UV light in Australia. Has been a problem for years since Range Rover and subsequently County/Defender production moved back to Solihull in the 1980's.

[one_iota]

Thanks for pointing this out. Mine if thrown would probably return like a boomerang.

I think that I'll ask Land Rover to have the Defender charm removed and exchange it for a Freelander.

Cousin John and I tried to align the panels on his County after a body lift and ended up making a new cover for the rear cross member. The only problem was where is the datum for setting all this stuff out. The rear cross member was perfect but the rest of the vehicle was no longer aligned.


And it's fading!