Thread: Updating the County

if your going to swap the lot, why buy a new body?? thats all your doing...

also insurance will be a beast and you will need an engineers to put a V8 in a Defender.....

Steve

Under the drivers seat in a Td5 Defender there is the Engine ECU, ABS ECU(if fitted), fuse box & relays.

Also I read somewhere that TD5 front seats were moved slightly inwards to give more elbow room (its still more comfortable to drive with the window open though).

IMHO..

strip and rebuild the county... you can cut and install the firewall to take the flaps..

to redo the electrics ISNT that hard but getting to some of it can make it a pita. Judicious use of pull throughs and back feeding will make that less painfull...

if your strip the major body parts down or jack them clear while your at it you can do you chassis repairs... while your at it...

Im going to tip that either the series III or defender firewall will fit in place of the counties one but Im not 100% which of those 2 it is... If you really want the proper flaps why not just replace the firewall?

Blknight,
I was thinking that there would be a lot less work in going the later model way.
There is not much wrong with the County body & the chassis is fine.
I dunno, maybe I just need to take a few deep breaths and give this more thought.

I've thought about this a few times - but the way I see it is that I could do an awful lot on the County with the money that would be needed to get a Defender that was any better - and if I was getting one that needed a lot of money spent on it, I might as well spend it on the County. (at least I know what needs doing on it!)

John

Even for the price of a really good secondhander, you could do heaps to the County......rewire in a logical manner, with top quality gear......while you're there, pull the chassis and firewall, replace, patch and strengthen, then galvanise...so many options....if the doors are showing wear/etc, they can be replaced...it'll still be a lot cheaper than buying a TD5...and still have a great vehicle.....

The vent conversion isnt that hard, just a bit time consuming. AND, you get to remove about a third of the wiring loom which is associated with the now redundant airconditioning - its amazing how much tidier the wiring gets. While the dash is apart is an ideal time to tidy up the rest of the loom.

I really cant see how a TD5 Defender is much of an upgrade at all, although I dont have a high opinion of the TD5 as an engine............

I wouln't worry about vents just another place that lets in water! the other owner ( my better half) opened the vents once on our Defender I asked if she wanted to let more water in than the standard leaks, never been opened again in the last 8 years

Mined you we do have air con if it gets really hot!