hello everybody, bit of advice for newbie?

Hi everyone, glad to find this forum, great site by the way. Just wondered if anyone could help me with a bit of a dilemna? I want to buy a defender, preferably a TD. I am living in the shetlands where rot is a SERIOUS enemy!, anyway to cut a long story short i have found three that i could afford, all of which have at least rotten chassis and bulkhead. Now i had an old series 1 a while back which had stood in a farmyard in shropshire for about 20 years and it was in better nick than any of these three (a 1991 90" TD 3seater, a 1986 90" n/a diesel ex mod rag back, a 1986 90" pick up with an alloy pig-lid on the back) So does anyone think it is worth buying one of the three and trying to restore it? (bearing in mind shipping a new chassis up here would be VERY expensive and I dont know how to weld ) or should I just get the foolish idea out of my head? Bearing in mind I do want something to restore rather than buying one on the mainland that is all working and i couldn't afford anyway. Pretty badly written I am afraid but hopefully someone will have some idea what I am on about and offer some advice. I can handle any mechanical problems and don't care too much about the looks. (2 of the three apparently run but i haven't wanted to hear yet after putting my thumb through the chassis) If you want any further info before you can help please ask and i will try and supply it. Cheers everybody. Mellers

if you're game for a bulkhead transplant, then it shouldn't be a problem. However, if you only have rust in the footwells and kick panels then it would be an easy task to fix. Assuming you're not into 'authentic' restoration. A job of cut out rusting parts and weilding in a new sheet of metal before painting. Won't be as good as the original, but sure beats having the floor boards dropping thru when you stomp on them.

Chassis, are all the out riggers there? The out riggers can be fabricated as they are quite simple in structure. How bad is the rot in the cross members? especially the rear one. How are the intersection between the frame and the cross members? In this case, it's impossible to escape from weilding the rot. However, do a warned that this might not be a long term solution as the already rusted interior of the cross members still can continue to rust.

How much time are you willing to put in to restoring? if you are willing to strip the entire vehicle then you'd be able to solve almost every cornner of the rust problems.

Electrics can be sorted out over time, with patience, or a 1 day job to rewire the entire car.

hi achuakh, thanks for the reply!, I am not an "authentic" kind of guy, as long as it works and doesn't look daft it will do me and repair wise I'm game for anything (except i cant weld) the one landy of the three I have found that seems to have the best chassis has the worst rear crossmember, and the ones with decent rear cross members are a bag of poo from it to the rear axle, I think all of them have rotten out riggers and the one which has the rotten rear crossmember is the only one with floorpans left in it (Just about). I really need to do a more comprehensive investigation of their condition but i got scared and ran away last time i tried!. I would be quite prepared to strip the whole vehicle but unfortunately unable to weld anything up. But if anyone here is a demon welder who wants free accomodation in the shetlands for a holiday let me know hehehe. (Maybe i will try an write a breakdown of exactly what is knackered on each one and have a kind of poll on which one, if any, i should try and do-up?) thanks again achuakh i will return shortly

ok assuming the one with the rotten rear cross member is fine, you can consider that. the rear cross member, can actually be replaced. That is the entire piece can be bought and fitted hence saving you all the headache of trying to wield the rots.

most of them come with some rust in the out riggers but make sure they are all there.

Tdi engines? check when the last time the timing belt was changed. if unknown, get it changed. snapping one of those will mean that you also snap your wallet.

How old are the cars? did you drive them? gearbox? ok? any jumping out of gear? check in gear 2 down hill, back of the gas and let it roll. sometimes things might be fine in high range, but not in low. so test it.

check for leaks, although the statements says all landies leak, but i make sure mine does not leak oil, only water in from the cowl vents.

hi again,
cheers for the excellent advice, however after givng them a serious looking at over the weekend the chassis' are just all too knackered to even consider so that plan is out the window for now. Maybe i will pick up a cheap landy on the mainland and bring it up here instead. Watch this space!
Thanks again
Mellers

Are you sure you can't weld! 250 or so quid buys a mig capable of welding Landy chassis steel and Mig is not too difficult to learn. sci.engr.joining.welding is a great helpful group for newbie welders.

hi fourbychris, yeah i am absolutely certain certain i cant weld these, don't think anyone could being as you need some good metal to weld to. Tahnks for teh reply tho will have to look at that group cheers