Help buying a 110

Hey there!

I am a first time Defender buyer looking to cash in on the wealth of knowledge that is LandyZone! Highlights for me is I have been looking for a 110 for about 6 mos. My budget was £6,500 and I wanted minimal work required to make her running strong. I am in the UK now and will be moving back to the states around 2017 (1992 will be the 25yr mark). The biggest concern that I have is making sure I won't run into issues during the import process.

Here are the highlights/conversations from the owner of the defender that I have narrowed in on. Please give me your thoughts!! Let me know if you have any big concerns for importing, price, quality, you name it!

£7,500

For sale is my 1992 landrover defender 110, station wagon. I bought it back at the beginning of June to tour the alps for the summer and it did not disappoint. At only 112,000 miles this defender is a great example, the previous owner drove only 4000 miles in the 4 years that he owned it as he was an enthusiast who spend the majority of the years he owned it rebuilding it from the chassis up. For that reason it is one of the cleanest 200tdi defenders you will find for sale, the chassis is flawless, not a speck of rust. It is the original defender 200tdi rather than a botched discovery conversion, so everything is where it should be.

The extras and mods are as follows:

2" suspension lift
Return to centre steering damper
3" custom straight through twin side exit stainless exhaust (sounds great)
new 35" BFGoodrich KM2 tyres (spare never been fitted)
Uprated swing away spare wheel carrier
Winch bummper with 12000lb champion winch and LED light bar
Expedition Roof rack (tent and awning not included)
light bar with 4 HID spots
New UJs on the drive shafts
Air horn
Privacy glass
Newly carpeted interior (june 2015)
sports steering wheel
CB radio
Mp3/iPhone friendly stereo set in custom dash with spot lamp switches

I'm sure there are many things i have forgotten and i will add to the listing as i remember. The fuel and boost have been turned up slightly to counter the size of the tyres and the landy drives remarkably, i was expecting terrible economy when i first bought this but was very pleasantly surprised when it delivered better economy than our new 2.2tdci defender, giving 28-30 mpg. I would love to keep this truck it really is a rare example and did what i wanted it too wonderfully but now that I'm back in the uk and working in the city i just don't need something so big and it seems a shame for such a capable 4x4 to go to waste driving around on tarmac for the rest of its days. That said i know how rare it is to find one as clean as this and i searched high and low to find it so i wont be letting it go for nothing, i know what these are worth. The truck will come with 12 months MOT.

I can tell you that though I'm a welder, I despise welding on vehicles so do everything I can to avoid it, for that reason I made sure the defender was solid as a rock before I bought it, so haven't needed to do any welding on it at all.

The bulkhead is galvanised, but the chassis is not, however the chassis is very clean, and not just covered in waxoil to hide rust. Like I said, I am a welder by trade and I know what to look for rust wise. It has had the rear crossmember replaced with a heavy duty version but I'm unsure whether this was due to rust or merely preventative. The vehicle had a full rebuild by the previous owner as stated, he has full pics of the build which I will try to obtain from him. I must say I've never actually checked the numbers all match, I'll check tomorrow and take pics for you, I was told it is the original engine.

If that's the sort of thing that you're after then go take a good look at it, at the end of the day for that price assuming that it's in good condition you'd get your money back on it in two years time if you did have any importing issues. Personally I would get some chassis protection on it as soon as I'd bought it

I think you need to look into the importing issues from State Side. I have read a couple of threads somewhere claiming Defenders do not meet US pollution controls, especially older ones.

Personally, I think I would use an import service - e.g. http://www.arkonik.com/export. There are lots of pitfalls that make it difficult to import to the USA. As for the defender - looks great, and the current owner seems to have spent plenty on it.

So... I need some help, ASAP

I am looking at the Defender tomorrow and have traveled way too many miles, but I want to make sure this is going to be able to be imported (in a few years, of course)

He just sent me the photos from the rebuild, and my heart sank when I saw the chassis. It looks like it was sent away and either cleaned VERY well or, the worst, galvanized. Then, further on in the photos it looks as if it was painted.

Please confirm these both are not allowed in order to import it.

See the photos here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mrscstm1xfikyta/AABHZByqi1DTXRy8JR9I_bQaa?dl=0

I will say, looking at the photos now, it seems like some rust has returned, does that mean it wasn't galvanized? When I see the bulkhead, it is almost shining compared to the frame. If that is the case and it's not galvanized, is the painting OK? I guess this will all depend on if the original Vin is still present on the frame.

PLEASE HELP! I don't want to make an $11,000 mistake!

No idea if it means you can't export/import it, but the chassis looks to be painted rather than galv'd. Why wouldn't you be able to import a Landy with a painted chassis?

Looks like chassis has been shot blast and painted. But why it was painted in a rolling chassis state seems odd. Unless the photos are out of sync with some missing.
Can't see why that would be an issue to import to USA
It would be the original chassis with the VIN still stamped on it. The bulkhead doesn't have the VIN stamped on it. There is usually a plate riveted to it, visible at the bottom of the windscreen. That should have been taken off the old bulkhead and fixed to the new galv one.
The rebuild looks very good in the pictures to me. Looks like a good buy, but I know nothing about USA import laws!

Chassis isn't galvanised, looks to have been blasted and painted.
Bulkhead is definitely galv, and is also a late td5 bulkhead.