What to do?

Currently have a 300 tdi L plate 90 that was given to me by my father 8 years ago after it got too long in the tooth for the farm. Previous to that it was owned by a quarrying company for 4 years and neither my dad or the quarry firm looked after it. Hense Im now balls deep in even MORE chassis welding. Its starting to get to the point now where theres more welded plates than rear end. The fronts ends fine and so's the engine, body work is mega tatty, doors are fooked, bulkhead isnt ideal and the tubs pretty holey.

So do I

a) Buy a late model 300tdi and swap all the aftermarket goodies onto it then scrap / flog whats left.

b) Buy a TD5 (do the radius arms tank guard dampers etc swap from 300tdi to TD5?) and scrap / sell whats left.

or

c) Spend sh*t loads of time, money and effort buying a galv chassis and rebuild my current 90 with a load of new parts.

Any input is greatly appreciated, currently I'm favouring either of the first two options.

Regards

Tom

p.s a budget of no more than £4k is available.

It depends on how much work you can do yourself, the equipment/facilities you have available and how many parts you can make/get cheaply. It will take a lot of time to rebuild and will inevitably cost more than you anticipated. It also depends whether this is your work vehicle or a hobby as to whether its worthwhile. at the end of the day a rebuild isn't cheap but you will know exactly what state the vehicle is in when your done.
:nopics:

harry

If running gear is good

Id certainly look at a chassis and bulkhead swap - do the body at a later date

Although on a 4k budget id think you might struggle

Its tiggers broom - 7 new shafts , 4 heads but its still yours and you know it ! - for 4k you could just be buying someone elses welding nightmare !

Feel free to ignore me ive just talked my self the same way

look at it another way if you spend x amount plating/welding refurbing etc etc

then you come to sell it at a later day if you looked at it from a potential buyers pov would you buy a fender with all that plating/welding on it?

It depends how good you are with a welder, the plates that have been previously patched can be cut out along with the rot and new pieces made from one piece of steel and weld it with a but joint and not slapped on top then the repair will be almost invisible in fact if you get enough penetration on the weld you can smooth the weld down so that it can bee seen. It is a lot of cutting but is easily done and the results are great. That is how people restore series one chassis.

The bulkhead is an easy enough swap get one complete from the scrappies saves a lot of time when swapping over.

Some companies will supply and fit a galvy chassis for around 2 1/2 - 3 K.

Personally i would cut the rot and patches out and weld it up. just as good and the chassis was originally made with 4 lengths of plate

I would pay a valet company £100 sell what you have as it stands and put the money into a reasonable 300tdi that has a solid chassis and a decent engine.
You will spend 100s of hours swappin bits and you will not make a penny for all the time you spend.
Cut your losses, have a great summer rather than working your nuts off... unless its a hobby?

There are some really good points that you should consider above. It all depends on:

Your budget
Tools
Time
How much you like fettling
Your ability to spot bits on fleabay

My budget was £4k and I stayed on it however the chassis has plates on - I'll buy a galv one in a couple of years but it'll do for now.

tjwaines said:

Currently have a 300 tdi L plate 90 that was given to me by my father 8 years ago after it got too long in the tooth for the farm. Previous to that it was owned by a quarrying company for 4 years and neither my dad or the quarry firm looked after it. Hense Im now balls deep in even MORE chassis welding. Its starting to get to the point now where theres more welded plates than rear end. The fronts ends fine and so's the engine, body work is mega tatty, doors are fooked, bulkhead isnt ideal and the tubs pretty holey.

Click to expand...

What a coincidence, I’m just writing a wanted add for a mid nineties 300tdi 90 with a clapped out chassis/bulkhead but good engine and running gear.

I have already got the chassis and bulkhead to rebuild a defender but the vehicle I was going to rebuild is no longer with us thanks to another car, young driver and an insurance company.


Maybe we could do business if you chose option a or b and if you are realitive near me.

Think I'm gonna make do and mend for the time being, maybe keep it another year or since it'll still get through another MOT. Then next year look at getting a later 300tdi and swap the goodies over. I'd dearly love to do the chassis swap and spruce the whole thing up but I know in reality that there will be so much stuff that needs replacing along the way, that it just won't be worth it.

I'm pretty handy with the tools and quite a decent welder, but I think I'd rather spend the 100's of hours shooting or working to pay for a landy that doesn't need the work doing in the first place. Its primary use is transport for my shooting / stalking etc so seems daft to spend more time fixing it than actually doing the sport.

Thanks for the input guys, you've made the decision easier!

Garunteed I'll still be working on it this time next year saying - just one more year out of it.

Regards

Tom