Many thanks for all your kind words and support.
In the ideal world where money, time and space was not an issue I would indeed switch out to a galv chassis as the running gear, engine, gearbox and transfer box are sound as a pound. The 300Tdi fitted really does pull strongly, it is smooth and surprisingly quiet. The gearbox is silky smooth on gear changes and the Transfer Box has no backlash, no groans and aside from after going from low back to high and after a few hundred yards it pops out into to neutral again, then you put it back and it stays there from then on...it is faultless.
But I/we don't live in an ideal world.
Money - The girlfriend and I are currently going through debt management with Step Change as over the last few years she has been made redundant a few times and had a long wait before finding a new job, so bills, food and baby expenses all went on credit cards, which we are now up to our eyes in. We are also planning to get married next year and are doing our best to save for the very modest wedding we have planned.
Space - It is all permit parking at our place, and we only get one permit....so the other Land Rover the girlfriend will now drive will park outside the house, my cheap replacement car will park a few hundred yards up the road (just like were my Landy used to park) which means there is no space for a rusting hulk. Dads drive way is only big enough for one car, and while he doesn't mind the Defender being there in the short term, it is not a long term solution.
Time - I work full time as many of us do, but my hours are odd, the only time I would get is a few hours on a Saturday and that would pretty much be it. I would imagine that even if we had the money and space it would still take me a couple of years to do the job justice.
The current plan is thus:
Remove from Rusty the power steering box and pump and fit to the other 110 as the one on that is juddery and power assistance is non-existent currently. Remove the genuine Boost Alloys and fit in replacement of the steel rims on the 110 for two reasons, the boosts look good and also the tyres on them are only a couple of months old!
Take the radio out of Rusty and fit in the 110 as there isn't one currently fitted, didn't bother me as I'd use an mp3 player and a bluetooth speaker for music while I was driving it.
Might look at removing the speedo drive cable and fitting to the 110 as the speedo is jumping about in the 110 and by the feel of it the coiled cable is stretched and skipping about.
Then I think it will be a case of photos and bung it on the bay for 10 days and see what she goes for.....shame, massive shame, but I can't do anything for her for at least a couple of years until after the wedding is paid for, our financial situation brightens or I win the lottery.
Thems the breaks we get in life, we have to roll with the punches and take these things on the chin. I am not a Green Oval newbie, having owned a few (mainly Range Rovers) and am fully aware of the 'check the chassis' rules, which I did but it all looked OK, usual flaky patches but nothing out of the ordinary.
It wasn't until we had been off road a few times, washed down the chassis afterwards etc, that the paint started peeling off and exposing the odd patch of filler or rusted hulk underneath.
So, with the MOT coming up in a couple of weeks I decided to make a start in prepping and welding in patches to the areas I knew about and the one I had created by ripping he tow ball brace through the chassis trying to pull a small tree out from the middle of the road. Only to find as I was sanding back the paintwork to find all the filler, and the 'lack' of metal left on the rear end. I then began to look at the area around the trailing arm bracket as I knew there were a couple of small holes there too, as I was poking about with the screwdriver to see how much I would have to cut out to get back to solid metal again, I had pretty much poked my way through the whole width of the chassis as can be seen in the photo.....the crack wasn't obvious, until I had been poking about and found the whole area was just thin rusted metal that just flaked away!
Again, many thanks to you all - anyone want 1900kg of rust?