Well, I seemed to have "inherited" a 1985 3.5 V8 defender 90 from my stepfather, who currently works in the Emirates. The Mrs and I had been after a series 2 actually, and almost bought a friends, when said stepdad found out and told me he had the defender in storage in Kent with friends - we are in Hants. Not one to turn down a free motor of any sort let alone a Land Rover, I merrily agreed with the proviso that if it needed too much work then I wouldn't keep it. After much hassle and no end of let downs from an acquaintance who promised to go check it out to save me the trip, a few emails from the friends of my SD said that although it had been kept outside (for 8 years), it was in good nick and wouldn't need much work... I was thinking exactly what you are now :doh: - but arranged to have it picked up and it arrived today.

Jesus.

I spent all day like a kid the night before xmas, and couldnt wait to get home from work.

This is what I discovered - a BIG project if we decide to go ahead:


Completely covered in lichen and algae. The haulier said although the keepers had pulled it out of the corner of their yard, he still had to remove a significant amount of vegetation off the roof/wheels etc to get in and get it on the trailer.


Shedloads of rust: Now perhaps its down to iffy memory, but I dont remember it being as bad as this last time I saw it.











Radiator is fubared.



This can't be good:


And the V8 beasty looks like this:



So here I am, looks like I'll be after lots of advice!

Part of me thinks I should just forget it - there's lots of work here that i can't do myself - but the other part of me thinks I cant let her die.

First step I presume is to get the engine checked, and make sure she will run. If she does then I may be willing to restore her if the all knowing on here think its worth it.

She wont have to be pretty straight away, and so far she has only cost me the price of the haulier - £160, so if I can get her going and safe for under £2000 I'll have spent what we were going to spend on a series 2.

What think you guys?

After a good scrubdown we got her to this state:

Your best bet will be to make a list of what needs doing to her. Then price it up. Can you weld?

well it needs a new bulkhead, but the key point is what's the chassis like?

I would try to get the V8 going to see if it's worth keeping (no reason it shouldn't be) and also give the gearbox a quick test, so you know you won't be wasting any time/money on anything.

As has been said - it almost definitely needs a new bulkhead, which is a complete strip down on the front end. Have a look at the chassis, especially around the rear end - it will probably need a new rear crossmember, but if you're lucky then that's all it will need on the chassis. The floors will also probably need replacing.

OK. Got under her as well as I could and these are the upshot:













birds nest from rear springs



The rest are in the same folder on photobucket.

To my admittedly untrained eye - she doesn't look to bad underneath apart from the very ends of the chassis rails at the front and the rear cross member has a couple of week spots.

Gave it a damn good whacking all over with a hammer and she appears sound. I know she had new outriggers just before he left for the emirates.

Hacked away as much of the rust as I could from the bulkhead before it got dark. Doesn't seem to extend any further than this across or below the bonnet line - mainly where a really bad repair job has been done in the past; most of what I pulled out was filler. Don't suppose I can get away with using the repair sections rather than a whole BH ? Unlikely

id say that bulkhead is way beyond repair, especially with the state of the bulkhead floor panels, get a second hand 1 off ebay, loads to choose from. get a new rear x member with chassis extensions, new paint job and be good as new

Aye that is one of the worst bulkheads I've seen so far. Sometimes you can get away with fitting new corner pieces to the top of the bulkhead but in this instance it looks as though it will almost definitely be rotten below what you can see.

first id start the engine, but drain tank and use clean fuel! give it a jump and see what happens!

strip it down get that bulkhead off, get replacement, either galv it or paint the **** out of it, buy welder second hand for less than 100 blips and attach new spring mounts, keep an eye out for a rear cross member and outriggers and weld these on while the bodys off! its all nuts n bolts.. you wont regret it even if it costs you 2k in tools and parts at least you wil have a good one and not one that just looks good! and you will have the equip to maintain it for as long as you want it!

Worth going for the renovation then if the engine runs. Strangely the wife seems keen but this may be because she hates the Kit car and thinks I'm coming back in a body bag everytime I go out in it!

I feel a Landy stripping BBQ/party coming up...

Whereabouts in Hants are you located?

Emitime said:

Whereabouts in Hants are you located?

Click to expand...

Near petersfield..