DarrenHS3
Active Member
i already posted in subforums so have done this the wrong way round, but hello! i'm a relatively new land rover owner as i got my first at the end of 2009. that vehicle was a very early 2.3 petrol ninety (as i found out later, the manufacture date was a month and a bit before the ninety was launched in 1984)
i spent 3 hard years restoring it myself, which went from "i want a defender" to "what the fck have i bought" in the space of 2 weeks. so i went through it doing rust repairs and functional repairs, i wanted to keep all the dents scrapes and patina as people forget these are commercial vehicles, plus i was trying to distance myself from the "S.U.V" end of defender owenship spectrum. i'm not into status vehicles and i think trying to make this look like a TD5 era defender would be a bit of an insult to this old girl. you can see straight away these early ones had quite allot of the series charm, same engines, same paint, same interior, galvanised details, recessed door handles.
in 2013 i had a massive brain fart and sold it, i rationalised it at the time on horrendous running costs (15-20mpg) and it was distracting me from my main love, doing track days in old vauxhalls. but lets be honest, we all regret selling project cars. in 2015 i had opportunity to buy a "proper" land rover, thats not meant as an insult but i mean a bona fide historic land rover vehicle. So yeah, i got a 1982 series3 2.3 petrol, only 3 years younger than the ninety, all the same downsides but even more uncomfortable to drive
Pretty much the same has happened as the ninety, just slowing going through the vehicle making repairs, although it doesnt look too sad in this 2015 picture there was a general level of neglect throughout the whole vehicle
i spent 3 hard years restoring it myself, which went from "i want a defender" to "what the fck have i bought" in the space of 2 weeks. so i went through it doing rust repairs and functional repairs, i wanted to keep all the dents scrapes and patina as people forget these are commercial vehicles, plus i was trying to distance myself from the "S.U.V" end of defender owenship spectrum. i'm not into status vehicles and i think trying to make this look like a TD5 era defender would be a bit of an insult to this old girl. you can see straight away these early ones had quite allot of the series charm, same engines, same paint, same interior, galvanised details, recessed door handles.
in 2013 i had a massive brain fart and sold it, i rationalised it at the time on horrendous running costs (15-20mpg) and it was distracting me from my main love, doing track days in old vauxhalls. but lets be honest, we all regret selling project cars. in 2015 i had opportunity to buy a "proper" land rover, thats not meant as an insult but i mean a bona fide historic land rover vehicle. So yeah, i got a 1982 series3 2.3 petrol, only 3 years younger than the ninety, all the same downsides but even more uncomfortable to drive
Pretty much the same has happened as the ninety, just slowing going through the vehicle making repairs, although it doesnt look too sad in this 2015 picture there was a general level of neglect throughout the whole vehicle
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