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JoDefenderGirl

New Member

• Wednesday at 17:25

• #1

Does anyone know of a Land Rover mechanic course in Cheshire?
I’m looking to retire soon and my dream for retirement is to buy an old defender and do it up myself.

 

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Hicap phill

Well-Known Member

• Wednesday at 17:32

• #2

You don’t need to do a course.
As long as you have a methodical way of taking things apart & can weld you will be good.
Have a look through of the threads where people have rebuilt these & you will see what’s involved.

Good luck & enjoy.

 

saxavordian

Well-Known Member

• Wednesday at 19:02

• #3

Workshop manuals and parts manual are valuable sources of the breakdown of most land rovers series to early-ish 2000 range rover. Unfortunately when the push button is pressed into modern, the costs for parts become beyond the reaches of the average plodding fixer. As for Evoques a full petrol can an lit match normally sorts the problem
As mentioned earlier you can learn by fettle read replace parts for old models. While if not confident with engine brakes gearbox a good garage mechanic with a brain cells will help.

 

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J

JoDefenderGirl

New Member

• Wednesday at 21:13

• #4

saxavordian said:

Workshop manuals and parts manual are valuable sources of the breakdown of most land rovers series to early-ish 2000 range rover. Unfortunately when the push button is pressed into modern, the costs for parts become beyond the reaches of the average plodding fixer. As for Evoques a full petrol can an lit match normally sorts the problem
As mentioned earlier you can learn by fettle read replace parts for old models. While if not confident with engine brakes gearbox a good garage mechanic with a brain cells will help.

Click to expand...

Amazing, thank you

 

S

scott3933

Member

• Thursday at 11:31

• #5

Youtube is a very good resource to help tackle a lot of DIY jobs etc these days. Ultimately as a lot of people say Land Rovers are just giant meccano sets, everything is just fixed together in one way or another and can be unbolted etc.

I've never had any training, I currently work in IT but I've been around Land Rovers from an early age so its no big deal. For me limits of how far I can go are definitely my working environment, I just work outside on my drive so that's the limiting factor. No fancy workshop with a lift or pit.

 

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Wildefalcon

Well-Known Member

• Thursday at 22:28

• #6

I can recommend the Haynes manuals as a start point if you prefer to read. The actual factory manuals can also be found in line and from booksellers. Britannia restorations, Mike, from Canada, on YouTube, is excellent.

 

Knappster

Well-Known Member

Full Member

• Yesterday at 23:33

• #7

Nothing like learning on the job, so to speak. A decent selection of tools, some workshop manuals and you tube are very useful.lots of good help and advice on here too.

 

ER1C

Well-Known Member

• Today at 05:06

• #8

Engineering | Reaseheath College Online Store

store.reaseheath.ac.uk

Reaseheath occasionally do short courses on vehicle maintenance, but skimming they dont have any at the moment. I did their welding course last year which was ok.. but missed a lot of basics tbh, keeping in mind the trainee student who cut off his fingers with a power saw recently may not be the best choice. https://thenantwichnews.co.uk/2025/...ter-students-fingers-severed-in-saw-incident/

As others have said you will get more variation/opinion and better pics with what's available on YouTube and posted around here.

 

J

JoDefenderGirl

New Member

• Today at 09:04

• #9

ER1C said:

Engineering | Reaseheath College Online Store

store.reaseheath.ac.uk

Reaseheath occasionally do short courses on vehicle maintenance, but skimming they dont have any at the moment. I did their welding course last year which was ok.. but missed a lot of basics tbh, keeping in mind the trainee student who cut off his fingers with a power saw recently may not be the best choice. https://thenantwichnews.co.uk/2025/...ter-students-fingers-severed-in-saw-incident/

As others have said you will get more variation/opinion and better pics with what's available on YouTube and posted around here.

Click to expand...

Thank you, it’s not far for me, so I’ll keep my eye on their courses.
I saw that report on fb this morning poor lad. Hopefully it was just a freak accident, I’m more worried that the resulting health and safety review will lead to less activities being allowed in the college

 

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Anaconda

Well-Known Member

• Today at 09:10

• #10

Welcome and good luck with your dream.
Out of interest what do you class as an old Defender?

 

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JoDefenderGirl

New Member

• Today at 10:02

• #11

90/110 anything with old style body and before they introduced all the digital gadgets.
My belief is that these have much more straightforward, logical engines and gearbox and bodywork , great place to start with my mechanical tinkering.
Any suggestions very welcome?

 

kermit_rr

Very

Full Member

• Today at 10:24

• #12

Do you want petrol or diesel? Most defenders are diesel. If you want petrol then better off looking for a series, which are even simpler, though you do need to find a decent example that's not rotted out or modded by numpty with no clue. Or both.
It depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.. I'd find something that's running with mot/roadworthy and start with the basics, then you're not jumping in at the deep end trying to replace a clutch or strip a gearbox etc on your first day