Hi I'm looking at an XS 2004 to buy as a regular driver. It's low mileage (70Ks) and looks never to have been painted or welded. Other than a perished screen surround it seems OK and the usual places (bulkheads crossmember etc) look good. I've seen online though that the body cappings can need attention - is this really a prob at this age? They look fine, but things often do! The only other LR I've had was a 200Tdi and that didn't seem to suffer at all re body mappings (although practically everything else about it fell off at one point or another!). Are these cappings an issue in 2004? If so what should I look for to check?
Thanks
John

Body cappings have been pretty rubbish since JLR stopped galvanising them in the 80's . It may be just surface corrosion and could be treated and painted. YRM metal solutions do replacement.

The build quality on Land Rovers went down-hill from the end of Series 1 production onwards, for example Series 1 door frames were galvanised, all others just rot. The newer that Land Rovers are, the more cost savings appear to have been made.
Land Rover stopped galvanising body cappings around 1989-ish, so most older Defenders will give you an idea how they last. I think that the cappings were fitted before paint, so they probably don't have much corrosion resistance where they touch the alloy body.
Cost wise they should not cost a huge amount to replace with galvanised replacements other than the cost of your time or someone's labour, to remove the roof sides to access them.
It is a shame that accountants rather than engineers appear to have had the final say in build quality, they could have been so much better.

Rougharse Racing said:

It is a shame that accountants rather than engineers appear to have had the final say in build quality, they could have been so much better.

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That is very much so.
It was with the introduction of the turbo diesel [ 86 ? ] the cappings lost their galv. About the time of the TD5 some form of corrosion resistance was once again applied [ not as good as galv ] when dealers complained that rotten capping's were leading to lost used vehicle sales.
Pre production series one's even had galvanised chassis.

lf the body cappings look alright, they probably are alright.
lf the rest of it is clean and free from corrosion/oxidisation then there's no real reason to worry about the body cappings as it's obvious that it's been looked after.

tottot said:

That is very much so.
It was with the introduction of the turbo diesel [ 86 ? ] the cappings lost their galv. About the time of the TD5 some form of corrosion resistance was once again applied [ not as good as galv ] when dealers complained that rotten capping's were leading to lost used vehicle sales.
Pre production series one's even had galvanised chassis.

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Could have been when Ford re-designed the back door etc.