There is nothing like driving your own Land Rover. But there is also nothing like fixing your own Land Rover. After purchasing a 25 year old Land Rover we get to work restoring our Defender 90 to live a new life. First we had to fix some major unexpected mechanical issues and then we rip the inside out, hose it down and start the makeover.
Major mechanical repairs
The high pitched whine coming from the Transfer box is not uncommon in Land Rovers. Some will say its normal but it is not, its just plan annoying. I was determined to get it fixed and I did. Thanks to the guys at The Gearbox company who know their stuff and rebuilt the transfer box. It cost a small fortune but its fixed now.
The next problem was a diesel leak in the engine bay and the prognosis was bad. The fuel pump was leaking. This was unfortunate because the receipts from the buyer showed that this pump had been recalibrated. Obviosly it was not done properly and so we had to re do it. I took it to Rays fuel injection and they did a brilliant job rebuilding it. It now works perfectly.
Once all the mechanical items were sorted out it was time to tackle the aesthetics to restore our Defender to former glory . First up was removing the all the dodgy checker plate on the sides. Then I started with the dash disassembly.
Disassembling and Cleaning
The rattling door window was sorted out by securing the window guides properly. The screws at the bottom fall out leaving the whole window to rattle when the door is closed.
I took the whole dash out to clean it all and made sure to video it to get all together again. It is also in preparation of fitting a new Madman engine monitoring system.
Then we started on the seats and the rest of the interior. It is surprising how easy it actually is to remove everything.
With a hollow shell we were ready to get the hose and hose it all down but not before we checked just how dirty this poor landy was.
I covered the electrical bits with plastic and then got stuck in with brushes soap and plenty of water.
The battery box was particularly bad and needed some special attention to scrape off old rust.
The end result was pleasing and strangely satisfying seeing everything clean.
All of the door cards, window surrounds and other dash bits were scrubbed properly the next day to get all the years of grime and dirt off. A lot can be said for the construction and materials used in these Defenders. This vehicle is over 25 years old and I was able to scrub everything clean.
New Parts and Repair Plan
It took a while for me to source all of the bits and pieces and parts needed to fix broken and missing parts. But I have now received all of them. In the meantime I had sent the roof lining off to be recovered and the cubby box and top of the dash. The end result was very pleasing and it is going to be exciting putting it all back together.
As usual the plan changes as we encounter some surprises and unexpected problems. But mostly we start to see some glimpses of how this Tdi 90 could look once we are finished. I made list of all the items that I needed to fix for restoring our Defender 90 and started to tick off most of the items.
Fixing up the Interior
The seats were tired and initially I was just going to replace the base foam and keep everything else. But in the end I got a full seat refurb kit. Then stripped them repainted the frames and replaced everything. Replacing the foam and recovering them was not too difficult using the Britpart seat refurb kit. It comes with everything you need except maybe for an extra pair of hands. I followed some of the Britpart videos on youtube to get some tips. So we ended up with brand new seats that we then refitted.
The wobbly indicator arm wasn’t just worn out, it was broken. The steering column clamp was broken so I had to replace the whole unit with new. Then I also fitted the new light switch and reused the original windscreen wiper switch.
The heater controls were just very dirty and had never been lubricated so they got stuck. Once I had cleaned and straightened them they were working fine again and I could refit them. After adjusting everything it all worked again.
The fog light switch was completely faded and the facia panel cracked so that was also replaced. All of these parts are readily available and not very expensive. Replacing this is easy and it makes such a difference to the appearance.
The door panels had some cracks in that I repaired with fibre glass. Some of the clip retainers had broken off so I used a little trick that my brother Brian worked out. These little white clip retainers become brittle and break and you can’t get them out to replace them. So instead you can just drill a little hole and fit a 3.5mm self tap screw. Then you can fit a new black clip to the head of the tap screw.
Another big thing was replacing the aircon unit because it was broken and cracked. Btian had a spare one that I was able to use. I had the gas removed before completely removing the unit. Or so I thought because I got a nasty surprise when I disconnected the aircon pipes. Obviously there was still some pressure in the system. I struggled a bit refitting this as the rivenut in the dashboard kept on stripping so I had to replace that a couple times.
Fixing the Window Rattle Repainting the Roof
I finally bit the bullet and tackled the biggest job of all restoring our Defender 90. Removing the roof to paint it white. I was dreading this because it is quite a big job. But in the end it all went well and I got it done over 2 weekends. Removing the roof is easy, just a few bolts all round.
Then the biggest job was preparing the roof and painting it. The original paint was in excellent condition and the only reason I was painting it was to change the colour scheme to match the white wolf rims that we planned to fit. My paint job was very average, but it will do and serve the purpose. Removing the roof also allowed me to refit new seals and tighten everything up properly.
The other big job was fixing the dreaded rear window rattle. I had bought some new rubber/felt window channel. I removed the windows from the vehicle, disassembled and cleaned everything then reassembled them. That too turned out quite well and no more rattles.
The old headlining was recovered but I couldn’t replace it until I had finished with painting the roof. It was quite rewarding to finally be able to fit the new headlining back in.
Tidying up the Exterior
The rear cross member had some peeling paint and surface rust so that was tidied up and repainted. The rear door latch had been butchered to retrofit central locking, I tried fixing it but some bits were missing so I had to buy a new one.
I had got some second had side steps off a TD5 that I had powder coated and cleaned up the tread plates to be fitted.
As part of restoring our Defender 90 I had all the suspension bushes replaced. But in the process discovered found some dodgy ball joints that needed fixing after too. So there is still a bit of work to be done to get this completely finished but after getting the new lights fitted and putting a new Defender badge and front grill on we were ready to get this Landy out for some 4×4 action
We painted the roof white because we wanted to change the original Alloy rims for white Wolf rims. But I had a bit of an issue getting these wolf rims fitted. Fitting the rims was the last thing to finish. I’d been waiting to do for ages get the tires and the rims on. Unfortunately the wolf rims I got were copies but it turned out to be the wrong thing and the wrong size. They didn’t fit properly the the holes were overal it was a it was a disaster and and a real disappointment. It took a while get the proper wolf rims and get them powder coated. I fitted new Khumo MT51 tires, they are inbetween a mud terrain and an all-terrain so something in the middle. they look really good too.
In the next article I detailed the cost of restoring our Defender 90 and talk about why old Defenders are so expensive now.
Check The Overland Legend on YouTube for the videos on restoring our Defender 90
