REBUILD & REFRESH
Project Beach Wagon: Custom Build & Full Restoration
Land Rover Defender 90
On this occasion a long term customer of ours came to us with his 300TDi Defender hard top, he wanted to transform this into a V8 powered soft top Defender to take out to Spain to his house there. He wanted a full repaint in a different colour, brand new interior all in custom colours, and a full nut & bolt rebuild leaving no corroded parts on the vehicle.
Our custom rebuild then commenced, with a complete restoration and enhance of everything. A full custom respray inside & out in Heritage Land Rover colours, a full custom colour leather interior retrim and exterior upgrades.
The 300TDi engine, hard top roof and old interior were all removed. The vehicle was fully stripped down & rebuilt from the ground up. A 4.6L V8 from an old P38 Range Rover was sourced with an automatic gearbox, we then rebuilt the engine and fitted both the engine & gearbox to the chassis, fabricating the necessary engine & gearbox mounts and wiring loom where required.
A fold down windscreen, half tailgate, roll cage for protection and Land Rover Series doors were added. The Land Rover Series doors have removeable top half’s, perfect for a proper soft top Defender! An Ex-Moor Trim canvas roof was also supplied though just in case the need for wet weather use arises.
This custom build was completed by our Specialist Technician Pete with 37 years of experience, who spent 575 hours start to finish in order to produce this exemplary vehicle.
The finished vehicle is on its way to Spain for a fun run-around vehicle for the family to use in the sun.
Work completed June 2023
At the Land Rover Experience weekend in Dunkeld.
Stripped down to just chassis & axles.
A new rear crossmember being fitted to move the fuel tank to the rear of the vehicle. This frees up the old location for the new engine ECU.
New galvanised rear crossmember fitted.
Corrosion on the original rear tub passenger side.
Corrosion on the original rear tub driver's side.
Floor removed, new panel fitted.
More tub repairs.
Seat boxes replaced with all new panels.
Rear tub fully stripped down, the panel on the right is the only part of the original tub that remains! All other panels replaced.
New threshold panel fitted, this attaches the chassis & body together as well as new floor cross bearers.
Rear tail panel & new bench fitted on passenger side.
Passenger quarter & tail panels fitted & bonded together.
Passenger side quarter panel fitted.
Drivers side quarter & tail panel fitted & bonded together.
Rear tub coming along, seat box fitted to make sure it is all aligned properly.
Bulkhead removal bar fitted.
Capping's fitted.
Tail gate test fitted to make sure panels are all correctly aligned.
Safety Devices roll hoop fitted.
Tailgate built up.
Swing away spare wheel carrier test fitted.
Driver side footwell replaced.
Drivers footwell welded into place.
Axles refurbished & Raptor coated black.
All brake components replaced- Discs, pads, callipers.
Chassis refurbished & painted black.
New shock absorbers & coil springs going on from a Performance Handling Pack.
4.6L V8 engine refurbed & ready to go in.
Drive train installed.
Suspension handling kit anti-roll bars fitted.
Galvanised rear tailgate, gas strut fitted.