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Retroanaconda

Member Since: 04 Jan 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2646

My Humble Collection

So I've been reading your threads about you lot and your nice shiny Td5s and Tdcis. Being a poor lowly student I'm not able to afford such shiny ones but I thought I'd write a bit about my Land Rovers and the things I've done to them.

First up is my main daily driver, a 1992 Defender 90 which I've owned for four or so years. Equipped with the good old 200Tdi engine and nowadays in plain hardtop form, after stints as a truck cab and a hardtop with windows. I find the current setup works very well in using the car for work (I work on a local estate in the forestry dept.) and as a generally "useful" car. I do miss having the passenger carrying ability of a normal car, and the visibility is pretty shocking out the rear, but they're the only downsides really.

Here's how she looks (taken during a break from thinning a larch plantation at work):

Click image to enlarge

A bit rough around the edges, the bodywork is one of the things on the list for this year. Needs a re-spray as well as a good re-jig of the panels to improve the shut-lines of the doors. The damage on the front wing is from an off-roading day years ago where I put it on its roof (not fun...), haven't got around to repairing it yet!

Modifications from standard specification include:

A set of very worn BFG Trac Edge tyres on Discovery 1 steel wheels
Discovery 1 300Tdi rear axle
Cheapo winch in an ex-utility front bumper (get-me-out-of-trouble solution, has saved me a few times!)
A-bar with a couple of spots on
X-brake
Rear swing-away carrier (no idea what type - came free with another vehicle)
Pair of Gwyn Lewis props
A shed-load of soundproofing on the inside, plus I've trimmed out the rear panels with carpeting as well
Remote central locking
Td5 instrument binnacle and instruments
Twin-battery setup to run winch and other aux. circuits through a dedicated fusebox (ie. separate from vehicle looms)
Custom-made side window demister system running off standard heater fan
Range Rover classic handbrake lever instead of standard Defender leg-basher
Plus lots of other little things that aren't really worth listing

As above the main focus for this year is getting the bodywork sorted. I plan to strip it down to the tub at the rear end (roof and side panels to be sprayed separately) and then replace/fix various areas of damage before giving it a respray in the same colour (Pennine/Pembroke Grey). Should smarten it up a little bit as most of the paint is starting to show it's age after 20 years. Part of this will be giving the doors some attention. They both need rebuilding so will get new framework etc. and I'll put electric windows in them while I'm at it.

So that's the 90, next is my Series III. The story with this one starts with me driving home every evening and passing a sorry-looking 1972 88" on a driveway at the end of my road. It had sat there for at least 10 years and had some very flat tires, some very green bodywork and a very rusty chassis! Someone convinced me to ask about it and before I knew it I was handing over £50 and ended up with a Series III Land Rover on a trailer being dropped off outside my workshop!

I treated the thing to a new chassis and generally gave it a damn good cleanup and re-build. Cost me more than I would like to calculate, and is not worth anything like what I spent on it but I learnt a lot and I now have a car that I built with my own two hands, which is quite nice! These days it doesn't come out of its shelter much, but it gets used for local summertime greenlaning and as a runabout when I need to have the 90 off the road for a few days. Here she is at the London to Brighton last year (please forgive the watermark):

As part of the rebuild it got some upgrades including parabolics, the much better post-1980 braking system (twin-leading shoes and twin-circuit), Defender seats, door hinges and wingmirrors etc. and I converted it to a soft top because A: I already had a 90 hardtop and B: I like soft top Series Land Rovers!

It needs a bit more work, some better body alignment would be nice (I have a thing about this...) and it needs another service. But she runs well and is damn good fun to drive...plus it's tax exempt!

The last of my collection is a 1993 Defender 110 CSW. In my opinion the station wagon 110 is just about the most versatile vehicle you can get, and I've always wanted one. This one came up a couple of years ago for a cheap price and I bought it in a fit of enthusiasm. It wasn't the tidiest car in the world, but it worked (after I fixed a few things) and I got a summer's worth of motoring out of it before the MOT ran out and some poking round underneath revealed that it certainly wasn't going to get another one! So apart it came and it's now become rebuild project number 2 currently underway. At the moment it's in bits strewn about my workshop and storage areas, the project has come to a bit of a halt while I finish off my degree, but once I'm done with that and I actually have some disposable income again I'll be able to crack on.

Here's the car when I bought it (you can see what I mean by it being a bit untidy

Click image to enlarge

I really miss driving this one, the ride was much better than my 90 due to the SW suspension and the longer wheelbase, and being able to carry passengers AND stuff rather than passengers OR stuff was a revelation!

It won't be going back together in quite the same configuration as that in which it was built. To replace the 200Tdi (which was fine...just a bit underpowered for a heavy vehicle like this) I've sourced a Mazda 35SLTi engine (135bhp & 377Nm

) which should give me a bit more poke for towing and make for a more relaxed cruise on longer journeys. Other planned modifications include a more modern interior, late Td5 dash and Tdci middle-row seating for example, roof-mounted air conditioning, cruise control, all the mod cons etc. etc.

So that's me and my Land Rovers. I hope to be able to share some help with you guys in some way, though my vehicles are older and my experience lies with those of that era, these beasts haven't really changed much in their 60-odd years

28th Mar 2012 9:11pm

The Musketeer

Member Since: 07 Feb 2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 193

Re: My Humble Collection

What/where are you studying? I'm doing forestry management at the mo as well as working, going onto Rural Estate management, Bsc in September. Wooo for being poor!

Functional trucks, love that CSW!

atb

Sam Good things come to the wild and free

28th Mar 2012 9:18pm

bm52

Member Since: 04 Apr 2010
Location: Kent
Posts: 2189

2014 Defender 110 Puma 2.2 XS CSW Havana

SIII are the best looking in my humble opinion. Great read and good luck with your degree and renovations. BM52

28th Mar 2012 9:23pm

Retroanaconda

Member Since: 04 Jan 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2646

Forestry and Woodland Management at Plumpton College, in East Sussex. If I'm honest it's a nightmare doing it as well as working, but these cars won't run themselves and I just can't bring myself to drive a boring Eurobox around any more.

The CSW is my favourite too, just don't tell the others

28th Mar 2012 9:24pm

db950

Member Since: 01 Feb 2012
Location: Lincoln
Posts: 560

Nice collection retro, the csw is my fave too, but I am biased as I am currently restoring one too.
Many thanks for your webpage, I have used the parts catalogue on there to order all the bits I need

May need your technical expertise soon (will ask for info on lr4x4) as I have a complete TD5 bulkhead to put on my 1989 110 and want to use the td5 bulkhead loom.
Regards
Russ

28th Mar 2012 9:37pm

Retroanaconda

Member Since: 04 Jan 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2646

db950 wrote:
Nice collection retro, the csw is my fave too, but I am biased as I am currently restoring one too.
Many thanks for your webpage, I have used the parts catalogue on there to order all the bits I need
May need your technical expertise soon (will ask for info on lr4x4) as I have a complete TD5 bulkhead to put on my 1989 110 and want to use the td5 bulkhead loom.
Regards
Russ

No problem at all

Yes I probably should have mentioned that. My contribution to the Land Rover world is my website, on which I've compiled a few bits of useful information that I have garnered over my short period of Land Rover ownership.

http://www.retroanaconda.com/landrover/

(PS. I assume I'm not breaking any forum rules by posting that, it's not for profit or anything like that. Just a bunch of useful stuff that I've put together in one place. Let me know if it's not allowed.)

28th Mar 2012 9:47pm

Zagato
Site Supporter

Member Since: 08 Jan 2011
Location: Billingshurst West Sussex
Posts: 5013

A handy trio

OYR looks familiar

29th Mar 2012 6:45am

ashfordsv

Member Since: 13 Mar 2009
Location: Wicklow
Posts: 82

I'm also studying forestry,

Final year in Dublin,

I hope theres a job to be got after four years of slogging!

29th Mar 2012 2:28pm

defender4

Member Since: 22 Jun 2011
Location: South East London
Posts: 411

2007 Defender 90 Puma 2.4 XS CSW Java Black

Thanks for that post, fascinating stuff. Brilliant website too. Good luck with the studies (how do you find the time?!)

29th Mar 2012 5:53pm

chiefstoker

Member Since: 11 Oct 2010
Location: Weston-super-Mud
Posts: 897

Thanks for taking the time to tell us about your trucks Retro, I'm glad I'm not the only one on here who seems to be in a completely different financial league to many users on here.
The beauty of Defenders is they look just as appealing to me battered and worn as they do when people have spent many £1000s on them. Good luck with juggling your education with your LR projects - dont forget your lottery ticket

2005 TD5 90 Hard Top

Beer 'n Sex 'n Chips 'n Gravy

29th Mar 2012 6:54pm

mini-eggs

Member Since: 23 Sep 2011
Location: S.Wales
Posts: 11

good read, love the seriesIII

30th Mar 2012 9:47am

rossy

Member Since: 29 Nov 2010
Location: Co. Roscommon
Posts: 1296

2011 Defender 110 Puma 2.4 CSW Stornoway Grey

Hmm I don't remember being able to afford 3 Land rovers when I was a poor humble student

Any spare cash was usually spent on beer

30th Mar 2012 11:49am

Retroanaconda

Member Since: 04 Jan 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2646

Cheers all. Found out my panhard rod bolts were loose on the 90 today so gave them a damn good tighten with a 2' breaker bar, which has improved the front-end stability a lot. And I managed to drive a few hundred miles on the motorway yesterday evening and neither the recently repaired front hub seal or transfer box front output flange spewed EP90 everywhere, which was a nice change from recent performance

Juggling studies, work, and fixing Land Rovers is an absolute nightmare...but I keep telling myself it will be worth it! I haven't had a day off where I've just relaxed in months, but to be honest I'm not really the sort of person to be able to just do 'nothing' for a day. Feels like I'm wasting time with all the things I need to get done! Lists as long as my arm for each vehicle, except the 110 which has a list of lists!

Got three weeks off for Easter at the moment, spent most of this week doing work on the 90 (transfer box repairs and some more soundproofing), with the other days spent at work. The next two weeks I have reserved for writing up my final project but I'm sure I will find myself down at the workshop for a day or two at least!

Zagato: You may have seen the 88" over in the Surrey hills last summer doing a spot of greenlaning, but if I'm honest it probably looks familiar because it's a Bronze Green rag-top Series III....of which there are millions!

As far as affording them goes... it's damn tight on the finances. Don't do a lot of drinking for the sake of it like a lot of my course-mates, seems like a good way to waste £50 on an evening you can't remember. That £50 could (almost) buy me a tank of diesel which has got to be far more useful!

On a positive note I gave the 90 a damn good clean at work today, spent a good two hours with the big jetwash and then the hose getting every ounce of mud off the underside of the thing and then even gave the bodywork a shampoo!

30th Mar 2012 5:44pm

Retroanaconda

Member Since: 04 Jan 2012
Location: Scotland
Posts: 2646

Thought I'd update this thread.

September saw me move from Sussex to the south-west of Scotland, where I have a year's work, and so I had to make some changes in the fleet. The new green 110 got sold off, and the Series III has been laid up in my workshop for the time being. The red 110 still exists only on paper.

As for the 90, well as is the way with these things most of the jobs I intended to get done in the summer did not. I didn't manage to accomplish any of the bodywork tasks (and that passenger door is getting really bad now!) but I did manage to strip down the front of the engine and repair a few leaks from behind the timing chest and a broken bolt or two around the water pump area:

Click image to enlarge

Also changed the wheels and tyres to a set of road-patterned 7.50s on standard HD rims in anticipation of the greater percentage of road miles the car will be seeing:

Click image to enlarge

I also finally got around to swapping the front brake calipers out for a set which I re-built with stainless pistons, fitted a second-hand Mud Console, and swapped the springs about a bit to improve the ride. The winch & bumper were taken off the front of the car as well, as I won't be needing it and dragging it around makes no sense in that case.

So that's how it stands. I'm picking up another passenger door in a week or so which I will take home at Christmas and fix up ready to install on the vehicle. The car isn't getting used off road every day like it did in my old job, which is good for the vehicle and means a hell of a lot less washing for me. I still get to do a lot of off road driving, but in a Vauxhall Combo van on forest roads which are better than a lot of metalled roads in some places!

Will be venturing off tarmac soon though, bit of greenlaning to be done over the border in England and there are some rallies up in the forest here which I hope to get involved in.

14th Oct 2012 4:47pm

Shutts

Member Since: 10 Aug 2014
Location: Tiptree
Posts: 52

All good things come in threes. I've just secured my 1st Defender. This is in addition to the D1 and D3 I currently own but SWMBO said I need to slim the stable down as I seem to be collecting bikes as well.

If your interested you can look at the cars here:
www.andys-landys.blogspot.com

Shutts

18th Aug 2014 10:23pm

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