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Home > My Defender > Td5 on going rebuild

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L90DNY Member Since: 09 Feb 2016 Location: Somerset Posts: 117

Td5 on going rebuild I apologies for the really long write up it is a good way to document and reminisce on the build. I also personally like reading them when they crop up. So: “Do you want to buy a defender?” These were the words said which have led me to 10 months of work. My girlfriends dad made a the minimum bid on a few land rovers in a company auction and won them all ! So he was faced with having to stump up for 5 land rovers, ranging from runner like mine to ones with the engine out and axles missing. And wanted to off load some. I have loved Land Rovers since I was a little kid, so I was keen to take on the project. However, it turned into much more of a project than I had thought, I was thinking re-spray and a few bolt on bits. How wrong could I be, in the end I pretty much ended up re-building it from scratch, with a lot of help from my girlfriends dad and a local garage. I bought a Yellow td5 90 pick up, it was in a seriously bad way but the chassis was solid albeit full of silt/sandy stuff. It was pulled off the working fleet due to an ‘engine fault’ but fortunately I found out it was just due to a poor earth connection to the chassis. Sorted that and fired up with no issues. Not sure who over looked over that one! Here it was, I didn't know at the time this would be the start of bankruptcy Click image to enlarge It was running and drivable but under inspection the engine must of sucked up so much sandy stuff from the mining environment, the turbo blades were all worn down. So it was decided an engine replacement would be the best option. Lucky the workshop we were using had a TD5 disco that had failed an MOT a few years ago, I did a deal with him. So we whipped the engine out of the 90 and the disco and put the new engine into the defender. Much easier job than anticipated, couple of hard to reach bolts on the starter motor. Other than that it was plain sailing. Click image to enlarge I spent close to 8 hours pressure washing out the chassis, which helped. Later on I stripped it back to the chassis and spent many more hours with a wire brush attachment on the angle grinder and went over the entire chassis before waxoyling it. Hopefully that will hold up for a while! No patches or anything were needed but two new outriggers got welded on. The gearbox cross member was fairly battered so I picked up a replace one of those and bolted that in. Rusted out outrigger: Click image to enlarge Start the chassis wire brushing: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge The land rover previously had a roll cage on, this meant that the wings had great big holes in for the cage. They where also dented, so I set about find two replacement wings. I managed to find one complete wing down in Poole, where a guy had bought a land rover and it happened to have a wing in the back, convenient for me as he wasn’t asking top money. He also had the top part of the wing, so what I did was find the front panel and side panels separately, which worked out to be much cheaper than a complete wing. Replacement wings: Click image to enlarge Few stubborn bolts to get the old wings off: Click image to enlarge Both the driver door and passenger door were shot, rusty and dented. So they had to go and the hinges. I spent a long time finding reasonably priced straight doors which I did find in the end, except one door was missing a few brackets and had a replace the window mechanism. Next up was to convert it to a hard top as I felt that would be much more practical than a pick up, especially as the load space is quite small compared with an L200 etc. Luckily I managed to swap the truck cab with Mike for a roof off one of the other landy’s. I got a set of rear quarters from a breakers which I had to get off myself, tedious job! Those little roof bolts were never ending. Now looking like a hard top! Click image to enlarge With no wings: Click image to enlarge I originally bought a new replacement door and glass on eBay, however, I didn’t realise that was for the older type door. So those got sold on eBay for a minor loss. I then found another rear door on eBay that was in perfect condition with glass, hinges, wiring and a decent door card. In the end those were put on with a stainless steel bolt kit. Fresh wing mirrors went on also. The paint show said they couldn’t spray the mirrors, so gloss black covers are on the list. Only trouble rust wise was the bulk head had rusted out on the pillars and feet. So on both sides replacement parts were welded into place, the parts came from YRM Metal Solutions, perfect. The shocks were shot so I replaced with some terrafirma non lift shocks. The springs looked like they had been replaced recently so, that was good news. Had one issue that the stud snapped off, so we had to manufacture one. My only gripe is that the thread on the shocks was just a few mm too short, so I couldn’t use all of the replacement bushes as I simply couldn’t get the nut on. That was super frustrating and difficult when all they needed to do was make them a tad longer, would have saved around an hour or so of fiddling! Cutting old bolt off: Click image to enlarge Fresh shocks! Shiny Click image to enlarge Snapped the studs off, whoops! Click image to enlarge And there in, next job was to clean up the calipers and put new discs and pads on Click image to enlarge The floors had been patched previously and the ridge that it sits on started rusting through too. So Mike made up some new edging and cut away the old stuff and welded in a new pieces. Then he made up some floors from some off cuts. New floors were tex screwed in, job done! Much better than the previous holes , Need to brush and spray the metal, I've got some new rubber Click image to enlarge We noticed that there was a bit of play/backlash in the front diff, rather than undo the bolts to sort that out, we thought we may as well use a 110 axle unattached that came with another vehicle in the auction. Same number of bolts haha. It was also a bit of an upgrade as the 110 axle has the vented disc brakes. I got new pads and discs all round. Also, cleaned up and wire brushed the callipers and gave them a coat of red paint to add a few horse power. The garage later found that the axle needed new CV joints on both sides, so they did that job whilst it was in their hands. Click image to enlarge I knew I wanted black wheels and bargain set of powder coated freestyle alloys with pretty much new enduro runway tyres 235/85/r16 on all for £300, couldn’t even get a set of tyres for that. So they were purchased for the mean time. I will upgrade shortly to sawtooth wheels, love bowler wheels but can't justify them. My friend as 285 with 18 wheels on his new pick up and I love the fatter tyre look. So 265 tyres is a must, I will probably get those imminently, the BFG KO2 looks great in my opinion. Back to the engine stuff, I got an EGR blank off kit and did that job. Every easy to do. No idea if it makes a difference or not yet, just following forum advice. Needed a new intercooler and radiator, as the others were full of sandy stuff again. I did want to get an uprated bigger intercooler but I couldn’t justify the cost over a standard one! Maybe for another day… I replaced the injector seals as they needed doing, another easy job just remember which injector is which and used a pry bar to get the injectors out, no need for a fancy injector remover. All the fluids were replaced everywhere, oil filter and air filters also. The airflow meter was missing I assume taken for another car, so got one of those and plugged that in. I know these can cause a few issues, so possible a smart move anyway to get a fresh one in. Exhaust wise I went for a straight through middle pipe, sounds lovely !! Just a cheap end pipe, not really happy with as it looks fairly bad. However, a hell of a lot better than the rusty thing that was on there before. I will likely upgrade to a stainless system as funds allow. Some mud guards will cover that up anyway. Respray wise I went for Corris grey with Santorini black roof, arches, rear cross member, bumper, hinges and grille. It looks brilliant really pleased with the choice, I posted asking for opinions of Santorini black, Corris or Loire Blue, very happy with the choice. Here was a picture mid way through when the exmoor trim premium carpet set had arrived. You can see the LED lights that went on too. Can see some of the paint here: Click image to enlarge Wipac LED's on: Click image to enlarge Went for a Santorini rear cross member, bit dusty here but looks great now it's clean: Click image to enlarge I bought the NK sound killer front set. Nice that it cut to size so just glue it in place. Works well too, I will buy the bonnet sound killer but find a cheaper option for the back. The exmoor trim carpet set looks very smart over the top, the premium set comes with the gear stick gaiters which look nice. I got the alloy gear knobs which look very smart but are a bit cold on reflection !! Only gripe with the carpet set is that it doesn’t have any holes cut out, I know why they don’t do it due to time but for the price I did expect them to be there. The Noise killer set is pretty good, close up incase any one is interested: Click image to enlarge Another purchase from exmoor trim was their seat re-trim kit with foam. With prices for XS seats around £500 odd quid, this was certainly the cheapest option. The seats were in a terrible state when I got them, holes in all the frames rusty and they didn’t move forward or back ward etc. I stripped the seats back to the metal then too a wire brush to them. Oiled up the mechanisms and got them working again. I then gave them a few coats of hammerite straight to metal which I found really easy to work with. Then I followed the instructions glueing on the foam and then covering with the seat covers and finishing them off. Extremely easy and worthwhile job saving a lot of money over new seats. Only thing I had wish I’d done is put the heat pads in, but at the time I didn’t think it was worth the extra money. As you can probably tell a huge amount has been spent as this point! Click image to enlarge I managed to find a headlining and sun visors on eBay for about £200 quid cheaper than list price for the alston black head lining and sun visors. Still need to get it from the guy as I need the defender to collect it, but not 100% finished off yet! I carpeted the the bulk head with some black carpet I got in a job lot of parts. I then sound proofed the tub and got the plastic matting to go in the back. I did plan to carpet the back but then thought it would be more practical to have plastic matting. I looked into the a genuine land rover one but at £160 quid seemed a bit expensive. So I bought some garage floor rubber for £40 and cut it to size. I think it looks pretty smart, will glue it down tight once I get the sound proofing in tomorrow: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I bought the RDX pre carpeted side panels just for the connivence at around £80 I thought by the time I had bought a decent sheet of ply wood and cut it and carpeted it, it was the better option. Turns out it was, it holds on with the seat belt bolt and under the heading. Pretty good mod if your looking for something like this. I sound proofed the quarters before putting it on. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Seat belts were knackered too full of this sandy stuff. So new ones of those where bought and fitted. Weirdly they were fitted forward before so had to drill a hole in the seat box and fit them further back. I forgot to mention a Puma bonnet was bought, I know they are a bit marmite but I personally like it and thinking about future re sell value. I went for the black defender lettering for the front again to update the look. I’ve ordered a black Land Rover badge and lettering for the back. I opted to paint the grille panel Santorini black also which I think looks pretty good with the santorini black grille. I bought a new grille then had them painted, rather than pay the price some people are charging online! The normal intake grilles were painted santorini also, I will upgrade to the Urban british set shortly. Only issue they can’t paint the headlight panels as they are rough, anyone know where I can get some smooth ones ? Here's the bonnet going in for paint after priming: Click image to enlarge The sills were bent and rusty, I opted with rock sliders to replace these. I like the look of them to make the vehicle a bit more rugged, also practical for people to open there door on to haha. Also for standing on when I get roof bars or a rack on for my kayaks. I mentioned earlier I got Wipac LED lights and also stop and reversing lights. I nice upgrade I think. The headlights and surrounds where worn and rusty, I opted for some Wipac crystals and new bezels. I really wanted to get LED headlights but during the build I can’t justify the costs. Another one for the to do list… Click image to enlarge Another thing was the bumper was bent, I managed to straighten it out, but the garage found when taking it off, the brackets had corroded and snapped. Luckily they had a second hand one from when they swapped out someones to a winch bumper. So that was sprayed and fitted. This was sprayed Santorini as well, with satin tread plates, I will get a picture of this soon. Fitted some sound proofing to the doors, just waiting for the card fixings to get the new ones on: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Couple of pre finished snaps til I get some decent ones this week: Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge I'd say about 300 hours has gone into this so far, 150 Garage and 150 Myself/Mike and only a few minor things to sort out for the Mot being done on Monday! Then the focus is on speakers and stereo, going to do a double din conversion. Wire up the work light and get some switches for the dash for rear wiper and heated rear screen etc. But it's looking good and driving good and the need list is getting smaller but the want list bigger I will continue to update the progress here, if anyone made it this far! Last edited by L90DNY on 13th Nov 2016 8:55am. Edited 1 time in total

12th Nov 2016 8:28pm

GREENI Member Since: 22 Aug 2010 Location: staffs Posts: 10382	I'm a huge fan of freestyle alloys. Nice build
12th Nov 2016 8:33pm

LR90XS2011 Member Since: 05 Apr 2011 Location: bickenhill Posts: 3641	nice job well done DEFENDER 90 TDCI XS, I hope everyone is well and your land rovers make you happy
12th Nov 2016 8:43pm

cobra_mark Member Since: 17 Feb 2015 Location: West Yorks Posts: 213	Great job, been there myself recently, another saved.
13th Nov 2016 7:45am

submarinealan Member Since: 23 Dec 2015 Location: glasgow Posts: 43	looks good
13th Nov 2016 8:41am

xcentric Member Since: 17 Jan 2016 Location: Midlands Posts: 247	great writeup, looks like a fun build. Useful to have a handy helpful garage nearby - they sound great. Indelicate question, but I may be doing something similar soon - do you know the approx cost? feel free not to answer if you'd rather not calculate it
13th Nov 2016 8:59am

L90DNY Member Since: 09 Feb 2016 Location: Somerset Posts: 117

Thanks Guys I'm too scared to add everything up properly as there where so so many new parts and panels, not far off everything A lot of the part buying was done over the course of this year as and when, so you don't really notice it so much, but the final bill from the garage was certainly eye water, over double what we discussed at the start. I'd like to tell myself it's around 12/13k, giving me at least a break even point if I was to sell it down the line. But in reality it's probably 15k+, with a grand or three left to get exactly what I want, few more little parts and double din unit, leather trim dash, KO2 tyres, sawtooth wheels, roof rack etc. But at the end of the day I have throughly enjoyed it, so satisfying working on it yourself. It is nearly exactly how I dreamed up at the beginning hopefully a land rover I can keep and cherish. I was extremely lucky the base vehicle was only £1,800 and and not 7 or 8 grand for a run down 2006 td5 as I've seen on eBay. This massively helped to keep the overall build cost down.

13th Nov 2016 9:27am

xcentric Member Since: 17 Jan 2016 Location: Midlands Posts: 247	thanks. Good to have had a decent base chassis to put those funds into, and it's been your entertainment for a year too seems a good price for the quality you have ended up with.
13th Nov 2016 9:35am

L90DNY Member Since: 09 Feb 2016 Location: Somerset Posts: 117

Few jobs done today, Fitted a rear work light. There was a bracket for antenna on the old roof, so I managed to re-use this to mount that light. Looks good, ebay special 2 lights for £30 odd quid. Click image to enlarge Although the carpet looked great (doesn't really show that well in the picture above), it's not practical at all. I had a bit of the rubber matting left over, using the floor pieces as a template I cut some mats to deal with muddy boots. Click image to enlarge The £40 matting has done the whole load space and footwells, saved a few quid here at least. Click image to enlarge Next I put the Landy to work, it's first job actually! Moved 50 fence posts into the fields to start to build a training pen for my dog. Click image to enlarge Nice evening: Click image to enlarge

13th Nov 2016 5:51pm

L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10756	Well done, great build and a great landy at the end of it so far, can only get better with the mods you have got to fit  1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up. Keeper. Clayton.
13th Nov 2016 8:29pm

L90DNY Member Since: 09 Feb 2016 Location: Somerset Posts: 117	Raptor Dash came today, Next day delivery good service from them! Click image to enlarge Double din unit should be arriving on Thursday/Friday, to have a look at that. I need some switches, Rear Wiper, Rear heated Screen, something for rear work light. Is there a specific place or good value shop to get the genuine switches from ?
15th Nov 2016 3:16pm

L90DNY Member Since: 09 Feb 2016 Location: Somerset Posts: 117

Rear work light wired up, very happy with the brightness and really handy for reversing. Click image to enlarge Had the headlight surrounds and grille sprayed santorini to match the roof and arches Click image to enlarge As I was converting it from a hard top, I got a rear hinge plat from a B reg defender which turns out the holes sit a lot higher than the td5, so I had to go to the breakers and get another one for £2 and then have it sprayed. Drill a hole in the tub and bolt in the hinge with stainless bolts. Job done. Click image to enlarge Land rover came into it's element with the flooding in Somerset! Road or River ? Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge

23rd Nov 2016 9:59am

Triple7 Member Since: 30 Aug 2015 Location: Down South Posts: 70	Excellent Job I'll be interested to see how the Double Din looks when installed.
23rd Nov 2016 11:42am

bogwert Member Since: 02 Sep 2016 Location: Dundee Posts: 194	Brilliant write up! Looks very tidy! I find the 'want' list never stops growing!  Chris 2014 Discovery 4 TDV6 HSE 2003 Defender 90 TD5 CSW
23rd Nov 2016 3:13pm

L110CDL Member Since: 31 Oct 2015 Location: Devon Posts: 10756	Road or river, more like a canal  1996 Golf Blue 300Tdi 110 Pick up. Keeper. Clayton.
23rd Nov 2016 9:21pm

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