As some of you may know, recently an old friend passed away, and some stuff was left to me, another guy, and a charity. One day the solicitor, executor of the estate, called me and said “Take these cars or they’re going to the scrapyard”
Unsure what the plan would be, I hastily arranged a flatbed through a friend. First plan of action was to remove it from the driveway and get it home so I could work on it.
So here we have it, a Defender 90 TD5, in pieces, with a chassis that’s been rusting from the rear forwards.
Having had it transported to the house, we set about a preliminary inspection…
It runs, idles, and seems mostly water and oil-tight. It randomly doesn’t stop, but that appears to be a dodgy ignition switch.
The first couple of weekends were spent cleaning the bodywork and removing it for later – leaving a rolling chassis to work on.
Next order of business was to check the chassis over and see if it was repairable. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t. With holes everywhere from behind the front outrigger to non-existent metalwork at the rear, it was quickly determined that the chassis was beyond saving.
Over the course of the following few months, the Defender was stripped back to indivual pieces. The chassis has been stored outside as reference material whilst I begin restoring the axles. The journey will continue, and I will attempt to update here a little more than… annually.
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