Where to buy an old defender with a good chassis

ste2006

Hi All,

I am looking for some advice on where to pick up an old defender such as an 80 Reg or there abouts. The plan is to buy an old defender with a good chassis, prob send of the chassis to be galvanised and then slowly do it up to a reasonable condition to drive on the road using hopefully a lot of its own parts and picking up bits along the way as needed,

Obviously the idea of getting an old land rover is to get vintage tax & insurance on it, I will still drive something else day to day but i want this as a fun vehicle for the weekends,

I am aware there will prob be a bit of work in it but thats fine, Dont mind at all and am in no panic,

I cant seem to find an old cheap defender though to get me started, want to spend as little money as possible on it and just spend money as needed over the next year or so,

So if anyone knows of a old cheap defender with a log book please let me know or else you might point me in the direction of where to look,

Thanks,

wildefalcon

You won't find any Defenders made in 1980, thay only started making Defenders in 1991, prior to that they had the 90 and 110, introduced in 1983.

So to achieve that year you'd be looking for a series vehicle, series 3 from 1971 to 1985.

The big difference is the the springs, the Series vehicles were leaf sprung.

You'd be lucky to find an unmolested series chassis, most have some rot.

Thankfully most rot can be repaired, and replacement parts are cheaply available.

Check out the Ireland section of Landroveraddict, chassis and logbook come up every now and then.

ste2006

Thanks for the help,

Yes it seems i am actually looking for a Series 3 Vehicle,

If i can track down an ok one i might do a few upgrades to it and hopefully make it fairly ok,

wildefalcon

Interestingly, the original ones are worth more.

If you do add modifications, ensure they are reversible, so that when you sell you get your money back.

Wander around this website:

http://www.glencoyne.co.uk/

Richard is a nice guy, who knows his rovers.

Check out his work on the DI conversion.