Hi all. I was wondering if anyone would care to offer me some advice.
I have a 1993/4 Defender 200 tdi. I don't use it often, but I do NEED a 4X4 that can be legally driven on the road. It mostly gets used on a farm though.
It is however registered as a D reg built 1986. I have had the land rover for years and was in blissful ignorance about its history..... I took it to a specialist Land Rover place a few months ago as it failed its MOT and the guy there said its a ringer as its not a 1986 model. I investigated this further and as it appears the chassis number has been ground off thus being reasonable I think it is def a ringer / clone and not just had an engine swap as I thought !
The chassis is rotten on the rear crossmember and crossmember attachments and it has already had a replacement rear cross member with extensions. There is one rotten out-rigger also . Other than the aforementioned the vehicle is pretty tidy and has MORE than earned its money for me. It owes me nothing. I paid nothing for it (I bought it years ago when defenders were cheap!)
I would like some un-biast advise on what to do with it. I have been offered £2500 for it by someone locally to me who knew it sat about in a barn not doing much, where I was completely honest with them and told them I thought it was nicked etc, and this was ok for them as they were taking it to bits to convert into a monster off roader.
I am on a budget and only have maximum £2k to spend really on fixing / buying new.
So the question;
Ho much do you think it would cost and is it feasible to weld it up, get it MOT'd and I still use it on the farm and basically keep it going on a budget ? Chassis looks not ideal to me and especially as ill be using it to tow things. I don't know much about welding up land rovers so advice welcome.
Do I get a chassis swap on it, and the issue of it being cloned hopefully disappears with the old chassis or am i pouring money down the drain ?
Do I bit the blokes hand off for £2500 and put the £2k towards this and try to buy another one , although £4.5k does not seem to get you much now a days.
If you got this far - thanks for reading and any help you can give.
Richard