Gringo

Yes! That one would work. Problem is getting it from his driveway, suitably packaged, and then onto a boat or airplane to Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands. I guess I need to be looking for some kind of pickup packup and shippit services. Or a source that regularly does that, breaks up Defenders into big pieces and ships them outside UK.

thanks, but the plan is to turn it into a pickup truck. Has the remnants of a full hood on it now. I'm looking for the hard pickup top with rear windows, etc..

Do any of you guys know of a source for a pickup truck style hard top that will fit an '06 90 Tdi? I'm lookin for someone who could handle strapping it to a pallet and shipping internationally.

You wouldn't by any chance have any photos of one of those, would you? Did you install a rear window?

You know, it took me a moment ( my primary language is Texan) but I actually understood that! Of course I've been following this forum for some time now and the Landy lingo lingers. Maintaining a partial set of Defenders will teach an American a completely new language if he has to order all his parts from the UK. And thanks for that idea. I have most of an 8 ft. diameter sat dish still here, destroyed by Hurricane Hanna in '08. It wouldn't be smooth like fresh sheet, of course. Hurricanes have that effect on satellite dishes. But I might be able to work with that. Beat the whole thing up with a hammer for 'texture', Make it in sections like an Airstream trailer ( no, wait...Caravan! ) does in the curved ends. Overlapping armor like an ambling armadillo. say that three times fast...

Yes, I think that probably makes sense. That was more or less my original post here. I got sidetracked when I learned about the galvanised chassis. Because the truth is that I love that 90 and am going to be real sad to see it gol I can find some kind of girder locally. If it were up to me, a section of railroad steel would work nicely. But C channel shouldn't be hard to find. I still have a problem with the scrap of canvas over the top being all that's left of the original soft top, but I can probably work with that. I'll cut some plywood to slide under it. We don't get that much rain here, anyhow. And someone here will want it eventually, once word gets around that it's for sale at a reasonable price. There are only about 18000 full time residents on this island. Small community when it comes to Land Rover fans. Some with incredibly deep pockets, too.

You're right. After sleeping on it, it's just too much of a project for me right now. Too many other things going on. I don't need a Defender sitting in pieces for the next two years while I import parts from the UK. For example, that nice galvanized chassis....$ 1600 USD in UK. BUT I have to ship it over here, and it's bulky and heavy. I am guessing, based upon a quote for a hard top last year, at least another thousand dollars in shipping costs. Plus, when it gets here, I pay 36% of it's value in present import duties. The TCI is all screwed up with customs duties at the moment, not likely to change any time soon. So, that's another $ 576. There's a $25 processing fee with the shipper at this end to stand in line and handle the Customs BS...so lets just call that $ 600. So, for me to even SEE a galvanized chassis will cost me, conservatively, $3200. Twice what you guys pay for it in the UK. Delivery? A month, if I'm lucky. And once I start pulling stuff off this vehicle, a lot of it would be too rusty to want to put back on. Meanwhile I have this old English 12 meter catamaran we bought last year that needs a lot of my time and money to return to pristine condition, after we got hit by lightning just north of Chub Cay in the Bahamas while sailing it down here. Hmm..What would I rather spend the next year doing...paying twice as much as needed and putting all my free time into building another vehicle? Or putting that time and money into turning this boat into a really nice cruising catamaran for two? Not much of a choice, is it. Vehicles are vehicles. You never get your money back. But a well designed and up to date cruising sailboat of that vintage holds it's value. They only made 27 of those, and we have # 25. tough choice, but I think I am going to have to let the Defenders go back to that big ore heap in the sky.

I was talking to La Gringa's flight instructor this morning. He's possibly interested in buying the 110 from us, he wants the Tdi out of it. He's a Brit with a newer 110 and he was telling me that it wasn't all that much work to replace the entire chassis with a galvanized one. That sounds interesting to me, because the local Land Rover dealer is offering us diddly squat trade in for them. I KNOW this 90 is worth more than $ 3500. I am considering what would be involved in keeping the 90, and actually fixing it right. I have the garage and workshop space, and the tools, and have rebuilt a number of vehicles and engines over the years. Automobile, 4x4, boat, motorcycle and aircraft. But I am concerned about how much work it would be, one guy working alone. I have built an overhead hoist in my garage, and have lifted a 500 lb. outboard motor with it, with no problem. What's the heaviest component of a 90,. the engine? Does anyone here know about these galvanized chassis replacements, what they cost, and how much work it would actually be for me to take this little Defender apart and reassemble it on a new frame? There is something that appeals to me about rebuilding a 90 specifically for this climate, with galvanic isolation between steel and aluminum, stainless brake tubes, alloy wheels, etc. I'm concerned that I might be biting off too much of a project. Any thoughts on that? I'd want a pickup truck half cab for it, too, of course.

well, I respectively disagree. If Land Rover had built the entire frame out of laminated wood, they would still be functional.

I've seen claims that WD-40 is good for an amazingly diverse number of things from luring fish to dental hygiene to removing graffitti. They have a marketing department with a great imagination. I'm basing my comments on 8 years of experimenting with every lubricant and rust preventative I can get my hands on here. It does seem to lubricate, at first, but if I leave it at that I find that the original problem is back very quickly. As a solvent, it breaks down the existing remnants of lubricant already there, and that re-distributes and works again, for a while. Then the solvent qualities of the WD-40 dry up and I'm left with thinned, old, lube. Now, want to hear how freaking BAD Rustoleum paint is? And did you know that Baby Oil is absolutely nothing more than mineral oil with a fragrance in it? Yep. We been greasing our infants up with petroleum products for years. Gotta love those marketing departments.

I havent been able to get to the store for some lube yet, but thanks for all the suggestions. I'll give it some shots of TriFlow or Boeshield in the morning. It's drivable, but more of an upper body workout than is safe while moving. By the way, WD-40 is good stuff, but it's not a lubricant. It's a drying agent, and solvent. The "WD" is for Water Dispersant. It seems like a lubricant because it dissolves the grease already there and refloats it. It'll get you unstuck and be okay for a while, but you really need to apply some real lube after flushing with WD 40.

I really don't think anything with a horizontal plate or surface that will let mud get into it is worth the time and effort. These islands are marine limestone, formed at the bottom of the ocean. The very dirt of the roads here is the same salt content as seawater. The dust is corrosive. We have stopped putting radios in the Defenders. Automotive radios last about a year. I put a Sony marine radio in the 110, it lasted two years. Normal brake lines ( you call them pipes?) last 8-12 months. If we have to drive through puddles on the way to the airport, and leave one parked for a week or two, when we return I have to dismantle the hand brake drum and clean it out. I have to change the rearmost universal joint yearly. the local dealer offered us a total of $ 4500 for BOTH '06 Tdi's. They have less than 25,000 miles on them. each. a rear bumper of channel with internal mounting plates is just more of the same. I don't want to copy the Land Rover design.....the only thing that would make them last longer is if I used thicker steel. they would still be ugly rusty things, just would take longer to die. That's why I'm thinking the steel part needs to be a flat, vertical surface. No place for anything to puddle. Straps for the tow hitch receiver run to the frame, and those would be vertically oriented straps. I do like the idea of a sealed pipe with oil in it.

Nice Job on that, Frax. Your front bumper is actually more of interest to me than the boxed in rear, although both approach works of art. I can't have anything with an inaccessible interior volume. The salt sticks to it, and away we go. Literally. I need something that I can keep exposed to air, inspect regularly, and can get to for rust removal and re-painting easily. A removable bumper. And by removable, I don't mean with a gas ax. As for the wood, It would be spaced off the steel by enough to make sure it doesn't trap moisture. It's a shame nobody ever built fiberglass bodies for these. Even the aluminum is rotting away. Simply can NOT put two dissimilar metals in contact here, exposed to the environment. Even two grades of aluminum in contact is a problem. The rivets are stronger than the body, and connect it to steel. So the body loses. I put a front bumper on a few years back with a hitch so I could push my boat uphill. That's sealed box section. Some photos of that are toward the end of this blog post at: http://2gringos.blogspot.com/2009/08/momentary-panics.html Please ignore all the tropical blather and just scroll down til you see the front of the 90 photo.

Thanks for the info. I don't want a new standard crossmember. It would double the cost to ship it here from UK, and it would be rusted out in three years, just like the previous two. Galvanizing is not an option. That capability does not exist here. I am thinking of 1/4" steel plate, with two brackets welded to that to fit over the flush cut ends of the frame. Two bolts in each side to hold it. Then using 2x8 or 2x10 lumber bolted to the flat plate as an alternative to more steel. I need just enough to support a 2x2 receiver hitch for towing our smaller boats. a rough sketch: I never quite understood what all those holes and nooks and crannies were in the standard cross member were for, anyway, but I do know what I need is a simple bumper that can handle a beach environment 24 hours a day and doesn't require dismantling the vehicle to remove and service.

We've had two Defenders for five years, and the rust issues here in the British West Indies are terrible. I am giving up on our 110, but we want to keep the 90. I will have to take it completely apart to replace all the steel bits. First order of business in the meantime is the rear cross member. It doesn't make sense to me to replace that with another one of that same thin steel. I am thinking of building a replacement from 1/4" steel box section, and not welding it to the frame but bolting it. I had done that for the front bumper some years back and that worked out well.. Have any of you manufactured a solidly built bumper to replace the rear cross member? I'm looking for design ideas and the voice of experience. Even a wooden bumper would be preferable to more thin steel. This island eats steel.