chassis - change or not?

[blackbeltbob]

long winded  problem here so please bear with me.

I have a 1998 Defender 90 hard top that is in reasonable condition apart from the chassis. I t has 83k miles on it with only one owner before me. There is no service history but I am assured it is a good one except for the obvious chassis issues which I will explain.

The chassis has had to be welded a couple of times already and now I have spotted some more areas needeing repaired. Hopefully the pictures are attached below.

My problem is do I change the chassis and do some other mods that will probabily cost around £5k and give me a car that is not that much different to the one I have?
(I plan a suspension lift, winch and winch bumper, removable tow-bar, new chassis, new bushes and anything else needed. I have geussed about £5k)

Or do I trade in and cut my losses and buy another?
(problem here being that with my £5k I would still end up with one roughly the same age)

Or do I get it welded and hope for the best?
(problem with this one is I would always be shi**ing myself when I towed something heavy)

Or do I do nothing?

Comments would be greatly received........

Even after spending the £5k on it I would still only end up with a car half way to the one I want. And the budget has not left anything for the crap paint or inside either.........

Help

[blackbeltbob]

more pics

[blackbeltbob]

yet more

[blackbeltbob]

last one, I promise

[Sharpshooter]

That chassis has had it. I wouldnt bother welding it. I changed the chassis on my 110 a couple of years ago.

I think you have over budgeted for the mods yu wish to carry out.

Think along the lines of £1500-£2000 for the chassis swap. Thats if you do it yourself. I got a very good secondhand one for £300. It needs one small patch on the drivers outrigger, but other than that its fine.

You may find the bulkhead needs replacing when you strip it. Allow about £2-300 for this. Its worth doing whilst its apart.

I did a chassis swap, and bulkhead. Including all new bolts and seatbox fittings for under £1000. I did the work myself.

[Keri]

Looks like my old chassis that  :lol:

Were rebuilding it atm on the drive new galv chassis, bulkhead, suspension, nuts and bolts and anything else it needs on the way and i can defo say if your doing it yourself you have way way WAY over budgeted at 5k  :shock:  and belive me i havn't skimped in any area.... Iv gone through the whole thing buying exactly what i want. I couldn't give you a price because im not money watching im just giving her what she needs, but i can say its nowhere near 5k

Mines 110 to btw

Im also doing a new paintjob and new seats and everything else and it still wont be near 5k

[blackbeltbob]

thanks for that but putting a nut in a monkeys mouth is about all I could do :D  :D
it will have to be my local garage that does it and my price was including funds for anything else they were to find.
glad someone else thinks the chassis is gubbed    

is it normal for a nine year old chassis to be this bad?

price is to include a winch and bumper and suspension upgrades etc

[muck_truck]

a 1998  with a chassis like that ??  suppose its 9 years old but looks very bad for one that age. has it been parked in a mud bath every night ?

Mines 16 years old and the cross member has just started to rot, it passed a MOT the other week tho.

[Sharpshooter]

thanks for that but putting a nut in a monkeys mouth is about all I could do :D  :D
it will have to be my local garage that does it and my price was including funds for anything else they were to find.
glad someone else thinks the chassis is gubbed    

is it normal for a nine year old chassis to be this bad?

price is to include a winch and bumper and suspension upgrades etc

It all depends if the chassis has ever been treated, I.E Waxoil.

Also what has it been used for?

When i was a coastguard, we has a couple of Defenders. They were 5 years old with 30 000mls on the clock. But i wouldnt even have bought one, as they had been by the sea all their life. Like seives all over.

[Keri]

thanks for that but putting a nut in a monkeys mouth is about all I could do :D  :D
it will have to be my local garage that does it and my price was including funds for anything else they were to find.
glad someone else thinks the chassis is gubbed    

is it normal for a nine year old chassis to be this bad?

price is to include a winch and bumper and suspension upgrades etc

Well mines 13 years old so you beat me there  :shock:

I know that liveridge wanted about £3500 i think it was to do the work and provide a galv chassis, fit and supply a bog standard 2" lift, fit and supply a clutch and there were a few other things to and they said it would take them a week.........

[blackbeltbob]

had a similar quote from them as well. the chap sounds very nice.
the winch etc was what was pushing mine up to the 5k. this is the worst case scenario though, i would hope it was WAY less.

it was a farm car before i got it but it looked alright when i got it but i now know way more than i did so hopefully wont make the same mistake again :oops:  :oops:  :oops:

[Keri]

I suppose in the end it comes down to the same as it came down to with us, how much do YOU want THAT landrover...!!!!

Or will any landrover do and long as its in good nick and so on

[blackbeltbob]

my other concern is that I spend all that money on it and and the engine, gearbox, axles etc wont even have been touched.
just tight I suppose :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Keri]

my other concern is that I spend all that money on it and and the engine, gearbox, axles etc wont even have been touched.
just tight I suppose :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

Different for us as were doing it ourself but were looking at it as we're doing what needs doing along the way to get her up and running again and then we will have the time to work over the other bits that we didn't do, as with new bolts on it etc it will be so much easyier to take bits off again lol

[Edge]

my other concern is that I spend all that money on it and and the engine, gearbox, axles etc wont even have been touched.
just tight I suppose :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

You need a "Help blackbeltbob fix his landy, party/holiday"  :D

[muddyjames]

Do you use your landy as a work tool and class it as it's just outside and does the daily duties it needs to or is it your baby like Keri's is and most other MC members inclucing myself!

Do you plan on keeping it for a very long time too? It is always better the devil you know! I had the engine on my rover 600 replaced 5 years ago (due to some wolly driving through a flood that was deeper than expected and blew the piston out the sump. :oops: )

I am very very hesitant to get rid as I kow the cars whole life from when it was the AA service managers car, then my dads car and then me. It is only worth about £50 (no seriously it is. 220,000 miles on the clock). I will get nothing for it but it is highly reliable and still does good mpg etc. Its a wonderful car and if I did sell it and buy a newer car would I get a right dog that needed loads of money spent on it? I'm keeping it now until someone rights it off for me  :?  

So is it your baby or a work horse? Work horse I would say get rid, if its your baby and intend to keep it for a long time (as with you a new chassis you can do) then I would have a new chassis fitted.

Thats my 2 pennies worth and thereply is a long one 'coz I am bored!! :lol:

[tonycougar]

I agree with muddy james above. If you intend to keep it re-chassis it. I'm in the middle of doing mine (and it wasn't half as bad as yours and is 21 year old) putting a galvy one on, so maybe it will last another 20 odd years.
I do a lot of heavy towing with mine and thats the reason I chose a new chassis. Wouldn't have got anything for it if we tried to sell it, so that meant we either fix it or scrap it, and look for another. But then you are in the same boat again. Only got so much cash so you end up with another rotten landy. I figured spend £1000 on a new chassis for this one, and keep it. Obviously its gonna cost more than that with the fitting etc but should be worth it in the end.
Better the devil you know.

[blackbeltbob]

thanks for all the comments so far :D  :D  :D

the landy is slowly becoming my baby but it keeps pooing on me :D
she just needed a new centre section for the exhaust - which was not cheap

i tend to get bored with cars after a few years and need to change them but with a defender you can just modify it some more when this happens so I feel if i was to sort it i would keep it for a long time after, i hope.....

so far i have had to change the battery, front and middle section of the exhaust, new alternator belt, number plate light, not to mention all the money involved in the mods as well. i know they are money eaters but this is a big bill.

[TDi90]

yes i had the same problem.
when i first baught my landy it cos me alot too...
but i am having so much fun with it, and once you spent the money you can enjoy it for a while till you break it again!
also most of the stuff can done by yourself,... so you learn and save money at the same time!

[iomlr]

thanks for all the comments so far :D  :D  :D

the landy is slowly becoming my baby but it keeps pooing on me :D
she just needed a new centre section for the exhaust - which was not cheap

i tend to get bored with cars after a few years and need to change them but with a defender you can just modify it some more when this happens so I feel if i was to sort it i would keep it for a long time after, i hope.....

so far i have had to change the battery, front and middle section of the exhaust, new alternator belt, number plate light, not to mention all the money involved in the mods as well. i know they are money eaters but this is a big bill.

get a nice galvanised chassi and then you 'll Never have this problem again and even if the vheicle around it falls apart around the chassi, u can remove the chassi and put it under something else!

[muddyjames]

My dico cost me £800 in repairs 2 days after I bought mine due to the crankshaft pulley not being on tight enough. Highly annoying as a VERY well known landy garage changed the alterntator belt and air con belt the day after I bought it and they didnt notice the pulley was loose. Grrrr

They are money eaters and keep on wondering why I have mine.

[way2deep]

think the chassis won't be your only problem.....looking at the pics i dare say it's gonna be a real sod trying to get any of the bolts undone too...looks a nightmare,makes me realise how good me chassis is

[blackbeltbob]

way2deep - thanks for cheering me up some more :D  :D

edge - I like your thinking  :D  :D

spoke to another man in the know yesterday who had some good ideas eg tubular chassis so I will try and look into them today and keep you posted

[BigMark]

Keri said

Were rebuilding it atm on the drive

What No Garage?

You need a "Help blackbeltbob fix his landy, party/holiday"  :D

Id go to that one.. Looks really bad to me mate, what you have to do is decide if for that 5-6k wether you could buy the landy you want or indeed build the landy you want. Id rather build the one i want but thats me and im a little strange.

[Nobber]

if you fit a tubular chassis you will probably have to q plate it.
Ive just finished a chassis swap , it wasn't just the chassis though , it was the bulkhead , doors , seat box , tranny tunnel , suspension , steering , axles , etc etc etc.
a chassis swap is only a chassis swap , you will still have the same landy except its got a different chassis , don't be expecting a new landy.
if i had it to do all over again id assess the situation a bit better , i.e. the vehicles overall condition (a crap landy with a new chassis will still be a crap landy), time (do i have 6 - 8 months to rebuild a crap landy) , can i afford it ( a chassis isn't very much money , neither is a bulkhead , neither are doors , neither are brakes , etc etc etc , but all together....).

how is your engine , gearbox/transfer box , axles , brakes , steering etc.
Ive spent nearly 4k on mine and i haven't even got round to buying door seals for it yet, IL probably have to buy a new gear box first due to excessive main shaft wear (just replaced the output gear and bearings so its fingers crossed but I'm just minimising the damage at the end if the day) and i don't even want to write a list of the parts i need to make my landy drive like a decent one. the problem Ive got now is i don't want to cut my losses because its taken me nearly 4k and well over 350 hours work on a drive in the open through winter to get where i am now, the owner of a landy that i still cant rely on.

if i could offer any advice it would be to definitely assess the condition of your vehicle before replacing the chassis, as i said , a re chassied landy that has more than one thing wrong with it will still have more than one thing wrong with it after you have spent all that dosh.

[Mutz]

I also bought a "cheap" 90 300tdi 95, it requires a new rear cross member and 1 plate on the n/s rail at the bottom.
the major problem was low oil pressure, the engine is now in bits in my garage and i have found the problem that caused it.
The owner before me was quoted upto £2000 to fix the low oil pressure and another £700 to do the welding and a couple of odd bits for the MOT.
I havnt taken an engine to bits for some 30yrs!!! but materials to fix it at the moment under £30!!!!
thats a £1970 saving at the moment

If i was you i would go for the new chasis, and do it yourself.
You might surprise yourself at your capabilities, and even understand your vehicle more. just my thoughts.
Good luck on your decision.

Graham

[gnasha]

we in same situation got 90 of ebay got it home and chassis was had it thought i would b able to patch it up but each day i went out with a hammer new holes would be found
ours too looked like yours so now we got another chassis of ebay a lot better got rangy axels tub with new side's for £100 so strip down in progress lots of grinding to get old bolts off as they rusted away as well bulk head needs welding but a lot less than the old chassis needed
doing it ourselfs on the drive that way we no the 90 inside out

[blackbeltbob]

other than the chassis the landy seems fine
(hopefully I havnt upset the evil landy spirits)

i think we will be going down the chassis route as soon as funds become available

i will keep you informed

[gnasha]

got our old bulkhead of now and it needs new mount on bottom of the post so thats another £10 cost goes up and up

[mark.yellow.series.3]

My problem is do I change the chassis and do some other mods that will probabily cost around £5k and give me a car that is not that much different to the one I have?

youve overlooked one small thing IT WILL NEVER RUST AGAIN :D
it will give you a solid base from which you can build what ever kind of defender you want ie heavily modified or boggo standard. one less thing to worry about on MOT day.