Heritage Restoration

Project Arnold

Heritage Series D90 - 300Tdi - LHD

Pre-Restoration

We acquired this Carabinieri Defender from Italy where it was formerly as an Italian military and police service vehicle. These vehicles make excellent donors, due to the dry climate – ensuring the chassis are in good pre-restoration state.

Assessment + Strip Down

Disassembly of a vintage Land Rover Defender in preparation for preservation is a meticulous undertaking that involves careful assessment of each part. Beginning with the exterior, the body panels, including the front fenders, doors, hood, are methodically removed, ensuring they are cataloged for future reference.  But for the most part, it’s two solid days of taking stuff apart.

Mechanical

There are a variety of mechanical components of a Land Rover Defender restoration.  The most essential elements are the engine, gearbox, transfer case, and axles.  These are all stripped down and taken to our machining workshop to assess what needs to be done for the next stage of the refurbishment.  The engine and gearbox are typically completely rebuilt, with the axles and transfer cases requiring extensive service.

Model Defender
Class 90
Body Type Pick-up, soft top or hard top
Model Year 1995
Steering LHD
Engine 300Tdi, 2.5, 4 Cylinder, Diesel, without EGR/Cat, 16L
Gearbox 5 Speed, R380, Manual
Factory Solihull, UK
Sequential number 960024
Paint code Currently unknown

Project Introduction

We like to introduce the team working on your project, which helps put a little bit of a personal and human touch to the process of restoration. It take a lot of time and effort to transform these vehicles into something that will lasts for generations. These are the people doing that work.

Bodywork

Each panel is disassembled and separated out to send to our paint and body team.  Panels that can be saved, will be saved.  Often times we need to replace doors, panels, or even do a bit of repair work on tubs.  We ensure that each piece is brought back to factory or better condition.

Chassis

The chassis is stripped bare of all the brackets, fittings, and fasteners.  We then send it out to be media blasted or bring it down to bare metal.  Once the chassis has been stripped, it will be cleaned, prepped, epoxy primed, and top coated with a hard chassis paint.

Bishop+Rook Heritage Defenders