My Defender Story

Documenting the ground up restoration of my North America Spec Land Rover Defender 110, #66

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Windows and Rivnuts, oh my!

on June 02, 2022

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In June / July - Jim finally took his assignment in Japan. This left me down not only a pair of hands, but a project manager and decades of experience working on Defenders. Over the course of the project, we experienced tons of delays - many related to Covid and other issues. From sourcing a frame to stripping the original frame, to paint and other delays - we just ran out of time. Early last year, Jim and I had Drew at Coniston Classics do the welding on the original frame. The work was great, and while we were at his shop we were able to get a great look at the work he and Jimmy were doing on their custom builds. From the moment we walked into their shop, Jim and I agreed, that should things go awry - and I find myself unable to finish the project, this was the best place we could take it. Jimmy and Drew have a ton of experience with not just Defenders, but Land Rovers in general. They are factory trained LR technicians, and met while they were working at Land Rover of Richmond in

Defender Sunday (aka FedEx Recovery)

A sign of things to come? Photo: David Harmantas Jim alerted me Saturday that he and a friend would be out scouting for photo spots. I weaseled my way into going along and we agreed to meet up at his place at 9am. I had been telling Jim about a little water crossing I'd found in Loudoun County, and thinking about the rain we had this week, I thought it might be a little high for us to cross. Just in case we tried it and failed, I went ahead and tossed my tow straps in the Tuffy security drawer , just in case. After all - you never know what will happen. On Sunday, we met up with photographer friend David . David is retired from the US Army, and while in law school at Iowa State, he also freelanced as a sports photographer for the college paper as well as local papers in the area. His work is amazing. After about an hour, we had been cruising some dirt roads around Loudoun County and ended up at a ford which crosses the Butchers Branch stream . There had been some recent rain, so

Tub Construction

Yesterday Bernie helped me retrieve the rear tub from the painters - between last night and today I was able to get all of the bracing mounted and riveted in place. I'll probably replace a lot of the hardware that mounts the bracing to the floor with some longer - but its good to have things in place. Also ordered a pneumatic rivet gun. Anything else seems to be too much of a headache.