I swear Honey the Defender 110 followed me home :D

[ArmyRover]

So it's official, I'm leaving the Range Rover Classic Club and joined the 110 club

I flew out to Maryland and picked up a 83 110 5 door station wagon off of Rugbier. She has a 3.5 carbed V8 4 speed manual wrapped in Trident Green goodness. She will get a tasteful resto mod, I'll upgrade things for creature comforts etc but nothing to drastic.

After we got the headlight switch mystery solved I got on the road to head home to Chicago with one small detour to Rovers on the Rocks 4. I had a great time meeting folks, I've chatted with here on the forums for years. Sunday morning with my first mod done (winch bumper) I hit the road to home. 14 long hours later, she's in my drive and work begins.

Thanks to Gustavo for a great deal on a solid starter 110 and all the hospitality. Thanks to Justin (lucky8llc.com) and Trevor (roverlabs) for putting on a great event. Also thanks to Justin for bringing the bumper with him to save me the cost of shipping.

Of course here are the pics:







New bumper and winch going in:





A couple new stickers:



New badge I have to decide where to mount:

[cnfowler]

Um, I'm jealous! It looks to be in pretty good shape. How's the interior?

One day I'll own a 110. It may be 30 years from now, but I'll have one one day. Can't wait for the progress reports on Honey.


Colin

[ArmyRover]

The interior, looks 29 years old lol, it's solid though and the seats don't have any tears so that is a plus. It will get swapped out for something a bit more modern though maybe a DII interior so I can have ass warmers and a rear seat center seat belt for the kiddo.

The wife actually likes the Defender, so for now life is good lol.

[Brian]

Congratulations !!! You will be very pleasantly surprised at how much fun and frustration you will get with a real 110

Before looking at DII interior, check with Exmoor Trim for heated front seats that still have the removable seat base for access to the battery box and the other compartment on the right hand side.

My Defender has a centre seat belt on the middle bench seat, so you can retrofit that too.

You can also get heated windscreen and door mirrors if you want them. I have a MUD console in mine, similar to late spec TD5 Defenders, that's a good fit too on yours, as is the Raptor console, which is even better.

Careful about SWAMBO liking it too much, nearly lost mine that way, but she bought her own Series IIA fortunately

[ArmyRover]

I love the exmoor stuff but it costs way to much. I can go with something like the D2 interior for a couple hundred. I'm going to spend an hour or two wondering the local pick'n'pull checking out seating options.

Today I built a loadspace shelf, and pulled the rear center facing benches. It will make taking the dogs places and carrying luggage underneath. I love how easy it is to change the layout inside these things.

I'll never have to worry about the Wife stealing it though, she likes things like cruise control, air con, and roll down windows.

[Brian]

Fair enough

However, I saw this posted elsewhere today and thought you could be interested

Retrofit Insert Seat Heaters - DA5717 - Land Rover Parts Catalogue

[ArmyRover]

I spent most of sunday morning roaming the junk yard near the house. I figured out a few things.

1. It's harder than I thought to find a rear seat that has a center seat shoulder belt.
2. Finding a back seat that is not real deep is harder than I thought.
3. The junk yard apparently crushes 2/3rds of its inventory before Thanksgiving.

In the end I found a nice workable set up in a 2000 Dodge Durango. The only problem is no center seat shoulder belt. I was doing my usual thread reading on D-90 and saw a guy selling jump seats from a 90. He had done 4 point harnesses for the seats for his kids. Brilliant, they will bolt up nicely to the factory seat belt cross bar already in place behind the seats. Probably safer than the standard 3 point as well. So it looks like I may go back and get the Durango interior and order up some harnesses.

The Defender and I had a disagreement yesterday though, gas gauge said 1/4 tank, fuel light came on 3 miles later I was out of gas. 2 miles short of the gas station...

Oh well at least I was close to home and my wife was able to come over real quick with a couple gallons of gas.

I pulled the rear side mount troop seats out of the tub. I built a shelf/platform giving a huge flat area behind the seats. This is great for my dogs, they can now lounge in comfort. Underneath I have about a 48"x38"x14" storage area for the luggage. So now everyone is happier. I'm going to add a few tie down points and maybe a mount for a 12 volt fridge. I'll post a few pics later.

A side benefit I realized afterwards is folding down the seats gives me a bit over 6 ft of flat area for camping. Now I need to make some window screens so I can leave them open and keep the bugs out.

I need to do some searching to see what I can do about upgrading the alternator from 45 amps to something a bit more respectable in the 80ish amp range.

[p76rangie]

Seeing that you now own one, you should know better than to keep on calling it a defender.

[Blamo]

If you live In Chicago what's with the indana temp plates ? I love it by the way!

[ArmyRover]

I'm active duty Army so we can keep our license and registration in our home state.

Thanks, I'm digging it to lol

[ArmyRover]

Originally Posted by p76rangie

Seeing that you now own one, you should know better than to keep on calling it a defender.

Trying not to confuse the natives I know in 83 it was a 110. Although the Indiana BMV and my insurance company were greatly confused by this.

[RRhino]

Congrats on the purchase! Hopefully you'll still be around the RRC sec to help out us noobs. lol

[Blamo]

Did they offer your 110 in the states?

[ArmyRover]

No it's a import under the 25 year old rule

[cnfowler]

Originally Posted by Blamo

Did they offer your 110 in the states?

The 110 was only offered for the '93 model year in the States. Before that when the Series were still being shipped over, the 109 5 Door could be had.


Colin