There are already dozens of people bringing in 'bits' for Defenders, and with the number of line items, over 2500, to scratch build a Defender, you would make yourself crazy running around gathering everything up. The number of people with both the knowledge and willingness to go to the trouble of building a ground-up project are is so small, and the overhead to put the kits together so high it would not be worth the trouble. Every state has different rules for the registration of kitcars, not to mention the multitude of customs classifications you would need to know for the import of used parts, new parts, etc, would make it difficult to know you were selling customer X, in state Y a package he was going to ever get on the road. In the end, you'll have a bunch of pissed off customers who figured you missled them.
My advise is to stick with the basic trucks, and the basic rules for importation with the least amount of agro. The first, and most basic hurdle is that the vehicle be 25 years old, or older. A simple search of Ebay results will show that clean, rust free 109 SW will fetch the best prices. That doesn't mean that 88s won't do well either, but there are already loads of 88s over here. While it's never mattered a hoot to me, most people shy away from RHD trucks when there are LHDs to choose from, but diesel powered goes a long way to overcome that issue. Again, most shy away from the old diesel lumps, but even the least educated buyer looking for a Land Rover knows the 200Tdi is yards better, so your idea of transplanted 200 Tdis is sound.
My preference has always been for 2As over S3s, but age has taken it's tole and since S3s were only imported here for 2 years, They will do well.
Many people have brought over exMODs, and they sit forever. Clean civilian trucks that are presentably, inside and out, will always win out over shabby OD green 3 doors with tatty canvas hoods.
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