1980 Land Rover Defender

MoD SUV

2.5 N/A Diesel

Manual

SALLDVAC7AA267608

Clear

Diesel

**Update** 3 non paying buyers in a row. Come on Ebay! If you have a zero feedback score, contact me first. If you are bidding from Nigeria, your bid will be cancelled. If you want to WU me money from your friend's bank account, your bid will be canceled. Although I'm including some goodies that I found this time around! -Oil filters -The MOD roll bar (which has been hack sawed off at the base but could be re installed with a welder and a little skill!) -Wooden military crate (to keep things in, fits perfectly in between the two wheel wells -2 Thule load bars and 4 high gutter mounted feet Also include for free this time is about 800 extra miles. It is my daily driver you know! -- With a heavy heart, I list my Land Rover for auction. I've owned it for almost three years and, sadly, I need either more space or better towing capacity (if you've never owned a D90 before, go see one in person, trust me, it's not as big as it looks back there). I'm open to trades on something along the lines of a 110 or 109. So if your into these ugly, slow moving vehicles like I am, let me know and maybe we can set some sort of trade up! Here's what I can tell you: The Good: - I purchased it with help from GMR4x4 of Vermont, and had it shipped in from overseas. Those guys are pros and have a person in England that does quality control for them before it gets purchased and loaded onto the boat. It had no rust (save some surface spots) and only 20 something thousand miles on a rebuilt engine (block has a plate that says it was done in 2006). It didn't come with nor does it have a title (Vermont and Maine don't require it, PLEASE check with your state to see if this is the case) and the VIN is a UK VIN so it doesn't show up through Ebay. Also, the steering wheel is on the "wrong" side- wrong for North America, perfectly acceptable for a Land Rover. It's between a 1980 and 85- my insurance company insists it's an 80, the documents all said 85... either way, plenty old enough to be legal. -From what I gather the military did an excellent job at maintaining it until it was decommissioned. Based off the paint shades and condition, it has a relatively new hood, firewall, and tailgate. The chassis was waxoyled before it came over and I've been keeping the rust at bay with linseed oil and Fluidfilm. -It originally had a canvas soft top (but that doesn't fly in Maine year round) so I purchased a hard top (which is in great condition, save the poor paint job and surface rust on the interior of the rear door) and had the new problem of it being WAY too hot whenever the sun is out. The dual sunroofs make it a solar oven during the summer. The new top came at the expense of the roll bar, which still has the mounts and holes for it, but no actual bar. The next "mod" (I use this term loosely) was to add more comfortable seats, so it has re-purposed Minicooper seats. I drove it to Utah and back and didn't want to get whiplash if I was hit from behind so I looked for the smallest seats that fit and had good support. I also hated how I couldn't reach the wheel with my leg to steer with my knee. Problem solved. I have NO idea how legal this is, but it was way better than getting a spinal cord injury. If you have big thighs, it might be a tight fit. -There are jumpseats that face eachother with no seatbelts and an interior mount on the inside for a hi-lift jack. The jumpseats went in so I could work on my laptop in the back, sitting at one and using the other as a table. The hi-lift mounts got put inside so I could leave it places and not worry about someone stealing my jack. -I replaced the starter, battery and fuel filter within the last year. It really stemmed from one problem- the fuel filter was clogged, which caused the engine to crank too much when starting, which killed the battery and eventually the starter. Everything works fine now, the old starter was garbage anyways. -I wired in a 12v outlet to charge a cellphone, run a GPS etc. -Radiator muff is included for winter operation (this works like a charm, definitely keeps the cabin toastier) The Bad (arguably, the ugly): -Depending on your tastes, the paint is a disaster. Basically an encyclopedia of cosmetic defects. There are scratches, uneven shades, areas where the paint is haphazardly caked on, dings, nicks, you name it. I tried to take pictures of the worst spots to get you an overall idea of the condition of the car. I thought about painting it... but honestly, it looks better like this. -The windshield is cracked, under the rear view mirror. I don't even notice it any more, it hasn't spread, but its there. -It doesn't leak very much of anything, which is rare for Land Rovers. It does weep a little though when it gets extremely hot or very cold (i.e. when the fluids and seals expand and contract) -The rear door above the tailgate should be sanded and repainted. Solid, but it doesn't look very nice. I just bolted it shut because people kept on opening it at night. -Contact corrosion put a hole in the exhaust which I repaired with one of those wide, generic autozone exhaust clamps. I think stainless steel would be the way to go eventually, but it works fine for right now. -The front left signal will not turn on when the head lights are on. Your guess is as good as mine. Turn the lights off... no problem. Same goes with the passenger side map light. -Temperature gauge was acting erratically for a few weeks and decided to park itself at cold. Hasn't had any effect on vehicle operation. Most of these problems are hardly noticeable day to day. Bigger issues to think about if you're considering a vehicle like this are: -The complete lack of acceleration that a 2.5 diesel engine has. -The fact that there is a learning curve driving on the other side of the vehicle -The matter there is no power steering (city dwellers beware, parallel parking can be painful) -On the highway, you will never see 70MPH nor will you be able to hold a conversation with your passengers over the engine noise at 40MPH.-If it rains, you will get wet. If it's hot, you will sweat. If it's snowing, you'll get covered in snow. Look at it like an upgrade from a motorcycle, not a regular passenger car. -My state doesn't require inspections for antique vehicles, yours might. Will it pass with right hand steering, aftermarket seats, etc? There's no warranty, but like I said, I drove this from Maine to Utah and back with NO problems. That being said, you could in theory drive this home, but if you've never driven something like this before, you will crash without some practice. I might be willing to drive it to you, depending on my work schedule and provided you don't live somewhere like Alaska, if you would pick up the fuel costs. If not, shipping or pickup is the buyers responsibility. Ask as many questions and you want and I'll make sure to answer them- thanks for looking!On Sep-27-14 at 08:29:13 PDT, seller added the following information: Forgot to add that I replaced the rear U joint after a particularly rough trail- shouldn't have to worry about that for a while!On Oct-08-14 at 13:29:39 PDT, seller added the following information: If anyone is interested in additional pictures of the underside, e-mail me, I'll take pictures of whatever you want.