With the Deposit for a frame paid, I now needed a donor vehicle from which to harvest parts. As discussed in the previous entry, the ideal donor car for the job was a 3.9 litre (or 4.0 litre) manual Land Rover Discovery. So I set about looking for the prefect car, one which was mechanically sound, cheap but had tatty body work or even an MOT failure which required structural welding. I wanted to spend less than £1000 all in.
I looked through all the usual channels; Auto-Trader, Pistonheads, Land Rover magazines etc etc. The number of cars I found in the spec. that I wanted at the price I wanted totalled 5. Sadly before I got to look at some a few disappeared, which cut me down to just 2. There was a £795 3.9l in Newcastle which looked a little beaten up, had no MOT or tax, and a £1400 4.0l in Peterborough.
Seeing as Newcastle was a 3+ hour trip, Dad and I went to Peterborough instead. When we arrived, we were greeted by a small but crowded lock up, with our Discovery right at the back behind 2 rows of cars. It had obviously been neglected as the tyres were all flat and the battery had burst which was spewing pale blue crystals from one of the terminals. As a result the engine wouldn’t even turn over, so we quickly walked away.
It looked as though we were going to have to go to Newcastle, except there was nothing to go for as car had disappeared from Auto-trader and we couldn’t raise the dealer (it later re-appeared on Gumtree sporting a fresh MOT and pumped up price tag, even though it was missing a front head-light cluster and indicator). All my options had gone. I had the choice of wait until a new car came up or go and look at some diesels (yeuch!).
In my hour of need, the Black Country again came up with the goods. Not more than 10 miles away from where I bought the chassis, a gleaming red 3.9l Discovery popped up, for the princely sum of £1290. Dad and I hitched up the trailer and went, promptly, with cash in hand. We took the trailer for two reasons, a) we didn’t want to make the trip again, and b) if it looks like you mean business, you can drive a harder bargain.
We arrived on the chap’s doorstep; he then explained that the car was not at his “showroom” (I think he thought we were joking when we said we’d come and look at it), it was at a Land Rover specialist (Read: drug dealers auto-repair workshop). We then followed him on a convoluted trip into what turned out to be the centre of Birmingham… with the trailer. Not the most amount of fun I’ve ever had, but we made it. When we arrived, we found the car in this state (see above picture).
There was a mechanic (who smelt like a ferret crossed with a pole-cat) trying to fit a new distributor. He was using the wrong cylinder bank to set the timing, and as a result the car did not run. But it turned over, had the right colour coolant, oil etc. The rest of the car was tidy enough, just the odd oil leak here and there, but everything (CV joints, drive shafts and the like) was deemed as it should be. Cutting a long story short, I bought it for just over £1000. I figured if nothing else it’s £1000 worth of spare parts.
So here is what I bought:
It is a 1998 Land Rover Discovery V8i series 1. It has 103,000 miles on the clock, which is actually surprisingly low for the age. It is fitted with an LPG system, which I am told is worth more than the car (meh, scrapyard or use one of the tanks to hold compressed air for when I get some pneumatic diff locks).
It has a cloth interior, which doesn’t hide its age well. No Air-con, nor any airbags, which makes things easier when it comes down to the electrics. It has a 5 speed gearbox and a 2 speed transfer box complete with locking differential.
I have been told quite a few times that it is too nice to strip for parts (again, meh).
It came with 16 inch wheels, all with completely ruined tyres on them, I was planning to get some 18 inch wheels from a Range Rover anyway. These will make ideal tyres for storage for the time being, then I can put some massive 37inch off-road tyres on these wheels when it’s complete. So win-win.
There you have it. For now I have a non running 3.9l V8 Discovery, but now the fun can begin!