Defender 110 Pickup build, (wifes new scaler)

[Prime]

Well since I have finished building my new scaler (see sig if you want) I was on the hunt for a new project. My wife asked if I would build her a new rig since hers was getting rather old (it was built in Feb of 07) and she would like something new. Here is the old rig that is going to donate it's axles, tranny, and electronics. It is a TM3 chassis w/ good old Moabs on it.


I asked her what she wanted and she said she would like something different, like a Land Rover Pickup. So we went on the hunt for a defender body to cut up into a pick up. As luck would have it we found a Defender 110 Pickup body in Europe. It is kinda bland, but the size and most of the details looked about right so we ordered one up. It came in this morning and work has began.

Here is the body as it came out of the packing material.





As you can tell the body is missing a few details, but they will be added as the build progresses. Plans call for adding the door lines, hinges, tail lights, full interior, and the various other things that are missing. Also it will receive a drop bed and a exo. It will be built to be an extreme off road trail machine that can still be street driven.

A loose plan for the exo.



And here is the planned chassis. It will be made from 1/2" square stock cut down the middle to make a c channel chassis.


The axles will be TLT with a pede tranny. Not sure which shocks yet, but I am thinking about the g-made ones. The tlt axles may be a bit old school now, but they fit the body quite well. Ignore the mismatched tires, those are just a couple I had laying around. We are not sure what tires we will end up running in the end, though my wife is leaning toward the a set of flat irons.


Thanks for looking and please stay tuned for much more to come.

[66sprint6]

Cool!!! Very different, and with some small finishing touches, could be a great lookin little rig. Keep it up!
Matt

[super pig]

sweet truck were did u order the from i want one

[Prime]

Thanks for the encouragement. i promise this build will continue, though it may be a bit slow at time due to school stating on Monday, but there will be updates as the come along.

Originally Posted by super pig

sweet truck were did u order the from i want one

The body came from RPi Engineering International. They make and sell parts for Landy V8 swaps. They sell on eBay as well under the name Parts Range.

[Prime]

I now have a frame. It is made from a piece of 1/2" square stock, pie cut and brazed together and then cut down the middle. About half way through my dremal died so I had to finish cutting it with a hand grinder with a cut off wheel, that was fun lol. I still need to do some clean up on it, but here it is. Though the front pieces look to be bent at different angles it is just an optical illusion made by the angle of the picture.



Not the greatest one out there but for my first one, I am quite happy with it.
More updates as the become available.

[86 Iroc]

I agree . Very different and cool truck ! Like where this is going

[Prime]

Originally Posted by 86 Iroc

I agree . Very different and cool truck ! Like where this is going

Thank you.

Well I now have the basic chassis ready to go. There has been a slight change in plans. We were going to use the pede tranny out of the TM3 but due to the size of it, we have decided to go with the ever popular Axial transmission. So I got the tranny mount brazed in and it is drilled and ready to go as soon as it gets it's own tranny.



Next up is to get the links figured out and order up the some shocks for it.

[chicostaxxs007]

nice,whats the wheel base?

[renoirbud]

I have two of those and never got a build together because the wheelwells are too small for what I planned.

[Prime]

Originally Posted by chicostaxxs007

nice,whats the wheel base?

The wheel base is 11.5".

Originally Posted by renoirbud

I have two of those and never got a build together because the wheelwells are too small for what I planned.

They are a bit small, but then again real rovers have small wheel wells too, so it all works out.

Speaking of tires, we have decide on what we are going to run. Just finished ordering up a set, but I am going to wait till they get here from RC4WD before I unveil them.

I do have the axles mounted up and I am ready to start figuring out the shock mounting locations. The set up is nothing fancy, just a standard 4 link set up. Simple, yet effective. I played around with torque arms on the front just like the 1:1, but could not get good flex out of it.



Well thats it for now. More updates as they become available.

[Prime]

I have finished up the front shock mounts and have the shocks mocked up. I still need to clean up the joints though. As of right now it has stock tlt shocks. I am not sure if I will keep these or not, right now there are rather stiff, but there is still alot of weight to be added. If they dont work I will go with a different set, probably something from RC4WD. All the hardware on this rig is just for mock up. Most of it will be swapped out for better fitting button head pieces during final assembly. Anyways, here are the pics.




Thanks for looking, now on to the rear.

.

[Prime]

Rear shocks are in and they work wonderfully. I figure the tlt shocks will probably end up staying because I am quite happy with the way they are working out. The mount is a simple brake line hoop with a sheet of metal from a Dell Server rack mount added to it.
Also the tires in these pics are not the ones I plan on running. I am using them because they are the same height as the RC4WD tires I will be running once they get here, so these are perfect for mock up purposes.
From the front.


And from the rear.


Ofcourse the required flex shot. Some of the flex will more than likely be taken out once the body is mounted.


I also started on the front bumper. My original plan was for square bumpers, but I did not like the way it looked on the truck after I finished the front one, so I went with tube instead. It will have a brush guard and a winch will sit in the recess behind the bumper.


Thats it for now, more to come later.

[bmx_ican92]

sweet! diggin it

[Prime]

Originally Posted by bmx_ican92

sweet! diggin it

Thank you.

I now have the front bumper mostly finished. I still need to make a mount from it to the frame. I am waiting on my rims/tires to get here though before I make the mount so I can get the body height right for the wheels. The top hoop comes up even with the top of the hood so it sticks up a bit over the fenders. It is ok though since the exo will tie in there. The little hoop on its right side is for the winch's hook. It still needs some clean up, but I wait till I am completely finished before I do that since I have a habit of changing things or adding stuff as I go along. Now the pics.




Thanks for looking.
-Prime-

[vipxj]

Its coming along nicely,i likey.

[Prime]

Originally Posted by vipxj

Its coming along nicely,i likey.

Thank you.

I got part of the exo over the hood and roof finished up today, but have not gotten around to taking pictures of it yet. Hopefully I will have more of an update tomorrow (with pictures).

[Prime]

Well I got some more finished up. I have the exo across the roof finished up. I still need to make the roof rack for the top and the down tubes into the dropped bed still need added as well as a couple of support pieces. Over all I am happy with how it is turning out. Tomorrow I will build the rear bumper and tie it in. I may also start on adding the correct rocker panels to the truck so I can do the sliders. Anyways here are the pics of the progress so far. Thanks for looking.

[squatch71]

Very cool build for sure..are you going to have the exo skeleton bolt on to frame or will it be attached to the body some how?

[bmx_ican92]

looks fantastic

[popup]

Mate that is looking sweet keep up the good work.