Nesbitt The Defender

[TURTLE]

Rab C. Nesbitt

I have wanted to build a Land Rover Defender 90 for years. But for some reason the price always turned me off, that was until RC4WD started making the body. For 80.00 the the body is a steal, it has a full interior with dash, 6 seats, tons of lights, grill, light buckets, the whole shebang. I finally broke down and decided to start my D90 project. I have always heard one big complaint with the body though, they always seem to be top heavy. I looked around a bit and stumbled upon the Defender 90 pick-up. I looked through RCC and found Pardonmynoobs build and was blown away. He gave me a great model to go after and helped me figure out how to get the curves of the back end. For that I say thank you NOOB! It helps a ton.

A little bit of inspiration









The body arrived thursday night and I quickly began cutting it apart.











I added some ribbing to the underside of the wheel wells, the way I drive I need all the reinforement I can get.






I started on the drip rail and window trims late yesterday.




This body has been coming along pretty quickly, I still have several parts in the mail to hopefully really set this one apart. I have a special drivetrain going in this waiting until this gets a little farther along. More details soon.

Stay tuned.

Ty

[ScaleFreak93]

Well pass the popcorn, I'm gonna be here a while. Love it so far Ty, can't wait to see what you come up with!

[Robotboy]

Very nice, this is gonna be killer!!!!

[TURTLE]

Thanks guys!

Got a little bit of work done today.


A little step by step putting diamond plate in the bed area.








And diamond plate styrene in. Pretty simple, the structural part of the bed was already in. I just made paper templates to get the right sizes traced them, cut them out and use some plastic weld to keep them in place.

While I was working on this a couple parts showed up.


Had to mock in the hood diamond plate, these pieces are pretty pricey, but the quality is fantastic.



And how the spare will sit once I build the cage.




Thats about it till I get some more time to build monday afternoon.

Ty

[666]

Looks very nice Ty! To bad you couldn't do the bed in the fancy Euro tread-plate too.

[TURTLE]

Originally Posted by 666

Looks very nice Ty! To bad you couldn't do the bed in the fancy Euro tread-plate too.

Thanks Patrick. Yeah I wish I knew a company that made that pattern in styrene. I would use it on everything!

[666]

They used to have it here but I can't find it anymore...

GardenTrucking.com - Precision Model Distributors

[brianw]

How much trimming has to be done to fit a stock axial trans? I can't find any good shots of the underside or interior to be able to tell.

[aMac_pt]

Already a fan of your "late" TJ, now i'm gona be a fan of your D90!!

[TURTLE]

Originally Posted by 666

They used to have it here but I can't find it anymore...

GardenTrucking.com - Precision Model Distributors

Thanks for the link Patrick, I have looked on that site for parts for my globeliner before, I will have to dig and maybe find something.

Originally Posted by brianw

How much trimming has to be done to fit a stock axial trans? I can't find any good shots of the underside or interior to be able to tell.

Im guessing tons, the interior drops all the way down. I will try to shoot a photo for you tomorrow with the interior in the cab from the underside. Plus tomorrow I get to start deconstruction on the drivetrain for this rig. Im pretty excited.

Originally Posted by aMac_pt

Already a fan of your "late" TJ, now i'm gona be a fan of your D90!!

Thanks man!

Hopefully I get some work done tomorrow.

[stroker613]

Great looking build!

[Dirty]

Got some "ooooohs" and "aaaahhhhhhs" out of me! Great work so far!

[TURTLE]

Thanks guys!

A little bit of work done today.

Trimmed out behind the grill.


Put a patch in for the roof.



Here is how low the interior sits inside the cab. I had to trim part of it to clear the transmission.



I also got the rear end lined up where it needs to be, I still need to rework the front end.



And added some more "bondo" to smooth out the rest of the blems.



Here is the inside view of the trimming I had to do to clear the tranny. I will put a styrene patch in and paint the floor black, should blend pretty well.



The front is riding really high, but after the front end gets reworked it will match the rear end.


Started putting some paint one the double diamond plate as well.


Its coming along, slowly but Shirley.

Ty

[justinart24]

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick! Nice work man!

[TURTLE]

Thanks Justin!

Can you guys say Afrika Mustard?



One more sanding on the roof patch and it should be good. The roof is going to go white anyway, so one more sanding isn't going to hurt.

Something is going on with the quarter panels and the paint so they will have to be repainted too, overall this was to test the color. I think I will keep it.




Ty

[666]

What up with the paint on the front fender?

[Szczerba]

Geeezeeee. I just need to quit my D90 build right now. Very cool build.

[TURTLE]

Originally Posted by TURTLE

Something is going on with the quarter panels and the paint so they will have to be repainted too, overall this was to test the color.

Originally Posted by 666

What up with the paint on the front fender?

Not too sure, it did it on both front quarter panels, it looks like the paint is cracking. Either way, I will sand them down again, maybe a reaction with the black underneath.

[Colby]

Wut the heckz? whered this come from? Love the look so far Ty!!

[Richilux]

looks like a great start to a nice project.I