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The interior is coming along nicely. The headliners are recovered and installed along with insulation on the roof an sides. I am working on some light modifications to the interior rear panels to make them fit with the POE type rear hatch. A simple notch around the locking mechanism should do it.

The exterior roll cage has been painted and installed with new brackets on the interior to tie it to the new SW interior roll cage.

Last week the new ARB fron Bull Bar Bumper was installed along with the original Ramsey 8k winch and synthetic line.

D90 Rebuild

This project is coming along nicely with most of the exterior work completed. The two items left are the ARB Front Winch Bumper and Roll Cage.

I am now working mainly on the interior of the Defender. The new dash gauges are on order and will be installed later this week.

While waiting for the VDO Vision gauges to arrive I started prep work on the headliners. The old sagging cloth has been removed and new material is on order. It looks to be a relatively simple process to glue the new cloth on the headliner frame.

While on the interior I will be changing the steering wheel to one like this, ecxept with all black and no Silver spokes. I like the idea of a slightly smaller wheel to allow more leg room. It will also be spaced a little further back to make the reach somewhat less when the seat is all the way back as I keep it.

D90 Rebuild

I made some good progress over the weekend getting the roof and rear tail gate installed.

D90 Rebuild

I figured out how to get the side and rear glass installed, I was just having a bad day last I tried.

After getting the glass in I could actually install the sides and roof on the truck.

D90 Rebuild

Progress is moving along slowly. I have run into some snags as I start the reassembly process.

While disassembling the dash to replace the dash pod I found an old Alpine alarm system. It was a rats nest of wires that had to be removed.

Still waiting for a seal that will allow me to install the sides and top. It is on BO from LR, maybe I will call RDS and see if George has one.

Waiting for the headlight trims before finishing up the front light installation. I will be installing Headlight relays to take the load off the steering column switch and increase the voltage to the lamps.

Anyone a glass installer? I can’t get the darn rear glass in the sides. I may have to actually PAY someone to do it…

Here are some recent pictures of the project.

D90 Rebuild

After hitting a deer with the D90 it is time to start the repair process. Thanks to Cerrone’s for taking on this job and working with me to get things done right.

Here is a picture showing some of the left side damage. The drivers door is also damaged along with the right front panels. It may not look bad in the pictures, but it will require replacement of all the front panels and door. The hood can be salvaged and repaired.

After a couple of weeks dealing with insurance, the tear down started this week. It will be stripped down as far as reasonably possible to insure the best repair and repaint job possible. Along with the repairs I will be doing some other restoration work as it makes sense to do this while the truck is apart.

I will be doing some of the tear down to get things ready for the pro’s to take over.

Pulled off so far:
Roof Rack
Windshield Hoop
Rear Tire Holder
Rear Door Removal
Sliders Removal
Center Console Removal (To protect it)
Dash removal (for Vent Seal replacement Access)
Complete Roof removal

After all the prep work is done it will go back to Cerrone’s for the real repair work to start.

Here it is as of today:

11.01.2007

The tear down continued today with removal of the windscreen vents. This was more of a project then I imagined due to having never done it before. I also had time to strip the SW doors down to there skins and bag and tag all the parts so I know where they go during reassembly.

I forgot to take pictures!

Tomorrow I will remove the Wheel Arch Eyebrows and I believe that will be it for the tear down.

11.05.2007

Tear down complete! The D90 has been delivered to the shop and repairs are in progress!

I will now start work on prepping the roof sides getting them ready for painting.

11.13.2007

While prepping the top sides for paint I had to remove the windows and discovered something unfortunate. The top sides were originally solid and someone hacked openings into the sides for the existing solid custom glass. When I say hacked, I mean hacked. It was just a gross job, uneven with jagged edges, which explained the uneven weather stripping on the glass. These sides are not acceptable to me so they will be sold or junked and new sides are to be found ASAP.

This is an unfortunate setback.

11.14.2007

The rear door was at one time a standard SW door. Someone removed the standard door tire carrier and filled the old holes with some kind of body filler. The also separated the door skin from the frame and slipped in a piece of re-inforcing diamond plate where the tire carrier attaches to the door making an outward bow to the panel. It is all very odd and puzzling as to why they added the plate as there is no real reason for having it. The standard backing plate would have worked fine. I have removed the plate and am in the process of removing the sprayed on undercoating on the doors interior and will be attempting to restore it to it’s original painted state.

D90 Rebuild