1997 Land Rover NAS Defender 90
The Start of Something Good
For those of us who grew up reading National Geographic magazines and watching their broadcast specials on television back in the '50s and '60s, the Land Rover marque is something that is very familiar to us. As the preeminent overland vehicle of it's day, just seeing one, whether it be in print or in person, conjured up visions of adventure in far off exotic lands, like deepest, darkest Africa. It's not surprising then, that fifty years later, the Land Rover brand would spark nostalgia in people like us, and a desire to own such a venerable icon.
Early Days
Legal Land Rover Defenders are in short supply here in North America. Identified as NAS Defenders (North American Spec), they were only sold here for a few years, and in low volume. Only 5000 vehicles in total made the trans-Atlantic crossing over to what the Brits would call the "colonies". What made these vehicles unique were the upgrades Land Rover had to install in order for them to meet the North American safety regulations of the day. The primary improvement was that of a complete roll cage to protect the occupants during a bad crash. None of the Defenders sold anywhere else around the world had these roll cages as a stock item. So it's not surprising that they would fetch a premium price. Especially here where there are so few of them left in existence.
Back in 1997 when our vehicle was sold new from the dealer, the retail price for the convertible top model was US$32,500.00. We had to pay almost the same amount ten years later in order to pry it out of the hands of the original owner. So paying near new pricing for a decade old vehicle was certainly an anomaly for us. And because of the aftermarket demand, the price for a NAS Defender just keeps rising. A well known U.S. east coast pre-owned Land Rover seller now routinely advertises NAS models similar to ours, in original condition with low mileage, for upwards of US$80,000.00. You don't find too many car models these days with escalating prices like that as they get older. So I guess the pain of paying almost new pricing for our ten year old Defender back in 2007 doesn't seem so bad now.
The build
We started the build on the Defender very soon after importing it into Canada. I say "we" as, although I did 95 percent of the work on the vehicle, Wendy acted as the "pit crew" keeping me well supplied with food and beverage, providing the third hand when needed, and making countless runs to the supply stores whenever it was needed. So the build was definitely a team effort.
The build started off modestly as we didn't actually know at the time how we would end up using it. For all we knew, the truck might just end up being a cool looking convertible for us to drive to the local coffee bar during the summer. After all, there's plenty of "those" sorts of people living in cities these days.
A few months into the modification, we learned there was a British fellow living only a few blocks away from us that was manufacturing overdrive units for Series model Land Rovers and Defenders, and selling them all over the world. Our introduction via a friend to Ray Wood and his company Global Roamer Corporation, connected us with one of the nicest individuals on the planet. He provided me with access to not only a machine shop where I could do my own work, but also to a knowledge base about Land Rovers that spanned more than five decades. If you're a Land Rover enthusiast, please check out his company.
Defender Projects
The modifications to our Defender spanned a period of several years, which in turn, led into the design and manufacture of the off-road trailer. Since the work became very complex, it's easier to look at the various modifications as stand alone projects.
What you should keep in mind when looking at the work, is that these projects were all undertaken at our home, and done in a very small garage. The work was done "old school" by me, as we no longer had our manufacturing business with all it's sophisticated machinery to help us out.