Well I took delivery of the D90 and drove it immediately to a local shop for an inspection. I bought this car sight unseen and unfortunately no paper records came with the car. I bought it from a dealer in LA who I talked to by phone and I did an extensive FaceTime session with them to check for rust. I also ran a CarFax to understand prior owners, possible accidents, and to receive some of the service records. Everything checked out in the buying process but you still never know until you get the car…..there is always a few surprises when buying an old car.
From the research I have done, this #1317 Defender has had three owners and has passed through an auction house and a dealer. The first owner was in Idaho who owned it for 13 years. It was then owned by someone in California from 2007 until 2012 and then sold to someone who also lived in California but who then moved to Florida. In 2021 it passed through an auction house and was picked up by a dealer back in California which is where I found it. All in all this Defender is actually rather well documented and didn’t pass through too many hands.
Since the car only had 83k miles and was a NAS I figured my risk was low to moderate. The FaceTime call gave me confidence that there was little to no rust and the fact that the seller was a dealer made me feel I had at least some level (albeit low) protection if something went wrong. But it felt great when the car showed up from the shipper and indeed there was no rust, it drove, and generally checked out against my expectations. But off to Cerrone’s European nonetheless for a real look over. Cerrone’s is sort of the local Defender whisperer. They have been in business a long time and focus on euro cars but the owner Frank has a 94 D90 NAS and a reputation of working on all the Defenders in the area, so they were the obvious choice for a look over.
I was thrilled to find out that the car was in great shape. They found some loose bolts here and there, some burned out light bulbs, and they suggested coolant flush. The only material thing we found was that the catalytic converters were shot so we are replacing those. There are some minor cosmetic things I will take stock of to figure out what to replace and what to live with. Frank and I talked about what direction I want to take the car and I have decided that light mods that enhance the spirit of the car, make it safer, and increase the fun factor is the goal. This is not a garage queen, it is not a show car, it is not a collector car, it is not a daily driver, it is a fun weekend warrior car.
So in a couple of weeks the first project will be to replace the tires and do a light suspension upgrade. This will allow us to run proper 33” AT tires. We will widen the stance a bit and we will put on Old Man Emu shocks and Heavy Duty springs so that we can accommodate the added weight of a winch down the road. If you are a Defender lover then you know this is sort of the standard suspension upgrade. After this we will simply enjoy the car for awhile to determine what else to do. It is a delicate balance between doing enough mods to achieve the vision you have and doing too many mods. I am not a Defender purest but nor am I looking to have a car that is all show and no go.