Building the perfect 90

I normally keep financial matters private, but tracking this project's cost may be interesting, and could be informative for others considering extensive rebuilds. With that said, here's the cost so far for the bumper and shocks: Parts $838 | Shipping: $145

erover82 said:

After this, things began to accelerate..

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Accelerate, they did. The first round of "parts-need evaluations" mentioned earlier resulted in a purchase from Britcar for 305 parts. Granted, much of this consisted of hardware and small bits. I had first tried to purchase the parts directly from Bearmach, but upon checkout found that their cart system couldn't actually process that many parts at once. I don't recall why I resisted splitting the order, or why I subsequently chose Britcar, but I then painstakingly copied every part over to Britcar, where it processed the order without issue. I believe Bearmach's system has been improved since then.

Running total: Parts $2,071 | Shipping $334

Enter, LR Workshop. This was a game-changer. In the early days, I would identify parts using vendor's websites, which vary greatly in usability, comprehensiveness, and accuracy. I wondered at one point why someone hadn't created a website to better catalog Defender parts; crowdsourcing and cross-referencing more information than vendors could offer on their own. Apparently, it was such a great idea that someone had already done it.


Now my "parts-need evaluations" could be taken to the next level. I would pick a section of the vehicle, look it over physically inch-by-inch to identify worn, broken, or corroded parts. I would then reference LRWorkshop's diagrams to determine which parts may be missing, had been superseded, that were overlooked, or that I had alternative choices. This was the gateway drug to shipfitters disease.

"See, this tail light bulb needs replaced. Well, the housing is a bit faded, better get that. The others lights will look mismatched. Better get those too. Oh, the panel is corroded around the light's mounting screws. Better get that. I'll have to paint the new panel and it won't match the capping which is corroded anyway. Better get that. Better get every single screw and rivet so as not to reinstall parts with corroded hardware. You know, I'd like to eventually repair and paint this adjacent panel here, but if I do that I'll have to re-fit all the previous work, so I may as well just do it now.."

I saw the onset of the disease coming a mile away. I'd experienced it before, seen it in others, and joked about it. Nonetheless, I was powerless to resist. It would all have to be done now or I couldn't live with myself.

Love reading this. Did this, at this point, happen last week, month, year or decade? You know, for reference...

MountainD said:

Love reading this. Did this, at this point, happen last week, month, year or decade? You know, for reference...

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Initial vehicle purchase was mid-2019. The events conveyed here so far aren’t exactly in chronological order, but are roughly occurred within the remainder of 2019 and 2020. The first parts orders occurred within a few months following the initial purchase.

Im loving this thread as I can relate to it so well. Its possibly one of the more honest in emotions department as well. and the shipfitters disease is real.. Not sure its curable.

erover82 said:

It would all have to be done now or I couldn't live with myself.

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It is not easy or simple to order all the parts. Many parts for these early trucks are now No Longer Available or backordered for lengths of time. COVID's disruption of supply chains has only made this worse. On such NLA blanking plug and an out-of-stock-everywhere shift gaiter was ordered from ebay. A RHD dash finisher was ordered from Rovers North along with a few other bits, only to find it was backordered with no ETA (no fault of RN's). One should expect when embarking on this path to spend countless hours hunting these elusive parts. Ebay is helpful for finding those NLA parts, but often requires waiting and setting alerts for when they pop-up.

One strategy I've used for buying backordered parts is automated website change monitors such as Visualping.io.

Here I've setup a monitor for a rear tub capping to target the "Out of stock" element and set the proxy to UK to eliminate the "We ship to the United States" popup.

The previously mentioned parts puts us at a running total of:
Parts $2,229 | Shipping $375

At this point I was spending countless hours examining the 90, referencing LRWorkshop, looking through catalogs, and compiling a list of the next round of parts to purchase. It was long. In fact the total shown below was a couple hundred parts short.


"OK, I've finally got all the parts ready to order and I've got a rare time-limited 10% off coupon. Let's click that Checkout button.."

I’m patient on the time front for parts. I’m still a month + away from receiving my engine (ordered months ago) and I ordered a cooling stack months ago knowing what sort of time they require. I have shelves of parts. Keeping track of what I have vs what I still need is something I need to look at soon (primarily for my axle rebuilds...). I’m pretty organized but it’s amazing how much I seem to forget as months pass... and parts lists that just have numbers (no descriptions) just blur my brain...

erover82 said:

View attachment 19610

It is not easy or simple to order all the parts. Many parts for these early trucks are now No Longer Available or backordered for lengths of time. COVID's disruption of supply chains has only made this worse. On such NLA blanking plug and an out-of-stock-everywhere shift gaiter was ordered from ebay. A RHD dash finisher was ordered from Rovers North along with a few other bits, only to find it was backordered with no ETA (no fault of RN's). One should expect when embarking on this path to spend countless hours hunting these elusive parts. Ebay is helpful for finding those NLA parts, but often requires waiting and setting alerts for when they pop-up.

One strategy I've used for buying backordered parts is automated website change monitors such as Visualping.io.
View attachment 19609
Here I've setup a monitor for a rear tub capping to target the "Out of stock" element and set the proxy to UK to eliminate the "We ship to the United States" popup.

The previously mentioned parts puts us at a running total of:
Parts $2,229 | Shipping $375

At this point I was spending countless hours examining the 90, referencing LRWorkshop, looking through catalogs, and compiling a list of the next round of parts to purchase. It was long. In fact the total shown below was a couple hundred parts short.
View attachment 19612

"OK, I've finally got all the parts ready to order and I've got a rare time-limited 10% off coupon. Let's click that Checkout button.."

View attachment 19613

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FYI I think yrm is making cappings now ?

MountainD said:

I’m patient on the time front for parts. I’m still a month + away from receiving my engine (ordered months ago) and I ordered a cooling stack months ago knowing what sort of time they require. I have shelves of parts. Keeping track of what I have vs what I still need is something I need to look at soon (primarily for my axle rebuilds...). I’m pretty organized but it’s amazing how much I seem to forget as months pass... and parts lists that just have numbers (no descriptions) just blur my brain...

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I've been entering the part number into my email search any time I question whether I've already ordered a part.

Napalm00 said:

FYI I think yrm is making cappings now ?

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Unfortunately they only take genuine and "reconditioned" cappings and galvanize them for resale.

Ah bummer

erover82 said:

View attachment 19613

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Needless to say, LRDirect's checkout system didn't take kindly to requests beyond the limits of acceptability. I got the feeling it was saying "What madman purchases 1000+ parts in one go? Oi! Just buy a new one!" Well, I might have if 200Tdi Defenders were still produced, except I also want to do it the hard way, ok?

The next few months saw dozens of emails exchanged with LRDirect's customer service contact. They were quite patient but at the same time unable to do much due to being entirely at the mercy of their IT team's willingness to tackle an obscure issue. I was advised to split the order into multiple smaller orders, but again resisted due to the following reasons:

1. I wanted my precious discount to apply to all orders.
2. I did not want to go through the arduous and insanely time consuming task of moving hundreds of line items between spreadsheets and carts, all while trying to avoid mistakes with carefully chosen part sources (Genuine, branded, OEM, aftermarket) and quantities. Each data entry task was an opportunity to screw up.
3. I was convinced that shipping would amount to far less with a single combined order.

Due to my their inability to rectify the issue, I was allowed to use the discount across several orders. Faced with no alternative, I set about moving cart items to a spreadsheet until the order system no longer blew up. It wasn't until 4/5th of the cart had been removed until it was pleased with my more rational request. This was when I noticed that import taxes and duties had dropped to zero. The whole issue had to do with the system being unable to calculate these taxes and duties with so many parts of different size and weight, which could be entirely avoided by keeping the order total below $800 USD. This also meant that my assumption #3 was wrong. The amount saved by avoiding taxes and duty was far greater than that saved on shipping of a single order.



After a week of "spare time" data entry labor, I had finally split up and placed six orders for parts. The running total after placing these six orders, plus the tires and wheels pictured earlier that I forgot to account for:
Parts $8,049 | Shipping $2179

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You're probably bored or horrified at this point so here's some photos to break up the wall of text:

Piece of junk just before being shipped to America in retribution for 1776. Notice the anachronistic brand decal applied to the bonnet. It looks even worse in person.

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Now, I'm going to speed this up a bit, because no one needs to read through a play-by-play of every order. I reserve presenting things in such excruciating detail for my wife, because she loves it, it think.

The following months involved much of the same, but at an intensified pace: vehicle examinations, parts diagram studies, hunting down parts, getting quotes, waiting for backordered items, and placing orders. Many well known vendors including Rovers North, Expedition Exchange, LRDirect, Britcar, John Craddock, P.A Blanchard, Raptor Engineering, Stone 4x4, YRM, John Richards, SP4x4, Britrest, LOF Clutches, LR Centre, Amazon, Ebay, and technically "craigslist", were all utilized to source parts.

The previous running total (halfway up) accounted for 22 orders comprising 1,803 parts. To date, the total is now 40 orders comprising 2,411 parts, for a running financial total of:
Parts $19,439 | Shipping $5,434

To close out this chapter, here's a snapshot of one spreadsheet used to track purchases.

erover82 said:

To date, the total is now 40 orders comprising 2,411 parts, for a running financial total of:
Parts $19,439 | Shipping $5,434

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Despite this getting a bit ridiculous, and even though there are unaccounted and ongoing costs, I have tried to be frugal where it is sensible. A choice one makes repeatedly is whether to source a part as Genuine, OEM, aftermarket, branded, remanufactured, or used. The general strategy I used goes like this:

1. If aftermarket is the only choice, check for NOS, good used, or rebuilt. If still unavailable, consider a DIY rebuild of the part. If untenable, purchase aftermarket and hope for the best.
2. If the cost between OEM and genuine is minimal, buy genuine, otherwise buy OEM.
3. If the choice is between aftermarket and ridiculously priced genuine, do your research. The financial pain may be worth it vs the disappointment with some aftermarket parts.
4. If a trusted brand such as Corteco, Timken, Hella, Bosch etc, is available then that may be a good choice.
5. Not all remanufactured parts are properly done so. Proceed with caution and research.
6. Keep an eye out for deals on forums and marketplaces. People often unload new and good used parts at great discounts.

I feel this has generally worked well so far, but time will tell. The cost would have been truly insane if every part were genuine. I'm sure many manufacturers of genuine parts are the same as OEM, aftermarket, and branded choices. The key is getting a sense for when that may be true.


The front bulkhead is one part I scored a deal on. If you'll recall, the existing bulkhead was toast, inside and out. Unfortunately, aftermarket replacements leave much to be desired in fit and finish, and genuine bulkheads have become quite costly. I'm not sure the early bulkheads are even available as genuine anymore, in which case would required some adaptation of an expensive later part.



I was able to find this rust-free original LHD bulkhead on craigslist and worked the seller down to $500... I know, let the jealously soak in for a moment. Also, I prefer RHD and have zero interest in doing a LHD conversion, so unless someone wants to trade a RHD bulkhead, it will be going under the knife to convert to the royally approved RHD configuration. If you'd like to trade or just send hate mail, PM me.

Just as the ordering ramped up, so too did the hoarding. This is many months compressed into a series of photos.


A good haul a few weeks after a round of orders.


Beginning to organize into categories.


Spreading out for more category building.


Making progress organizing the medium sized parts. Categories evolved into: axles/suspension, electrical, large seals/gaskets, hoses, brackets, misc boxed, misc medium-large items. The nearest bin containing smaller yellow bins was further divided into: rubber buffers, body parts, hardware kits, seals, gaskets, hose clamps, and misc.


Satisfaction in cubing out bins. It has since been filled to capacity.


Storing parts boxes in a formerly empty corner. This area has since filled up.


Cubing out a shelf with the categorized bins. Printed labels were later applied. The carboard boxes above also contain parts.


Dealing with hundreds of little polybags of hardware is a royal pain. All hardware was de-bagged, photographed, and sorted into parts organizers with custom printed labels noting the part number(s) (multiple in cases of succession), brand, and country of origin. Later I would know who to blame if a part failed, and upon vehicle reassembly would greatly reduce my time searching for specific little nuts, screws, etc. The categories were: nuts, bolts, machine screws, sheet metal screws, washers, and plastics.


Even with many feet of shelving in the shop, I quickly ran out of room. The attic space above the shop was used to store all the overflow and larger items. It has since filled up to the point that this photo would be impossible.

Lucky 90! That's an impressive parts hoard. It's becoming clear to me now that the way to build the perfect 90 is to replace every part with new!
Respect for your organization.

Tbaumer said:

Lucky 90! That's an impressive parts hoard. It's becoming clear to me now that the way to build the perfect 90 is to replace every part with new!
Respect for your organization.

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It feels like that old Johnny Cash song sometimes. Some parts will be restored by hand, others just need cleaned up, but many are too far gone. Some will be set aside for repair later and used on other trucks. Other parts are being changed to rebuild areas of the 90 into different configurations. That’ll be one of the more interesting aspects to share as the project progresses.

Really enjoying this thread.

They kept coming.



The boys love coming home from school to find packages at the door. My youngest enthusiastically calls them "Zand Vover parts!" and my oldest feels like a big guy getting to use the razor knife while supervised.


Despite having little idea what a ball-joint or bushing is for, they still excitedly tear through all the parts like Christmas morning. I usually come back after bed to organize the resulting chaos.


Hmm, what's this?


Ah right, I remember that one now. In the attic it goes.


Some didn't arrive in great shape, but surprisingly no parts appeared to have gone missing.


More came.


and more..

Not done yet.


OEM goodies


The best, NOS parts!


Kids in bed? Time to enjoy some local wine and organize the day's haul.


Organizing a mix of Britrest, OEM, and branded parts with Old Grandad. Use in moderation.

Orders continue to come in every few weeks, but it's slowing down. At this point I'm running out of room and having to get creative with storage. Thankfully, about 95% of what is needed is now on hand. Looking forward to moving on to the next phase.

erover82 said:

Organizing a mix of Britrest, OEM, and branded parts with Old Grandad. Use in moderation.

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yes, I too only use Britpart in moderation… lol.

if you buy a certain amount they are supposed to give you a commercial rate and access to a interactive parts catalog FYI