Defender doors are they worth fixing - or should I buy new? 

My first Defender 300tdi that I bought in September has rusty doors. I only bought it fir the winter and the dogs but I’ve fell for it and use it as my daily driver Great cars

The doors of my 1995 110 Station Wagon were suffering rust and aluminum corrosion. A repair would be a nightmare and original replacements are expensive, so I decided to replace the 4 doors by Series Type (split top-bottom) doors. Ordered them at sp4x4 in UK and they came as a full set including cappings. These doors are galvanised so will not rot anymore. Right now I am in the proces installing the doors. The sliding windows and lift up handles are looking great. Can’t wait for summer to take the tops of. Take care in Canada and thank you for all your postings. Kind regards from The Netherlands.

I cut my teeth repairing doors on classic cars - hugely complex forms, head melting stuff - compared to them, Defender/Series doors are a walk in the park. You need 25mm/1" box iron & some flat 1mm steel sheet - you can make everything out of those. One thing you do need is a very good sandblaster. It will cut everything back to good bare metal so you can re-build off a solid base. Beyond that, believing Defender doors are hard to repair, well you never did a 1970's Hilux door so. Those are hard - Defenders are in comparison a total & utter doddle. Heat is your friend when opening/closing the door skin folds - that common spot you had your finger on - it's a matter of building back the rusted steel using the mig - takes only a few minutes. My own honest opinion is that unless you have a very decent blaster that can take both the ally & the steel back to clean bare metal everywhere, you're on a hiding to nothing - but if you do, they are hugely repairable. My own "go to" for rebonding the steel to the skin is Orkon adhesive - it's crazy expensive but also crazy good. I have my own recipe "anti-rust" spray that I spray into all the cavities - after years of buying rubbish, I made my own that works better. Another "Must" is to remove absolutely everything before even going near repairs - every nut, bolt, latch, hinge, seal, glass, guide, rivet & trim - get the door down to the absolute bare metal - work back from there. Also, use crushed glass in your blaster - not sand. Crushed glass will give a brilliant finish on the ally panels, sand will leave it like the surface of the moon. You can prime straight off the crushed glass finish & it will lay on smooth as - no amount of sanding will even get close to the surface you can achieve. Use a 2-pack epoxy primer - give the cheap stuff a miss - there's no point preparing everything nicely then ruining it using rubbish paint - use the good stuff - but above all, get stuck in. You can repair them - you just have to get stuck into the process. My 2c. :-)

I’m a bit of a sentimentalist unfortunately Mike, every dent and mark on my old Land Rover tells a story... my drivers door has a big dent in it where a good friend and work mate fell into it drunk, he’s not with us anymore unfortunately...It’s now part of the vehicle so I’ve been welding that door up for a few years now but it really is bloody hopeless... they don’t last long before the welds crack or the rust gets back into them! Like you said, the best way is to prevent it in the first place

I hope you have a good Christmas Mike (if it’s still legal to celebrate that over in Canada).

just done one of my door frames (front passenger side) following one of your previous vodeos. when i took it apart, the frame was super rotten, not just the bottom but the mid sectoon and sides. fortunately, its a hobby vehicle so i could take the door off for a few weeks, cut out and weld in lots of new steel, then soak for a week in a phosphoric acid bath to get any final internal rust, before cold galvanising it all. planning to reassemble it this weekend and was going to wrap the frame in packing film so no contact with the aluminium skin that i am only putting back on due to not wanting a mismatch on the overall patina. wouldnt have got this far without your videos Mike so many thanks and keep up the good work. merry christmas

Love how you go into the finer detail

Very wise advise. Have a good Christmas.

With the way they are nicking doors and bonnets in U.K. I will not buy used or salvage doors here now. Having had a defender stolen I know the pain it causes. John Craddock LTD sell front row doors brand new for what a second hand set would cost

Ive just repaired my rear door, peeled the skin and put chopped up plastic bottles between ally & steel bonds. Also CT1 silicone is a good barrier. Both my 2nd row doors or shot but £££££££. I'm going to watch your reskinning vids when I get round to repairing them.

My big door restoration problem is door cards. I've never seen anyone who can repair one.

Hi Mike very well done as always Mike would that with a transit to drill holes in the the top of the doors to rust prevention many thanks Eliot

Hey mike make a video regarding door cards repair as they hang off. Or maybe a video of removing door card. Whilst its off do basic repairs and pimping and injecting oil, paint then hanging the door cards back on

Sad to say all my doors show the exact same corrosion as your example Mike. I’ve purchased the boot bottoms ready to install and the upper interior frame for the front doors as they crack. Am going to try and repair the upper rear door frame at the window corner. Not looking forward to it but at £800 for a door vs maybe £100 for parts and my time I’ve got try try. All the best Mat

I wonder if anodized rivets would make any sense,works on mountain bike components ?

acf 50 ... good enough for helicopters . more than good enough for land rovers , even when they are half way rotten , which is usually just as they are leaving the factory. it will stop rust , it wont fix it , but it will stop it getting worse as long as you stick with it. till folk realise this needs sorted from day one , ill keep welding them , land rovers are a never ending source of income for a good welder and with doors at a thousand pounds each , i can certainly repair them for you ,,, but its not going to be cheap.

Buy Rocky Mountain Series doors! Less problems for less money and more sound to enjoy. 😉

Great video as always. Any chance of some videos on Differential rebuilds?

I got rear ended 18yrs ago and the insurance replaced the rear door. Now I had fitted an aluminium door card to the original with rivnuts to support the frame knowing that they tend to break with spare on the back. I was pleased to find the door had all the additional reinforcement used on the defenders. I took the card off the replacement door a few months back to find the insurance/garage hadn't swapped the reinforcement over :( and it's cracked in all the usual places now. Bit late to have a go at them for it. On another note, any chance you could do those measurements for setting the B/C pillar spacing from the rear tub.

..my old front doors had the usual orangey brown drainage channels in the bottom, which is why I'm replacing them...also the final episode of the year of Grump's Barn is now up....I've got 20 subs now :))

G'Day Mike. I'm going to have to swap out my 2nd row right side door, I'm contemplating going with a galvanised Puma door, its expensive but........ Then I saw your 130's SQUARE bottomed 2nd row doors an I was like, "Me likey likey" and since then I've been searching like crazy for them but still aint found nothing :( lol

Hey mike ship a container of doors for yourself sell them

Any experience of replacement doors that have galvanised skins Mike? PS hope you have a good Christmas.

Mike celebrates Christmas with all the best health and God's favors. Dariusz Polkowice.

what is your opinion on the lower door seals? My 110 had the ones mounted on the sills, I ditched them years ago and never bothered with anything other than thicker socks. I'm trying to decide on the rebuild if I do seals on the sills or door bottoms.

Which (if any) models are Puma doos a direct replacement for? I have a friend in SA with a Defender whose doors make those ones look new

Are fibreglass doors legal over there Mike?

Will puma doors fit a td5 defender?