SoonerMatt's 1988 Defender 90 build

Carb and adapter arrived quickly. This thing will run on 1 12V electric, one fuel and one vacuum. They say it likely doesn't need to be adjusted at all. I feel good about starting with this. Holley direct from website is pretty good. I'm impressed.

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Found that you can use 1" 6.5" spacer rings to get 6.5" drivers in the door. This allows me to use 1" tweeters in my pillars, 6.5" drivers in the doors and 5.25" speakers in the headliner above my head. That will be 6 speakers up front and a 12" sub in the back. Will be alright.


New felt, sound deadener and latch hardware in the doors has been amazing. It's a respectable vehicle now. It doesn't sound like I'm slamming a bag of beer cans when I close it. It also closes all the way. No rattling. It's nice believe it or not.



I'll be changing out those screws eventually. The stainless screws I ordered are 1.5" too short.

Starting to pull the old engine. Anyone need a free 19J? Need it gone ASAP.


1" tweeters epoxied into the A pillar well.


Switched to a steel vent cover.

Big progress happening now. It's hard to keep track of everything. All the windows are tinted, mud flaps installed, self tapping screws helped get those flares very snug. Aside from re-doing the bumper bolts and installing the backup camera, that is probably how this will look from this angle when finished.

Have the old 19J out. More to come tomorrow.

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After I post that comment with my mahogany bed idea, Mahker posts the following video clip. Funny coincidence. I want mine to look similar but with 3" strips and 1 polished stainless steel recessed bolt on the end of each board. I'm visualizing something similar to a wood guitar with chrome hardware. Will be cutting the wood tomorrow. We'll see what I can come up with. As usual it might take weeks.

It's frozen in Oklahoma. I don't feel like going in the garage to work on the engine that I should have had completed by now. Still need to figure out the rear door card. The original one is old. My first iteration will be attempting to coat the original in carpet just to have something cleaner. In reality the thing needs a whole new backdoor with better glass. This should be good enough to get by for now.

I used 3M adhesive spray on the carpet and the cardboard. I'm using hot glue around the edges which will most likely all separate in the first 100F summer. I will use fancy OEM style plastic door inserts and clips. I think a flat carpeted panel won't look too bland next to the wood floor, etc in the back. This is still primarily intended to have a dog in the back most weekends. His yellow hair will keep all the black carpet covered.



I'm just going to cut a sliver for the door retainer bar. I don't think the hole is big enough to warrant messing it up with bad cuts. I also sent the bolts for the tire carrier through the structural posts in the door; not just skin. So there will be a little bulge where those bolt heads protrude. They've been ground down a bit to be flat but they aren't completely flat.

Was able to get a whopping 30 minutes in on the Defender today for the first time in a month. Just need to do something. I'm an engineer with military and oil/gas projects. This spring might be busier than expected. I need to keep this truck moving forward...

Decided to remove the stained and scratched aluminum trim from the rear glass and paint it matte black. Decided to grab a few of the shorter mahogany pieces, the stainless trim, etc and see how it's going to look put together back there. The wood will be beveled with a belt sander so the trim piece can fit over it. The black carpet will cover the tops of the wheel wells. Still need to cut out the bulkhead. (I have a fancy idea to temporarily use drywall screws to rivet in the aluminum corner backer when I do the bulkhead) The wood will be secured over butyl sound deadener with countersunk, polished stainless allen nut head bolts. Briefly considered polished chrome strips between the wood after learning the company that makes them is in OKC.



Bumper still needs to be pulled so I can repaint the rear chassis. It has black epoxy and clearcoat but it's now scratched and blotchy. I've heard the joke about turning these things into boats with the wood steering wheel. Don't really care. Wait till you see the mahogany cubby lid and mahogany touchscreen enclosure. I can't do fancy leather but I can do wood.

For everyone's entertainment, I figured out why my old 19J went from running badly to not at all -- it was out of diesel. When I went to drain the tank that I believed had 10 gallons of diesel in it. It was bone dry. So that made my life easier getting ready for the new engine. It kind of annoys me that I spent all that time priming the pump, etc near the end and never checked fuel pressure. Oh well -- the 19J is out.

If anyone is curious what carpet on the OEM door card looks like, here it is installed. If this truck grows on me I'll get I'll maybe switch to a 110 and do frameoff + bulkhead + doors (IE:do it correctly). Otherwise I think these doors are good enough for the dog to ride back there. His yellow fur will contrast well with the black carpet.

Had to roll the defender out of the garage to make room for a friend's jeep which needs a different axle. Today I'm working through the clutch/flywheel/etc to get the engine placed in the defender. For others, that 153 tooth flywheel you need for this swap has 8mm 1.25mm thread bolts. I didn't have them.

Recently decided I'm going to line the headliner. That fiberglass seemed like another echo prone surface. Might as well get it covered up with something soft. That model S commuter car has a black suede headliner. Might choose fake suede in this. I bet it ends up muddy eventually somehow.

(edit: something about the JPG compression makes the metal flake in the candy apple red look pink at times. It is not pink)

Here is a little teaser for the mahogany I'm cutting up to trim this truck. The wood is
nicer than I expected.

Lucked out on the color and grain. I think it's a perfect match. The rear floor will be the same.

This is what I'm thinking for the bed (it's just rough finished for now). The middle 3 are the only ones that are two pieces. The bed is 4'x3' exactly and I only had 6 6' foot boards. That's how it works out if you're considering it. After these pieces are finish sanded and stained, I'm going to give them an epoxy bar top coat. That should hold up against muddy dog paws and tools well. I'll bevel/countersink longer versions of those stainless steel bolts. I'll go ahead and run the stainless bolt heads through the metal polisher. Why not? (sigh)

Still working through the woodwork slowly. Engine swap delayed as buddy's jeep with blown D35 is sitting its place.

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