Rust Killed My Land Rover Defender TD5?

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Rust is always the biggest concern for owning a Land Rover Defender or any sort of classic car if you have really salty roads. Now, I normally limit the use of my Land Rover Defender over the winter because I don't tend to get it really salty. I don't like to get loads of salt on it crossmember, but this year I've just thrown caution to the wind. I've done about 3,000 miles in it. I did look at it last year and had a really thorough inspection of it and I did think this could be the last year of this crossmember, but I'm going to take a hammer to it on the rear crossmember.

[00:00:28]It's not looking brilliant. So, I'm just going to see basically what's left and see if I can get it through another MOT.

[00:00:33]Now, anyone who's ever had rust in their eye will know to wear goggles when going under a vehicle. I'm obviously going to take off quite a lot of corrosion product on this vehicle, so it's going to splash down quite heavily on me. So, I'm going for the full full mask goggles today. Right. So, the crossmember obviously here. And what first caught my attention is obviously the crevice corrosion. what's happened over the last year on its obviously salt and grit and grime has got in amongst here. I have stripped it all down before and undersaled it all, but you can see it's bubbling. This is a year later after having underseal on it and stripped down to the sort of the metal with rust converter on it as well. And I can just almost pull it away. I'm basically going to rip this off. This is almost like ripping a plaster off or a band-aid if you're watching in America. You just rip it off quickly and do the least amount of pain possible going along. [sighs] It's had a few plates under here. One plate somewhere around here. That's it there. That's one plate.

[00:01:33]Another plate in the past is around here somewhere. I think it's there. Yeah, that bit there.

[00:01:41]And this bit's not looking too bad.

[00:01:43]Looking more solid. And overall, the actual crossmember itself is looking okay.

[00:01:52]As I go underneath the vehicle, the uh fuel tank guard is looking horrendous.

[00:02:00]That's how bad it's looking. But in terms of overall structured structure rigidity, it's looking okay here.

[00:02:14][music] [music] [music] Heat. Heat.

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[00:03:20][music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Well, this is the rear crossmember now descaled. And I think it's pretty like catastrophic for the actual rear crossmember there or certainly for this side anyway. And you can see the unseal's actually done its job on the outside and on the inside there. But what's actually happened is it's rusted from the inside.

[00:04:07]So it's look at all that crud just sat there. You can just pull it all out.

[00:04:15]It's just 20 years plus of dirt and debris.

[00:04:23]And there's not really many ways to actually clean that or prevent that.

[00:04:29]The rear crossmember's just had its time.

[00:04:32]All the stuff coming out of that that hole what I made in the plate.

[00:04:38]It's just like sand, sand, salt, and maybe a bit of stone as well.

[00:04:46]But yeah, very very fine fine silt.

[00:04:50]Anyway, quite satisfying really.

[00:05:01]Obviously, not comparing how much the cost is going to be, but just satisfying getting all this sand out of my chassis.

[00:05:09]Just makes you think what the rest of the chassis is like inside.

[00:05:19]So yeah, it's actually had a plate repair in its past and the plate repair has now failed. My hammer went straight through it and once you get one hole, you can guarantee if you keep going, you're going to get more. So that plate has now failed and it's within um I think 30 cm of the towing structure, something like that, or certainly within the towing structure anyway. So that is now deemed to be unsafe to tow and obviously will not pass an MOT. But since my wife does actually tow in this occasionally, you know, it needs to be fixed. It needs to have a towing towing capacity in this vehicle. Obviously that side is now well and truly gooseed. But yeah, just one year ago it was definitely not as bad as this. And that year has really accelerated the corrosion. You know, we've had a pretty wet [gasps] wet and miserable winter.

[00:06:12]And I've used it quite quite regularly as well. Onto the other side on the face of things here. Doesn't actually look too bad.

[00:06:19]A little bit of obviously surface corrosion here and there.

[00:06:23]Plate repair. Plate repair on this side held up okay, but when I took the uh the mud flaps off, [snorts] we've got some penetration going on there. there.

[00:06:42]Not so much there. It's just a bit distorted, but certainly here pretty bad, right?

[00:06:48]So, it's obviously quite bad. Maybe not as bad as I expected, but still pretty bad around here. So, what are the options now? Obviously, the option, the nuclear button is to replace the entire chassis, but the entire chassis is overall in good condition. It's only this rear crossmember that is an issue.

[00:07:06]could cut the actual rear crossmember off, get a galvanized one for roughly 3 to400, then about £1,000 worth of labor somewhere around about there. So, looking at about £1,500 as a really rough estimate to put a new rear crossmember on this vehicle.

[00:07:24]Unfortunately, I can't do the welding.

[00:07:26]That is an issue, and I would like to be able to do welding, but I think even then, I think a fabricator would be needed to put a new rear crossmember on.

[00:07:34]Final option is just plate it. So, are there any fabricators in the comments here? Drop me a comment below and let me know. Is this too far gone to fabricate plates and patch it like a patchwork quilt for another year just so I can get it through another MOT, go on hold in the summer, then maybe look at doing something next year. I do obviously plan to keep this vehicle for very long term.

[00:07:55]I have owned it now for 10 years. So, a galvanized chassis would make the most sense, but it is a lot of downtime for the vehicle to have off the road. The galvanized chassis is always like the sort of runaway train. You replace the chassis and then you go, I'll just replace the brake lines. I'll just replace the suspension. I'll just replace this. I'll just upgrade this.

[00:08:15]And you get a bit of a runaway train effect. Although, you are left with a very good vehicle at the end. And to be honest, these aren't depreciating at all. In fact, they're probably appreciating. So, in the most long-term sense, it would make sense to put this on a Galvy chassis, but I just don't think it's something that I'm willing to do at the minute. I would quite like to just get this vehicle fixed and back on the road so I could keep using it. Like I said, I've done 3,000 mi this year, which for this vehicle is quite a lot.

[00:08:42]It normally only does about well, less than 1,000 miles in sort of dry conditions, but now I've just gone I've seen the brake crossmember was getting a bit bad last year on it. The tester did warn me that one of the plates was wearing a little bit thin as well. So I was like, you know what, screw it. It's getting used in salty conditions, wet conditions all year round. And I've used it in the snow, rain, and all that sort of thing as well. And I've had a great time with it over the last year. But stay tuned what I want to decide to do with it. I'm probably going to replace the uh the bearings and the actual chalicees. So I'll do a bit of um preventive maintenance while it's got some downtime now. Get some re get some quotes for this as well. take it into a few fabricators. And don't forget to hit the like button if you have liked this video and drop me a comment below if your chassis is on the borderline of being unusable. Is it rotten from the inside?

[00:09:30]Have you undersaled it? Have you rust converted it? What are you doing to it?

[00:09:33]What's your long-term plan for it? Let me know. and I'll see you next time.