Car SOS at Britpart - here's the finished Defender. Ready for service with Community Rescue Service

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Welcome to Britpart workshop in Deep Shropshire. This is Steve Grant. He's a senior workshop technician here. My name's Neil Maddicott. I'm engineering manager at Britpart. This facility is normally used for doing [music] trial parts, testing parts on vehicles. We also use it for doing workshop features for magazines. We [music] do filming here for various television programs and and video features as well.

[00:00:23]The executive [music] producer of Car S.O.S. got in touch with us uh early spring 2025.

[00:00:30]Said, "Look, these guys had written in this Defender for this rescue organization in Northern Ireland.

[00:00:38]And that's a really great opportunity. Would we like to be involved?"

[00:00:43]So, the next stage of that was I went out to Northern Ireland with the producer of the show to do a recce. We soon realized, talking to the people who are involved with the organization of Lowland Rescue Northern Ireland, what a really worthwhile project this was going to be. This vehicle was going to potentially save a lot of people's lives if we did it right. And that instantly meant a lot to us. Not just the to us at Britpart, but the Car S.O.S.

[00:01:10]guys, everybody became very invested.

[00:01:12]Talking to the people, talking to the volunteers there, the experiences that they've gone through. And we basically got back in the car in Northern Ireland and looked each other and said, "Look, we've got to do this project." It was a very early TD5 110. Uh and obviously in Ireland, I kind of had a good look round it. So, we knew a little bit what to expect. So, to address the issues with the corrosion uh that this vehicle had had suffered in the past, we got the Britpart catalog out. There's a whole section in there of galvanized parts and stainless steel parts. We said, "Right, let's get everything out of that catalog that will fit this vehicle. We're going to put that on it for a start. And that's going to give this vehicle extra life in the future." So, moving on from the chassis and all these lovely, you know, galvanized parts, which incidentally after that we covered up with a a Dinitrol black finish to further protect the galvanized. From the axle, the rear is a Salisbury axle uh cuz it's a very early TD5. So, that's been reconditioned in house by Steve. Uh it's also been fitted with an Ashcroft ATB diff in the back.

[00:02:20]Again, this is where we started to move away from standard. We wanted to make it as capable as we could for them. You know, this is it's a genuine working vehicle. It needs to be able to go out there, be deployed, and save lives.

[00:02:33]So, we've got the ATB in the Salisbury in the rear. The front axle's been reconditioned and in the front of that we've got a Terrafirma e-locker diff in the front. So, the suspension is primarily pretty standard uh because we needed to keep everything at standard height so that they can get the vehicle into under forest barriers and stuff like that. So, the springs are standard OE specs springs. The shock absorbers are Terrafirma's Monotube um shock absorbers. It's again really high-quality shock absorber. Uh just going to give them a little bit more handling, a little better control.

[00:03:08]So, the reconditioned LT230 transfer box. The main box, like I said, it was there's nothing wrong with it at all.

[00:03:13]It's perfect. On the engine side, we've done the usual sort of >> [music] >> things that need to be done to a TD5 of that age. So, it's had new exhaust manifold, new turbo. It's had the injector loom replaced. All the ancillaries on there, starter motor, alternator. Back in old water pump.

[00:03:30]Water pump, injector loom for TD5. So, bodywork, we were actually in some respects we were lucky. Although the chassis was very badly corroded, one thing we got really lucky on was that the state of the bulkhead was remarkably [music] good. Um you had to do a a few little repairs here and there on it. A few on the bulkhead, but not much anywhere else.

[00:03:50]>> No, so it's pretty good. Uh from a point of view of just tidying the the vehicle up, we're fortunate that [music] we have access to all of the only panels that we sell from wings and doors and come from the OE source anyway. So we've got new wings, we've got new body, we've got new radiator panel, we've got new doors. The only original panels now are the rear tub itself and the roof.

[00:04:17]So everything else is brand new. We've got Terrafirma lockers at the side which is pretty standard with then it's what we've actually chosen to put in the lockers. If you do open that first one.

[00:04:30]So in in here you can see we've got the auxiliary battery and all the associated fuses.

[00:04:36]So what's connected to that auxiliary system, Steve?

[00:04:39]Everything that's not standard to the vehicle. So everything that we wouldn't normally have. So we've got the sirens, we've got all the lights, the compressor that we will see in a minute. That all goes through that system so we're not actually putting that down on the the vehicle's main battery so that's always safe.

[00:04:56]Moving to the back of the vehicle in there we can see we've got a ARB air compressor with a tank in there. We've done a few modifications to it to make it more usable for them. We've put standard airline fittings on so they can plug pretty much anything onto that.

[00:05:11]We've also got a nice little light in there so if it's middle of the night, that's all connected to the side lights they'll go round there they can see what they're doing. Yeah, so the back pretty standard stuff. Obviously we've got the emergency lights. Obviously these are blue flashing lights and they're also what's called a scene light which are used by emergency services >> [music] >> so you can see what you're doing.

[00:05:30]There's quite a few lights around the vehicle which unusually point sideways.

[00:05:36]Large part of the searches that lowland rescue do [music] involves driving slowly along country lanes, tracks. They're looking into verges, you're into ditches at the side of the road trying to find people.

[00:05:49]So, unusually a lot of the lights that we've got on the on this actually point sideways and not forward. So, in the back, the main thing what that we try to do is we're conscious that every second counts is what they do. So, we wanted them to be able to get to a scene, get out of the vehicle, and get everything they need out the back as quickly as possible without sort of rummaging in the back for stuff I want we know we've [music] got this here somewhere, but you know, so that's what we've got here.

[00:06:15]We've got make make everything nice and easy to get to. So, we've got here we've got a drawer that's been fabricated. The people from Harkin have donated a stretcher cage.

[00:06:26]So, this has been fabricated in house to actually keep that to make it easy to get out.

[00:06:32]Make you know, you haven't got to get in there and get that. It's got these nice runners.

[00:06:38]So, yeah, we've also got in the side here that's that's a wheel. It's like a big rough terrain wheel that clips onto the bottom of the Harkin stretcher. And you've got big [music] handles that allows them to go tracking long distances with a casualty on board the stretcher and and get them to where an ambulance or air ambulance can [music] evacuate them.

[00:07:00]We've also got here again following the theme of people getting their kits and getting out as quickly as they can.

[00:07:10]The big ARB locker that we've got here straps at the top where we've got some of our part access kit boxes.

[00:07:20]These are great. These are stackable.

[00:07:22]We've got four on now, but we've got it in the back of our mind that they could have more of these [music] in their HQ. Everybody could have their own kit in what a box when they get called out in a show, they could just put one on the side. When they get there, release the straps, get your kit, go.

[00:07:38]>> [music] >> You know, you've gone. So, again that's a that's a really nice piece of kit. And again, we've got the big ARB drawer, full-length drawer. Uh they can get their D-fib kit. So, we've also got um another tie-in that Car SOS did. Um Tim went and visited a company called LED Lenser in Germany who make these [music] really high-end um torch and flashlights.

[00:08:00]Uh we've got those mounted uh on a special panel in the back where it's hooked up so they charge. So, they just clip back in there. If you want to get get one of my mate, Stephen, show them that. Beautifully made pieces of kit. They really are lovely. Um they're really well-made. Well, aluminum-bodied.

[00:08:19][music] Uh you can focus the beam, vary the actual, you know, and like I said, as soon as you put them back in the holster in the vehicle, that's it. They're on They're on charge. So, they're absolutely perfect for the what the rescue organization needs to needed to do.

[00:08:34]The interior of the vehicle, number one priority has to be a serviceable interior for them. They've got to be able to get into this vehicle. They could be cold, they could be wet, they need to get warm. So, [music] we've got standard uh brand new uh vinyl twill seats. We make these in-house. We've got our own trim shop next door. All the seat covers you get from Britpart are made here.

[00:08:55]Um so, all UK-made products. Um that's just good. They can get in there wet and it'll be fine. That's not going to trash the seats. We've got demisters that we fitted. These are the off-the-shelf. These are really easy to fit to help your demist your um side windows. They work really well. We've got a heated windscreen fitted as well.

[00:09:15]That's going to keep the screen nice and clear.

[00:09:18]In the middle here, we've got a lockable cubby box. Uh to the front of that, we've got another LED Lenser torch.

[00:09:24][music] We've got the controls for the auxiliary lights that are on this control panel here. So, we've got the laser lights see at the front, the back lights, and the blue flashing lights that we looked at earlier. That's all controlled from there, plus this switch here that controls the e-locker.

[00:09:42]Uh we've got the controller there for the microprocessor for the auxiliary battery.

[00:09:47]Here we've got the controller for the siren and the PA. Uh moving up here we've got a brick part roof console and then on there we've got the switch panel that controls the uh big blues and twos lights, the big light bar on the on the roof.

[00:10:01]So, we've also got in the back to keep us nice and serviceable got a Eberspacher diesel burning heater. [music] Another piece of kit that came from LED Lenser with Car SOS involvement is their flagship light.

[00:10:20]Uh we've made a mount with you just using a camera tripod um swivel really to put it on the side of the vehicle so they can use it as a search light.