Defenders

 

Discovery I does not really belong to the Defender family, even though the chassis and the 300tdi engine are nearly the same. But the fact that this particular car was one of the few original Camel Trophy vehicles that had survived in this part of Europe meant that it became one of our most important projects. Thus here, among the Defenders.

 

A complete Camel CT38 from the Mongolian edition of the event in 1997 reached us in November 2015.

 

On arrival to 4Land - photo

 

Unfortunately, in mid-December, the car suffered serious damage during the fire we had at Hallera Street. It suffered, but miraculously survived, despite the fact that everything else in that space burnt down.

 

Together with the owner we decided that this particular car simply had to be rebuilt.

 

We began the work in mid-2016. This was the schedule of the reconstruction project for the burnt CT:

 

- Removing the burnt body from the chassis.

- Sandblasting the frame, painting with epoxy paint.

- Bodywork repairs of the body including replacing all the elements which typically corrode in D1 bodywork.

- Painting the body the Camel Trophy colour.

- At the same time, in parallel, we worked on suspension, engine and full service overhaul of the transfer case and gearbox.

- Assembly of the complete body on the frame, together with the engine.

- Protecting the chassis with Valvoline products.

- Fitting all installations, the interior and all sorts of mechanisms.

- Installation of the original Camel Trophy kit (roof rack, bumpers, roll cage, lights, winch). All equipment except the winch, which was dismantled, is original. It has been sandblasted and powder coated. The CT bull bar was made by MP and is an exact copy of the original. The original one was simply too corroded and wouldn't have looked good after sandblasting (too much rust damage).

- The interior was sound-insulated with butyl and rubber mats.

- Fitting of details, strips, radio, Webasto (at owner's request) and original Camel Trophy '97 stickers.

 

This was a complicated project, mainly because of the need to preserve the original and the difficulty in obtaining new, small parts for Discovery I (many of these are no longer produced, and you have to make do with second-hand bits which are often worse for wear).

 

Today we can confidently say that we have managed to bring back to life a car with a really impressive history!