Thank you all for input and opinions on the Defender! I pulled the trigger on it yesterday and am over the moon. As we've seen, it needs plenty of TLC, but is in generally good driver quality condition. I don't really have big plans other than enjoying it and getting some of the needed rust repairs done.

1989 Landrover 90:

• RHD, imported from the UK in 2017
• 75k miles
• gas i4 (weird) with a 5 speed
• solid frame, does need some rust neutralization
• relatively solid firewall, some rust repair was attempted, but needs to be improved upon

The motor shares a lot with the 200tdi from what I'm learning. While quite slow, it seems to be a good workhorse. The truck runs and drives really well. Fires up easy on a cold start or hot start.
We settled on $15k. I got it insured and registered as an antique, now I just need the gas "shortage" to simmer down so I can spend some time just cruising. I know the koolaid is still fresh in me and a Defender has been on the dream car list for a long time so I'm sure I am mentally blinding myself from the laundry list of things this car really needs. I imagine there will be a follow up post of holy crap look at how much stuff the 90 needs!

That said, I feel like the price point leaves me with the ability to flip it today and make money - though that is not my want. I'm excited to start tinkering on it!

I like interior work, so I'll probably spend some time here getting things to a nicer spot.

And if you're in for some hype, here's the insta reel reveal:https://www.instagram.com/p/CO2bDrKhBVB/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Thanks again oppo hive mind! I look forward to sharing the adventures of the 90 alongside the e30 build

From a buddy of mine, a story of loving neighbors and community:

So they respected their wishes and moved the ambulance

And now they've got their hearse parked in the spot.

Edit:
They have a small collections of oddities. If the Caddy becomes a problem, this would likely be the next unit to hold down the space

and if you'd like to support them, https://www.unorthodoxautos.com/

The back of the 90 isn't the worst, but it's also showing some age. I was willing to just deal with it, but then I stumbled on to rustoleum heirloom white. Turns out this can of spray paint is pretty much a spot on match for the LR's paint. GAME CHANGER for getting some of the okay paint looking better in a few spots and actually doing some reasonable looking repairs.

I pulled out the rear seats and mat from the floor. Still not enough space to sleep in nor is that something I plan on doing, but it made for a fun headline

Started with a little clean up and stopping some rust. Working on stopping the water causing the rust from getting in as well, but the details of that aren't as exciting as this picture progress

Did some scuffing, then a little primer

Still a have a few layers of white to go, but making great progress! I also pulled the headliner as another side project. Debating just leaving it out, but the core is in good condition so it's worth a recover at some point.

A few points still up in the air:

• a layer of white bedliner on the base of the bed. It's getting covered up with a mat either way. The bedliner just seems like a nice extra layer of noise reduction.
• Recovering the bench seats. I am refreshing their frames with some fresh paint and I will be steam cleaning the seats either way. I considered a beachy/tropical pattern, but the Mrs wants to see it retain the farm/actual usable truck feel. Which is probably a good idea, I don't want to be afraid of using it.

Side by side for the full impact:

Thanks for joining on this round of Land Rover updates!

The scooter gang!

[not a bad three car set up right?]

Mrs. TysMagic got her good parking spot reset for the new school year which means she now has to park about a mile from her building instead of in the nearly empty multistory underground lot attached to her building. I don't understand the rules of University parking, but it's something else.

So I started hunting around for an electric scooter (like a bird scooter kind of thing). I recently picked up a ps4 at an auction to do a quick flip on, so I was trying to use that as trade bait. In a predictable oppo twist of events, I ended up selling the ps4 and immediately using that money to pick up...not what I was supposed to be looking for.

This is a Coleman (yeah, that Coleman) 50cc 4 stroke moped. It has claimed "no start/compression" issues. I paid $135 which included delivery to my house and a baggy of extra parts (looks like a new starter solenoid and some other small bits).

I found a rebuild kit for $50, figured if it's actually compression issues that it's a pretty low barrier to fix it up.

After some general poking around, I noticed it's been very haphazardly disassembled with what look like attempts at repairs/replacements/not really sure. Not sure on the guys general understanding of things, but the starter was disconnected, which would definitely result in the key not starting it. So clearly someone's project that they just got tired of, maybe not compression issues after all?

I plugged in a few wires (particularly the ones going to the spark plug), pulled off the air filter to spray some starting fluid in the carb, and topped it off with oil. After some stomps on the kick starter it sputtered to life. No smoke, not spitting oil, and a smooth easy idle. It took a little gas, but generally bogged and died if I gave it too much gas. Really jazzed at this result!

Take a listen/see it running here:

Fingers crossed I can do some general maintenance, reassembly, and I'll have a decent little scoot scoot.

The carb on it is a cheapo from Amazon. Speaking of cheap, WOW parts are cheap for these things. Super plentiful too! Didn't realize what I was getting in to with this, but it's under the umbrella of gy6 scooters which is like the Honda Civic of scootering I guess? Cheap, loads of aftermarket, loads of people in to them with active groups and such. So I'm feeling pretty good about my $135 investment.

It's in generally decent shape over all. Noticed the speedo still has the delivery plastic on top of it, so that'll eventually get pulled off.

It's been used with nearly 1,800 miles on it. Everything but the horn works electric wise. Brakes seem good and tires look like they have more than enough life left in them

So here I am, entering the scooter gang! School me fellow scooter oppos on what I don't know about this lil fellow.

I am extremely proud to announce that Mrs TysMagic landed a position in her dream field in higher education! She will be working with international students at the University of North Carolina starting essentially asap.

For those that don't know, we live in Nashville, TN currently so this is a bit of an adjustment. We spent the weekend on a whirlwind apartment hunt, thanks to the rental party car for getting us around.

We locked in a place to live so now we have the wheels in motion to be out of our house by the end of the month and settling in to our new home of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We will be renting for a short bit while we hunt for a house. Based on what we've seen so far, we will get a garage again! Maybe even a three car one! Time will only tell.

My MBA is from UNC's online program and I absolutely loved it. I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the area for class things; the roads were fun, good people, and what looks like plenty to do. We are both ready to be out of Nashville at this point so it truly feels like the right move. I'll continue to do project management from the house - which is a celebration of its own as I do not want to go back in to the office.

Without boring you with more details, a cheers to the successful work of Mrs TysMagic and our moving adventures!

Edit: didn't talk about it, but I am @boring.cars on Instagram. That's where the title came from

So now that you're here, I bought a beat up old Craftsman toolbox at an auction a couple weeks ago for $20.

Quite crusty, but generally together and it turned out all of the "features" still work! The wheels roll, drawers slide nicely, and the locking drawer function of the lower case thing works flawlessly.

So I took it apart and gave it some love!

Cleaned it then attacked it with a metal brush, wire wheel, and sand paper. Chased that with some rust neutralizer and primer

Pulling off the bits and piece, I was determined to save the original logo and hardware (minus the lock, had to get a new one as it didn't come with keys). From a quick google search, the logo puts this thing circa 1950s in to the early 60s

To bring things to modernity, I decided to go with the classic craftsman red. I did the drawers in a red primer and left the insides in their primered state.

(please ignore the dead plants)

It's rattle can outside so there's plenty of imperfections to it, but at the end of the day it's still just a toolbox. After a few good coats of red and some time inside (where I put the wheels back on), I did do some wet sanding and touch up. That helped quite a bit.

Slapped some clear coat on it and let it simmer before finally reassembling the rest of it.

Huzzah! Here is the finished product

With the imperfections on the body and the good enough level of the paint, I think the hardware retained just the perfect amount of patina to really feel right.

Putting it in one easy to compare spot, here's the before and after!

And what project isn't complete without completely tossing all of your hard work to the side and nicking it within five minutes right?

Sent the thank you note this morning and just received a confirmation email from the Nashville Director of Motor Vehicle services cc-ing the entire local clerk's office team and a few other unknown government employees!

Mission accomplished and of course I was very appreciative to Matt in person yesterday.
The director said this made her day as they normally only hear from customers when they have missed the mark. I hope this is helpful for Matt. I also gave some recognition to the two other clerks in the office as they both bring a positive attitude to the work place.

Have a good memorial day week Oppo!

I'm still in the "you know how they say don't meet your heroes? Will this time they're wrong" phase of Land Rover ownership. Took the 90 out on a ~80 mile cruise Saturday where it did everything right. I've roughly gotten the hang of driving RHD and the unusual feel of shifting with my left hand.

(note the cardboard. Expected droppings, but surprisingly minimal. Confirmed it's full of oil)

Sunday I gave everything a wash. Saved the Landy for last and boy did it need a cleaning. Pretty sure the previous owner didn't ever try to clean it based on the layers of grime on this thing. I know it's a pretty imperfect truck, but at the very least I need to start with a clean canvas! Next up will be cleaning up the interior and taking notes on what all is needed.

Cant decide if I'm keeping this sticker on the driver's door or not. It means little to me, but it's kinda neat.

Today, I picked up a boat load of paint at Home Depot. Going to try rust neutralizer on some bits and touching up some bad spots in the white paint as well. Mirrors and step bars will likely get a repainted, as will the front bumper. I like shiny metal so the diamond plate is going to get a polish as well. I also did normal car stuff with it! Brought home some more mulch and a few plants.

Many moons ago I worked for a hot rod shop, I need to get in contact with the owner to get the firewall rust repairs on his to do list. I've been searching for a passenger door and a rear door, more to come there.

To go full British, one might say I'm pretty well chuffed to bits over the 90 at this point!

Shuffling cars around so we could take the 90 out for a cruise the Mrs noticed we had a rear light out. Not a big deal, I am working my way through the truck and haven't checked all the lights yet. So flipped the headlights on and gave it a walk around. Surprisingly only the one bulb out. Then blinker test (I assume it'll blink fast if one is out, but checked anyway) all work. Finally the bigger failure, no actual brake/stop lights. While the truck is plenty noticeable, I would still like to be safe and tell others when I am stopping!

Swapped in a working bulb first to see if there was some weird connection between the lights that would cause full failure if one was out. No luck, but all the lights can turn on now. I found some handy wiring harness guides and was able to track down the brake light wires. According to forum lore, I was likely looking at a faulty brake pedal switch on the firewall. All seemed correct there however. I traced the wire to a connector that was quite filthy (and still is) but didn't look to be properly pushed together.

(potato)

Pulled it apart, blew it out like an NES game, pushed together aaannndddddd BRAKE LIGHTS! I am a mechanic guys. I am planning to do a little engine bay clean up today. While I have priority rust repair items, my goal is to detail it bit by bit to get a full list of needed things.

A couple final bits still in process (primarily not shown as it’s right behind me in the picture), but the contractor nearly finished the job on our bathroom remodel! It turned out so amazing!

This was a month or more in the making. Its impossible to describe or even show in pictures how poor the layout was before...yet here is an attempt

It’s our first major remodel project and I cannot be more thankful for a reliable clean contractor. I’d proudly give his contact info for anyone in the NC triangle area needing work done.

More pics to come once the last major bit is finished tomorrow.

thanks @SilentbutnotreallyDeadly @facw for this direction! Perfect kit on Amazon for under $20

@SilentbutnotreallyDeadly @facw this is good to know!! So could likely rebuild this for way under OEM price. That would be sweet! Not having much experience in these, I haven't done a lot of research on the cross reference of parts. Makes perfect sense though that it could be generic parts.

I have the OEM cable so I could retain the "cool" red accents, but pick up the right bits on the cheap

@ZHP-Sparky-the-5th GANG TIME

@facw my state's definition: North Carolina statute defines a moped has having “two or three wheels, no external shifter, with a motor not to exceed 50 cubic centimeters of piston displacement and up to 30 mph propulsion on a level surface."

@AdverseMartyr idk man, just trying to get some separation on types of two wheeled units sitting around lol. In my mind I do picture a moped as the old school pedal to assist things too tbh

Before buying the Coleman scooter I was actually shopping for an electric scooter (like a Bird or Lime thing) for Mrs Bore to use from the parking garage to her office on Campus.

But alas I bought the Coleman scooter and started tinkering with it anyway. In the meantime, I returned to hunt for a deal on an electric scooter to solve the original problem.

Which is when I found a lady with TWO e-scoots for super cheap. One in excellent working order, the other was hit by a car and needs some tinkering. They are GoTrax GXL v2 models. They're just a step up from the most entry level scooter, but pretty much equal to the idea of an economy car in the scooter world.

So now I should probably start using the proper terminology or whatever, we have two scooters and a moped.

In moped news, I have essentially redone all of the electrical components and it's back to running like a champ! I probably could have gotten away with just replacing the CDI (essentially the computer), but since it tested as functional I ruled it out. Turned out to be the primary problem though. So now the lil dude has a better running stator and a fresh coil/plug. If anything, I've made it more reliable I guess.

The good scooter will likely go in to commuter use while I fix up the busted one. All in, I should be able to fix it for somewhere between $65-80. Which would leave me in a good position to sell one and have less than $50 net in the other one. OR maybe I keep them both so we can be a scooter couple. Who knows.

Here is the bad scoot with missing brake caliper, bent wheel, bent rotor, and missing fender. Fortunately they saved the brake cable which is out of stock from the manufacturer. I was going to skip the fender, but you need it to lock it in place when it folds in half.

Here's what it should look like:

Yeah, the scooter has drilled rotors. Ain't that just nifty.

@e90m3 may I further enable your garaging with this facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1907560722836901

God speed! And yes paint it/get it painted

@WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAthenGTInowA4 many thanks

@Britishvillaininatl Can confirm they're off the radar and tough to find. The performance XE landed on my list when I was shopping sedans a few years ago. I really liked it, but the dealer wouldn't work with me on my trade at all. I would have really loved another Jag, but alas I ended up with the insanely smooth and fun b58 from BMW

@i86hotdogs I questioned that as well, but somehow it also makes the video better?