Colorado Rear floor condition

[Lancashire Cruiser]

After removing the 3rd row seats from my Colorado I thought it a good idea to lift the carpet and have a look underneath. After having a few older Land Rover Discovery’s from the 90’s and seeing how awful (rotten) the rear boot floor is it was a revelation to find the floor in virtually as new condition. I don’t know if this is typical of Colorados of this era but if it is Land Rover had certainly much to learn.

 

[chadr]

The boot floor on my Collie (1997) is like new when you take up the carpet and look from the top.

Looking from underneath the car, not so much!

 

[diggerdave]

From what I've read, Jimnys are prone to rotting rear floors too. I've never heard of Colorados suffering the same. Rear axle casings, sills, rear chassis? Now that's a different story Nothing's immune from the brown death.

 

[Shayne]

Fuel tank protects the boot floor from rot .

 

[Lancashire Cruiser]

The sills and chassis are in excellent condition, the rear axle is also got minimal rust hence I’m going to have it professionally rust proofed to prolong its life.

 

[Iwan]

The boot floor on my Collie (1997) is like new when you take up the carpet and look from the top.

Looking from underneath the car, not so much!

My 81's floor at carpet level is peppered with rust holes from the underside and the floor isn't flat anymore. . so deciding (atm) on cutting the floor out and making a new sub floor out of 40mm x 40mm box with reused 70 series chassis body mounts welded and linked direct to the chassis so that the load area is transfered to the chassis directly from the load space instead of going through the original mounts...

I hope what I'm saying makes sense..

 

[Shayne]

Seems like overkill why not just have a breaker cut out what you need to weld back in .

 

[Iwan]

It's a heavy hauler, when working on site it's full of heavy equipment! Working with new metal is much better than old steel covered with paint and underseal.

 

[Buller]

I've only found a small area of rust on my 1997 Colorado and that was because the drain hole in the rear sill was blocked. Filled the little hole with isopon and clered all the drain holes, all good now. Otherwise solid all over as with the majority of these LC's.
Many Defender's have been sent to the big scrapyard in the sky of this age due to rusting out, including two my nephew has owned.

 

[Grimbo]

The reason any former Land Rover product owner is surprised by the interior condition of any Landcruiser is mostly down to one fact ...
Landcruiser's don't let water in... in fact they actively keep it out ;-) ....

As a younger man I could only afford older S/H Land Rovers be it a 90 or previously 3 or 4 Range Rover Classics.... not one of them didn't let water in somewhere .

The Defender ..... most places but at least it could escape again ;-) , it also rained inside on damp mornings as it was a hard top ..... don't get me wrong it was only a few years old and put up with much abuse as a working vehicle and in 120 K miles never failed to get home .

The first R Rover was a 4 door with the full length Webasto sun roof ..... it surprisingly didn't leak from the sun roof but the rear tailgate was just about damp proof anything more than drizzle got in .

The last a much modified 4.2 litre went like a rocket but drunk fuel faster than one and always got damp front footwells ....

 

[Lancashire Cruiser]

To be honest with a Defender it doesn’t really matter if they leak water in as the rear floor like most of the bodywork is aluminium and doesn’t suffer much. It’s the Discovery 1 and 2 with the corrugated steel rear floor that would rot on a sunny day and yes they leaked in through the sun roof, alpine windows and anywhere else for that matter. The Discovery Ones body was pretty awful for rusting which they improved on the Discovery 2 but the chassis did rust bad at the rear on the 2.
Interestingly the chassis on the RR Classic 100in wheelbase didn’t seem to suffer the same as the D1 which was odd as they were all intents and purposes the same chassis.

 

[diggerdave]

I wonder how much it's made worse because LRs are largely working vehicles and in their earlier lives would have spent much of their time covered in mud, while our Colorados (and even bigger Cruisers) would have spent proportionately more of their lives as pampered pets. It's not the full story but I bet it's a big contributing factor.

 

[Shayne]

More to do with build quality me thinks

 

[diggerdave]

Haha, yeah Straight onto the bottom in a Defender. A friend of mine bought a brand new last-of-the-line Defender and got a wet trouser leg when he first drove on a wet motorway... leaking door seals as standard since 1948.

 

[Shayne]

Windscreen on my mates new defender and the main dealer fixed it with bathroom silicone sealant

He did get a full refund in the end .

 

[Lancashire Cruiser]

With the Defender it was always going to be difficult to get them water tight, you only have to look at the construction although the latest ones with the steel doors were much better. I had 2015 90 and that was well sealed but it was only a road motor. Once you take them into the rough regularly the body twists on the chassis and small gaps open up. However that does not absolve the Discovery 1 and 2 which were prone to leaking in. The LC body does seem a lot stiffer and the build quality is so much better. I love my old Land Rovers but my 24 year old LC is streets ahead of what LR produced at the same time.