Fixing Corroded Doors in Land Rover Defenders

An orignal 1997 US market Land Rover Defender 90

Land Rovers are famous for their aluminum bodies. What we realized too late was that the bodies have aluminum panels wrapped around steel frames, and the two metals corrode. Also, while aluminum does not rust, it can corrode and the chemicals that melt snow on highways are potentially damaging to unpainted metal. For those reasons, it is common to see corrosion coming through the doors on US Defenders, given that the newest of them is now 22 years old.

Rust on the inside of a Defender door

Corrosion on the outer skin of the Defender door

At this point, given the difficulty of repairing corrosion and rust holes, and the value of the vehicles, we generally get new doors from Land Rover. Here's what a genuine door looks like.

We paint the doors inside and out, where the factory left unpainted space. This reduces the progression of corrosion. Our body shop partner paints BASF, Glasurit or Diamont, which are the best available paints and the choice of carmakers like Mercedes Maybach and Rolls-Royce

If you knock on the door panel you'll hear a tinny rattle which we find unbecoming in the doors of what is now a $100k truck. We also don't like the tinny way the doors sound when they close. The first step in fixing that is to inject seal sealer into the seams. When hardened, that puts an end to the rattles and creates a barrier against corrosion between panels of metal. We do this step after the door is painted because the paint flows into more places and it provides the first barrier layer, one the factory left out entirely.

Here Master Tech Bruce Caron has masked off the door and has injected sealer, which is is now working into the seams

The next step is to fit Dynamat, which makes the doors feel solid when closed

Finally we clean up and fit the door panels, and we have a sold door that feels good to open and close, and will last quite a bit longer than the original.

John Elder Robison is the general manager of J E Robison Service Company, celebrating 30 years of independent Land Rover, Bentley, Rolls-Royce, BMW/MINI, Mercedes, restoration and repair in Springfield, Massachusetts. John is a longtime technical consultant to the car clubs, and he’s owned and restored many fine British and German motorcars. Find him online at www.robisonservice.com or in the real world at 413-785-1665

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