1984 Land Rover Defender 90 "Beach Runner" SEMA Build
Vehicle Details
- Year: 1984
- Make: Land Rover
- Model: 90
- VIN: SALLDVAD7AA303553
- Mileage: 1,000
- Transmission: Manual
- Title Status: Clean
- Color: Marine Blue
- Seller: RoyalOverland
- Seller Type: Dealer
- Location: Austin, TX 78752
- Dealer Fees: None
- Lot #: V-0014923
We are pleased to present this custom 1984 Land Rover Defender 90 “Beach Runner” finished in Marine Blue with a cream marine-grade vinyl interior. Fully restored from the ground up, this 1984 Defender was prepared by Royal Overland of Austin, Texas for the 2021 SEMA show in Las Vegas and was featured as one of the top vintage 4x4 builds of the event. Imported from the U.K. about three years ago, this Defender was stripped to the bare frame, reinforced, and modified for an upgraded Radflo custom suspension before being refinished to show-quality standards. The handcrafted interior features a custom aluminum dashboard and door panels, bespoke woodwork, and a full steel roll cage. Having traveled approximately 1k miles since the completion of the restoration, this one-of-a-kind Defender is now being offered for auction by its owner out of Texas.
This Defender 90 has been refinished in the classic nonmetallic Land Rover shade of Marine Blue (LRC006) with custom multi-color stripes running along the sides. Starting with bare metal, the chassis was heavily modified to accommodate a custom suspension and reinforced at the outriggers and cross members. A new bulkhead was installed and each aluminum body panel was hand-shaped and blocked before receiving 2-stage show-quality paintwork. All rivets were replaced while the hood frame, radiator support, hinges, grille, roll cage, side steps, and bumpers were freshly powdercoated. The reverse side of all body panels, as well as the inner fenders, have been treated with a protective Line-X anti-corrosive coating. This “Beach Runner” rides on 17" Dirty Life 9302 bead-lock wheels mounted with 33” Interco Trxsus sand tires.
The interior is trimmed in marine-grade cream vinyl upholstery with custom aluminum paneling and handcrafted Brazilian Garapa and Ipe woodwork. The dashboard was custom-built from steel sheetmetal and houses an Autometer LED cluster, which uses an in-house made wiring harness fully loomed with braided sleeving and Raychem sleeving. All wiring that passes through the bodywork uses Deutsche bulkhead connectors to eliminate grommets, leaks, and potential shorts. Each door panel was crafted from aluminum and upholstered in matching cream vinyl with multicolor accents stripes to match the seats and exterior motif. The front floor sections and rear cargo area received a custom tongue-and-groove Brazilian Garapa and Ipe floor plate, which houses a sunken stainless steel insulated ice chest with a matching lid and stainless hardware. The door tops and rear body cappings are topped off with matching Garapa wood. The wooden gear knobs and glovebox door are engraved and inlaid with glow-in-the-dark epoxy that illuminates the shift patterns as well as the “Beach Runner” logo on the glovebox. All wood has been treated with a marine-grade clear coat that is both weatherproof and UV resistant. A white powdercoated six-point DOM steel-tube roll cage has been fitted as well.
This Defender is powered by a 2.5L turbodiesel inline 4, which was sourced from a later model Defender 200tdi. Factory output was rated at 109 HP and 188 lb-ft of torque while a 5-speed manual transmission directs power to all four wheels through a dual-range transfer case. The experts at Royal Overland installed larger brakes, a larger intercooler, upgraded CV axles from a Range Rover, and a 24-spline differential gear. The original suspension was replaced with Radflo coilovers featuring Swift springs and 10” of travel. The common weak points in the original suspension design were also addressed with reinforcement of the chassis mounting points, 2” diameter 1/4" thick DOM steel tubing for the trailing arms, and heavy-duty aftermarket steering linkages, integrated limit straps, and polyurethane bump stops. Images from the build process are provided in the gallery.
This sale will include a clean Texas title. Custom restored from the ground up with exquisite craftsmanship and painstaking attention to detail, this one-off Defender 90 “Beach Runner” SEMA build is not to be overlooked.
Auction Results
- Highest Bid: $130,000
- Auction End: Dec 20, 2021 08:35:44PM UTC
- Number of Bids: 19
Comments (40)
Good luck fellas! The reserve is very close, we can see this car sell today with a little more movement
Bid in the amount of $130,000
Bid in the amount of $129,000
Bid in the amount of $127,500
Bid in the amount of $127,000
Bid in the amount of $125,000
Bid in the amount of $120,000
Bid in the amount of $115,000
This would definitly look good on the Beach alright. GL
Bid in the amount of $110,000
Bid in the amount of $105,000
For anyone interested in additional build photos, feel free to venture over to our Dropbox folder on the car. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/130z3ag4o280kxc/AAAJqWaa-mxn4BLJA6LtZF0Sa?dl=0
Happy bidding!
Bid in the amount of $98,888
Bid in the amount of $53,000
Bid in the amount of $51,000
Bid in the amount of $50,000
Bid in the amount of $41,000
@RoyalOverland Thank you for the prompt response! This is a fantastic build.
@ponyup @randpullen I will submit a photo to be added. For the immediate future to answer your question, it's white with the same stripes and resembles the factory NAS 90 seat it was restored from. The seat is not mounted, nor has it been mounted. The brackets were sand blasted and painted, and would bolt directly to and through the rear floor requiring the wood to be drilled. Due to the irreversible nature of that, we opted to hold off unless the new owner required that seat.
@RoyalOverland How is the rear seat installed? I do not see any brackets or fittings to stabalize it. Can you also add a picture of the seat?
@SofiaLeo thank you! The car is titled in Texas, and these can be titled in California though prospective buyers should consult local entities familiar with processing this car/engine combo for CARB certification. We aren’t experts in this, but can make connections to folks who can assist in the process. Happy bidding!
@RoyalOverland nice Defender! Can this car be legally registered in California? What state is the current title from? Thank you
Bid in the amount of $40,000
@Greggory that was our original workup when we drug the car into the shop for brainstorming. You can see we ultimately lightened the interior and cage allowing white powedercoated metal parts (hinges, grilles, etc) to develop more continuity in the styling of the car. The roof line was changed to give it a more unique identity, and we dramatically changed the stripe package.
Is photo #16 a preliminary rendering or a completely different vehicle? I can't decide which one I like best.
@Greggory thank you for the kind words. This is a 200tdi 2.5L inline 4 cyl turbo diesel. It has a small (borderline adorable) garrett turbo (factory fitment) that can make up to about 19 pounds of boost on this arrangement. The factory 200tdi defenders had a radiator shell/frame that was split 60/40 radiator/intercooler. We opted to have a full-width radiator, and a much larger front-mount air-to-air intercooler to ensure proper cooling with aired-down tires and high-load sand driving (should the car end up used for its intended purpose). To achieve this, we TIG welded some house-made aluminum support features and modified a premium aluminum radiator and intercooler package to mount together in the grille shell. You can just see the intercooler showing through the powdercoated stainless grille of the car.
Just incredible craftsmanship throughout. This would be the ultimate vehicle to cruise around San Felipe and keep at your house there. Gorgeous. Is the little diesel engine turbocharged? I only ask because a "larger intercooler" was mentioned.
@jakedfrick this is against our policy as well as common courtesy in an auction. Thank you.
Fantastic built vehicle. All the best with the auction.
We also would like to add that the car has an uninstalled forward facing "NAS 90" style rear bench seat. The frame is from a 1995 NAS 90 that we stripped down, sand blasted the frame and painted it, then re-foamed and reupholstered to match the front seats. It also has the 3-color scheme stitched in. The seat was left out for SEMA as to not detract from the wood flooring. Happy bidding!
Thank you @LROV and to @jakedfrick we aren’t disclosing the reserve at this time but fully anticipate this car to sell.
Bid in the amount of $30,000
Bid in the amount of $20,000
What's the Reserve?
Bid in the amount of $15,000
Bid in the amount of $10,000
Amazing workmanship on this rig that I can appreciate!
@burning_rubber of course! eBay doesn’t accept import VINs, so on that classified ad I made a note at the top that the VIN was for my 1995 Range Rover Classic because I had to list something to get eBay to accept it. The VIN listed here is accurate and matches the title, no discrepancies exist on the car, in any way.
This had a different VIN when it was listed on E-Bay.
can you confirm the title matches the 1984 VIN and explain the confusion?
Hi there and thanks for looking, my name is Sam and this is our creation. I built this car with a few of my closest colleagues and friends over the course of 6 months, and I can assure you that we touched each and every component from end to end. This is the car that I am most proud of that I've ever had the privilege of working on. From start to finish this was a completely pre-conceived and well thought-out build. I hope that you all see what we saw in this process, and look forward to sending it to its next home. If there are ever any questions or concerns I invite all them to be brought here in open forum, or if preferred I will field them personally via our site. Thanks again, and happy bidding. - Sam