Land Rover Retrim

Landrover Defender may be one of the most characterful off-roaders, but the standard functional interior, is hardly a design triumph. Our brief was to inject some real style into the interior and also improve comfort.

To provide more supportive, stylish and comfortable seats, we chose Corbeau sports seats and gave them a little twist. For this we took our styling cues from the seats that graced the fabulous racing Ford GT40s of the 1960s.

To supplement the less than effective heater in this soft top Landrover, highly efficient carbon element seat heaters were added - capable of packing a real punch, even on the coldest of winter days.

The plastic panels of the dashboard, were retrimmed in leather, with orange accent stitching around the instrument binnacle to add interest.  A classic styled Moto-lita steering wheel provided the finishing touch.

One interesting, but challenging aspect of the project, was to make the central 'cubby box' dual purpose. When down, it functions as an arm rest, drinks holder and of course has a useful storage compartment. In the up position, it turns into an occasional extra front seat, complete with lap belt.

Another element of this project was modifying the way the header rail for the soft top attaches to the top of the windscreen. There's now a quick release system via 2 external and 2 internal catches on the header rail which means it can be released/attached in seconds, rather than a couple of minutes of fighting with reluctant hood material and a primitive clamping mechanism.

Finishing touches were a new set of wheels, a full machine polish to remove the scars of many off-roading sessions, and an uprated car entertainment system to provide a far superior sound quality, fully compatible with smart phones without breaking the bank.