Farewell ... Goodbye

A bit of a sad day today. After almost eleven years of faithful service it was time to say goodbye to Baerke, my much beloved and rather faithful little Land Rover Defender pick up. And to replace it with a new work horse.

I have been looking for a decent second hand Defender for almost a year now. And the brief I gave to  local Land Rover specialist Bas4Cars looked rather easy at first glance. A Defender 110 Station Wagon, model-year 2007 onwards, with full creature comforts (yes I am getting older). In any colour as long as it wasn't black or pink, and with more or less the same mileage as my current car. Needless to say I was rather sceptical when I got a call to view a car they just got in from Germany. Mileage well over 10.000 km more compared to my old car, and it's colour ... yes ...black! And to make matters worse it was fitted with some options that I really disliked ...

Yes I hate silly/bulky A-bars and side bars, but I also don't like silver chequer plates and alloys on black cars. But beside that all the important bits seemed to be OK. Only some minor dents and  scratches on the bodywork, a decent interior, and the mechanical bits also looked in order. And it came with an original G4 roof rack. Quite handy for transporting larger TR7 body panels like unmolested TR7 roof skins which from own experience don't fit through the rear door...

So after a few days considerations we agreed on a part-exchange and to pull some of the parts from my current car (wheels (fitted to Baerke) snorkel, track rod protection and Moto Lita steering wheel) and have them fitted to my new car. But not before they were coated in a colour similar to the original grill and head lamp surround colours. End result together with some rock sliders to replace the sills looks rather nice indeed. Needless to say the afternoon was spent getting a feel for the car ...

There are a few minor issues that need sorting but overall quite happy with it. And it's first decent trip is planned already, into the Alps in the second half of September ...