Land Rover Forums - Land Rover Enthusiast Forum

I stumbled across my 99 Java Black D2 with SLS, ACE, and pretty much every option you could get in 99 (including rear jump seats) thru a friend that has a LR Shop in Austin, TX. He had a customer that had their D2 towed to his shop and left it there for over 6 months. All it needed was a new alternator & a battery, but the customer had gone and bought a new VW and was enjoying the better MPG and told him to sell it. Well I jumped on it for 1500.00 as my friend said she'd really been good with doing maintenance since moving from CA.

I grabbed a spare battery, and alternator out of my shop grabbed the wife & kiddo and took off on a 5hr drive. When I got there my friend had left the keys under the floor mat. Before the owner arrived to drop off the title and get her $$$$. I quickly slapped my battery into it and fired it up. Cranked up like it had just been turned off. I let it idle, checked fluids and let it warm up. Zero ticks, knocks, smoke, or anything. I could see the head gaskets had been recently done as the head bolts were marked, it had new wires, and plugs, along with several other misc items.

The owner arrived & we exchanged info, title, and the cash. I then swapped out the alternator before a massive rain storm hit & then my friend wanted to meet up for lunch before I headed back. That's when I noticed the brake fluid reservoir was empty. The seals had died from sitting. My friend and I quickly bled the brakes, and I was good to go keeping an eye on the level whenever I stopped.

After lunch I drove 5hr back without a single issue. I was monitoring the temps, and checking for any pending codes along the way with my Scangauge II. It drove very well minus what seemed like 4 square tires and we made it home with no issues at all.

I spent the next few days going over it fully from head to toe, cleaning the interior out, washing it, and fixing some misc interior items, and checking all the fluids and changing the oil and such.

I then came across an 04 D2 that was a true ranch truck/off roader for 800.00 (the last of my $$$). I grabbed it for one thing only & that was all the off road parts. It had an OME HD Suspension, TF Rocker Guards with steps, HD Steering, and lots of other misc goodies. It had a blown out HG at cylinder #6 but ran great. I went over & drove it home. Following weekend I stripped it of all it's off road parts and did basically 2 lift installs side by side. After I got everything off I wanted and a few parts swapped out. I cleaned it up, slapped 650.00 on it and parked it by the road. Within 30min I had it sold so all my upgrades only costed me 150.00. I wish I had kept that 04 as it was a very solid 04 D2, but at the time I had no room or need for it.

So now my 99 was lifted, SLS deleted, rocker guards, HD Steering, and lots of little parts swapped over for good ones. Then I was able to grab 5 255/70R18 take off Jeep tires (nearly new) along with 4 Goodyear Duratrac 275/70R18's for just 200.00. I slapped the 255/70R18's onto the Proline rims, and ditched the old stock sized worn out tires. I slapped the Duratrac's onto some American Racing wheels my brother had sent me from his LR3, but the offset put the tires into the rocker guards so I went back to the 255/70R18's. I then installed my Kalahari front bumper onto the 99 D2 and took off the actually mint condition front bumper and put it in my shop.

I also had swapped out the SLABS unit from the 04 so I'd be ready for the CDL conversion (already had the 04 linkage). Interior wise I used my #1 friend a magic eraser and cleaned up a lot of nasty goo. The exterior has a few dings, dents, and the roof paint is starting to fade, but mechanically it's extremely solid.

I kept it that way for almost a year until Hurricane Harvey hit. We nearly lost our house to it, but I was extremely lucky and we were saved, however we were without power, and we were trapped by the high water for right at a week. People needed to get in/out of our neighborhood, my inlaws parents needed help, and my inlaw needed to get to his truck, not to mention going out for supplies for my family and my 8 month old daughter.

The 99 with it's OME HD Suspension and 1inch spacers was the tallest of my LR Fleet so it was up to bat for the deep water. I knew my 99 inside and out, and I am very familiar with driving thru water (living in the TX Hill country flooded creek crossings were a common thing). Well getting out of my neighborhood was easily 2ft deep and probably a 1/4 mile long distance. People said I was nuts, but I knew these trucks Camel Trophy background (diesels of coarse and snorkels), but a proper bow wave makes all the difference in the world.

We made it out no problem, got to my inlaws parents house where I got their 96 Suburban running (it was in 2ft of water), so they could be mobile (their 2017 Nissan Murano was toast). After that I had to try and get supplies closer to town which meant 2+ feet of water where deuce & a half trucks were driving thru the flood waters. I got water up to my hood, but the bow wave lowered it until some idiots decided it was a two way street and met me in the middle of the flood waters where our probably 4ft bow waves crashed into each other causing the wave to slap up above my wiper blades!!!!!!!! I was so pissed at the people that had no clue how to drive thru the flood waters.

I made it in/out several more times before my CPS started to act funny and cause an erratic idle. It still started & ran fine, but at idle it would toss a pending CPS fault. So I called it quits after that. I immediately went into Camel Trophy mode and started checking all the fluids from bumper to bumper. Every single fluid = zero water in anything. I was truly amazed. I've owned a lot of different 4x4's in my life and have gone thru much less water and come out with milky diff's or transfer cases and the most prone to leak LR came out flawless.

I rewarded it's excellent performance with a Voyager Off Road Low Profile Rack I removed off of my 04 D2. Next mod's I'd like to do is a front winch bumper, winch, and a rear metal bumper. I've already been slowly modifying the interior to hold off road stuff (aluminum rear cargo door panel).

This entire build probably has maybe 1500.00 into it including oil changes, fresh fluids, and small misc items. I wasn't cheap on anything, I was just able to stumble across some great deals and either sell something of mine and break even or get it for next to nothing.

I'll add some pictures of my 99 D2 when I get home. I've been wanting to post a build thread on it, but I've been so busy with work, kids, and other projects I just never had the time to write it up.

Tad