OK I'm a newb not to English cars and not to 4x4's but to land rovers in general..

I'm back in the US from Germany after being away for 13 years I've brought my well build sleeper TJ with me but my wife wants me to come back with a car that will seat 4 and atleast looks modern. I've been on craigs since my plane touched down in August. I've finally stumbled across somthing I'm willing to spend money on:

https://www.facebook.com/questoffroad4x4/

For the money these folks buy a discovery and go through at leas the motor, after talking to them on the phone I'm willing to let them go through the entire vehicle. My Jeep fund has about 15K in it so I can go through my TJ top to bottom and make it new or I can spend the money and let these guy's build a Discovery for me. My questions really doesn't lie in would you let them build me one since they seem to be local celebrities in the field (though I'd be interested in hearing your opinion if you're in the area) it's the how far would you go. Since they're pulling the engine apart would a 229 cam be appropriate? Since I'll pay them to put the a lift on should I pay them to re-gear and truetrac the axles and if I do what gear ratio is appropriate for 32's or 33's with the knowledge that it'll never be a rock crawler.

Like in Germany I'm an emergency essential employee which means I need to be to work in less than two hours from when I'm called in the 7 years I've been under this status I've been called three times two of which have been because of snow and wind and once because of rain. I'm not building an uber rock crawler, and I'm not building a mall crawler. My TJ has Savvy 3" lift springs, Fox 2.0's, Savvy aluminum control arms. Metalcloak track bars, truetracks, 4.11's, and 33's i.e. it's built right and dependably and I want to build the Discovery the same way, nothing extreme but absolutely correctly and dependable.

If you were to spend a maximum of 15k on a discovery 2 what you you do?

This is the first email I sent:

Grey -- or a color that doesn't show dirt and doesn't look silly with black winch bumpers
4.6L
Prefer the center locking diff
Interior needs to be nice enough for a picky wife

I think I'm in for the following:


Sensor and emissions package

The undercoat


likely a lift and tire's but I'm not sure yet I want to run 33's I probably will only shoot for 32's since this will be a family vehicle.


If 32's will work with out a lift and rubbing then new shock's springs perches and steering.


In essence I want to be able to pick the truck up and not have to do anything to it other than drive I don't want the back of the mind project list.

and:

OK..since we had issues today with the connection tomorrow will be worse since I'll be back at work have her send me the quote via email. Give me a week or so after that to finally make the call since I'm reading a lot of coulda, woulda, shoulda at the level of disassembly you're about to take a vehicle through. I need to decide whether to buy once cry once or stagger it like I've done to my Jeep.

My question is if you were going to spend 12k-15k that's been pulled down as far as these people are willing to go what do you want changed, what's your coulda, woulda, shoulda if your ultimate goal is to dependably bounce fallen trees, drive through feet of snow, and carry kids to school as a DD.

Chris