AS seagulls screech above, the familiar metallic rattle of a garage door handle being turned cuts through the winter air. The door rises, dry runners graunching in their tracks, and the low sun catches a bonnet’s front edge, causing fresh paint to flip from deep brown to radiant coppery orange. Andy Hoile, owner and builder of this unique Land Rover, shimmies down the side, pops the door and slides into the driver’s seat, taking care not to catch the bodywork on the blockwork. The single garage is barely wide enough to store the Defender, but this is exactly where it was built.
Andy strikes up the engine and the 90 emerges from the darkness. Eye-popping hue aside, it’s quite clear this Defender is far more than a blow-over and a nice set of wheels. A six-cylinder thrum emanates from the engine bay, and the suspension adjusts and settles on the uneven ground as Andy hops out, accompanied by the buzz of an air compressor. Out in the open, the result of a lot of hard graft in a relatively short time and a very small space is clear for all to see.
“I was actually going to sell it,” admits Andy. “I’d tidied up a couple of bits for the new owner, but then the sale fell through and I thought I might as well keep it and refresh it. Things got a bit out of hand.” Understatement of the century. In fact, you may actually recognise Andy’s name from the October 2023 issue, where the 90 starred in the Work in Progress page at the back of . Having chatted to him more since, and with the 90 overhaul rapidly approaching the finishing line, we knew we had
