Custom Built
Enquire

Custom Built

A Von Dur Defender on an open road

Concept

Defender 90, 110 and 130 in profile
A Defender before work begins

We start with what you will ask of it — a city car, one that earns its keep off the road, or one that has to do both on the same day.

That answer shapes every decision after it.

  • Defender 90
  • Defender 110
  • Defender 130
Defenders at the Von Dur workshop

Supply

Then we find the car. They come to us from Spain, Italy, Belgium and France.

You do not have to own one already. If you do, it can be yours that we work on.

A rebuilt engine ready for fitting

Engine

The engine is your call, and so is the gearbox — automatic or manual. Tell us how you want it to feel and we will tell you which of these suits the rest.

  • Land Rover Td5 160 hp
  • Land Rover V8 225 hp
  • Chevrolet LS3 430 hp
  • Cummins 2.8 160 hp
  • 200 / 300 Tdi 125 hp
  • BMW M54 · N62 231–367 hp
A Von Dur engine
A Defender body shell being worked on

Body

Every panel is checked against the one beside it and set true before anything is finished. Doors that shut the same way twice, gaps that stay even down the length of the car.

You will notice it every time you close a door.

A bare Defender body shell
A finished Defender in low-sheen paint

Paint

You choose the colour and it is mixed for your car alone — not picked off a chart. Every panel is prepared and painted on its own.

Low sheen or bright, one tone or two, the top in a colour of its own. If you have a reference in mind — a car, a fabric, a photograph — send it.

A panel being painted
Hand-trimmed quilted leather interior

Upholstery

The interior is redrawn completely, and it holds more decisions than anything else. Then the stitch: its colour, its pattern, where it runs, and whether your own mark goes into it.

Over fifty leathers and forty roof linings to choose between.

  • Italian cowhide
  • Nappa
  • Perforated
  • Alcantara
  • Piping
  • Embossed mark
A hand-trimmed leather seat
Dashboard and instruments of a finished Defender

Electrics

The instruments can stay classic Land Rover or give way to a screen. Lighting, climate, locking, windows, sound — you decide what belongs in your car.

Nothing is fitted because it is usually fitted.

  • Apple CarPlay
  • LED lighting
  • Air conditioning
  • Central locking
  • Classic dials
The centre console screen
A Von Dur craftsman at work, sparks flying

Assembly

Then it is quiet for a while. Months of work you do not have to think about, and no decisions left waiting on you.

The car that comes out is not the car that went in. It only looks like it.

A finished Defender photographed at sunset

Photographing

Your Defender is photographed all the way through, and when it is finished we take it somewhere worth photographing properly.

Those pictures are yours in full resolution, and they reach you before the car does. Most people have shown their Defender to half the people they know before they have sat in it.

A Von Dur Defender on the road at dusk

Delivery

Before anything is shipped the car is driven and tested hard. Then it is cleared and sent — we work with customs agents and shipping companies worldwide.

It arrives finished, registered and road-legal, on either side of the Atlantic.

Start the list

You do not need answers to all of it. Tell us the ones you already know and we will ask about the rest.

Start your build