The Top 5 Best Land Rover, FJ and Bronco Restorers in America

The trick in restoring Land Rovers is finding technicians and mechanics who understand the bizarre logic of English engineers from 50 years ago.

“So here’s the thing,” said HHH Heritage founder Michael Hughes. “The thing about Land Rover Defenders is that A doesn’t go to B, it goes to C, and then you go back to A, and then you might get to B or you might get to D. They don’t make any rhyme or reason. If you took three 1990 NAS (North American Spec) Defender 90s and lined them up and you took them apart, you’d go, ‘Well, that’s different than that.’ The AC is different, the wiring, it might be one color on one end, and then it comes out a different color on the other end. Nothing makes sense. So you really need to think outside the box, and the car is not going to adapt to you. You have to adapt to the car. So you do go through people (potential mechanics and restorers) who don’t understand that, don’t get it, and they just don’t make the mark. And so, it’s taken me three years, we’ve been in Kenosha just over three years, and it has taken me three years to finally assemble a baseball team.”

The team at HHH Heritage specializes in Land Rover Defender 90s and 110s, and if there is a crazier car to try and work on, we haven’t met it, at least not yet. So HHH has found a squadron of seven Land Rover whisperers and the greater Land Rover community is all the better for it.

The process is exhaustive, mainly because of the condition of so many of the subject Defenders when they arrive in containers from the UK.

“They’re all different, but most of the vehicles that we get overseas are run. They just are. The chassis are gone. It’s just yeah, you start from scratch. Some of them, I feel like Fred Flintstone was driving it because there’s no floor,” said Hughes.

So they almost start over again. The new steel chassis they get from original Land Rover supplier Marsland, and the aluminum body panels they buy directly from Land Rover. They also use a few new systems from the later Puma Land Rovers that are practical improvements over the original: new doors, seat travel that allows more legroom, and a new HVAC system.

“They have an HVAC system that actually functions and blows nice, hot air or cold air. That, in itself, is a miracle,” said Hughes.

Price? Every one of the rigs is unique, really, so you can’t set a fixed time or price for any restoration. But Hughes says, broadly, nine to 16 months to get a Land Rover done at HHH Heritage, and at a cost of, well, that’s all over the map, too.

“NAS Defender owners and non-NAS Defender 90 owners send their cars to us to have them restored, engines upgraded, complete from the ground-up. And they’ve spent $130,000 to $170,000. I’ve had Defender 110 owners spend $125,000, $130,000 to $200,000-plus. Absolutely. And higher. If you want an Everest (a top-of-the-line restoration), with an LS3, you’re going to spend $268,000. And you’re getting basically a brand-new car.”

Why do customers like these things so much that they’d spend the cost of a house on an HHH Defender?

“People love the charm. It’s the body. It’s timeless. There’s something about these cars that you’re just drawn to. It’s the appeal of them. It’s the simplicity of them. And yet it can be stubborn. They’re like a kid. I have three daughters. I don’t know which one’s gonna give me trouble today. But you know what, you love them. And it’s, you know, ‘You caused me a little grief today. But you know what, I did smile.’”