East Coast Defender New Flair, Classic Style

Located in central Florida, a little more than a stone’s throw from the House of Mouse, is a business devoted to the restoration of Land Rover Defenders called East Coast Defender. The whole thing started innocently enough a few years back, when Tom Humble and his wife moved to the U.S. from England. A life-long petrol head, Tom brought a couple Land Rover Defenders over with him when he made the move. Not knowing exactly what to do with them, Tom threw them up on eBay and within a couple weeks had them sold. But the story doesn’t stop there, soon he had people coming to him looking for Defenders and asking if he could get more.

- Jason Gonderman

Working with his younger brother, Elliot, who was still in college back in the U.K., the pair began slowly importing more Defenders to the U.S. As the business began to gain traction, customers came to Tom asking not only for the Defender, but also if he could restore and even modify the vehicle for them. Needing the help to keep up with demand, Tom rang Elliot to see if he’d be willing to move to Florida and help with the growing business. As it goes with some young college students, Elliot was two and a half years into a degree that he had grown to loathe, so he put his studies on hold and hopped a plane for the U.S. to join the growing business.

At this point, brothers Tom and Elliot were still working the business part time. This is where East Coast Defender’s third partner, Scott Wallace, came into play. Scott had moved from the UK to Florida several years prior to Tom and Elliot’s arrival and knew Tom’s in-laws through another business venture. One night, over dinner and drinks, Scott told Tom that if this business was ever going to take off, he had to jump in with both feet and start doing it full time. The next day, and much to the chagrin of his wife, Tom quit his day job and began working the Land Rover business full time. Needing capital to scale and a business manager to clean up the process, Scott joined Tom and Elliot and East Coast Defender was born.