My DIY Defender

Gary Hennessy went for the custom car look on his Ninety – and he did it with a lot of help from his friends.

- Dave Phillips

In a world seemingly full of people modifying Land Rovers, we reckoned we’d seen it all. But just when you think every avenue of Defender modification has been explored, along comes Gary Hennessy with his custom car-style Ninety.

There can’t be many 1989 truck cabs that turn as many heads as Gary’s Candy Apple Green creation. And the most remarkable thing about it is he did it all himself – albeit with a lot of help from his friends.

In these days of quick fixes, with a Defender modifier seemingly around every corner, it is sort of reassuring to know that it took Gary (and his mates) eight years to complete his labour of love. But this story starts even earlier, back in 2005 when he bought the vehicle upon which he would later heap so much time and affection.

“I bought it from a fellow in Brighton,” recalls Gary. “I think he just used it as a run around. It cost £2000 and was pretty rough, with the usual oil leaks, plus a leaky diesel cap that meant I could never fill the tank right up. It also had rotten doors and a smoky 19J Turbo Diesel engine. But that didn’t matter because I really only wanted a road legal one to drive to the fields where I went shooting. The reason I brought a truck cab was so me and my mates could stand in the back to shoot when we went lamping with rifles. So it did the job really.”

Gary, who lives in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, was happy to use his Ninety as a shooting hack for the next few years. But like so many of us who initially buy our Land Rovers as workhorses, his enthusiasm for his Land Rover grew into a bit of an obsession...

He explains: “As I now owned a Land Rover, I thought why not go to a few weekend Land Rover shows? After all, the camping out would be a blast, so that's what me and my shooting mate, John, did. He enjoyed it so much that he also brought a Land Rover, a Series III.