The Living Daylights “Afghan” Landrover 90 restoration.
ke02eww
USPosts: 2,063MI6 Agent
Not so much a prop, more of a labor of love. The recent Thunderballs.org hoard of pictures inspired me to write this thread.
TLD is one of my favorite films, and the Afghan sequence at the end is one of the best bits.
Here is one of the Land Rover Defender 90s used in that sequence.
After filming it was stripped and sold back into the market as a conventional defender. It passed through several owners over the years before turning up in Ireland. A dealer noticed Eon’s name on the registration record, and eventually I purchased it. It’s backstory has been verified with the production company.
Restoration is a tricky subject, and personally I think there is a very simple line. If the object looks similar to its screen presence, albeit weathered and/or damaged, then it should remain largely untouched, save some preservation.
This vehicle looked nothing like the screen image, and therefore I decided to have her professionally and lovingly restored to her screen look.
This entailed rebuilding the armor plating, removing the canopy and having her re-sprayed the correct color. We also painstakingly researched the exact dimensions of the armor “plates”, and the decals and number plates.
There are still things to be finalized - eg the Arabic lettering on the front and back plates, which are impossible to see on the film. There is an artists impression in the magazine for this particular bond vehicle, show below, but it doesn’t look like the screen image to me.
If anyone has good stills of either plate please let me know. Sadly TLD does not attract the hoards of experts and archivists that other films can boast of, so we’ve been unable to find the correct detailing for the plates.
I hope you consider we’ve done a fair job in re-instating this vehicle to its former glory as a James Bond Car.
Evidence that there were indeed multiple (we think two or three) defenders used for this purpose, is shown in the pics below. The plating on the rear drivers side is clearly different on these screenshots, and so we had to choose one for our restoration. The black and white pic is shows a different vehicle from the other two shots, so our truck, below, matched the vehicle driven my Maryam D’Abo, top right.
We feel we picked the truck that’s seen most, and in particular the one that’s driven onto the c130 by Ms D’Abo.
We believe one of the jeeps didn’t survive as a result of trying the “drop” scene for real, before settling on the fantastic model solution which appears on the film.
And of course Bond himself drives the truck at the end of the sequence.
“ I know a great restaurant in Karachi - we can just make dinner”
TLD is one of my favorite films, and the Afghan sequence at the end is one of the best bits.
Here is one of the Land Rover Defender 90s used in that sequence.
After filming it was stripped and sold back into the market as a conventional defender. It passed through several owners over the years before turning up in Ireland. A dealer noticed Eon’s name on the registration record, and eventually I purchased it. It’s backstory has been verified with the production company.
Restoration is a tricky subject, and personally I think there is a very simple line. If the object looks similar to its screen presence, albeit weathered and/or damaged, then it should remain largely untouched, save some preservation.
This vehicle looked nothing like the screen image, and therefore I decided to have her professionally and lovingly restored to her screen look.
This entailed rebuilding the armor plating, removing the canopy and having her re-sprayed the correct color. We also painstakingly researched the exact dimensions of the armor “plates”, and the decals and number plates.
There are still things to be finalized - eg the Arabic lettering on the front and back plates, which are impossible to see on the film. There is an artists impression in the magazine for this particular bond vehicle, show below, but it doesn’t look like the screen image to me.
If anyone has good stills of either plate please let me know. Sadly TLD does not attract the hoards of experts and archivists that other films can boast of, so we’ve been unable to find the correct detailing for the plates.
I hope you consider we’ve done a fair job in re-instating this vehicle to its former glory as a James Bond Car.
Evidence that there were indeed multiple (we think two or three) defenders used for this purpose, is shown in the pics below. The plating on the rear drivers side is clearly different on these screenshots, and so we had to choose one for our restoration. The black and white pic is shows a different vehicle from the other two shots, so our truck, below, matched the vehicle driven my Maryam D’Abo, top right.
We feel we picked the truck that’s seen most, and in particular the one that’s driven onto the c130 by Ms D’Abo.
We believe one of the jeeps didn’t survive as a result of trying the “drop” scene for real, before settling on the fantastic model solution which appears on the film.
And of course Bond himself drives the truck at the end of the sequence.
“ I know a great restaurant in Karachi - we can just make dinner”
Comments
HiggyBabe will love this as it features his most favourite Bond
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I made some observations which can help with the number plates, check your inbox mate. -{
Andrew
Splendid restoration job. Great story.
Of course, landing on the road to Karachi does rather make a mockery of the 'nowhere to land' line, necessitating all that parachuting trickery...
As a big fan of TLD I'm so happy to see that this vehicle is now in the ownership of a fan and has been restored to it's onscreen persona.
Must ask, on here it says that you're in from the USA. Just wondered is that where the vehicle is?
If so do how did it end up there?
Or did you import it from Ireland?
I’m done with the restoration, save for sorting the number plates - but a member on here has already been extremely helpful in this regard, spotting things I’d missed on the blue ray, and I intend to implement his discoveries, which will complete her.
Couple of answers - yes she was imported and that’s how we discovered her history.
And Matt, everything has a price ...
So to you, $2million should do it.
I ask because I just placed another vehicle in the Dezer collection, for the new Orlando Auto Museum now underway. I like to help move vehicles to IFF or others if IFF passes...
Mr. D. can do it, but for not for $2 Million.
Phew, I was worried it wasn’t enough.
And I said that was the price to you Matt.
There is a different price to Mr D.
Oh, and I already help move vehicles INSIDE the IFF...
Hello..
so glad I found you guys and this thread.. I myself have just purchased one of these lost cars.. we are yet to get confirmed but we have painstakingly been watching each clip to see where each rivet was placed and even the shapes of the poor welding which has us pretty 99.9% this was used in many of the close up scenes including inside the Hercules ... when I came across the car she had been put back to almost stock however as she was only the second owner from the guy who bought it from Pinewood who himself is a renowned LR specialist, the seller knew the names and the fact it was stored and not used much and has recently been incon I do have some photos taken at his storage before his friend bought it and hated the look so stripped it. This time locked away I s confirmed by its low miles and the fact the car was covered in flaky Sandy coloured paint. Even the front bumper sections when removed were full of sand. The original seat covers were there but alas none of the panels although the rivet holes were re-riveted so we can see the exact positioning.. I would appreciate any help as I’m at the beginning of this journey
There was paint everywhere, it just flaked off as it was never prepared right
Would be great to have your contact at EON, I am waiting for confirmation from LR, what’s the chassis number of yours