Custom Land Rover Defenders are being dished out almost every day but this one piqued our interest because it’s new, and someone has chopped the roof off it. Literally cutting a fine line between classy and cool, this Defender 90 has been named the ‘Valiance Convertible’ and is designed and engineered in the Netherlands by Heritage Customs. And while you’d think that taking a jigsaw blade to a new Defender is quite simple, it turns out the process is not as easy as you think.
Chopping the roof off a car needs a complex re-engineering, and the process starts with assembling a donor car (sourced by Heritage Customs) alongside a digital sketch that maps out all the crucial bits like the new roof along with the colour specifications. Let’s check out the car.
RELATED: Celebrating 75 Years With an Envy-Inducing Limited-Edition Defender.
Heritage Customs Land Rover Defender Convertible | Image: Heritage Customs
Each Valiance Convertible is designed along with the customer and comes with many colour and trim choices, our favourite of which is the contrasting roof. Speaking of which, the convertible roof is opened electrically by the switch of a button, after manually releasing the latches. And being a fabric roof, there’s a certain charm that gets added to the Defender 90 while the specification shown here with green exterior paint and steel wheels is nigh on perfect.
Interested in chopping the top off your new Defender? The process takes around 3 months to create a coach-built Heritage Customs Valiance Convertible and that includes testing and signing off the car.
It’s more than just the fancy new roof though, as Heritage Customs has gone the whole hog with a reskinned interior with leather draped on every surface including being on the seats, dashboard, door panels, steering wheel and roll cage. ‘Magic Metal’ was been applied to a host of elements inside, from the centre console to door panels and other interior details. Customers can also choose various materials and spec the in-house sports seats.
As always, the privilege of owning this one-off open-top luxury 4×4 won’t come cheap as the conversion will cost around £71,622 plus the cost of a new Defender 90 (around £61,790). Which lands the whole conversion around the $250,000 AUD mark. It’s still a whole lot cheaper than the Land Rover Classic Limited V8 ‘Islay Edition’ in collaboration with Kilchoman Distillery.
Heritage Customs Land Rover Defender Convertible | Image: Heritage Customs
Heritage Customs Land Rover Defender Convertible | Image: Heritage Customs
Heritage Customs Land Rover Defender Convertible | Image: Heritage Customs
Heritage Customs Land Rover Defender Convertible | Image: Heritage Customs
Heritage Customs Land Rover Defender Convertible | Image: Heritage Customs
You’ll also like:
Land Rover Defender 90 V8 is a Fantastic ‘FlexUV’
Land Rover Defender 110 Hard Top Joins the Range
Land Rover Classic Reveals Limited V8 ‘Islay Edition’ With Kilchoman Distillery
