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Return to analog. Undo ordinary.

Rooted in the mists of the 1970s, Legacy Overland is the culmination of decades of dreaming, obsessing, perfecting and passionate pursuit of living life better. Living an analog life. Go at a pace that allows you to soak in the passage and marvel at where you are and how you got here.

Legacy Overland is founded on the will to create beautiful things. We love to take an iconic vintage machine and turn it into a new classic, breathing life back to it – a true new vintage classic.

Our obsession with build quality and meticulous craftsmanship blends with our restrained aesthetics in every car we restore, be it a Toyota Land Cruiser, Range Rover Classic, Land Rover Defender, or Mercedes G-Wagen.

We approach each build with a fanatical zeal and truly unique build. There may be faster ways to do what we do, but our builds follow age-old traditional and proven steps. We are craftsmen breathing a new and fresh life into our cars, honoring the past while just ever so slightly tweaking it along the way.

Legacy Overland was founded by Robert Madeira in Greenwich, Connecticut as a mission to design and build unique vehicles. From the get go, the company was not about performance specs, it founded to let clients create memories and capture life. Robert’s background brings with it an exceedingly high client service expectation, something that permeates every interaction with our clients. Our workshops are Portugal and in Connecticut.


 
 
 

Live life to its fullest. This is what Legacy Overland New Vintage Motoring is all about.

How we work.

We do full and proper frame-off restorations. Nothing half-done, or just tweaked. We don’t work on just parts of projects that clients may want. We do the full job, from beginning to end, including sourcing the project car to arranging delivery. The first step in the process is design. We work closely with our clients to develop the vision for the build, guiding those that may have a more general view or refining ideas of these that have a clear vision. Once we rough out the concept, we render the car in 3D, modeling what it will look like once finished. We iterate this as much as needed until the client is as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve. This “Build Book” is our roadmap for the project and becomes our workshop’s blueprint for the build.

The work the proceeds to a complete and documented build where we restore, refurbish or replace everything throughout the car. The car gets broken down into every last small bit. You’d be amazed to see how a car goes from a fairly sorry project vehicle, to a pile of thousands of parts to being reborn into a spectacular machine, better than the original factory could ever imagine.

We put a lot of effort in and emphasis on the initial prep stages; media blasting metal and correcting imperfections in the body before prepping for paint - we don’t put on globs of bondo to get things straight, but hammer out panels by hand. We take one panel at a time and then rebuild, not just painting the car — this is the way to do it so we get to all sides properly painted and can do a thorough job. It takes longer but it is the right way to it. We galvanize all brackets, fasteners etc so that they are all better than new and don’t corrode.

The engines are completely rebuilt. We send them out to get them to the standard that we insist on, including surfaces machined, ported, new sleeves, new rings, new main and rod bearings, new cam bearings, new pistons, valve seals, gaskets etc. Gearboxes and transfer cases are overhauled and made righteous.

For those that want something a bit extra, we swap in modern engines, including high-performance GM 6.2L LS-series V8s. These make for a beast of a Defender. Or something a bit milder, but yet a step up, like a GM small block V8, or more modern Land Rover engines. Gearboxes can also be swapped in for modern automatics for those that want to harness power or just ease of use.

The interiors are custom designed and made. This is a unique opportunity to really make the build personalized and unique. There are many Defenders out there, and, yes, accessories and options differentiated them. But nothing like a custom tailored interior that just kicks the car up into the stratosphere of uniqueness. The interior (where you of course will spend most of your time!), is hand crafted in leatherette, full grain leather, cross stitched, piped and sculptured by a team of upholstery wizards.

We sort out all logistics, paper work, and documentation for the clients. Who wants to deal with all that, right? We want you to focus on your project and enjoy it.