How Brooklyn Coachworks Turns Old Land Rovers Into Modern Off-Roaders—With Classic Looks

How Brooklyn Coachworks Turns Old Land Rovers Into Modern Off-Roaders—With Classic Looks

Daniel Marcello, the creator of Brooklyn Coachworks, a Land Rover restoration firm, purchased a Defender 90 with North American specs from a man in South Carolina over twenty years ago after seeing it on eBay. Although there weren’t many vintage Defenders in the United States at the time, Marcello had developed a lifelong affection for the vehicle as a teenager, and purchasing one was the next step in that journey.

Marcello has now turned that passion into a successful business at his shop Brooklyn Coachworks in Williamsburg, where he sells restored Defenders to customers who want a car with some of the newest features like air conditioning, heated seats, electric windows, and a backup camera while maintaining the appearance of a vintage vehicle. Like he did when he purchased his own automobile eighteen years ago, he encourages his clients to use their vehicles for purposes other than commuting to the grocery store.

“I off-roaded it right away,” Marcello remarked.

In 2018, Marcello established Brooklyn Coachworks, which is still headquartered on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg. It now also has stores in Italy, Virginia, and a new location in West Palm Beach, Florida. The company began as a pastime.

“I kind of moved into a full-time gig after building Land Rover defenders for a few friends here and there,” Marcello explained. It was always my love to build these. I adored such kinds of vehicles.

Although they were only offered for sale in the United States from 1993 to 1997, classic Land Rover Defenders were manufactured from 1983 to 2016 and are still quite uncommon on American roads. Because of their dependability and the loyalty of Defender owners, they are widespread—in fact, plentiful—in Europe. For restorers like Marcello, who sources the great majority of his Defenders from overseas and handles the labor-intensive task of locating, fixing, and improving the vehicles for customers willing to pay $160,000 or more, the availability gap creates an opportunity.

From a vintage Defender with a rebuilt five-cylinder turbodiesel and a five-speed manual gearbox to one with an automated gearbox and a GM-sourced LT1 engine that has powered Corvettes, Brooklyn Coachworks offers a wide range of new-old Defenders. On request, the garage will also construct an all-electric model.

According to Marcello, his clientele spans the entire age range and is about equally divided between men and women. Approximately two dozen automobiles are restored annually by Brooklyn Coachworks. That’s more than enough to keep the company occupied, but not so much that each Defender Brooklyn Coachworks creation stays distinct.

“If the car is special to you and looks the way you want it to, I think [25 cars a year] is a good number,” Marcello stated.

Although Brooklyn Coachworks is by no means the only company involved in Land Rover repair, the shop is notable for its more subdued restorations. Marcello generally strives for a slightly elevated, but not overly elevated, rendition of Land Rover reality.

Marcello stated, “There are a lot of different builders out there.” Many of them, in my opinion, stick to their own agendas of pimping out the automobiles a bit too much or almost blinging them out. We prefer to keep things straightforward, original, and consistent with what Land Rover used to do. Our primary goal is [creating] quality, which includes making the galvanizing, paint, and leather work as straightforward as possible while also taking what Land Rover did initially and perhaps increasing it by 10 to 15 percent.

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