Rover survey

Apologies to my Club Triumph friends who will now find pictures of a Rover SD1 on the Club Triumph site!

It's been a long time since I looked over my Rover and I have actually decided to sell it so I thought I'd give it a visit and see if ti was accessible where I have it in storage.

Actually you know, it's not bad at all really. Very sound from what I can see and there's a real danger it could be bought just to have it's fuel injected V8 ripped out and then the rest scrapped or bought for use in banger racing.

The heartstrings were well and truly pulled so I can't let that happen. Unless I am convinced it's going to a good home it will be staying with me and one day it will be put back on the road.

Here's the pictures - as can be seen, pretty solid which is what really matters.

The scuttle panel below the windscreen is in good nick

Strut tops are good too

Dirty but no rot

Wheel arch looks good

Apart from a bit of rot on the tail gate good here too

Off side wheel arch looking good too

OK here as well

Again, looks solid enough under the engine bay - lovely V8 in there of course :-)

Scuffed bumper but that's not serious - front wing looks solid again

Interior change on PMW

I have not been happy with the look of the Rover "Tomcat" seats I had fitted to the 2000; great for support and safety but really didn't go with the looks of the car.

So a couple of weeks ago I cleaned up a complete set of cloth seats from a later car which had head restraints so offered greater safety and were more in keeping but I wasn't quite sure about the colour. The original interior was tan but these seats are brown although nicely faded!

Below are two pictures so you can judge for yourself but actually I think it all looks just fine. The first picture shows one of the Rover seats still in and the second the view with all the seats now fitted.

Nothing for weeks and then two posts in an afternoon!

So, with the North Yorkshire Triumph Weekend behind me its time for other car related stuff to happen.

After all, it's a good antidote to work!

I have found myself contemplating selling my Rover SD1 in order to buy another classic that shouldn't need alot of work, how good would it be to just have a car I could turn the key on and take out?

Still, while I ponder that and the fact that I have no spare cash what to do?

I know, I have bought stuff for the 2000 which I haven't fitted yet. So, why not have a go at a job described as marginally less painfull than sticking pins in your eyeballs? The doorseal on the N/S/F was completely shot so I bought a replacement seal some time ago and spent a happy (not) 2 1/2 hours yesterday fitting it.

I know Triumph didn't make huge amounts of money back in the day but if they had worked at my level of competence the losses would have been huge! Oh well, managed it in the end with the help of WD40 and lots of patience.

Then today I had another bit of inspiration. I had fitted a pair of Rover seats as I didn't like the safety implications of whip lash with low back original seats. Over time though I wasn't completely satisfied as they looked out of place so I bought a full set of later 2000 seats in cloth trim with headrests.

Things is though they are brown rather than tan so I wasn't sure how they would look. Can't be as bad as the grey Rover seats though. I got them out from the loft and gave them a good clean and actually as they have faded over the years they look OK in the car. Got the rear seat in this weekend and the fronts will go in next weekend.

30 minutes in and learning!

That's more like it

Coming up nicely - the cloth seats ready to go in the car

North Yorks Triumph Weekend

A couple of weekends ago I attended the North Yorkshire Triumph weekend again at Runswick Bay - the weather was amazing and combined with excellent company it was certainly a great weekend.

Now that's what I call great weather

The weather was that good I left the hood down overnight - here's the view from my tent early morning