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

Might as well!

A few bits I had ordered from Rimmer Bros so I could get on with sorting the suspension out on UNJ had arrived during the week so, on with the work then.

Here's the two struts dismantled and more importantly you can see the difference between the standard spring and the uprated one - a bit there eh!

I re-assembled the black original sturt with the red uprated spring and the best bits of the other components and then went to put it back on the car. This isn't an easy operation for one person but I got the stut bolted in at the top although I then couldn't locate it onto the ball joint at the bottom.

Then I had a brainwave, why not lower the entire front subframe whcih would give me the clearance.

Well that wasn't going to be a goer once I had started but then I spotted another option which worked - get a small jack in between the anti-roll bar and the subframe. This easily gave me the chance to lower the track rod end so the ball joint could locate with the strut bottom - following this?

But then - but then; I spotted the ball joint rubber was split. I agonised over ignoring this but decided to go and see if I had a spare  rubber somewhere. I didn't find a spare but I did find this, given to me by my mate Paul Darbyshire some time in the past.

A roller bearing kit which is one of those "must do" modifications to a TR7 (although I never have done before) so I then had another one of those moments.

Stuff it, OK might as well then. Off with the strut again !!!

After dismantling the kit went on fine and the strut was put back together again.

Of course this means the nearside strut should be done too - Arghh!!

It's the right thing to do really because there were some spring insulators missing on the struts which I had replaced on the offside so it all ought to be balanced up.

After tidying everything away then it was off to order the insulators and two ball joint boot covers (I am bound to tear the nearside one when I take the strut off). Thing is though the postage was £7.95 or about the same as the total of the parts! Madness.

So, might as well buy something else then if the postage doesn't go up.

And that's when I remembered the Rover I bought has an aftermarket steering wheel on that I wasn't that happy about. Now Rimmers have brand new steering wheels in just one trim - the one for my car JEA :-)

£35 including VAT and the postage didn't go up - bargain!

Halfway there?

Had a good 5 1/2 hours on the cars today.

First I cleaned off surface rust on the Rover and applied Curust. So far so very good, the only rust I have found really is of the surface variety as you can see from this photo of the offside sill and door bottoms.

I would have taken more photos but the batteries ran out on my camera!

 

After an hour doing this I switched back to PMW although I can't show any proof of course.

I painted the engine bay with two coats of Venetian blue which is good enough to look OK and help preserve the car further.

I also retrieved the remains of the wing aerial from deep inside the wing itself and sprayed some waxoyl in.

Then swapped various bits over from the engine I took out to the rebuilt original although I couldn't fit the inlet and exhaust manifolds as the engine is still on a stand and they fouled. I did get the thermostat housing and water pump swapped over but I need to get a whirly gun on the front pulley bolt so I can swap that over.

I also got the engine and gearbox separated ready for refitting and removed the clutch as well as the starter motor. I can't make further progress though as I need the spigot bush turning down to fit the lightened flywheel.

Meanwhile, I am compiling rather a long list of parts needed whcihwill delay things somehwat due to budgetary constraints!

And so to bed

Bought a Haynes manual and an owners manual for the Rover but other than that the only thing I have done is covered it with a tarpaulin!

Under wraps

I have done a fair bit more to PMW tho.

First off was getting the car high enough to get the engine and gearbox out - thanks Bryce for manually lifting the car (!) while I raised the axle stands each side bit by bit. Then it was fine to pull out the engine and box, put them on an engine crane while leaving the subframe and front suspension on the pallet truck.

Once that was done I took the opportunity to inspect the engine bay and as you can see in the next 2 photos the car is as solid as I thought - not in bad nick at all.

Whilst by no means a polisher (how dare someone suggest such a thing) I did then sped time cleaning the engine bay with thinners before using curust on all the surface rust I found. Next week I'll get the Teal blue aerosols out and give these areas a coat or two to help preserve the car and then if someone in the future wants to do a proper job the car will still be in existence for them to do so!

The areas with curust applied can be seen in the above photo. Another thing that can be seen is a braided clutch hose I fitted. This was something I had bought a couple of years ago with some Rimmer Bros vouchers I had been given and it felt good to be fitting something back onto the car.

I also took the chance to get some waxoyl in places which would be difficult to reach with the engine in place.

Then finally the car was back under wraps until next weekend.

3 good hours put in and 2 cars put to bed under the covers!

Those moments

Those moments like

1. Why am I doing this and
2. You know that's not bad at all!

The first one came to me when I was lying on a cold concrete floor with my hair in the dust whilst fighting propshaft nuts and bolts on the 2000. Not one of the greatest times in my life but satisfying when it's finally done.

Then removal of the speedo cable, wiring to the reverse switch and overdrive. Just about to get the front wheels off when it was time to call it a day.

Here is PMW ready for the engine and gearbox to be dropped out next week if all goes well. At that point it will be possible to start swapping the rebuilt engine over before it all goes back in.

Off side boot floor - solid by the looks of it

Then there's moment 2 - "You know that's not bad at all!

For the first time since collection I had a look at my Rover and, yes, it's not bad at all. I reckon if I had hundreds of hours and thousands of £ it would be a very good car indeed. As I don't have either it will still be another good solid addition to the fleet.

Here's a few photos with captions

Nearside boot floor - not bad at all

Interior in the front - wood and leather - nice!

 

The view from the captain's chair of the Starship Enterprise!

Just a little bit silly?

I have gone and bought another car. This really must be the last one!

It's just that a few months ago I came across a motor show car with only 17 miles on the clock for sale on ebay and had to bid on it. Glad I didn't "win" because I bid £4000 which is very rich for me and my car collecting habits.

The car? A Rover SD1. That got me into wanting one and I missed out on a sound (allegedly) rolling shell at £500 which is more my financial territory.

Well having a bit of time off work is a terrible thing and that left me surfing again and this time I have bought one and collected it today - a big thanks here to Bryce yet again for helping me out here.

It's a 3500 EFI Van Den Plas first registered in March 1987 which makes it one of the last built. Interestingly it was a 2600 originally but apparently when the cam seized the owner at the time paid for a professional conversion by Rovertec (now V8 developments) to the EFI 3.5 V8 engine.

Today it's solid, runs, nearly everything is there (!) and it looks very cosmetically challenged.

Having said all that I am well pleased as I have a 190 BHP car that could take 4 people all round Europe at high speed in comfort - potentially.

And the cost? Even less than £500.