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1976 Reliant Robin Super – £650


Sam Glover

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Good stuff...
 
It's pretty presentable inside and out. The colour combination is 'fully sick'.
 
All the brakes are new.
 
I've rebuilt the front stub axle assembly, with new bearings and kingpin (and properly reamed bushes). I've also rebuilt the carburettor with a full kit from Burlen. 
 
I've recently decoked the cylinder head, lapped the valves in and replaced the stem seals. 
 
It has brand new 12in crossplies on good steel Mini rims all-round (c/w new chrome hubcaps), rather than the nasty alloys in the pics. It handles far better on crossplies... no really – it does. Oversteer can be achieved with a little practice. 
 
It was on the road, driving nicely and in a fine state of fettle a few months ago. It's hilarious to drive and alarmingly fast.
 
The chassis is rust-free and it's fundamentally good mechanically.
 
 
Bad stuff...
 
It's burning oil, which is almost certainly down to glazed bores. It was a giffer car all it's life, so probably suffered inappropriate choke use and lack of thrashing. There's minimal bore wear, so it'll just need honing and a set of piston rings. I hammered it to and from the Beaulieu Spring Autojumble (it comfortably cruises at 80mph, by the way) this year, and it burned about four litres of oil in 180 miles. 
 
The exhaust downpipe has rusted through and sheared off just below the flange that attaches to the manifold. 
 
One of the hose stubs on the heater box has snapped off. The heater's currently bypassed.
 
 
It needs an MoT (class 3). With the exhaust sorted it'll sail though.
 
I paid £1200 for it and have spent at least £500 since, plus a week-or-so of work. Price now to a good home: £650.
 
It's near Chippenham – SN14 6GU.

 

Sam
 
Robin1.jpg
 
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Robin5.jpg
 
Robin6.jpg
 
Robin7.jpg
 
Robin8.jpg
 
Robin9.jpg
 
 
 
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If you live in a roughish area,do not buy this car,it will be on its side the first night. One of the nicest mk1s I've seen,oil use age is usually stem seals on these,it may be the crap type have been used,also using anything but decent 20/50 will cause much oil useage. Believe this colour to be caramel with tan interior.still has most of its super robin accessories,the 10" crossplies will be safer at the expense of ride quality (!) Reliant didn't fit radials on the tripods til 82,and even then didn't reccomend it,sliding being better than grip and tip.also see that a Rialto access panel has been fitted,a wise upgrade.

 

Thrashing it at 80 will cause it to use oil,that's pretty much its book Max speed,so I'm not surprised it burned so much.new downpipes are £15,fixing the heater should be a priority as without the added coolant capacity it runs the risk of overheating,most reliant owners have the heater valve on all year round.

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Oh, if I bought it I wouldn't park it at home, it would have a safe place to live so I could enjoy it properly... but don't worry, the chances of my buying this are about a squillion to one, if I had £650 lying around the Princess would be looking much better than she does now.  But I can dream.

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Whrn i had ny h plate robin,the heater was on constantly. Only needed it really to demist windscreen. The wife had a constant red Mark on her leg from where she rested it in the passenger footwell. Would love another but doubt any would live up to the first one i owned!! Vulg, catch amd sell the little shits who keep nicking your dust caps

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According to my very expensive scientific calculator which draws graps and stuff, this means that 41,000 3 wheelers are now painted yellow and are on top of shipping containers or garage roofs up and down Britain as 'original' promotional items for small local businesses with 'wacky' local celebrity owners. .

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