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1994 Rover 414SLi - Fin.


vulgalour

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Arrived at the unit a little early than planned today which meant I had some time to do some fettling before the windscreen fitters arrived.  They got delayed by an hour so that gave me even more time to fettle, which was fantastic.  When they arrived the only seat fitting left to do were the seat base captive bolts, which were quickly done once they'd left.  Everything was then given a splash of primer and red-ish paint to keep it all protected.  I'm not mega fussed about a beautiful finish on this because it's all covered up and I'd rather it be strong than pretty.

29027127327_e651c506bc_b.jpg20180810-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

As it happens, lining up the seat back dowels onto the bodyshell was really easy.  The four captive nuts for the seat back bracket also got painted, but my upside-down welding is so shamefully ugly I've been forced to censor it.

43965150441_0846a9d239_b.jpg20180810-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I explored the full extent of the rot in the rear arch and it really isnt' too bad.  I noticed a bit of a bubble in the textured stone chip on the sill and found it had holed.  I'm now undecided as to whether to replace the outer arch in one piece, or two pieces, since there's a substantial piece between the rust holes that's actually perfectly solid.

43965150401_824ac9216f_b.jpg20180810-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Finally, I didn't get my windscreen fitted today.  A windscreen for a Rover 400 was supplied, just the wrong 400, so a correct one has had to be ordered.  I've had this issue with other parts on this car, 1994 is the last year before the new shape came out so parts for this car are often listed as parts for that instead.  One of the fitters had been having one of those weeks, so this was just another one of those things for him.  Fortunately, I'm not in a mega rush to get the screen done, time is on my side for once, though it is slightly annoying that the earlier screen is more expensive.  No big deal, it very much needs replacing either way, you can just about make out some of the less bad scratching in this photograph.

43965150321_5742bc7303_b.jpg20180810-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

May not do any more on this over the weekend.  Next job is to clean up and underseal the boot floor, and replace the outer rear arch.  Once those and the associated painting is done, I can re-install the interior.

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Let's see, I've got your old bonnet, front wing, some of the rear parcel shelves, carpet, steering wheel, gear knob, headlights, a couple of small interior trim pieces, and one indicator.  There might be other things, but that's what I can remember at the moment.

 

This is all perfectly sane things that sane people do with their sub-£1000 car.

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Got busy with the angle grinder today while waiting for the windscreen fitters to arrive.  I decided to chop both the grot and the good metal between the grot out so I could replace the lot in one piece a bit easier.  It also meant I could find out if anything was hiding.  I was impressed at how solid everything was.  The rust at the bottom looks to have been caused where the inner arch (a bit of a mud trap) had rotted through and allowed moisture into the sill.  The bit further up the arch started where the arch trim plugs in so I will probably not drill new holes for the trim here and instead chop the legs off the trim and glue it on.

44053539581_d7b13c8d6f_b.jpg20180815-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I'm not used to the pile of metal cut out to address rust being quite this small.

43147524395_25194c41cc_b.jpg20180815-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

After quite a lot of trimming and checking, over and over, I got the repair panel as close a fit as I could and just before I was due to tack it in place, the windscreen fitters arrived.

29116615297_733e88d620_b.jpg20180815-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Removing the old screen was quite a battle, bonded screens do seem to require an awful lot of effort to remove.  In seemingly next to no time they'd got the old screen out, the surroun cleaned and the new one in.  Instructions are to leave the car alone for 24-72 hours, the longer the better, so the sealant can set properly.  Happiily, there was no sign of water ingress when the old screen was removed and no rust problems.  The new screen really does highlight just how bad the old one was, even with the marks from fitting it, the new screen is easier to see through than the old screen was at its cleanest.

29116614947_c7925f0be3_b.jpg20180815-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I'm going to leave welding the arch up until next week as it means jacking the car up for access, something of a no-no until the screen sealant has cured.  That's fine, I'm not in a rush, and everything is now lined up ready to go for the next phase which is mostly just putting things together at this point.

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When I got the Rover, you may remember it had a couple of blobby bits on one rear arch.  Perfectly normaly for an R8, they all rust here.  Three years seems like a lot longer ago than it really is.

37408835555_1e19b6811a_z.jpg20150721-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I acquired the panel to fix this quite some time ago and have only now really had both motivation and time to get it done.  Not a terrible job, as it happens, and certainly less stressful with the cabin stripped since I'm in no fear of accidentally damaging any nice interior pieces.  Both blobs on the arch were fibreglass and it had genuinely stopped things getting any worse even though it didn't look the finest repair in the world.  The cause of both of these rust problems are easily resolved, the top blob is down to a design flaw where the legs of the plastic trim trap water where it goes through the outer arch and touches the inner, simply glueing the trim on would prevent this (and is my intention).  The lower blob is caused by the inner arches not getting hosed out, dirt and moisture then gets trapped in the inner arches, slowly rots through and allows moisture into the sill, rotting it from the inside.  It's a credit to Rover/Honda that these problems take a good twenty years to get to a point where they need repairing, the quality of the metal and the factory protection on these cars seems surprisingly good.  At least they do with this car.  Anyway, first job to fix this was to cut out the modest amount of rust, as documented last update, and tidy up the inner arch.  I had one tiny patch to let in at the bottom which took all of ten minutes to do and then the whole lot was cleaned up and doused in weld-through primer.

29177492767_86bb28f4dd_b.jpg20180818-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I checked the fitment on the replacement panel quite a lot since this is a complicated shape and I didn't want to have to try and remake it or order a new panel.  Everything appears to line up quite well.  Since the eye is drawn to the trim line and the sill-to-door panel gap, those were the areas I focused on most for fit and then massaged the panel where required to get it to fit the best with the other points.  It wasn't actually that bad to do, but setting the clamps to hold it without things moving proved quite tricky since there weren't a lot of points you could really hold it in place, especially since I wasn't joddling edges on this repair.

44115476711_732bbbdd98_b.jpg20180818-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Tack, tack, tack.  Wait for it to cool.  Repeat.  Gently tweak where things shifted a little on the door shut part of the arch, tack, tack, tack... this took a while.  The metal is thinner than I've been working with so it gets hot really fast compared to what I'm used to.  The welder seems to be having a bit of an issue keeping its settings too, the wire speed seemed to wander a little and the power level didn't seem very constant.  It has bad days sometimes.  That said, it was nice to not be chasing holes like I was on the Princess, the steel is a much better quality and much more predictable, even with a welder that's playing up a bit.

44115476581_cee2e5db69_b.jpg20180818-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

About an hour and a half later, I'd got the whole piece in, puddle welded to the sill rail and inner arch, and got busy with the flapwheel.  I was very happy that there were no spots I needed to go back over and could see it just needs a little bit of filler before putting the paint down.  Only trouble was, I couldn't find the filler and it was too late to go buy some.  On getting home I of course found my filler, and Mike told me where the spare stuff was, so that can be tomorrow's job.

29177492597_874f6179c4_b.jpg20180818-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I finished off by giving everything a splash of primer so I can see where I need to apply the filler for the final stage.  Once this is all in proper paint I can get the interior back in and then get the petrol tank back on.  After that it's MoT time, which it should sail straight through.

29177492517_c443bf24b7_b.jpg20180818-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

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Great work there.

I have a couple of questions about the carpet dye. How good is it and does it seem hard wearing?

 

The reason I ask is I am gathering harder to find parts for the Mini Cooper I am restoring and the carpet in it is tatty. New ones are pretty much obsolete unless an aftermarket multi piece carpet which I don't want.

I have found a brand new genuine molded carpet for the car but it is green, I need black.

Would you say that a black carpet dye would work well enough to give a proper finish that looks and feels original?

The carpet I found is quite expensive and probably the only chance I will have to find one so don't want to muck it up.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

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The carpet dye in the Princess, at least, seems to stand up well to being outdoors in all weathers and puts up fine with my daily use.  However, it is usually only me in the car and I'm not the sort of person who wears interiors heavily or makes them very dirty, so someone with kids and dogs may have different results.  Initially, the dye can leave the carpet feeling a little stiff - the Princess more so than the Rover, but the Princess' carpet was fairly knackered while the Rover's was hardly worn, so different carpets will vary - but after a couple of passes with the vacuum cleaner it softens up again.  No nasty smell hangs around from the dye.  You won't really know if the dye works until you try it, depends what kind of carpet it is and whether it has any sort of stain protection on it.  Going darker is always easier for a uniform finish and there's a lot of blacks on the market, some which may be more suitable than the Simply Spray stuff I used.

 

If you're worried about buggering it up, see if you can live with it being green.  The stuff I dyed I only did because I had back-ups to use so it wouldn't matter as much if it went wrong.  Fortunately, in both occasions it turned out well so I had nothing to worry about.

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The carpet dye in the Princess, at least, seems to stand up well to being outdoors in all weathers and puts up fine with my daily use.  However, it is usually only me in the car and I'm not the sort of person who wears interiors heavily or makes them very dirty, so someone with kids and dogs may have different results.  Initially, the dye can leave the carpet feeling a little stiff - the Princess more so than the Rover, but the Princess' carpet was fairly knackered while the Rover's was hardly worn, so different carpets will vary - but after a couple of passes with the vacuum cleaner it softens up again.  No nasty smell hangs around from the dye.  You won't really know if the dye works until you try it, depends what kind of carpet it is and whether it has any sort of stain protection on it.  Going darker is always easier for a uniform finish and there's a lot of blacks on the market, some which may be more suitable than the Simply Spray stuff I used.

 

If you're worried about buggering it up, see if you can live with it being green.  The stuff I dyed I only did because I had back-ups to use so it wouldn't matter as much if it went wrong.  Fortunately, in both occasions it turned out well so I had nothing to worry about.

Perfect. Thanks for taking the time to get back to me.

I'm aiming for a concourse finish with the restoration so it must be black. i was just wondering if dying a brand new carpet would work well enough so that it just looks like a brand new black carpet.

They just don't make the carpets anymore and there is no hope of them being recreated so options are slim. I would imagine that the carpet type is the same or very similar to the one in your Rover.

Cheers

Ben

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Ben:  The carpet in the Princess is rubber back tufted, the one in the rover a foam backed tufted type.  I expect the Mini one is going to be like the Rover carpet, which seemed to dye better than the Princess one.  I understand the more modern thin loop pile types tend not to dye very well at all but you can use very light coats of black aerosol instead.

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I have been jolly busy today and the Rover looks almost like a proper car again.  Very first job was to put the all-important shiny 1994 1p back under the underlay.  Now, I don't want to say I'm a superstitious sort, but later on 20p fell out of one of the seats.

43417347914_389418fe1f_b.jpg20180819-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Bodywork was not going well today.  I had problems with the filler curing far too fast and the paint curing far too slow, so that side of things was rather frustrating.  It's weatherproof and tidy, which is what matters, but it's certainly not the standard I'm capable of.  I'll redo this after I've moved house, I'm not stressing about it now.

29198504417_d2318609b4_b.jpg20180819-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With the bodywork sorted and the paint eventually dry, I could refit the carpet which was surprisingly easy to do, and the bolt in the back seat which was also very easy to do.  All of the boot trims and things have been reinstated too.  I do need to trim down the moulded boot trims so they fit the new seat opening, I can't use hatchback ones because the boot on the hatchback is shorter so they don't fit.  Rear seat was tested, and it's all functional, and being a 60/40 split-fold will no doubt be handy in the future.  The plastic trims that go over the rear arches to the sides of the rear seat need trimming in a couple of spots to clear the parcel shelf and I may need to make a small slice in the bottom to pull the seatbelt through since the seatbelt lower bolts are stuck pretty fast and I don't want to force those since I haven't got spare relevant bolts, nor a tap and die set of the relevant size.  Much safer and easier to trim a bit of plastic nobody will ever see.

29198504317_c5dc295f32_b.jpg20180819-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The carpet edges clip onto a pressing on the sill edge with some plastic edging that's part of the carpet.  Over the top go the Rover sill trims, and because of the screw placement the fancy higher spec chrome trims are handed left and right.  The rear trims are a plain plastic and look the same at a quick glance but they too are handed with a locating peg on the back that sits in a hole in the sill.

30268660968_24cd4f5fef_b.jpg20180819-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The centre console trim just slots into place and is held by four self tapping screws, two each side.

29198503957_de3fae3405_b.jpg20180819-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

 

The arm rest console is slightly more tricky since that's held down with four bolts you have to remove before sliding it into place, and then bolt it down, and then put the cubby insert back in.  I reseated the handbrake trim too as that had come adrift at some point.  Gearknob was screwed back on, boot/petrol flap release levers reinstated and the foot rest was bolted back down.  All of this helped the carpet sit much more flat.

29198503847_125fcdfc8c_b.jpg20180819-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43417347844_276460cf0e_b.jpg20180819-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I removed all of the wooden trim from my old door cards and the trim across the top of the dashboard so I can strip off the old cloudy varnish and refurbish them.  This is a job I'm not in a rush to do because they can all be slotted back into place after I've fitted the doorcards, etc. very easily.

43417348334_2d00f59546_b.jpg20180819-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43417348144_833efb7efe_b.jpg20180819-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Then on to the tricky job, which was the front seats.  When I got the seats I knew one seatbelt pre-tensioner was missing which wasn't a problem as I had a spare on my existing seats.  It's a purely mechanical system on these and there's a little tab that you use to deactivate them, surprisingly, the one on the new passenger seat hadn't been deactivated.  Anyway, this is the two driver's seats, my worn out velour one on the left and the nicely worn half-leather one on the right.  I needed to undo a torx headed bolt that holds the seatbelt thing on, and a 17mm regular bolt that holds the pre-tensioner tube on.

43417348064_e933020632_b.jpg20180819-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43417348014_f4df385401_b.jpg20180819-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

They put up a bit of a fight to remove, as you might expect of safety equipment, but once off it was a simple matter of bolting them up super tight on the relevant seat and job jobbed ready to keep me in my seat in a crash.

29198502707_9b0f681e92_b.jpg20180819-12 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With that sorted, I could get both seats in the car.  These seats are an absolute doddle to fit even though they're incredibly heavy for their size.

43417347784_95ed3f4e7a_b.jpg20180819-13 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43417347614_415f5302f7_b.jpg20180819-14 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Then it was time to go home because I was very hungry, so I'll likely finish this job off tomorrow since there's not a great deal left to do now.

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Got in and did a bit more today.  I wanted to do the underseal, fit the tank, and get the door cards on.  I managed some of this.  First, the underseal.  It probably doesn't need it but since this is an all-weather-car and I have taken it through a couple of winters now, it seemed prudent to give it a lick of the old black gunk anyway.  There's a handy pressing the length of the sill which means you can put a modest tidemark in without it being visible once the car is on its wheels.  Masking tape was my friend for a nice crisp edge to the black stuff.

42373000970_23099a71c7_b.jpg20180821-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43462763084_b52cc4a753_b.jpg20180821-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The fuel tank is a tricky operation to refit, luckily there were two of us and a gearbox hydraulic lift which made the job bearable.  There's a whole host of pipes that needed reconnecting and I hadn't had the foresight to plug the various tubes on the petrol tank while it was off the car so quite a lot of fuel has evaporated away, unfortunately.

42373000830_4cc2001f67_b.jpg20180821-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43462762934_15683c0787_b.jpg20180821-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Mike did battle with the fuel lines and I busied myself with other bits and bobs.  After that, I re-activated the seatbelt pre-tensioner things which is a simple case of taking the red tag out of the slot and clipping it back onto the end of the tube where it lives before refitting the trim.

42373000680_66282384a4_b.jpg20180821-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

42373000450_88d260fe92_b.jpg20180821-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

30313673768_cd9b02dfe3_b.jpg20180821-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Also got the lower windscreen trim reinstated.  Annoyingly, one of the A pllar trim clips has broken a leg at some point between removal and coming to refit, to stop it flapping about I'll just glue it down with some sealant when I get a chance.  Windscreen arms will go back on once I've repainted them satin black and bought a pair of new wipers, since new windscreen deserves brand new wipers.

42373000560_efe64f0be5_b.jpg20180821-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I looked over the spare doors and realistically the only things worth salvaging for me are the side trims, the door seals, and the glass.  The doors themselves aren't really better or worse than the ones on my car.  So if you want a full set of Flame Red doors (fit both saloon and hatchback, probably estate too) that are basically sound shells, they're free to anyone that wants to collect them.  I shan't be moving house with them so if they aren't collected they will go in the bin.

 

I swapped over the driver's door seal.  This involved knocking out the roll pin for the door stay to get the seal in the correct place and salvaging a good two thirds of the clips that hold the seal in place since my old one had barely any attached.  The old seal was fairly knackered too, stretched on the bottom edge and had a hole missing at the top so this will hopefully be an improvement.  It's a bit of a weird seal, when I salvage the others I'll try to remember to take some photographs to show you the clips on three edges and the rail it squidges into on the top.

30313673578_6c7759f71a_b.jpg20180821-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Finally I tried (and failed) to fit the driver's door card.  I salvaged a speaker off one of the spare doors since my original had torn, and I made sure to swap my original window switch pack onto the new door card since I wasn't as sure the new one worked.  The last time I did this door card it fought me quite a lot, it seems just as you've got one bit seated, two other bits pop out of place and when you correct those, it jumps off somewhere else.  Probably the worst job on the car so far, and I've four of them to do.  Oh well.

30313673428_1151a18ecf_b.jpg20180821-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The car was started after I'd completed the magical mystery dance of the buttons to get the keyfob to talk to the car again since the battery has been off.  No fuel leaks, no problems, all good.  So pre-MoT we're down to fitting some new bushes at the back - not a fail or even advisory, but I've got them and now is the best time to do them - finish fitting the door cards, new wiper blades, and then a really thorough clean.  Should be sorted in the next few days.

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Great work there.

I have a couple of questions about the carpet dye. How good is it and does it seem hard wearing?

 

The reason I ask is I am gathering harder to find parts for the Mini Cooper I am restoring and the carpet in it is tatty. New ones are pretty much obsolete unless an aftermarket multi piece carpet which I don't want.

I have found a brand new genuine molded carpet for the car but it is green, I need black.

Would you say that a black carpet dye would work well enough to give a proper finish that looks and feels original?

The carpet I found is quite expensive and probably the only chance I will have to find one so don't want to muck it up.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

 

Pro tip for carpet dye, try to dye it on your lawn if it's dry and has sufficient space.

 

Grass will grow and you can simply cut the overspray away.

 

Vulg did it on the patio and the overspray is not going away. At all.

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So nearly finished now, certainly finished enough to go for an MoT.  Courtesy of a chap on the club forum who was breaking a tourer, some trim bits arrived.  I've not had much joy finding the chrome bezel for the rear window window so that was particularly welcome and the square blanking plates are another tricky item to source if you can't get to a car that's being broken for spares.

44200431991_3c23238555_b.jpg20180822-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Primary job today was getting the door cards in, which is a thankless task.  Between the new and old door cards I had just enough trim clips.  I also had to swap the driver's door grab handle as it had lifted on one corner on the new card where on my old one it was in good shape.  Happily, the only interior bit left to do now are the rear arch trims that go alongside the seats and the revarnishing of the wood, both of which are low priority and will get done after I've moved house if need be since I don't need specialist tools to do them.  Here's the rear seat in action, I suspect this is going to be quite useful come moving day.

42392773100_b206dbfdec_b.jpg20180822-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Base up.  You do have to make sure the front seats are far enough forwards, these seats are chunkier than the velour versions it seems.

44200431891_76a66c3a54_b.jpg20180822-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

You can leave the base down and fold either half of the back rest forwards, just not flat because of the shape of things.  So while it is a 60/40, because of the solid base it's not as much of a benefit as it could be.  Still, 60% side down.

42392772930_ac34c61141_b.jpg20180822-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

40% side down.  Nice flat loading space.  There's a few times this would have been handy over the last few years so now I've done this I expect I'll never, ever use it after the house move.

44152416272_b275ea4e40_b.jpg20180822-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I still haven't trimmed the excess corners off the moulded boot sides yet and I forgot to push the carpet down flat from when I've been fiddling with stuff.  You get the idea though.  The red bodywork will be hidden once I've trimmed the plastic arch trims down properly and in use I'd stow the head restraints in the rear foot well rather than leaving them on the parcel shelf like that.  It is nice being able to remove the restraints, and necessary for folding down the seat back properly.

42392772620_a3e8842181_b.jpg20180822-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

44200431641_0abaedf147_b.jpg20180822-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Then I remembered I hadn't welded up that crack in the driver's door.  Since I'm not swapping doors around, it made sense to do this job now since it's an easy one, which annoyingly meant disconnecting the battery again.

42392772680_24d5007d80_b.jpg20180822-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

A blob of weld, a flap of the angry disc, and a splosh of paint and it's nice and secure again.  No discernible difference in using the door but at least I know it's done and safe to stick the door card back on.

44200431571_b9aef1c9ec_b.jpg20180822-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Surprisingly, key fob and car communicated almost instantly when the battery was reconnected.  New seats are quite firm, but supportive in the same way as the old ones, I think I'll get on okay with them.  It's nice not to have the springs and stuff in the base poking me in the bottom since these new seats actually have some foam left in them, so I hope dead-bum-syndrome won't be an issue on longer drives now.  Cabin feels a bit more cramped with everything being so dark in there compared to the grey velour, especially without the wood trim, but this is balanced out by the carpet being an actual colour and pulling the colour out in the seat cloth, which at least prevents it being a plain black hole.

44200431371_eae8a35536_b.jpg20180822-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Technically, it's now MoT ready.  I'm going to replace the suspension bushes before then anyway so I know they're done.  It was very strange getting behind the wheel of it after using the Princess for so many months, I almost felt too big for the car.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Decided to have a fettle with the wooden interior trim and see if I could do something about it being so faded and yellow.  The original lacquer had gone very cloudy, especially compared to other R8s I've seen over the years, seemingly because this one has lived outside its entire life.  Usually, lacquer either flakes off in big chunks making it really easy to deal with, or responds well to being chemically or abrasively stripped.  Whatever Rover/Honda used on these, however, was impervious to everything but 80grit paper in a power sander.  I employed a technique I've used before where you get a chisel-bladed craft knife and gently ease it under a damaged edge of the old lacquer and sort of slow-wiggle it up.  Wear eye protection, the small pieces have a habit of firing off at great speed, usually straight for your eyes.

 

You can see here just how cloudy and yellow the original lacquer had gone.  This is the dash insert and is easily the most faded and yellow of all the pieces on the car.  There wasn't much sanding required because the lacquer had gone quite brittle so it all came off in this way.

43520445385_e2cfd49286_b.jpg20180902-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I had tried a few methods to remove the old lacquer including a bench mounted wire wheel (no really!  Don't do this, it's too easy to cock it up), and a polydisc in a grinder that I then clamped into the vice (this works well, but don't do this, it's too dangerous and too easy to take too much material off without realising it).  Eventually, I settled on a combination of 80grit paper in a mouse type sander, a hand-sanding block, and the craft knife technique above.  Chemical paint strippers, thinner, and various potions wouldn't even touch whatever it is.  Mike and I wondered if it's some sort of epoxy resin rather than a more traditional varnish, especially with how sweet and plasticy it smells when you sand it (wear lung protection when sanding, kids).

 

Anyway, with a couple of pieces now back to bare veneer, I hit them with a coat of acrylic varnish.  I've used ordinary automotive acrylic varnish before for wooden handles and bits of wood that are exposed to a lot of sunlight and not had a problem before with bleaching or cracking so it seemed a sensible option here.  Things like beeswax or Danish Oil aren't really suitable since I want a very low maintenance finish and the satin varnish I've got is going to be the wrong finish for the style of the interior.  There is, unfortunately, some bleaching of the wood for the dash top piece, there's not a great deal I can do about this so I'm just accepting it as part of the car's ever growing character.

44379390842_1c682c0cc6_b.jpg20180902-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I would have liked to do more today but stripping off the old finish is incredibly time consuming and applying the new varnish requires drying/cure times between each coat since it needs sanding between each coat to get the finish I want.  I did get far enough that I could compare a few pieces together and I have to say I'm quite surprised at how good the trims look.  There's no stain or dye employed here, I'm just taking off an old yellowed finish and applying fresh clear finish which brings out the colour and pattern of the wood amazingly well.  I genuinely expected it to all look bleached, but smart, not this nice, interesting dark wood I've ended up with instead.

30560567948_30a1fc0db6_b.jpg20180902-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43520445295_ab898f9875_b.jpg20180902-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I'm planning to apply a total of 4-6 coats of varnish to get the finish I want.  It should be another job that ends up looking like I haven't done anything but that also improves the look of the interior considerably.

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Rather than doing more woodwork, I've been dealing with other stuff in my mission to get the decks cleared.  That meant stripping the useful bits off the spare doors so someone else can make use of them.  I wanted the glass most of all to replace the few scratched ones on the car.  These are slightly awkward to do because you have to unbolt them from the window mechanisms which is much easier when you can actually operate them, which when they're not connected to any power is quite difficult.  I cheated by unbolting the mechs, dropping them into the doors and then unbolting the glass that way.  The rear door glass needs a window guide to be unbolted and the rubber seals to be pulled out before the glass will come out of the door, which is about as annoying as you can imagine.  Still, a full set of glass that matches the tint on my car ready to fit when I have the motivation to dismantle my doors and fanny about with this in the future.

 

29520613897_d89615900e_b.jpg20180903-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Then it was a case of salvaging the door seals.  Not something I need right now but something that will definitely be more difficult to find in the future.  I also salvaged all of the funny little clips that hold them in because they seem to break fairly regularly.  I'm guessing these seals are a Honda thing. They don't go in with glue or clip on an edge, instead they squidge into a channel around the window frame and then have these little T clips the go into holes in the seal and push into holes in the door.  It's really easy to tear the seal removing them because of these T clips, even when you're using a trim removal tool.  It is not a design I like, I much prefer the old style where the seal pushes onto an edge and you use a rubber mallet for tight curves.

 

30588969428_ff197b0189_b.jpg20180903-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43549014275_6e68f7bb4f_b.jpg20180903-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

29520613687_46db1e0a1e_b.jpg20180903-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Then Mike and I squidged some sealant around the broken clips in the A pillar trims since that's easier than trying to source and fit new clips and will do the job just fine.  Tape is just there to hold everything until the sealant sets.

30588969278_4b281f6912_b.jpg20180903-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

That was it today.  There's minor jobs to do, nothing that's particularly vital.  Plenty of paint to sort out all over the car which I'm leaning more and more towards paying someone else to do piecemeal since you can with this colour scheme.  Interior needs the rear arch trims either side of the rear seat fitting, the wood to be reinstalled when I've finished restoring it and eventually the parcel shelf needs redying so it matches the seats properly.  There's a couple of popped stitches on the rear bench that needs fixing, a little bolster hole in the driver's seat that could do with being repaired.  Mechanically it would benefit from the minor oil leak being fixed and new lower rear engine stay bushes being replaced.  Or I could just ignore all of this because it doesn't affect the functionality of the car in any way.  We'll see how much spare time I have before the house move as to what gets done.

 

Here's a random unit car park picture.

30588968968_45886f0ba6_b.jpg20180903-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

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MoT ready now on this one.  Decided not to address the very minor oil weep on the cam carrier before the MoT, it shouldn't cause an issue but will probably be an advisory.  Shakycam employed to illustrate where the leak is here.  The K series has the usual sump and headgasket seams, but it also has a cam carrier seam above the head gasket and a top cover/rocker cover seam above that, so Rover maximised the potential for oil leaks with this design as a result.  It's weeping from the rear passenger side corner (impossible to photograph without taking parts off), and the front driver's corner has just started to be a little wet, though that could be wicking around from the back.

44597557961_8d3aab6312_b.jpg20180910-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The other job was to fit the new wiper blades, since I've got a new windscreen, and while I was at it I repainted the wiper arms which were looking very grey previously.  There wasn't a lot of paint on the arms and after repainting them and refitting them I found that the driver's side one doesn't catch the bonnet when you open it now.  There is definitely some play in the wiper mechanism somewhere, but the play goes away when you use the wipers for a bit and doesn't stop the wipers working so I'm not faffing about trying to sort that until much later.  I suspect it's a worn bush or rivet somewhere in the construction.

44597558471_7289d8dabe_b.jpg20180910-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

So yeah.  That's about as exciting as things have got here lately.

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Got the woodwork finished off today.

43899375264_68054d9aa4_b.jpg20180911-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Toddled over to the unit in my free time and noticed there were a handful of other small jobs I could do so got them done at the same time.  Emptied out the boot, threw some rubbish away that was in there, and then got to grips with the remains of the old spare wheel clamp.  It seems all of these are blue, regardless of the colour of the car.

29680328887_124015a6f6_b.jpg20180911-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

To prevent it seizing and destroying the plastic wheel in the future, I applied lashings of copper grease.

43899375044_1494c2d311_b.jpg20180911-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Now the spare wheel is secure.  This isn't really necessary though, the spare wheel doesn't really move about.

43899374864_7c51acfa26_b.jpg20180911-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Then I just went around and refitted all the wooden trim.  It used to look like this.

37408849895_3c01cda32e_z.jpg20150721-14 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

37408850105_b75c3015d6_z.jpg20150721-12 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Now it looks like this.

29680328687_8f37803dce_b.jpg20180911-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43899374984_bbaeca6f53_b.jpg20180911-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

29680328557_27866f56a7_b.jpg20180911-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Took the roofrack off now I have the boot emptied out and reinstated the gutter trims that I had put off refitting because I wanted to paint the roof first.  Getting the roof painted isn't now going to happen until next year so to reduce wind noise and make sure I don't damage the trims, they're safest fitted to the car.  Went back on with minimal fuss.

29680328147_8c89dc3ae8_b.jpg20180911-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

All ready for the MoT tomorrow.

 

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