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Your Rover SD3 stories (mine has ended)


eddyramrod

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"Mind that pothole dear"

Mrs Seal had a D plate 213S as her first car when I met her. Galloping rotbox it was too, the only time I drove it was to the scrapyard to send it on its final journey - steering was woollier than the festive shepherds flock.

I'd still like to take a spin in a well sorted one

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I'll post pics later (going out in a few minutes) but this morning I've left it with Martin for rad-flush and cambelt.  That takes care of the real essentials, then I've got till Easter or so to get the rough OSR arch sorted, and a new roof liner in.  Good thing I've still got the Saab for work!

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My father had the 216 Vandenplas with a grey leather interior back in the early 90s and I think even though the car was only about 5/6 years old it was showing signs of rust in some really unusual places..

 

I will say though it was really nice to drive and the revvy S series efi made my old CVH XR3 I had at the time feel like a boat anchor and the gearbox was really precise and I preferred driving that car to my XR and it was really economical..

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Love that thing Eddy - the cars of my childhood, as my Dad had three in a row from the mid '80s to the mid '90s. His first was a 213S on a C plate, which he kept for about five years. High miles when he bought it, and never ailed much. He upgraded to a facelift model on a D plate with sod all miles that he didn't really take to as it was a povvo spec one - this one was in his hands for about 18 months. Next up was a 216 Sprint on an F plate, with a stumpy little rubber spoiler on the boot lid and colour coded wheel trims (the luxury!). That one rusted out in all kinds of weird places and was a borderline MOT failure at about six years old. My Dad did look after his motors - he garaged it all the time and I was a weird kid who constantly washed it for him. He got lucky with that one in that the chemical factory where he worked had an accident one day that dropped a cloud of something caustic on the cars in the car park and surrounding streets, followed by the almost inevitable Cumbrian rain. This resulted in the chemical works paying for a full respray which, after my Dad did a deal with the body shop to sort out the rust at the same time, ended up with him having a very smart looking motor to trade in.

 

Having experienced ARG "quality" like that though he took the SVM solution, and bought a 460 to replace it.

 

Still, a good design, which always felt nicely airy and spacious - no doubt because of the low dash and window line. Very different to today's panzer wagons.

 

Excelsior purchasing!

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I believe I did promise you some more snaps...  These were all taken this morning, in the back yard at work.  By some miracle it wasn't raining!  Let's begin with a couple of general exteriors...

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And now a couple of specific exteriors.  See how the sunroof doesn't look closed?  It doesn't seem to be leaking, but I suspect it wants looking at fairly soon.

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Now look at the arc in the top trim of the windscreen.  That clearly isn't right, but again, doesn't seem to be leaking.  The drive home from Widnes would have shown up any leaks, trust me!

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Here's the underbonnet shot...

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...nothing looks untoward there.  I do need to have a leaf-removal session though.

And so to the boot, where we find a spare wheel that looks correct, and a tidy floor.

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But what's this?  Let's look closer...

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The complete original wheel-changing kit, even including a pressure gauge!

Interior now, and here's the mileage (the trip is my miles, I zeroed it as we set off from the seller's industrial unit).

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Seats are in nice condition...

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...which is more than can be said for the roof lining...

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...and sadly, also for this arch.

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Those two jobs are on the agenda, some time in the New Year.

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Beaded seat cover - never.

Pork pie hat - possible, bordering on likely.  Flat cap less likely but also just about possible.

Tweed jacket - also possible, depends what the charity shops have in.

String-backed gloves - for MGBs only!

 

I'm thinking I can't get away with driving this in jeans and a T-shirt!

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