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To move this on. A 'coupe-fied' five door SUV is the most offensively pointless and unnecessary body shape of any vehicle type in existence.

The cars built by British Leyland / Austin Rover were no worse than the cars produced by their contemporaries.

Automatic gearboxes are the best gearbox for 99% of a normal person's driving.

You are correct that the build quality was rather poor on the interior. However, I came out of a Mk1 Corsa and into a Metro. It was chalk and cheese. The Metro handled, the Corsa didn't. The Metro had some go in it, The Corsa didn't. I was a driving instructor. All of my pupils preferred the Metro bar none. I agree that the car should have had a better design, been more modern and have been better put together, but overall, it was still a good car. As for the K series, again quality control was the problem. The Chinese managed to sort it out with the MG6. No reported problems there. Why couldn't Rover had done this ten, fifteen years sooner? I know they had little money available at the time, but a bit more on development, with better quality control and who knows, maybe they would still be with us today. 

I have a few belters....
The Mk1 Focus is overrated. It just came at what had been a bit of a low point for Ford in that sector with the Escort, and was so bold design wise that the improvements it brought was overhyped.
Don't get me wrong, decent car, but fuck me, all this talk about how incredible they are to drive is bizarre.
Nice, certainly up at the sharp end for its class at the time, but does nothing outstandingly. You'd think it moved the game on lightyears, it didn't. It wasn't even the best handling car in the class around that generation. The Peugeot 306 (actually from a generation before the Focus) was. And it had a better ride to boot. The Focus was always just that little bit too firm at low speed. It was sharp, but really wasn't much beyond standard FWD fare.
And the engines were... largely, garbage. The 1.4 petrol was a boat anchor. The 1.6 was better but ran out of puff too readily for the revvy nature, the 1.8 was quite flat at low RPM and too thirsty around town. The original Diesel was the 1.8 td, again, outdated and too agricultural. Miles and miles off the French and VW offerings of the time.

The Chinese can make high quality parts, the problem is that Western consumers won't pay proper money for them.

Nissan Vanette/LDVCubs are complete crap.

What Hill Will You Die On for your opinion but other motorists think is wrong:
THE ROVER K-SERIES METRO/100 WAS UTTER SHIT AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETTER THAN WHAT IT WAS.
IT DESERVED TO DIE AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED OFF MUCH EARLIER.
The A series mini Metro/ Metro was an adequate BLARG offering for the time,  in an ideal world the bean counters would have fitted it with normal suspension rather than hydrolastic/hydragas  and someone shoudl really have tried harder to come up with a 5 speed option rather than the overly tall 4th gear. But considering when it was designed and how quickly it went into production against established small cars like the Fiesta and Polo, it was OK.
Grease nipples remained a part of weekend fettling, as was checking the dash pot had a bit of oil in it and going around the car treating rust blebs before they became bigger blebs the size of a subframe. It was still a car with 1950's technology and people who bought them for the most part understood this. Fast wind to 1991 and the K series Metro...

The K series engine, good on paper but not quite as good IRL. A small coolant leak quickly led to the head gasket failing and in some cases completely knackering the engine. OK, not the end of the world, but something that should have been better from the outset, as was the use of plastic locator dowels and bolts that went riiiiiight through the block to  attach the head. Dont get me wrong the K series when looked after and with an adequate coolant system can be a really good engine, Lotus used them for a while. The thing that really really really pisses me off about the K series Metro/100 was teh build quality.
Essentially  Metro Mk2 with some facelifts both inside and out but with no attention paid to the actual build quality.

In the early 1990's  customers were starting to get used to cars with decent prep and rust prevention from new, so that they were not the proud* owner of a pile of rust on wheels by 6 years old.  Despite Rover being able to make a 200/25 bubble with reasonable build quality, they somehow bypassed this on the Metro and examples 4 and 5 years old were rusting badly and failing MOT tests - for this reason alone is why I hate with a passion the K series Rover Metro/100.
No matter how good a new/sorted 1400 16v feels driving the whole of the underlying car remains frankly a let down with a clocks shared with the LDV vans of the time.
I dont expect to sway anyone with my opinion or change theirs if they only see the K with rose tinted spectacles, in the same way that cars I loved and still do are undoubtedly utter shit. However its my opinion and I shall DIE ON THIS HILL.
 
 
Over to you...

what type of idiot would do that?
oh wait.....🤣

There goes your tow car, or have you got another to take its place? Are you going to stick a towbar on the Shadow? 😁

There goes your tow car, or have you got another to take its place? Are you going to stick a towbar on the Shadow? 😁

Luverly. 

Good luck. Hope it all works for you and this time the bloody thing seals!

So good you cleaned it twice

That's great value! Well bought!

Water leaks are a pain! I remember one lad telling me that they had a customer complain he had his boot filling with water. The foreman simply remover a bung in the boot floor. 'There you go sir, the water now has a way out!

Water leaks are a pain! I remember one lad telling me that they had a customer complain he had his boot filling with water. The foreman simply remover a bung in the boot floor. 'There you go sir, the water now has a way out!

Back in the day, a small mini clubman auto estate [I think they made them] would have suited her down to the ground! God knows what something like that would cost now!
 

It's been a minute. There hasn't been a lot to report over the last month. I've been travelling with work so the fleet has sat mostly idle. I did enjoy a rather large F150 in Texas for ten days. It impressed me with it's sheer pace considering it's size. Apparently it was the 400hp twin turbo V6 version. Quick in a straight line but terrible ride quality. I did take it off-roading over the weekend and unfortunately it wasn't very good as it was only the RWD version with road tyres. But I still gave it a go.

 
Roll forward a week to today and the sun has been shining today so I took out my MGF for a spin. Despite it being a rather rough example it doesn't look too bad in the rolling countryside. It isn't the quickest car with the CVT gearbox but it makes for a nice bumble round the country lanes.

 
After I went out for a spin I set about some more welding. It feels like a long time since I last did any welding. Partly because it has been! But today I did manage to finish off the rear panel. When I took off the boot hinge panel the boot floor was also rusty. So I started by cutting all that out.

Then replaced the central section.

Then set about cutting out the other corner

Unfortunately I made the mistake of not measuring twice and ended up cutting the panel too small as can be seen here... A bit of cardboard aided design helped fix that. Although I also had to cut out a bit extra due to thin steel.

New panel under the rear light too

Then onto the hinge panel

Finished off with a lovely coat of brown direct to metal Hammerite

And that's it for today! There's still a hole in the wheel well to fill which can be spotted earlier on in the pics but I ran out of time today. That'll be next weekends job as well as hopefully starting on the rear floors in the passenger compartment

A bit more of the bitsa interior. Upside- it’s semi trashed so very usable. (OSR door card- partially eaten by a dog?)


Dog guard secured by a ww2 soviet machine gun sling
The headlining is just the backing only, as it the internal a b c d pillar trim-

The NSR 1/4 window still has the breakers yard markings on it for extra couldnt give a fuck points. Actually this glass is more tinted, and is optikool rather than the other side windows being triplex- so off a later model i think.
 
Farthest off road so far

Verdict- must try harder
 

I nearly sent one of those little trailers into space a few years back, it was unladen on the back of my 4x4 so couldn’t be seen or felt.
I momentarily forgot myself and went over one of those narrow speed bumps without slowing down as the 4x4 wheels could pass either side of it.
The trailer then immediately made itself seen and felt, as its wheels could not pass either side 😬 I thought it was coming through the back window and absolutely shit myself, I’ve not made that mistake again.

Lovely looking car, but, with no MoT and a suspect clutch, worth maybe £400 tops? More probably than the scrap man would give you, but I feel that is all. 

Unfortunately, they are, or have, reached that age where they ae worth very little. For us it is great as we can pick up a very nice working vehicle for not too much cash. I do see some cars up on ebay/facebook for serious money, and yes perhaps for the very best it is warranted, but for the rest, £1250-£2000 seems about it for a cherished, low mileage example with a full MoT. These are lovely cars. They ride beautifully. The diesels are reasonably good on fuel, but the V6, on full chat, well, let me tell you, it will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and give you goose bumps! Lovely. My V6, unfortunately succumbed to the dreaded tin worm. Hopefully my tourer will fare better. 

I don't name vehicles but I was tempted to call it Norman as the reg is TEB, just a bit missing.

Lovely looking car, but, with no MoT and a suspect clutch, worth maybe £400 tops? More probably than the scrap man would give you, but I feel that is all.