Rover 800 coupe: now a very tall brad production

[very tall brad]

I have agreed to buy this car from Adam - what a very accomodating man - and collect it on Sunday with some help from 'Lord Sterling' also on this forum.

 

Looking forward to restoring it to pristine nick for little outlay.

[oman5]

I love a happy ending. please post some before and after pics, won't you?

[Lord Sterling]

Well, this car has now been collected. And Brad is one happy chap, he is currently getting stuck into this project.

 

For this small trip, I awoke at 7am on a Sunday morning. It's unusual for me to be awake before everyone else. I made my way to Worcester to pick Brad up and was greeted by another Rover 213 SD3 parked up in Brads drive.

 

We sedately made our way down to WGC where the car was located and soon we met up with DNJs mate, the seller of the car and his lovely family and a small white kitten. The lad must have been about the same age as me.

 

Anyhow, after some light banter, exchanging of money/keys/documents myself and Brad made our way out the lovely quiet art of WGC to make our way back up to the Midlands. We found ourselves on the M25, ironic as Ma works not far from there and this would have been the second time I have brought my Sterling down this way.

 

Brad seemed well impressed with the car, despite it looking a bit battered and unwashed, he commented on how it drove superbly. On the way back up we stopped at some services so I took the opportunity to try and take a better shot of it.

 

Obligatory shot of Rovers at some Motorway service carpark:

 

 

Brad has already compiled a list of what is needed and he already has most of it. I'd say in the next week or so, this car will look almost like new.

 

Watch this space.

 

Note to self - I REALLY MUST bag myself a V6 Coupe. Come on life, gizza chance

[Partridge]

Looks a bit scruffy but solid enough. The inside look very good though. I’m looking forwards to seeing how it turns out

[Split_Pin]

Good result there, looking forward to seeing it looking spruce again!

[Hertz]

What a bargain, how come it took so long to sell that

[Pete-M]

What a bargain, how come it took so long to sell that

 

Clue is in the thread title.

[very tall brad]

As Lord Sterling has said, this is now safely here at my house. The list of jobs is a long one but mainly niggly fiddly stuff rather than expensive. I aim to have this done in a fortnight providing it's not too cold. I work long hours so it'll be a midnight jobbie working in one of my garages. Here are some pictures when I had got the car home:

 

 

 

I made a list of items on Sunday afternoon that it needs - luckily I have the parts already:

 

New wheels - the ones are the car won't clean up

New tyres - two are bald, one has a gash

Realign front bumper and reattach side mountings

Change rear lights for the earlier (92 - 96) orange set up

Thorough service (fluids, flushes, filters)

Clean engine bay

Glue down the lifting dash

Replace air con switch pack as a bit temperamental

Rustproof sills and arches

Rustproof front wings by removal

New headlights, indicators, number plates, badges

Feed and clean seats

New wiper blades

New carpet (easier than cleaning it)

Replace very nice Sony system with standard Rover set up

Replace electric aerial as the current one is slow to extend

Remove and reattach all the lower side cladding clips

Replace all side rubbing/chrome insert strips

Front pads and discs

Replace grille with new one with black vanes as per earlier 92 - 96 cars

Repair the few dings and bashes and scrapes

New fog lamps as current ones are dull

Drivers door window - replace or repair.

Drives door card - glue where it has started peeling or replace.

Clean under rear arches/fuel filler pipe area

New battery tray (corrosion)

 

It looks like a lot of work but many jobs can be combined and done at the same time as each other.

 

Luckily, the car drives extremely well. A lot of servicing attention has been lavished on this car but never a bucket of soapy water. The car smells dusty but not foul. There is no damp in the car.

 

The car has now had two very hot washes - one by me by hand and one by ARC car washes. It looks a lot better now. The paintwork will revive with some work. The various dings and scratches can be disguised, painted or polished out. The drivers door and drivers front wing need attention/paint/replacement - not sure about these yet.

 

I have removed two of the four wheels. The nuts are mashed, rounded and chewed up I am afraid so it'll be brute force to get these off. The wheels are toast anyway. Three tyres are scrap and the fourth barely legal with a nice sidewall gash.

 

Today I removed the headlamps, indicators, bumper and bumper crash bar and crash cans. The structure to which the offside crash can is mounted was a bit bent so I pulled it back into line with a chain and a tree as an anchor. It is useful living in the country. I replaced the crash cans with new items and replaced the bumper crash bar with a used item from another dead Coupe. The bumper was repaced, everything lined up and fine tuned for fit and I nipped into town in it to meet my wife for a coffee.

 

I now have in my possession two new number plates.

 

New wiper blades fitted.

 

The smoked rear lamps are now binned and original, earlier style (1992 - 1996) orange rear lights have been fitted - I do this for safety reasons as they are much better in bright sun than the later ones. They look better, too.

 

Air filter changed. The one in the car was not good.

 

It is now looking a lot straighter and happier. I shall take some pics tomorrow.

[RoadworkUK]

Heroic save, sir.

 

In some ways I'd love mine to be a coupe, but in some other ways I'm glad it isn't; something tells me that the fastbacks will be extinct before the others 'cos they don't have the same "desirability*" factor.

 

Mine has had a year off, basically. I squirrelled it away in the garage last feb at the end of its MOT and went back to using the Audi. This year it'll be moving to my new house (bought specifically because the garage is big enough to house the Rover.... I hope my measurements were right), and I can concentrate on getting it back to 100% condition (it was previously about 98% there).

 

I'll need to stay in touch with fellow 825 victims here and over on Rover800info; I suspect something may be awry with my power steering somewhere.

 

Best of luck with the forthcoming uphill struggle.

[Rocket88]

spam bump

[dieselnutjob]

I'm glad I got this one right. Well done for saving it etc.

[Shep Shepherd]

Looking forward to reading about the car's progress, and of course seeing photos of it when it's done

[rml2345]

^ What Shep said.

Bit of a soft spot for the 800, so it'll be good watching this one progress.

[catsinthewelder]

Good to see another saved, the 820 at work went AWOL a month or two back, I'd asked about chucking it up on here when he was getting rid but a garage offered him a decent part ex on it so off it went

[very tall brad]

UPDATE #1 26th November 2012

 

Car is running superbly.

 

I have changed wipers, swapped the alloys for (temporary) new steelies/new Michelins, changed the gummed up air filter, cleaned the crud from behind the front wings, removed the flapping side cladding and rubbish side rubbing strips, replaced the rear number plate and taillights, new front discs/pads/ball joints (precautionary but see below re: brake disc!) and given the old tank three very very brutally tough washes.

 

I loosened off the front bumper after removing the headlights and indicators. I managed to tease out the mashed bumper bar and replace it with a secondhand one from a red scrapper. New crash cans were also fitted and the front end now sits higher.

 

The interior has yet to see a wet cloth or vacuum and the engine is disgracefully filthier than my mate's first wife. And I should know.

 

The nearside front wheel nuts were well and truly seized so I smashed the wheel with a pickaxe and got the angle grinder on it. It came off eventually. One stud and one smashed brake disc was the only consequential damage.

 

Here are some pictures so far.

 

 

The list of jobs now is pretty straightforward. Another few days and it'll be finished (apart from the dent in the drivers door which I shall worry about in the Spring).

 

Cost so far is £8 on two new wheel studs (one for the car and one spare) - the parts I needed were already in my spares stash.

[Split_Pin]

It clearly pays to hoard your spares!

Great work, looks like this is already a thorough resurrection!

[FredTransit]

Yo Brad how are you doing mate? Not spoke to you in ages!! Nice work BTW!!

[Partridge]

 

That’ll come out with some Autoglym

[very tall brad]

Yo Brad how are you doing mate? Not spoke to you in ages!! Nice work BTW!!

 

Hello Fred

 

Good to hear from you. It has been a couple of years or more...I shall send you a private message this week for a catch up.

 

Brad

[very tall brad]

New wheels and tyres today. Not cheap. In fact, these cost more than the car...

 

[Split_Pin]

That looks like a new car now! Wheels make any motor imo.

[Partridge]

This sort of thing warms to cockles of my heart...nice work sir, I salute you.

[HillmanImp]

 

I can't believe nobody has asked why you didn't just hammer a bigger socket over it........

[RoadworkUK]

I'm measurably awestruck. Fine work Elongated Bradley.

 

Incidentally; what are those wheels actually called? I've seen them on various 800s and long thought them to have a slight Jag XJ Pepperpottiness to them. I think they'd look a treat on my fastback.

 

Well done.

[very tall brad]

I can't believe nobody has asked why you didn't just hammer a bigger socket over it........

 

I did. I broke two sockets in the process. The nut was so mashed I couldn't get anything to grip. But I got there in the end with 6 foot 8 brute force.

[very tall brad]

I'm measurably awestruck. Fine work Elongated Bradley.

 

Incidentally; what are those wheels actually called? I've seen them on various 800s and long thought them to have a slight Jag XJ Pepperpottiness to them. I think they'd look a treat on my fastback.

 

Well done.

 

The new wheels that I have fitted are 16" Prestige alloys as fitted to a very small run of Mark 1 Rover 800 cars in 1990/1. You'll be very very lucky to find another set anywhere.

 

The wheel shown on my avatar on the right is the more common 15" version as fitted to a number of Sterlings as standard eqipment in 1989/90.

[dieselnutjob]

I get the impression that you are aiming to build the ultimate 800, as you seem to be fitting all the best parts to it.

Is the underlying car that good? or are all the other that bad?

[RoadworkUK]

I didn't realise they came as a 16" and a 15". Nice, though.

 

If I had unlimited time, a big workshop and could be bothered, I'd be making a 2-door Fastback, XR4i style. It would very probably be built extremely badly and end up going straight to the fragger, though. So I might not.

[very tall brad]

I get the impression that you are aiming to build the ultimate 800, as you seem to be fitting all the best parts to it.

Is the underlying car that good? or are all the other that bad?

 

Yes this car is very good underneath the skin. The shell is rust free as well. Compared to other Coupes which don't resist rot anywhere near as well as the conventional 800 saloon and fastback, this is a good one. I do have a few others including a mint 8000 miler that I bought new 20 years ago so it's not the best, by far.

 

I guess I am trying to save this car from the grave and to show what you can do with limited skills (mine), limited funds and some spare parts and time. And some elbow grease and a lumphammer!

 

I am lucky that I do have the parts to hand but, wheels aside, anyone could buy these bits for peanuts and do the same. There is great pleasure in rescuing a car of this quality from the jaws of death all becasue it was a bit grubby and a bit dented in a few places.

[very tall brad]

I didn't realise they came as a 16" and a 15". Nice, though.

 

If I had unlimited time, a big workshop and could be bothered, I'd be making a 2-door Fastback, XR4i style. It would very probably be built extremely badly and end up going straight to the fragger, though. So I might not.

 

You don't need unlimited time and a workshop. Just imagination (which it sounds like you have), a car to fiddle on that is worth little to you financially, a mate who can weld (if you don't already) and a donor car for the bits and pieces you'll need to make what you want.

 

A 2 door fastback would be easiest to make out of a 5 door fastback with the centre ( pillar removed and relocated further back and Coupe doors fitted. The rest is fiddling to get swage lines smoothed and the rear door openings welded closed possibly using cut down door skins. Then straight to the fragger. Or just do one side as a single door and keep the two doors on the other side...