Rover 414SLi - General update 04/06.

[Rover414]

Some of you may remember when I first joined here I had posted about my Rover which was dead needing a new engine. This was (and still is) stored in a relatives back garden just while something else was "temporarily" in the home driveway (2 weeks which turned into 2+ years). Anyway that's gone and some thing's have changed so I have been thinking about getting it back on the road, here is how it looks:



Anyway, 2 weeks ago I was looking around Copart, having a membership there I noticed a green 414SLi that was Cat C that would be ideal for the engine and assorted body parts and various interior bits etc, £150 later and it was mine. It's not here yet but here are some photos from the site for reference:





It should hopefully be here tomorrow fingers crossed. The bonnet and bumper will probably move straight over as these are in better condition. The drivers door might end up moving over, the mirrors will be moving over after some scumbag kicked these ones and ruined the electricals as a result. It has only done 72k so the engine should be in good order but will give it a once over when it arrives. Really looking forward to it and hopefully having the Rover back on the road in the very near future.

[Lord Sterling]

Looks like a great purchase there Roverlad. I was told it would have been better for me to buy the Rover 800 whole that I recently broke up. I could have done with the bonnet to be honest but I simply don't have space.

 

Try and take off as much as you can from the car, its always good to have spares, particularly in the right colour.

 

Good luck, keep us up to date in your resto and take lots of pics.

[KruJoe]

I saw you'd bagged this in the grin thread. Well done for finding one the right colour! It'll smarten yours up no end, and it's great to have a breaker of your own to keep your shite tip top. For sure you won't be needing the engine from my 214 now!

[dollywobbler]

Aye. Buying a write off is a great move. I couldn't bring myself to break the ex-striped BX, because I knew it could still be saved. Not an option with that arse-ended Rover methinks!

[Rover414]

LS - Aye, the advantages of having a space on the driveway made this something not to miss. We have a garage on our house too so all the spares will probably end up in there although the aim is to get them on the other car as soon as possible.

 

KJ - Aye! Hopefully the engine is fine as I've yet to physically see the car but the low miles for the age makes me think positively about it. The wings have some rust on them but probably keep hold of them for some practice metalwork and so on.

 

DW - There are some nice Rovers knocking about for not so much money but like you, I couldn't bring myself to break a nice straight car. At the end some cost will be recouped when it comes to weighing it all in.

[Rover414]

It arrived today:

 

 

It'll wield some very useful parts for my own car. The engine runs sweet as a nut. Some surprising extras too such as the V5 (wasn't meant to come with that), Rover 400 driver handbook along with other Rover goodies and service history notes too. Still shows as taxed on the DVLA system but with a VIC marker against it. 4 Rover wheeltrims in the boot too.

[KruJoe]

*yield*

Looks smart, eh?

Talking of surprising extras, yesterday I discovered that my 216SLi has disks on the back! I thought only the GTi came so equipped.

If those wheel trims were the posh ones with the proper badge in the middle, I'd be offering to buy them off you, but I've just snagged myself some nice GTi lattice alloys.

[Rover414]

That's the word I was looking for! It was late, that's my excuse.

 

 

Haynes Book of Lies proved useful to remove some interior parts today, although the centre console removal was actually incorrect and was missing a step.

 

They are proper wheel trims too with the full coloured badge in the middle!

[Lord Sterling]

Wow, that looks well smart. Well done on your purchase. I'd take everything off it I can, doors, lights, bumpers, electrical stuff like the wiring loom and radio, interior and interior trim. You just never know when these will become necessary. Particularly interior plastic trim bits. Stuff breaks/falls off so its great to just reach into a box of bits and simply replace these things.

[Rover414]

That's the plan, it had an original Rover radio, all this is out at the moment. Next is to take all the door cards off and more of the dashboard. Hopefully the engine will come out sometime soon, luckily it has no bad signs which is a relief. One of the rear lights is fully intact too so that will be coming off, all 4 wheels are reusable and the spare wheel is in good condition too. Under the engine bay plenty of stuff looks new too. It seems the first owner was Thrifty Car Rental who had it until 2000.

[stuboy]

good luck and lucky with the colour

[Rover414]

Aye, quite lucky. Tried to take the driver door card off today but one of the screws is a flat head one which isn't a standard one and just turns without moving.

[KruJoe]

David, it might be that the strange screw isn't actually gripping into anything, try taking all the others out, and pulling the door card gently, it might come off.

 

Does your 414 suffer from damp in the boot? (Not the spares car, obvz.) It's a common problem, and it looked like your back windows were steamed up from it. It's the seals on the back lights, and I've solved the problem on my 216. If so, I'll make you a pair of my upgraded KruJoe special R8 seals if you want.

 

Warning, your next post is number 100, and you may be upgraded from Toyota Starlet to Austin Maxi. Use it wisely!

[Rover414]

You were right, the door card came off with no problems. I'm not sure on the seals but to be honest it sounds like a good idea to replace them anyway, although the ones around the doors are solid as the interior is untouched by mould or anything.

 

Anyway, for my 100th post I come bearing some photos of the scrapper and what I've so far managed to take off.

 

The front wing showing the slight surface rust, these will be kept anyway. Also here is an example of the wheel trims that are in the boot:

 

 

Here is the offending screw from the door card. At least it came off easy enough:

 

 

A shot of the damage:

 

 

One nicely removed centre console!

 

 

Finally, various shots of the engine:

 

 

As a bonus, here is the cat from down the road inspecting my "hard work". The door cards are off too on the drivers side but I forgot to photo this feat. Next step is to move the car in a position where the passenger side cards can come off and also try to remove some more of the dash.

 

[Lord Sterling]

Excellent work. Are you going to be replacing the alloys with steelies and trims? If so, you sir are a WINNAH.

[vulgalour]

May be teaching you to suck eggs here, but wherever possible put the fixing screws/plugs/whatnots into the holes they came out of when removing trim. A bit of tape if they're at all wobbly and then in the future should you need to fit any bits you've got all the stuff you need to hand. I always do this these days, it's only when other people meddle with my stuff that fixings go missing and that gives me the rage.

 

Top billing on the breaker, proper stroke of luck. That alternator looks pretty new too, looks like you've netted a bit of a bargain.

[Rod/b]

R8 FTW. Nice to see someone taking the effort to get one back on the road.

[Rover414]

The alloys need to come off for refurb so it will be on wheels and trims for a while I think. All the screws have been put in a box but the way I was thinking is if something comes off my R8 to be swapped over I can just use the screws off that one. At least my R8 has the actual screws rather than some substitutes like this one has (even in the engine bay!). Hopefully the weather picks up so the engine can come out.

[KruJoe]

About the engine, I would suggest you leave the new one where it is until you're ready to do the swap.

If possible, wait 'til you have a weekend to give it, and a (slightly competent) mate, do the job with the cars side by side, start on the spares car, make your mistakes there, then move your car while everything's fresh in your mind.

If you're not sure exactly what every component is and how it works, take lots of photos around the engine bay of how it's all connected up. Before you disturb anything. Then you can look back if you need to.

You're going to swap the bonnets etc over, right? I would remove as much external bodywork, lights etc, as you can be bothered to, before you start, to prevent damage and make access easier. Good luck!

[Rover414]

Well for me it's not possible to get both cars side by side, at least short of asking the neighbor to use their driveway! But I will be taking lots of photos of the engine bay just to cover my own back! I'm going to swap the bonnets but I will be retaining the other bonnet for clean up and repaint. When the engine is coming out though the bumper, wings, bonnet and lights will all be off before that starts!

 

Anyway, I managed to get the tar stain off the front of it today. From this angle you'd not think there was nothing wrong with it:

 

[Rover414]

Well the green cars bonnet was seized on so this caused for some drastic bending of the grille to convince it to open, here is its very dead engine:

 

 

Next step is to finally remove the last of the dash on the scrapper, seats, wings, bumper, bonnet, then onto the engine and gearbox. Then the green car can finally come home for some much needed TLC!

[garycox]

They're both green!

[Rover414]

Of course! The proper one (N668 VBA) has always been "the green car" to me though. The scrapper sits on my driveway at the mo too so it should make a bit more sense now.

[cms206]

Good thread this - in my earlier driving career I had a now sadly deceased peacock blue ish 414i Sprint. It was a pleasant little thing but it is also the only car I've owned which was torched. Poor thing really.

[Rover414]

Well the wing, bumper and headlights are all off this now and it's in the air sans its wheels waiting for the engine to come out. Engine crane has been lifted out of its home and hopefully we can get it out by the end of the weekend.

[Rover414]

Here's how the car looks now:

 

 

Work on getting the engine has stalled a bit as one or two tools need acquiring before continuing.

[rml2345]

That looks pretty different! Enjoying this R8 resurrection thread and looking forward to the next updates.

[Rover414]

Well, no additional tools were acquired bar 4 bolts to mount the lifting chain to the engine but today the engine did come out of the car. Work has not long finished after being started about 1pm but it was totally worth the day it took to do it. The engine does look like it isn't its original engine and does have a fair few new parts bolted onto it as previously seen. With this done, I took the time to remove some small bits that will be used on the other Rover, mainly the mirrors for now. As a consequence, the next two days will be spent getting various small bits and pieces out of it, loading it full of scrap metal and sending it on to the next life.

 

[Rover414]

Finally everything is off this car that needs to be off it. Now it's getting ready for it's one way trip to the scrappers and this week should see the return of the proper Rover to the driveway outside the house for the first time in 5 years. Just a little bit excited now.

[Rover414]

And like that, the Rover has gone to the next life:

 

 

Not sure how much it'll make as I've had to stay at home to wait for some repairmen to arrive but the next stage is to bring the other Rover home, this should be happening one day this week.