My SD1 a history in rust - Up to Date

[cort16]

I buy loads of shite cars, run them for a bit then flog them on (usually for a loss) but I've had my SD1 for 3 years, which is probably the longest I've ever had a car. Unfortunately for most of this time it's been either too rusty or too broken to drive but never the less I thought I'd start a thread about it.

 

It all started with this heap of shit. I'd always wanted an m535i and even back in 2009 they'd started to creep up in price so did what all shitters would do and bought the worst example available. After many break downs, a new ECU and having paid for a couple of hundreds quids worth of welding (I couldn't weld back then) I had it in a BMW specialist to get the rear subframe bushes changed and they found that the rear subframe mounts (floor) had completely disolved. This is pretty much game over for an e28 unless you're tonybmw as the a big bolt runs up through the floor (not there on my car) and bolts the subframe to the top of the back seat. I was just looking at my RR thread on it and the last post is "welding completed, going in for subframe bushes on Tuesday". I lobbed it on ebay, took a crushing loss and got on with my life.

 

BMWm535i by cort16, on Flickr

 

After the debacle with the BMW I wanted a cool old car I could just drive around in without having to spend a fortune on.

I'd had an SD1 on my list for a while as when I was a kid our car was an ex NHS district nurse mega povo spec Mini 850 my Dad had bought from auction for reasons no one including him understood. Our family holidays that year happened to be in a luxury* 4 berth caravan in Tenby, which is officially fucking miles away from Galashiels in the Scottish borders. Even my Dad realised a Mini 850 wasn't ideal for this kind of journey so borrowed his Mate's nearly new SD1 2600 for the holidays. The velour, the electric windows, the tape player made a massive impression on me. The fuel consumption made an impression on my Dad and his mate never forgave him for making him drive around in a Mini 850 for 2 weeks.

 

I stuck a wanted advert up on RR and within a few hours I got a message offering a 2600 that had has a load of work done for sale.

Phil the guy I bought it off had rescued it from certain doom for 250 quid, lobbed it in for it's mot, which it failed the proceeded to do shit loads of work to it. This is it when he got it.

 

 

 

He put new wings on it, welded up the inner wings then went to town on the Rimmer bros catalogue. New heavy duty springs, dampers, bushes brakes (including new hubs), sports steering wheel and refurbed Revo alloys.

For reasons best known to him he decided to sell it so I set off on the Train to York to pick it up from Harrogate. All looked good so I paid the money and headed back up the road.

On the first fill up in Harrogate I drove off with the fuel filler cap on the roof. I only noticed when I saw fuel slopping out the tank when I was going around a corner so I stopped, took a sock off and wedged it in the tank, which was enough to stop the worst of the flow but I did have a cold foot.

 

The rest of the journey was uneventfull other than the normal old car stuff of being deafened and poisoned. For the rest of the summer it behaved perfectly and a pleasure to own.

 

I'd spotted a hole plugged up with putty in the inner wheel arch so a few months later started to have a poke around.

 

 

 

This was a hint of things to come.

 

[Partridge]

Encore! We want more!

[tooSavvy]

 Even my Dad realised a Mini 850 wasn't ideal for this kind of journey so borrowed his Mate's nearly new SD1 2600 for the holidays. The velour, the electric windows, the tape player made a massive impression on me. The fuel consumption made an impression on my Dad and his mate never forgave him for making him drive around in a Mini 850 for 2 weeks.

 

Fab Quote.... 850 F.T.W.

 

epic

 

tooSavvy

[cort16]

I might as well mention about how this thing drives. The straight six isn't exactly desirable. Every time I mention to someone I have an SD1 they reply "v8?" and I say er' know actually it's a straight six and you can see the their faces sink. The truth is it's pretty slow not helped by the slushbox .

 

These things are supposed be about 135bhp, but I'd be surprised if mine is putting out 100 now. I actually recon it's got slower over the time I've got it not helped by all the sitting around it's done. I got burned off by a Hyundai AtoZ a couple of months ago, which is pretty depressing. It's got twin SU's with those shitey stepper motors Rover put on them as they couldn't be arsed/had no money to put putting fuel injection on them. It's tiny little brain takes reading from various (3) sensors then attempts to adjust the carbs for the best performance. They're disconnected on mine. I can't see the fuel economy being that much better than the v8 tbh I recon it does about 25mpg.

It generally cruises pretty well but over 70 it gets really noisy and starts to use a bit more fuel so I just keep it legal else you'll be deaf and bankrupt in about 14 miles.

 

This means it runs rough when it's cold and generally runs a bit shit. The plan for the winter is to get all this stuff reconnected and see if I can get it running a bit better.

 

The suspension and new bushes the previous owner changed means it handles really well.. I've never driven a normal SD1 so I can't compare but there's a 5 inch height difference betwen mine and a standard one. It corners really flat and between the suspension and the massive tyres it's great in the corners. I could defo smoke a Hyundai AtoZ in the corners! It can be a little hard on shit road surfaces and doesn't like speed bumps or my drive too much but it's not bad.

[UmBongo]

Years ago, a friend's Dad who worked there had a yellow 2600 SD1.

 

Actually, he wasn't a friend, he was an evil little wanker but somehow he'd coerce me into 'going in for him' on my walk to school.

 

I don't think his Dad realised what a nasty little shit his son was.

 

I got a lift to school in it once when it was raining.

 

Styling was streets ahead of anything else at the time.

 

I was going to buy a V8 years later but the twat wouldn't let me drive it so I walked away.

[Honey Badger]

Love the SD1's my uncle used to have a VDP V8 in the same colour as yours, you could hear the car starting at his house the next street over.

 

Did you learn to weld repairing this SD1?

[cort16]

Yes! Lots of welding experience was gained on this car I'll post some pictures later. I started off using a 2nd hand gassless system but loads of shit welds and jammed up wire made me fork out over 300 quid on a new mig. That hurt. It made a big difference though and the whole experience would probably have been much less painfull had I done it earlier. At some points I actually forgot it was a car it just turned into something I went to to weld up. It's hard to keep the love after the 4th weld spark in 2 days has burnt it's way through to your crotch.

 

I think Moonrake blue is the most common colour for the series 2 sd1's.

[oman5]

I had loads of these back in the day. The 2600 can be a good engine if looked after but I found the same as you, it's not suited to the automatic box at all. the 2600 manual is a completely different beasty to drive, speed wise its almost as quick as the standard v8 (0-60 in the 9 sec bracket I think) and about 118 top end. 30 mpg on a run. I used to convert mine to the manual choke set up from the series 1, that FASD autochoke thing is a waste of time

It's great to see one saved, well done.

[cort16]

 

I used to convert mine to the manual choke set up from the series 1

 

That's interesting as I was thinking about doing this as it's so grumpy when cold because I've got the steppers disconnected.

[Bren]

All SD1's rot in the place in your photo - I even had to do mine as the previous repairs had rusted through.

 

I agree about the 2.6 as an auto - a manual is a different car. However, I like the smoothness of the six, and the "whine" it makes while accelerating. Plus, it looks impressive in the engine bay.

 

Quite a few police forces turned their noses up a the 2.6 due to a lack of performance. I was talking to an ex lancs traffic cop one day who told me that a colleague (who was driving a 2.6) was attempting to pursue a car towing a caravan but could'nt catch up - I don't know what the towing vehicle was.

 

All I will say after having 4/6/8 cyl  SD1's is that once you have had a V8 you would'nt want anything else.

[oman5]

That's interesting as I was thinking about doing this as it's so grumpy when cold because I've got the steppers disconnected.

IIRC I had the whole carb set up from a series 1 on my 2600 manual. the only problem is it had the choke cable running up the transmission tunnel flapping loose, as no series 2 had the manual choke. it ran well and pulled like a trooper.

[CortinaDave]

Great post Cort. I must admit I really enjoyed my brief ( 4 or 5 month) period of SD1 ownership. Mine was the V8 , and fantastic as that was it was the heart stopping fuel consumption that meant it had to go in the end.

 

It would happily return around 8 mpg if you gave it ANY sort of welly. mid/late teens if driven like a total saint. The fuel guage was dodgy and I remember putting £25 in and driving from Kirkcaldy to Leith, then only getting as far back as almost Dunfermline (probably a total of around 45 miles) ,running out on the M90 and having to walk 6 miles along the hard shoulder to the nearest petrol station in the middle of the night and driving rain being soaked by every passing lorry. This was back in 2009 when fuel was a bit cheaper too -  Flabbergastingly bad MPG. I suspect the SU's were in need of some fettling but still!

 

Other than that it gassed me everywhere I drove it but was pretty reliable, and amazingly sure footed in the snow. I'd have another... In fact if yours comes up for sale let me know!

[cort16]

Your old one is in the warmish boosom of the Scottish Rover SD1 club just now. The guy you sold it to had it for a couple of years then sold it to another member of the club so it's well cared for.

I seem to remember there was something wrong with it regarding the mega fuel consumption which he fixed. Can't remember what it was now though.

[CortinaDave]

It was an ebay purchase - bought as spares/repairs and had been off the road for a good few years. I was really surprised when we picked it up that it turned out to be a goodun after a long layup in someone's back garden in Wigan.

 

I only paid about £300 for it. Mega bargain.

[cort16]

Right, so at this point I had what I thought was a perfectly solid car but with a small hole in the innerwheel arch. By this time I had a lockup I could get the car in so bought a shit 2nd hand mig and got to work. This'll be done in a weekend I thought...

 

First job was to get the car in the lockup.

 

 

 

It still mystifies me why he built the lockups like this as there was space to bring them out another couple of feet. He's recently finished building a new garage with a sliding door on it. He put a walk through access door into the big door and made it about 5 foot high. I cracked my head on it recently and he said " you know I don't know why I made that door that height I could have made it any height I wanted!"

It's actually funny looking at that lockup all empty as it's now rammed full of bits of shitty old car.

 

This looked a bit sweaty.

 

 

Pretty much as expected

 

 

 

Aye. Those spats look good but they're a rot reproduction centre.

 

Notice the big bit of tar stuff to left of the hole. I wonder what that could be hiding??

 

 

 

Oh look it's Wob-y Williams from that band Take-Tat. I learn't a lesson about wob on this car, which is it's fantastic for covering up slightly wonky metal work and I found I'm okay with this as long as it's solid metal underneath.. I've done quite a lot of body work on much newer cars since this and everyone has had wob in somewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

Ghad looking back this is rough! I might as well show the good and bad as I was just learning. Check out the massive globules of weld.  the metal was barely stuck to the car. Gasless welding is shit kids unfortunatly it took me a while to figure that out. At a much later date I cut all this out and did it again.

 

 

 

I took it to a carshow like this. This was the day the mot ran out and the last time it would see the light of day for a many months.

Dave, that's your old one in the left of the picture. The one on the otherside was a total nut and bolt restoration. The guy bought it when it was 2 years old and ran it for his daily until it got pretty rough quite a few years later. When rimmers got that indian panel consignment he went to town and ordered everything out the catalogue. The only thing he didn't replace was the roof! I think it cost him 8 grand to do and that's doing the work himself! It was mintola though.

 

 

 

Oh, did I mention the passenger side was also a bit rough?

 

 

This was actually much worse than the bit's I cut out here as it crepty right up the inner arch and right up the boot floor almost to the back panel.

There was also patches tacked on over rust then undersealed.It looked okay on the outside but was like puff pastry on the inner panels.

 

I patched it together but is a bit I'd like to revisit at some point as I was loosing the plot. I should have just bit he bullet and chopped the rear valence right off, fixed what's underneath then welded it back on.

 

 

 

Check how perforated the outer arch was. It was just covered in filler. I can't blame them to be honest I considered just putting loads back on a couple of times. Check out the split new shocks and springs in the back of the picture.

 

 

I was well fucked off with the gasless by this point so splashed some dosh on a new supermig. I wish I'd spent the 80 quid extra or so for the next model up the range as this basically has 4 power settings none of which are low enough for british leyland steel. Still it was a massive improvement over the gassless.

 

 

This was the bit I was saying I'd like to redo. The last of of the gassless welds. It was solid at least and once I'd sealed it you can't see it. The bottom bit of the arch looks okay though.

 

 

With the new MIG on side I started to fill the holes.

 

 

 

 

Just as I was making progress I found this. This is the mount for the semi trailing arm which was semi falling off.

 

 

I was totally fucked off with this thing now so did what anyone would do and I bought another car.

 

This car could only needed a little work to be perfect unfortunately 525e's are really boring so I pissed around with it for a couple of months then sold it to an airline pilot. It was a really odd spec as it has the m sport front spoiler, blue sports cloth interior, which I've only every seen on m535i but wind up keep fit front windows. I did the BMW VIN decode thing on it and it was spec'd like that from the factory. Maybe I should have kept this one.

 

 

Next time - how I was tricked by a rusty wheel arch.

[Bren]

This is a very good thread - most SD1 lovers would not save a 2.6, they would get rid and look for a V8.

 

There is nothing unusual about the rot in your car, they all go in these places, at least where the trailing arms attach to the body the metal is very thick - you will find it is the area around it that suffers.

 

I like the rear spats but they need taking off periodically to check behind - I have managed to get hold of some genuine items for mine, they still have pieces of the car they were fitted on attached to them!

 

Sadly, like most car's I don't think the SD1 will ever be worth enough to have pro restorations done on them. It leaves it to the likes of us, at least it means they they will remain affordable.

 

I agree about gasless welding = shite. If it was that good BOC would have gone out of business.

[cort16]

Yes you're right. I would have thought twice about it myself if I didn't know that the car had recently had so much new bits on it and other than the rot it fundamentally a good car.

I've not put the spats back on mine because of the rust issue and my sill might not be quite the shape of the original.

 

 

I'd fixed the trailing arm but don't have any pictures as it was traumatic. So far it's remain attached, and it doesn't crab down the road, which is as about as good as I could have hoped for.

I literally slapped some filler into the door. I actually ended up replacing the back door in the end. Even though it looks okay here the lower left hand corner was rotted right through the frame. I attempted to fix it but when I got the chance of a new door it was a no brainer. I'd also by this point redone the sill ends.

 

 

Wheel arch repair sections do exist but are prized and clung onto by SD1 owners until death so never come up. The only thing I could come up with was this generic wheel arch repair section.

I can confirm they're shit and should be avoided at all costs. If I was doing it again I would have cut up an old wing from something else as filling the little triangles with metal to get it solid is very painful.

 

 

After welding it in and a fair bit of wob it looked like this.

 

 

This picture below represents the low of probably the whole project. When I put my hand up inside the inner wheel arch it was a like a greggs sausage roll. All crispy and pretty unpleasant.

The car was getting painted so I thought if I was going to chop out a lump of wheel arch to fix the inner arch this was the time to do it.

 

As you can see it's perfectly solid!. Someone had already repaired it but rather than chopping out the crispy creme they'd welded over it. Other than that it was a decent job and rock solid meaning I'd just chopped a pretty big bit out my car for no reason. Pissed off level now at critical I went home and sobbed on the toiler floor for a few days before trying to tackle it.

 

Whenever I got really pissed off with this thing I seemed to buy another car. This time it was an Alfa 166 3.0 Lusso with a Manual gearbox. Great fun but a pretty huge heap of shit.

They're cheap as chips these days and if you ever get the chance to buy one do it as between the leather and the engine noise they're fantastic cars if not a bit on the flakey side.

 

 

 

I finally got the arch welded back in. I'd have been easier trying to weld fucking tinfoil with a gas axe. The arch was now slightly too small so I had to buty weld very thin metal bridging a 1-2mm gap while tacking it on one side then back to the other. Highly depressing but I was extremely glad to have it finished as that marked the end of the welding.

 

 

Well, it was the end of the welding at the BACK of the car. I found a big grotty hole right at the point the rear inner sill meets the front so set about chopping it out.

What's that through there???

 

Oh for fuck sale it's the loom, now spliced by a 1mm grinding disc.

 

 

Anyway I soldered that all up and welded up the hole and that really was the end of the welding althought I did have to replace a massive section of driverside floor for this year mot.

 

Started to prep that arch.

 

 

I kind of hit a bit of a pause in work here. I'd put so much time into it and as the completion was looking more likely I slowed down. After while it looked like this.

 

 

Next time on shit rovers return - putting it back together and paint.

[scruff]

"Wob-y Williams" fuckin' A   Great thread!

[cort16]

OMG actual car content not carrier bags, cocks in bogs.  Here's the last bit about my SD1

 

Things got very dusty for a long time.

 

Stoory by cort16, on Flickr

 

The car had a coach line on it, which I needed to get off. My mate gave me a loan of a coach line remover which is basically a giant circular rubber you sick in your drill and it removes the coach line without damaging the paint. Clever eh? I tried it on my XJR only to find the coach line is painted on in my case by a drunk person as it's very squint. Oh well.

Once I removed the coach line I found that the car had previously been painted up to it, which is surely the sign of a quality job so I had to rub all that flat anyway. As seen here.

IMG_1865 by cort16, on Flickr

 

I painted the front splitter in this dark metallic paint I found in B&Q for painting BBQ's or something. Adds a bit of sparkle

 

IMG_1862 by cort16, on Flickr

 

 

Painted all the trim satin black YO!

 

IMG_1866 by cort16, on Flickr

 

The tale lights arev20 year old, dull and generally shit looking. I read a nightmare racing thread on RR where he refurbed some tail lights and they looked magic so I copied what he did.I  basically filed the hella stamps off the plastic, wet and dry sanded them through the grades then finally polished them with a compound. I recon they came out better than new!

 

Shiney by cort16, on Flickr

 

The front bumper shat itself because I kept driving into the wall outside my house so stuck the mounts back on with a mix of filler and fibreglass. It must have worked as they're still on.

 

Bumper Fix by cort16, on Flickr

 

I finally got around priming it. I did one side in high 5 and the other in Halfords own brand high build primer, which is why it's in 2 different colours. Conclusion? Halfords high build primer is shit and high 5 isn't.

 

IMG_1871 by cort16, on Flickr

 

Lights in - Zing! I bought this bumper 2nd hand as the old was totally wankered but found all the adjuster bolts frozen to the point they snapped off when I tried to adjust them. Cue a day of building and welding in new mounts to the bumper to get it to fit. By the looks of it this is before I did this.

 

Lights In by cort16, on Flickr

 

I finally got it put back together, plugged the exchaust, changed a wheel bearing,  stuck on some brake pads and it had MOT again. YES!

 

SD1 by cort16, on Flickr

 

I took it all to bits again and my mate painted it. Hey good looking come and give us a look at your bodywork.

 

IMG_2043 by cort16, on Flickr

 

Whoar.

 

IMG_2040 by cort16, on Flickr

 

IMG_2042 by cort16, on Flickr

 

In celebration I bought wallet for keeping the 80's in.

 

wallet by cort16, on Flickr

 

I liked the car before but always thought it would look cool with JDM type arches as the wheels stick out a bit from the arches. The closest I could find was a guy on ebay selling bolt on arches for an MR2, which is not that close but closer than anything else I could find. I chopped them into 3 bits then fibreglassed them back together again.

 

IMG_0350 by cort16, on Flickr

 

Finally I fitted them. I had to drivllholes into fresh pain and metal which was nice. I sealed them with beetle rubber panels strips (not know for their rust) and painted and waxoiled all the holdes I drilled. Finished!

 

arches by cort16, on Flickr

 

back by cort16, on Flickr

 

Since then I drove it until the tax ran out at the end of December last year then it sat until March. I was thinking about the MOTing it again around March and couldn't get the thing to start. I put a new battery in it and it wouldn't go so I took the starter out. I hooked the starter up to a battery and it span fine so I stuck it back in only to find a massive hole in the driverside floor. Eventually and for no reason the car started. Dunno if it was a stuck relay or what but I was just happy to get it going.

 

I drove it down to the lockup and welded up the floor and had it booked in for it's mot the next monday. It broke down about 500 yards from the house after I'd welded it and had to get towed home. Great. It then failed it's mot on emissions so I knobbed around with it for a bit, stuck it back in and it passed a week before the tax ran out. Total miles covered since December 2012 - 14. It's now tucked up in the lockup again for winter

I've got a stainless rear exhaust and front leather seats to go in it before next year and I might tidy up some dodgy welding and bodywork if I can be arsed. As above I'm also going to keep an eye out for an S1 set of carbs so I can get a manual choke going on it to stop it running so shit.

 

CU Next YR

[overrun]

Nice to see who finally owns the coolest looking SD1 road car I have ever seen.

 

Fair play to you mate, all that heartache (and backache) was worthwhile.

And I'm assuming you learned some new skills to boot?

 

Although I can see you were already pretty handy!

[cort16]

Cheers. This is the first thing I'd done welding or any real bodywork on so it was a learning curve. I'd do some of it differently if I was doing it again but I'm happy enough with it.

I've nearly scrapped it, sold it,  set fire to it over the time I've had it and I though the gearbox fault (no drive) it developed before I mot'd it was going to put it off the road for a while (until I could find another one) but an oil and filter chance coaxed it back to life althought it's not exactly smooth. I'm hoping now the MOT expires in September i might actually get some use out of it next.

Probably not though.

[Cavcraft]

Fair play, you haven't half persevered with that. Great car, brilliant thread.

[Grundig]

Think your SD1 is being stalked by a red Micra lol - Extra points to you for dedication &  I've moved a Rover up my 'want' list  

[oman5]

My last SD1 was a very early  series 2 on an X plate 3500 SE manual. I got it in 2006 as something like a 2 owner from new car, the first had loved and cherished it for over 20 years. not a speck of rust, paint all in good nick. basically a sound original car. I kept it for about a year before deciding it deserved a better owner than me, it needed someone with money to preserve it.

I have since found a pic of it some years later, with stupid flared arches, wheels like garden rollers and massive spotlights bolted to the front.

more recently it has been plate raped, its number for sale with a number plate company.

A shame. 

[scruff]

Awesome thread Mr Cort and excellent write up. Love SD1s; used Keith Adams' S1 3500 a few times including a night time blat to Goodwood which is one of my bestest drives evah.

[HillmanImp]

That was an absolute ace read! Fantastic reportage. Will give me a reason to get through winter knowing there will be MOAR updates on this.

 

I know what you mean with revisiting the welding as you improve. I have been round the Imp cutting out and replacing the same areas 3 times now and its still not finished (although thats only because I cant afford a respray ATM).

 

Car looks ace and I hope to see more of these sort of threads.

[cort16]

My last SD1 was a very early  series 2 on an X plate 3500 SE manual. I got it in 2006 as something like a 2 owner from new car, the first had loved and cherished it for over 20 years. not a speck of rust, paint all in good nick. basically a sound original car. I kept it for about a year before deciding it deserved a better owner than me, it needed someone with money to preserve it.

I have since found a pic of it some years later, with stupid flared arches, wheels like garden rollers and massive spotlights bolted to the front.

more recently it has been plate raped, its number for sale with a number plate company.

A shame. 

 

There used to be a serial SD1 molester on the go who used to buy them up and do really shit roof chops on them, glue on expanding foam body kits and the like. I think he's responsible for the death of a few of them. I know this will never really be worth anymoney but that doesn't bother me. If the engine chucks it I might put a v8 on it but the t-series turbo conversion seems much more appealling. Apparantly the t-series can bolt up to a sherpa gearbox and be sat on the 2000 o-series engine mounts so it's not supposed so be that difficult (other than the wiring, which I'd get someone else to do).

[cort16]

That was an absolute ace read! Fantastic reportage. Will give me a reason to get through winter knowing there will be MOAR updates on this.

 

I know what you mean with revisiting the welding as you improve. I have been round the Imp cutting out and replacing the same areas 3 times now and its still not finished (although thats only because I cant afford a respray ATM).

 

Car looks ace and I hope to see more of these sort of threads.

 

I'm sure someone on here described welding as trying to spoon melted butter up a badgers arse, which describes it pretty well. As you'll know it's extremely frustrating.

I recon I may tackle the boot floor this winter if I get extremely bored.

 

Things I learned are:

 

Anything "generic", like those generic repair panels are shit.

Welding thin metal is easier with thinner mig wire.

Anything paint related made by halfords is pretty much a waste of time.

Buy a joddler. Butt welding is pretty much impossible.

Rubbing down filler and bodywork is extremely difficult. People who haven't done it think it isn't but it is.

[Cheggers]

If I had a hat, I'd take it off to you. Wonderful to see unloved old barges like the SD1 getting some TLC

[meggersdog]

That looks bob on, great read.Thank's for posting.Oh by the way........

Wheel-arches full of wob are for winnaz

I owned this V8 three years ago.Sold to some guy in Cornwall I seem to recall.