My Fleet of shite- Warning High Austin Rover Content---Updated 03/03/16 "lowering the tone"

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Great stuff and great writing too, I LOL'd. Welcome!!!!

[catsinthewelder]

I love the tale behind buying the Ledbury.  If getting a Maestro as a company car in 1990 was the worst thing that could have happenned what must it have been like in 2015?

[Angrydicky]

Paging Inconsistant! He was telling me about that MG Maestro a while back.

[junior44]

Not really much to up date you with the Montego, still no shock absorber, but I have being getting to know the car a bit better. The car has had an oil leak since I got it, this is due to a knackered engine mount, the knocking has buggered an O-ring. Hopefully I can get an engine mount in the next couple of days.

On Monday I finally washed it, for what appears to be the first time in years, the paintwork is truly awful in some places; Bonnet, boot, rear bumper and the Ns front door will be getting replaced, so these will be getting resprayed when I can afford to do so.

 

Here is some pictures from Monday

Nice clean water

Wood is for Winners

Shite bumper repair

What is the first thing you do after spending hours cleaning your car?

Take it into a muddy field of course

 

 

[junior44]

So the last couple of days have been productive, On Monday me and my

brother gave the Maestro van a pre mot check. Overall its good news,

It needs an Os rear wheel cylinder, a slight blow in the exhaust sorted, a couple of sharp edges cover and the handbrake tightened. I will also bereplacing the rear shoes as I have some in stock, replacing the rear

shocks as they look tired, the front discs will also be getting replaced as they are also tired.

After we gave the van a once over we decided to fit a rear door that I

had bought, both rear doors were rough and the other one will be getting replaced at some point.

And here is the new door (semi)complete with signwriting.

I think this sets of the look of the van, I cant wait to seethe MOT

testers face when he looks round this van.

[seacow]

Love this thread!  Love the MG - rare colour - I think I was tempted by that when it was for sale did you get it in the last couple of years?

[junior44]

MONTEGO

On Tuesday it was the Montegos turn for a bit of loving, ever since I got the car there has been an oil leak on right hand side of the engine, this had been covering the inner arch with oil. When the car was parked it wasn't leaving pools when parked we thought that the problem only appeared when the engine was running and the oil pressurised, so this left three culprits. The oil filter, a suspect looking oil pipe and a crank seal. The reason we thought it may be the crank seal is because we had a lucky escape last week while tweaking the pump, while the car was parked, the bonnet was closed and there was a clunk, the bloody crank pulley bolt had worked loose and fallen off. thankfully it happened while we were working on the car.

So we sprayed some de-greaser on the affected area and cleaned it up and then ran the car and the culprit was found.

 

And below is the culprit, A loose oil filter!

 

 

Another problem with the Montego has been the rear left hand engine mount or torque mount, has been knackered making it feel like the perkins lands in the rear seats every time you accelerate. Finding a new mount was Proving troublesome but luckily I have a spare engine that has only done 30k. Unfortunately the engine mounts have cut to get the engine out, all was not lost though as the rubber seemed in decent nick. So away we headed to my uncles garage to borrow his press to press out the new mount.

Said engine mount.

Old engine mount

New mount before getting pressed in.

Altogether

The new mount has made a massive improvement to the way that the car drives, there is still a few niggles to iron out but this car is great.

 

While at my uncles garage, I seen this beauty. One of the mechanics is restoring it, a 1300 with 30k from new and inner wings you could eat your dinner off.

[DodgyBastard]

I may sell the Daf soon to help fund a TR7 or add to my TVR fund..

 

Mrs Foad is after a Daf so if it's up for sale any time soon let me know.

[junior44]

Love this thread!  Love the MG - rare colour - I think I was tempted by that when it was for sale did you get it in the last couple of years?

Yeah I got it off ebay two years ago, it also went through Thainstone auctions the year before I think.

[fatharris]

Excellent thread! Will be watching with interest.

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[Noel Tidybeard]

a thought popped into my head the other day- do the rear struts off a rover bubble fit a monstro?

[junior44]

 

a thought popped into my head the other day- do the rear struts off a rover bubble fit a monstro?

I'm not sure, standard Maestro/Montego shocks fit and that's what I have replaced the standard heavy duty shocks until I have found a pair.

[junior44]

So I haven't updated this in a while due to there being nothing major happening but the MOT is due so there is finally some updates to bore you all with.

 

When I first got the Montego it blew a shock absorber, ever since then I have being searching for the correct heavy duty rear shock absorbers but have had no luck. This had led me to fitting a shock absorber from a saloon, leaving the car sitting like this.

 

I wasn't really happy, so started looking into other options and this is where coil-overs came up, at first I wasn't to keen on this idea at first but the more research that me and my brother done, the more sense it made, As you can imagine coil-overs for Montegos don't exactly grow on trees but due to Maestros/Montegos sharing an identical suspension set up it is very easy to get coil-overs. I chose Polo 6n coil-overs for cheapness and availability. Here is a picture of the coil-overs beside a Montego shock.

 

As seems to be the case when changing the shocks on a Montego it wasn't straight forward removing the original 22 year old shock absorber as the bottom bolt had seized to the shock and had to be cut off, here is picture of the offending bolt.

 

Now on to fitting the coilovers, this was a straight forward enough job, the only alteration needed is to fit the Montego top mounts to the coil-overs. When fitting the front you also need to elongate one of the holes for the bottom mount by around 2mm.

We also fitted new strut top bearings while we had the opportunity.

 

So here is the result, along with a new set of wheels and tyres.

I know some people wont like it but I think it improves the car, it rides better than the old shocks and looks good.

For the MOT it still needs a blow in the exhaust fixed and a patch in the drivers sill that hopefully will get done next week.

 

 

 

 

[spartacus]

It gets my vote, it's probably not the right place to admit it, but I like a slightly* lowered car. You haven't done anything irreversible and you did try looking for the correct part.

[vulgalour]

That does look smart sat low on the cheese graters and a sensible solution to the parts issue.

[junior44]

That does look smart sat low on the cheese graters and a sensible solution to the parts issue.

I wasn't too sure on the wheels before I fitted them as they are such a small looking wheel but it has grown on me.

Now I need to find a set of centre caps if any one has any?

[Alexg]

Yeah, that does look ace.

[vulgalour]

Lowered red Rovers on normal sized wheels are for winners anyway so I was always going to approve of you doing this.