Project 1982 Rover sd1 v8 Paintwork finished The reassembly begins

[Sudsprint]

This looks fabulous. Fantastic colour too.

[JuridicalGrunt]

evening all i hope everyone is safe and well

Progress has been contining over the last couple of weeks i managed to get a week off a few weeks ago to push the car along ,so first up was to loosely assemble the front subfame so it could go back in the subfame will have to come out again to fit the engine a box and change the steering rack.

with the subframe back in the car next up was the rear axle, first job was to to rebuild the brakes so it need new drums as one of the old ones was very badly scored and worn and the other side looked as if the brake hadnt been working , its got new shoes wheel cyliders and hanbrake leavers and the springs were cleaned and painted.

with that done i put the crossmember on the front of the axle

next was to make up the brake pipes for the axle i kept the original pipes to use as patterns i decided to remake the brake pipes in the original zinc plated steel.

 

i was pleased with how these came out here they are fitted to the axle along with the tie bars , new watts link and a new handbrake cable with rebuilt compensator so the handbrake should work alot better than it did.

thats the axle ready to fit, next up was to clean up the fuel tank and filler pipe the bottom of the tank was in very good condition  because someone in the past waxed the bottom of the car the top of the tank not so much but lucky all surface rust.

the tank sender was a new unit just before the car came off the road so was still good i tested the pump and to my amazement it still worked though i shall be keeping a spare pump in the boot. i put a new filler hose and breather hoses on and cleaned up the plastic fuel line ready to fit. i  also cleaned up and painted the fuel fill pipe .

next i fitted the rear dampers and and watts link brackets to the shell then rich came and gave me a hand and we fitted the rear axle to the car, we were surprised how easy the axle was to fit we had it bolted in about 30 mins,

 i fitted the handbrake  and connected the cable up . next  i wanted to get the fuel line clips in but you cant get the original clips anymore someone on the club did find a guy in italy who had 9 of them which is enough to do a v8 car but he wanted 3 quid each for them and wouldnt ship to the uk so the next best solution was to use ford mk1 escort clips these look almost the same but are grey insted of black and you have have to drill the hole in the chassis leg out to 8mm but you can get 10 for 3.99.

so with the tank in it was to time for the big moment, for it to go back on its wheels for the fist time in just over 2 years.

this moment felt like such a milestone this now means i could start fitting the doors up and start the wiring .

More to come

Ryan

[HMC]

Stunning work!

[billy_bunter]

Pure class.

 

[spartacus]

This is looking great, I don't know how I've missed this thread so far.

[JuridicalGrunt]

hello all

with being back at work has allowed me to return to the rover ,so just before the lockdown I had taken the week off so the first job was to install some sound deadening mat onto the floors and the doors. I went for this silent coat sound mat it wasn’t too expensive but seems to do a good job of taking the ringing out of the panels when you tap on them.

I’ve put a fare bit more of this on than rover ever did from the factory, I still need to make the mats that go on the floors and bulkhead. with that done I cleaned up and put the steering column in. next I cleaned up and repaired the rear wiring harnesses and refitted them to the car.

next I decided to refit the v8 wing badges ,the badges are in fairly good condition you can buy new ones but so much of this car is new I wanted to keep some of the original parts I took off so a good polish with some chrome cleaner and some new sicky pads they went back on really nicely.

next was to get all the doors completely fitted up so each door was gone through its had all new window seals the window motor was cleaned up and re greased as was the latch and catch, its got all new door handles and brand new rubber mirrors. it took about 1 day a door to get them fitted up.

the electric windows on my car worked quite well but the one weak point I found in them was the window switch’s they are very susceptible to corrosion on the terminal’s inside, lucky these switch’s are super easy to take apart and service you just pop the top off them with a small screwdriver and lift the two small contacts out and give them a good clean, after I cleaned them I put some dielectric grease in to hold off them corroding again .

here is a bit of information that might be useful to someone  on series 1 car their a two types of outer door handles early cars I believe 1976 to 1978  have a brushed chrome finish to them and later cars 1978 onwards have a regular shiny chrome finish but here is a picture of the two side by side. also the rear door handles are exactly the same both sides all you need to do to make the handle fit which ever side you need is to swap over the arm that actuates the mechanism on the inside.

next I did the same to the other doors and fitted the rear quarter windows with new rubbers and fitted the b and c post trims.

these little clips are what holed the rear quarter chrome trim on under the window the little plastic spacer you can still buy form rimmer bros but rimmers say the metal clip is no longer available this isn’t true the clips are available from bresco and eBay if you search for mk4 ford zodiac waist trim clips as they are exactly the same clip bresco list them with the ford or rover part number.

here is the other side fitted up.

i pushed the car outside as i wanted to see the car in the sunlight.

well typically their wasn’t much sunlight but its starting to look like a car again its getting really exiting.

with it back inside it was time to finish repairing and fitting the main wiring loom. the loom was damaged when it had the wings changed Meany years ago they hit the loom with a grinder badly slicing about 5 wires  one being the main earth running inside the car, instead of fixing the damage they just taped over it and left it. so with it fixed and re wrapped I refitted it.

 

next up will up will be the heater box and brake master cylinder.

 

Ryan

 

[Skizzer]

Loving this. Great colour.

Mine needs a bit of this sort of love, it’s structurally solid but has had quite a lot of filler and fibreglass type repairs (before my time).  

The wiring loom has got brittle too. And if you’re going to strip it down to rewire it, while you’re there you might as well...  scary stuff. 

[Timewaster]

If only BL had built them this way.

[JuridicalGrunt]

On 5/25/2020 at 1:54 PM, Skizzer said:

Loving this. Great colour.

Mine needs a bit of this sort of love, it’s structurally solid but has had quite a lot of filler and fibreglass type repairs (before my time).  

The wiring loom has got brittle too. And if you’re going to strip it down to rewire it, while you’re there you might as well...  scary stuff. 

now’s the best time to start collecting panel work if you need it some stuff is starting to get harder to find like rear quarter panels and some of the inner front panels, but quite a lot is still available and not too expensive. the wiring looks scary but isn’t too bad, what part of your loom has gone brittle mine was still nice and flexible even in the engine bay just someone attacked mine with an angle grinder.

[Inspiral_Mondays]

I love these Series 1 SD1s. So much nicer looking than the Series 2s. That is a fab colour as well.

[JuridicalGrunt]

Evening all

a little while back I refurbished the heater box I had to buy a second hand one from a car that was breaking on eBay as my original heater box had all the link rods for moving the vents cut for some reason and the plastic box itself had been broken in places. so with the second hand box I pulled it completely apart re foamed all the flaps and fitted a new heater matrix and gave the box a really good clean

.

with that back in I went to look at the brake master cylinder I really wanted to put the car back to the correct ap Lockheed master cylinder but new ones are no longer available so after a very long time I found a used one on eBay  that I thought I could rebuild unfortunately upon taking it apart it had leaked brake fluid into the servo, the servo looked to still be ok but the master cylinder itself had some very deep pitting in bore I asked a few brake rebuilders if they could sleeve the master and test the servo but I was told no so I decided to use the new series 2 Girling master and servo I bought just before the car went in for restoration.

I also fitted a new clutch master cylinder but I ran out of brake pipe to finish doing the engine bay so more has been ordered .I have cleaned up and painted the wiper motor and linkage and refitted the air intake grills

now you may notice the wood rim steering wheel fitted in the last pic it was my birthday last month and I had spotted this steering wheel some months back and decided to buy it. its a genuine momo wood and Pickett wheel from 1983 its the wheel they fitted to the sd1s they modified and with the light color interior the car is going to have I though it would look quite good.

I dug my carpet out of the garage at home and got out the carpet cleaning hoover and gave it a damm good clean as it was absolutely horrible 30 odd years of muddy feet plus being in my garage for the last 2 years it was pretty horrible but came up really well.

the stuff that came out of it was absolutely disgusting this was what was in the machine after the second pass.

nasty but with the carpet clean I made up some new thick sound matt to go under the carpet and l put the carpet in the car to help it recover its shape.

next I put the sunroof back together I gave the tray a really good clean and I employed the service of triple rich to help recover the sunroof panel with the new fabric as upholstery is not my strong suit and I really didn’t want to mess it up rich did an amazing job it looks brilliant.

while i had richs help we put the roof rail chromes on i hate putting thease on and rich knows the right way to get them on

rich also helped fitting the tailgate glass I got very lucky a few  years ago and managed to find a new old stock series 1 tailgate glass seal these haven’t been available for years and rimmer bros only sell the series 2 ones which are different .

it was quite difficult to fit but went in nicely I almost have a full set of windows now I just need to get a windscreen. next I cleaned and fitted the coil and piped the washer jets and fitted an new washer bottle and pump.

I just need to finish clipping the pipes in place and that’s done. I’ve got lots of little jobs to do but I’m slowly ticking them off

Ryan.

[danthecapriman]

Lookin absolutely fab Ryan ?

[Andyrew]

My word this is lovely. 

[captain_70s]

Just caught up with this, excellent work!

That SuperMinx looks like a lovely old thing as well.

[Sudsprint]

Stunning.

 

[JuridicalGrunt]

Evening all

a  good amount of progress has been made I finished the brake pipes in the engine bay so the only one  left is the front to back line. I also fitted the info stickers on the bonnet.

I cleaned up the rear seat and heal board carpet and refitted the rear seat.

it was at this point a huge box turned up for me

i

this box contained some much need parts such as a new expansion  bottle a lower front valance a set of genuine mud flaps and most important a windscreen and bonding kit.

so I employed the skill of rich to bond the screen and chromes in as he has done it before and dose and excellent job.

all bonded in and looking good so that’s a full set of windows. I fitted the new expansion bottle and cap.

next up was something I’ve been waiting to fit ever since I bought it years ago

what is it a new old stock dashboard .

this dash has been all the way to America then sent back as it was for a right hand drive car. I  also took the instrument cluster apart and cleaned and fitted it

it so nice to have an undamaged dash. next I cleaned up the door cards and fitted them I need to paint up some surrounds for the rear door locks but fitted the cards to prevent them getting damaged.

next up I put the wiper and indicator stalk on and fitted the column surround  .

I got pretty lucky a few years back and found a complete series 1 cruise control system I’m slowly working out where it all goes in not sure ill be brave enough to try it when the cars running. next I turned my attention to the boot area. first up I fitted the central locking unit.

I fitted the boot light and the rails the parcel shelf rides on I also made up some tabs and mounted the rear speakers.

I remade one of the wiring harness that goes into the boot lid for the central locking and rewrapped the other loom and fitted them to the boot .

with that done I cleaned up the rest of the parts for the boot lid and fitted them.

next was to tackle my ruined parcel self mine had all the vinyl lift off and the catch’s brake it also split into two half’s .so the latch’s are just made of thick plastic and after 30 years they just crumble I did find some nos ones on eBay but they were 12.50 each and you need 4 so I decided to see if I could make them out of metal.

these are the mk1 versions they work quite well I just need to make another set of 4 and spot weld them together to make them a little wider but for now they work well. I decided with the parcel shelf to just paint it satin black as the fiber glass texture makes it blend in pretty well.

I recovered the boot boards and cleaned up the vinyl boot matting and finished up the boot area.

its a little bit strange seeing it with the boot fully trimmed as it never was when it was on the road but is coming together really nicely. next up I cleaned up and fitted the center console and fitted my nos sharp radio this wont actually be wired in as I’m going to do the hidden Bluetooth amp but this radio is nice and period correct.

the radio came with the warning stickers for the window so i fitted one to the windscreen.

and that’s it for now I should be able to put a battery on it soon and see what comes to life

Many Thanks

Ryan

 

[JuridicalGrunt]

Evening all

so the time had come to be brave and connect a battery up this bit makes me nervous as I always think something is going to explode but the battery was connected and no magic Lucas smoke appeared so I turned the key.

WE HAVE LIFE this was so exiting so I started going through and seeing what else did or didn’t work  I put the headlights and fogs on and this brought the first thing that didn’t work the dip beam, side lights work but no dip beam other than that all the other lights worked even the bulb failure light works and it did indeed have two blown bulbs in the rear it went off once the bulbs were replaced .

the indicator’s work but hazards don’t  so that’s another thing to look into but all the windows power up and down the heater blower works and the central locking partially works. next up was to try the wipes witch work well with two speed and intermittent , so I did the hubnut wiper test and.

yep triangle of doom and dribble!  next was the front fog lights my intention was to clean up and reuse my originals but on closer inspection on had cracked  down the middle so I replaced them with some nos one I got years ago for 10 quid.

putting the old an new side by side  shows how much the old ones had discolored inside

so I fitted them to the new undertray and fitted it to the car

now hear was where I made a mistake I bought a brand new headlining as my original was totally destroyed when I got the car. on the new one you needed to cut out the sunroof aperture material now I made the stupid mistake of not trying it in the car before cutting it and when I put it in the car It was too short. now thinking I had just ruined my very expensive headliner rich had  the idea that if I could find the material we could recover it as its a fiberglass board, so a bit of searching online I found the material is called brushed nylon now I couldn’t get the exact color so I decided to go with jaguar champagne instead as I really liked the color so rich did an amazing job and recovered the headliner sunroof panel and d post trims and we fitted it to the car.

I really like color of this material. the interior of this car is a bit of my own creation and I know its a bit strange but its been made from the best parts I’ve managed to source of the years that aren’t drastically different colors i do have three brand new door cards that I want to paint to match to the dashboard as I plan to paint the center console and gloveboxes as well  to hopefully make the colors in the car a bit more uniform .

Ryan

[JuridicalGrunt]

Evening all

Bit of a thread resurrection I hadn’t quite realized its been just over a year since I last updated this!!! a little bit of explaining on the lack of updates its been a pretty mad year not long after the last update the engine went in for machining so for about a month or so I was just waiting for its return that was the end of November I ran into a fair few problems building the engine a mechanic friend was helping as and when he was able and then Christmas happened. my mojo was running a bit low at this point it was just fighting every step of the way. I think we got the engine in the car in mid January and tried to get it running to which it did but like crap, it would massively over fuel then under fuel we couldn’t time it and to top it off the power steering didn’t work  the pump would boil over in 30 seconds of running. at this point I was just a bout done with it so I took a break for a while, then something I never expected to happen was I got offered another job which i took so had to pack everything up and get it all home which meant cleaning out my garage and that took ages. so didn’t work on the car from about the end of February till  the end of may. also because I have a problem i bought more cars that didn’t help but I have a good chunk of pictures to up date this with along with the engine running issues saga and power steering fix. but I’ve waffled on long enough here is a few picture’s of its nearly finished state

.

as a bonus here is the cars that have joined the fleet a rover 216 tomcat this is my daily driver bought blind off eBay just before the end of the last lockdown its mot expired the day the auction ended I got it delivered and put it in for a mot which it passed and has been my daily driver ever since just over 8500 miles later it been perfect this is a keeper I have plans to have it resprayed next year if all goes well.

the pictures flatter the terrible paint! next up was an bit of an impulse buy and has had a lot more issue’s to fix than I was hoping a 89 Renault 21 gts special another build eBay buy I paid too much for but for some reason I really like it and I’m slowly working through its issues. also if anyone knows where one minght be in a scrap yard please let me know it would be a great help.

i should have all the rover pictures sorted for a proper update next.

Ryan

[grogee]

That Rover is gorgeous. The first pics I looked at I was thinking it was a sea green colour but the outdoor pics look more silver-blue. Great colour and such a painstaking restoration full of love (and a few quid I expect). Hope it brings you many years of happiness, it really is a stunner and must be one of the best in the world, surely?

[Leyland Worldmaster]

1 hour ago, JuridicalGrunt said:

Evening all

Bit of a thread resurrection I hadn’t quite realized its been just over a year since I last updated this!!! a little bit of explaining on the lack of updates its been a pretty mad year not long after the last update the engine went in for machining so for about a month or so I was just waiting for its return that was the end of November I ran into a fair few problems building the engine a mechanic friend was helping as and when he was able and then Christmas happened. my mojo was running a bit low at this point it was just fighting every step of the way. I think we got the engine in the car in mid January and tried to get it running to which it did but like crap, it would massively over fuel then under fuel we couldn’t time it and to top it off the power steering didn’t work  the pump would boil over in 30 seconds of running. at this point I was just a bout done with it so I took a break for a while, then something I never expected to happen was I got offered another job which i took so had to pack everything up and get it all home which meant cleaning out my garage and that took ages. so didn’t work on the car from about the end of February till  the end of may. also because I have a problem i bought more cars that didn’t help but I have a good chunk of pictures to up date this with along with the engine running issues saga and power steering fix. but I’ve waffled on long enough here is a few picture’s of its nearly finished state

 

.

as a bonus here is the cars that have joined the fleet a rover 216 tomcat this is my daily driver bought blind off eBay just before the end of the last lockdown its mot expired the day the auction ended I got it delivered and put it in for a mot which it passed and has been my daily driver ever since just over 8500 miles later it been perfect this is a keeper I have plans to have it resprayed next year if all goes well.

 

the pictures flatter the terrible paint! next up was an bit of an impulse buy and has had a lot more issue’s to fix than I was hoping a 89 Renault 21 gts special another build eBay buy I paid too much for but for some reason I really like it and I’m slowly working through its issues. also if anyone knows where one minght be in a scrap yard please let me know it would be a great help.

 

i should have all the rover pictures sorted for a proper update next.

Ryan

Wow. That's all. Read the whole thread. Bang on! 👍👍👍😎😎😎

[Wibble]

This is absolutely fantastic! You are truly talented and the Rover looks absolutely amazing!

[Timewaster]

Love it. Do you know much of its history? 

I think *AV  is a Cambridge registration so it probably started life in my neck of the woods.

 

[Motown]

2 hours ago, JuridicalGrunt said:

Evening all

Bit of a thread resurrection I hadn’t quite realized its been just over a year since I last updated this!!! a little bit of explaining on the lack of updates its been a pretty mad year not long after the last update the engine went in for machining so for about a month or so I was just waiting for its return that was the end of November I ran into a fair few problems building the engine a mechanic friend was helping as and when he was able and then Christmas happened. my mojo was running a bit low at this point it was just fighting every step of the way. I think we got the engine in the car in mid January and tried to get it running to which it did but like crap, it would massively over fuel then under fuel we couldn’t time it and to top it off the power steering didn’t work  the pump would boil over in 30 seconds of running. at this point I was just a bout done with it so I took a break for a while, then something I never expected to happen was I got offered another job which i took so had to pack everything up and get it all home which meant cleaning out my garage and that took ages. so didn’t work on the car from about the end of February till  the end of may. also because I have a problem i bought more cars that didn’t help but I have a good chunk of pictures to up date this with along with the engine running issues saga and power steering fix. but I’ve waffled on long enough here is a few picture’s of its nearly finished state

 

.

as a bonus here is the cars that have joined the fleet a rover 216 tomcat this is my daily driver bought blind off eBay just before the end of the last lockdown its mot expired the day the auction ended I got it delivered and put it in for a mot which it passed and has been my daily driver ever since just over 8500 miles later it been perfect this is a keeper I have plans to have it resprayed next year if all goes well.

 

the pictures flatter the terrible paint! next up was an bit of an impulse buy and has had a lot more issue’s to fix than I was hoping a 89 Renault 21 gts special another build eBay buy I paid too much for but for some reason I really like it and I’m slowly working through its issues. also if anyone knows where one minght be in a scrap yard please let me know it would be a great help.

 

i should have all the rover pictures sorted for a proper update next.

Ryan

Love the SD1 you have a very beautiful clean example there you should be very proud. I have two myself one of which iam currently restoring so if you can assist in anyway please comment on my post.

I bidded on that Tomcat at the time it was listed but was concerned about whether i could arranged transport or not for it so didnt put up much of a fight. I am glad it found a good home and is being driven daily. All the best

[Minimad5]

Jesus man. That is stunning 😲

Absolutely top notch work

[Daviemck2006]

It's the same colour as the one I had back in the day. Better than mine was though, mine was 6 years old and had various rusty bits, and at Y reg was the face-lift which did not look quite as nice. I would love a pre face-lift v8 manual.

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

[High Jetter]

I've got to add another 'WOW' to this. Stunning, you and @TripleRich are doing some very fine work.

I was a parts monkey in the early 80's at a Jag/Rover/Triumph dealership so saw plenty of the bits for these 'on the shelf' as it were.

[JuridicalGrunt]

21 hours ago, Timewaster said:

Love it. Do you know much of its history? 

I think *AV  is a Cambridge registration so it probably started life in my neck of the woods.

 

yeah I’ve got a fair bit of its history it seems to have stayed fairly local I’m in Bedford, it was originally sold from marshals in petebourgh it was built in 1980 and not registered until 82  the first owner seems to have used it as a second car to tow with for about 10 years it only had very light use by the mot papers I have as it only did about 12000 miles in 10 years, it then seems to have gone around few enthusiasts for most of the rest on the 90s being converted to a manual some time during then. the guy I bought it off had it since 2001 it was in practical classics in 2003 I believe  and then it was taken off the road when it failed its mot  that year ,I got in 2013 after it sat in his garden for 10 years.

 

[JuridicalGrunt]

21 hours ago, Motown said:

Love the SD1 you have a very beautiful clean example there you should be very proud. I have two myself one of which iam currently restoring so if you can assist in anyway please comment on my post.

I bidded on that Tomcat at the time it was listed but was concerned about whether i could arranged transport or not for it so didnt put up much of a fight. I am glad it found a good home and is being driven daily. All the best

cheers thank you its defiantly been a challenge at times the running issues nearly sent me and rich mad trying to sort them! I’ve been checking out your 2600  its really nice love the gold it looks pretty good the interior seems to held up really well mine was a total mess when I got it. with the sunroof on yours is it the metal sunroof panel that’s rotted ? if its the panel rimmer bros do sell new ones now as well as the seal. if you take the headliner out the whole tray assembly unbolts from the roof and will come out the boot aperture it is a two person job, once its out the metal sunroof panel is really easy to remove its just some screws and two springs ive got a few pictures of when mine was out of the car if you ever need them .oh that’s pretty cool you know the tomcat its been a really good car proper fun to drive.  good luck and fingers crossed on the mot on the 2600!

[Broadsword]

That is a very eclectic fleet, and I'm in awe of the SD1. It really looks amazing!

[Leyland Worldmaster]

I had* to share this video here: