My early 90's 'British' tat...

[2Thumbs]

Finally started detailing the thing today. Was only able to do the wheels, tyres and front end (bonnet/bumper/wings) as I'm a perfectionist and it's a long process.

 

A wheel before cleaning.

 

 

A wheel after.

 

 

Front end finished.

 

 

[r.welfare]

Looking good. Are you polishing by hand, or machine buffing? I haven't had time to get my buffer out since my daughter was born last summer; consequently all three cars look a bit grubby and looking at your car, I'm feeling guilty...

[2Thumbs]

Hand polishing. It's been a while since I've done it, and I realised why.I used a German Applicator so that it cuts in to the paint more.Washed,Clayed,Washed,PolishedPolishedWaxed.

[garycox]

D'oh! You've cleaned all the writing off your number plate!

[2Thumbs]

D'oh! You've cleaned all the writing off your number plate!

Terrible when that happens.Had some free time this afternoon so cleaned out the throttlebody. Can eat off it now. It wasn't too bad to start off with though.

[2Thumbs]

Fitted these last week, to keep with 'the look'.

 

Genuine Rover affair

 

 

 

And lastly.

 

 

Yup, she's still goin' strong.

[Station]

I haven't had time to get my buffer out since my daughter was born last summer;

Pregnancy/kids do that to you, the fizz just disappears. :(How did you clean the tyres?

[2Thumbs]

Washed them with the same brush as the wheels, with a solution of Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner.Then I 'dressed' them with Meguiars Endurance Gel using a foam applicator and wiping off with a cloth.

[Guest]

Bloody hell wind deflectors! I wish I could get them for most of my cars, they're an incredibly nice thing to have.

[vicsmith]

That is indeed lovely, a very coherent shape, that generation, and I think the 4-dr saloon and 3-dr thick pillared varieties are the best interpretations of it. Imagine how well a contrasting bright silver bottom half would bring out that lovely grey!

[2Thumbs]

Bloody hell wind deflectors! I wish I could get them for most of my cars, they're an incredibly nice thing to have.

They do work very well. Total wind noise has been cut by half and the ability to have the window open whilst it's raining/at speed is a nice perk.Vic, it's not Grey, it's 'blue'. Nordic Blue... Very rare colour according to Rover buffs. And being an Executive model as well makes it "EXTREMLEY rare".

[2Thumbs]

Bit of an update...Car's been running like a bag of w*nk for a couple months. And me being me, I tried ignoring it. Was running rich, trouble starting when warm, missing occasionally and idling irratically. Seemed to be getting worse as the engine got warmerSo last week I got my multi-meter out. tested the throttle position sensor when cold and at optimum temp. Both fine, so checked the coolant temperature sensor... What's this, no reading? It was dead's a dead thing.Replaced the thermostat whilst I was at it, flushed the coolant for new and Bob's you're uncle it's back to how it should be!It's shocking that an £8 sensor can cause all those problem!As Christmas isn't Christmas without getting your hands dirty, I'll be putting in new sparkies tomorrow as I expect the old ones are knackered with all that extra fuel it's been using.Good times.

[Station]

K420 MTU was the reg.

The car looks lovely though. I think half the attraction of these is the fact that most have been owned by the elderlys.What is that silver solder stuff?

[2Thumbs]

It's actual silver that's been melted with a pen blowtorch in a brazing method.It's obviously harder than normal solder, and can bond to different materials better.As far as I know, the braket is still holding up strong.

[2Thumbs]

Picked some of this up in my local Land Rover dealership on Wednesday. Handy as the gearbox takes 2.4 litres.

 

 

Hopefully it'll sort out the slight whine in 1st and noisey reverse, but I'll reserve my judgement...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Those gearboxes are turd unfortunately, i think the one in my 220 is whiny even though its got a trifling fully-serviced 68k under its wheels. I am gonna keep an eye open for a cheapy gearbox for a tenner or something, then try to rebuild it, never done a gearbox rebuild before.

[Milford Cubicle]

I've never had trouble with those gearboxes, even on the 218D which had 180k on the clock. Still, it had about half the power of a T-series...

[2Thumbs]

They're certainly a weak point. Did you know they had to electronically restrict the torque output of the T16 engine because the gearbox couldn't handle the strain? Load of rollox.Half the reason they die though is because mechanics either put incorrect oil in, or it's not checked often enough and gets too low... or so I'm toldMTF 94 has the same viscosity as 10w40 (what Rover recommend for PG1 gearboxes before '96) but the former has certain additives that help keep the gearbox in check.

[Station]

Which gearboxes came in which (modern) cars?

[Milford Cubicle]

PG1 in the Peugeot and larger Rover-engined Rovers of the '90s and early '00s

[2Thumbs]

And some Land Rover Freelander's too.

[2Thumbs]

Got rust!

 

 

Brushed...

 

 

No more!

 

[2Thumbs]

Sneaky sneaky!

 

 

Now everything's running peachy, I think I'll go do some overdue shite spotting tomorrow.

[2Thumbs]

Sold this on Saturday. Went to a guy who works in the place across the road so I should still see it often.

 

Lost £100 in 18 months of ownership, nay bad in my opinion.

 

I'm car-less now though and been looking for a good two months, think I'm too fussy?

[timmyteapot]

Love it! Always liked the 200/400, always felt that step above the other cars in its class. Drover well too, especially the 216 GTi!

[Guest EccentricRichard]

Full leather

Leather steering wheel

R950 Stereo (top end)

'Prestige' (14" Sterling) alloys

Rear electric windows.

 

That is pure decadence fit for a Western Infidel, or a thrusting executive.

 

We had these at Unipart around 1994/5. Mine was a black J plate 218D 5 door with the unblown 1.9 PSA diseasel, beige cloth and wood fillets. A bit slow getting up to speed (the 2.0D Countryman Montygoe was a weapon in comparison) but it was such a solidly built car and it never went wrong.

Rover really hit the mark with these and we all thought it was the beginning of Rovers upturn. Then BMW came along and fcuked it.

 

Erm, BMW fucked it? I'm not defending what they did to Rover, but without them there'd have been no 75 and no L322... both the best examples of their type in a long time.

 

By the way, looking at the dash of the 400 reminds me of the way that, in the new Jag XJ, you've got this strip of wood curving right round the front of the car, reminds me of the inside of the piano... well guess what, they nicked the idea off this old "Rover" (me being me, I like to think that all Rovers are RWD and all since are merely Austins in drag, but hey, what the hell) and turned it from a sort of 'Quartic' shape into a semicircle...

[Pete-M]

Rover really hit the mark with these and we all thought it was the beginning of Rovers upturn. Then BMW came along and fcuked it.

 

Erm, BMW fucked it? I'm not defending what they did to Rover, but without them there'd have been no 75 and no L322... both the best examples of their type in a long time.

 

Yup. Bernd Pischetsrieder pretty much fucked Rover big time when, at the launch of the 75 he had a massive swipe at Rover staff. As he was boss of BMW at the time, it pretty much blew the actual 75 launch off the front of all the papers and replaced it with "BMW BOSS CALLS ROVER STAFF WANKERS" type headlines. Combined with the K-series being allowed to remain in production without the HG issues being put right and BMW banning Rover from building 4WD cars (or RWD ones whilst in BMW ownership) I'd say they're more to blame for Rovers eventual demise than the people who were designing and building the things.

 

Once they'd ditched Honda, Rover were beginning to make the right type of car again. The 75 could have been brilliant, as could the MGF. They're nice to drive, nice to be a passenger in and reasonably well made. Other than the K/KV6 issues they're not really any worse than anything else built at the time, but everyone expected Rovers to break and they did. The MG skunkworks pulled some pretty impressive rabbits from the hat once BMW left, but other than the ZT 260 they were all based on prehistoric cars so it was never going to be more than a short term solution. The Pheonix consortium didn't have the financial welly to continue the development of decent cars, so finished off the great old Rover brand by sticking badges on a shite Indian import.

 

BMW stripped Rover of all its brands, pinched LRs 4x4 engineering for the dreadful X5 and then sold the lot to a bunch of skint asset strippers. They were furious about the MG stuff as they didn't know about it, or think it would be any good.

 

The L322 Range Rover improved beyond all recognition once fitted with the Jag V8. Ford stopped the front diffs exploding too, they also admitted there was a problem with the K series in the Freeloader and did something to put it right.

 

So, yeah, BMW fucked Rover.

 

[Guest EccentricRichard]

Oh, I was well aware of Pischetsrieder's remarks, which were, to say the least, extremely ill-advised and ill-timed - and BMW's stripping of MGR's assets was one of the most disgraceful episodes in the entire history of the BMW and Rover companies. You say that the L322 improved greatly when given the Jaguar AJ-V8 i- was the BMW V8 (or indeed the 3.0 straight-six diesel) not that good?

[Pete-M]

You say that the L322 improved greatly when given the Jaguar AJ-V8 i- was the BMW V8 (or indeed the 3.0 straight-six diesel) not that good?

 

The BMW diesel just simply didn't have the power, torque, smoothness or strength to shift a Rangie in the appropriate manner. They work if you nail the throttle to the floor and just leave it there, but that's not an acceptable way to drive a Rangie. It's ok for an X5, as they're all driven by smug wankers who know no better, but it's not right for the Rangie at all as the Range Rover has class.

 

The BMW V8 never suited the L322, you have to give 'em lots of beans in order to get anywhere. The Jag lump is much smoother, quieter and generally better in every way. In a Jag powered one you don't hear the engine as it doesn't need to be wellied in order to make progress.

 

Whenever I've driven a BMW powered L322 I've been disappointed, whereas the Jag ones make me grin. The supercharged ones make me grin lots.

[scruff]

I agree with Pete. Jag powered RRs FTW