Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[LightBulbFun]

Ok not what I expected at all! 

I was thinking something more with several vertical bars in the grill and a big 4.0L inline 6! 

 

but I am very much looking forward to its arrival and subsequent fettling into road worthiness  I do like a P6, and especially a V8! 

 

same London LW registration location mark as @Six-cylinder's Royce too for bonus points  

 

as an aside, the blurred background photos almost make it look like a scale model! messes with my brain that does! I also dont think I realised that Rover P6's had an extra grill bellow the bumper like that! almost looks like its putting on an awkard smile for the camera "say cheese!" LOL  

[Erebus]

8 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Okay then.  Now that money has changed hands and we've pretty much sorted collection arrangements I feel I can actually reveal what it was that I was willing to spend basically a whole day going to look at yesterday. 

One of you definitely got it.

The answer is this:

Excuse the blurring.  As the photos were taken in the seller's front garden I wanted to blank out the background as far as possible to remove any landmarks.

A P6 has been on my wishlist forever, but finding a viable one with a reasonable price tag was something I'd given up on a good few years back.  I did look at a few about 15 years back, but all the ones I could afford then were complete basket cases.  

Then I read @Rocket88's tale of woe a couple of days ago.  I figured it was worth pinging them a message to find out some more details.  The rest is history.

From the look around the car I did it seems astonishingly solid.  Bit of surface rust here and there and some historic repairs, but nothing worrisome.  It hasn't been in use for Quite Some Time however, so will want to be properly recommissioned.  It does however run, drive and apparently stop - so not a bad situation to be starting from.

Have to admit I'm really pleased it's not brown with a black interior.  I mean they do look good in those colours, but it feels like virtually every one you see is brown/mustard or a very similar greeny grey to the P4 and with a black interior, and it's no secret that I like lighter or more colourful interiors.  Exactly like this.

Odometer is showing 01034 - so that'll be 101K.

The handles for the doors are in there, reckon they were taken off when some paintwork was going on.   I've not spotted anything that's actually missing yet.

Have always been curious to see what this panel looks like at night.

Nothing scary under here.

The previous buyer claimed that the oil was full of fuel and that a head gasket had gone because of the moisture on the oil filler.  Yes, there's a bit of fuel in the oil but nothing you wouldn't expect from a car that's been out of use so probably hasn't been run off choke in years.  Likewise there's a bit of condensation on the cap, but absolutely nothing you wouldn't expect.  We're both kind of baffled over what the previous buyer was playing at.

Even the vinyl roof is in decent shape.

Exact date has to be confirmed, but hopefully it will be getting delivered next week at some point.

Pretty clear very basic plan of attack for when it arrives - plus anything else that I think of then.

[] Change all rubber fuel lines.

[] Chase any electrical gremlins.

[] Change tyres.

[] Change all fluids.

[] Sort any sticky brake issues - anything causing issues there will just be chucked at Bigg Red to be rebuilt, I'm not faffing about trying to wrestle sticky pistons and such into behaving myself, especially with how bloody awkward to get to the rears are.

[] Put back together the bits of the interior which are currently on the floor and give it a damned good clean.

[] Get it professionally rust proofed so it hopefully *stays* this solid.

I am extremely excited to be bringing this on fleet.  As I've said before I'd long since really given up on ever owning one of these.

Phwoar!  That is lovely!  Well bought and glad Rocket88's tale of woe had a happy ending

[timolloyd]

43 minutes ago, Erebus said:

happy ending

I imagine Zel just paid cash in full, no extra favours 😂

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Okay then.  Now that money has changed hands and we've pretty much sorted collection arrangements I feel I can actually reveal what it was that I was willing to spend basically a whole day going to look at yesterday. 

One of you definitely got it.

The answer is this:

Excuse the blurring.  As the photos were taken in the seller's front garden I wanted to blank out the background as far as possible to remove any landmarks.

A P6 has been on my wishlist forever, but finding a viable one with a reasonable price tag was something I'd given up on a good few years back.  I did look at a few about 15 years back, but all the ones I could afford then were complete basket cases.  

Then I read @Rocket88's tale of woe a couple of days ago.  I figured it was worth pinging them a message to find out some more details.  The rest is history.

From the look around the car I did it seems astonishingly solid.  Bit of surface rust here and there and some historic repairs, but nothing worrisome.  It hasn't been in use for Quite Some Time however, so will want to be properly recommissioned.  It does however run, drive and apparently stop - so not a bad situation to be starting from.

Have to admit I'm really pleased it's not brown with a black interior.  I mean they do look good in those colours, but it feels like virtually every one you see is brown/mustard or a very similar greeny grey to the P4 and with a black interior, and it's no secret that I like lighter or more colourful interiors.  Exactly like this.

Odometer is showing 01034 - so that'll be 101K.

The handles for the doors are in there, reckon they were taken off when some paintwork was going on.   I've not spotted anything that's actually missing yet.

Have always been curious to see what this panel looks like at night.

Nothing scary under here.

The previous buyer claimed that the oil was full of fuel and that a head gasket had gone because of the moisture on the oil filler.  Yes, there's a bit of fuel in the oil but nothing you wouldn't expect from a car that's been out of use so probably hasn't been run off choke in years.  Likewise there's a bit of condensation on the cap, but absolutely nothing you wouldn't expect.  We're both kind of baffled over what the previous buyer was playing at.

Even the vinyl roof is in decent shape.

Exact date has to be confirmed, but hopefully it will be getting delivered next week at some point.

Pretty clear very basic plan of attack for when it arrives - plus anything else that I think of then.

[] Change all rubber fuel lines.

[] Chase any electrical gremlins.

[] Change tyres.

[] Change all fluids.

[] Sort any sticky brake issues - anything causing issues there will just be chucked at Bigg Red to be rebuilt, I'm not faffing about trying to wrestle sticky pistons and such into behaving myself, especially with how bloody awkward to get to the rears are.

[] Put back together the bits of the interior which are currently on the floor and give it a damned good clean.

[] Get it professionally rust proofed so it hopefully *stays* this solid.

I am extremely excited to be bringing this on fleet.  As I've said before I'd long since really given up on ever owning one of these.

Oof! Not sure about the ICE, but hot buyage!

[Noel Tidybeard]

4 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I also dont think I realised that Rover P6's had an extra grill bellow the bumper like that! almost looks like its putting on an awkard smile for the camera "say cheese!" LOL  

only the V8 cos the rad is too big!

[Six-cylinder]

I think that is absolutely lovely.

The first time I got caught speeding it was a persue and stop by a full livered 3500 chasing my Triumph Vitesse down the road into Pinner. That must have been quite an old car as it was 1979.

 

[Rocket88]

Delighted that Mr Z is the new custodian of this fine example of British engineering. 
Pleasure to make his acquaintance, and he seems to be the right man for the job…..

[Zelandeth]

17 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Ok not what I expected at all! 

I was thinking something more with several vertical bars in the grill and a big 4.0L inline 6! 

 

but I am very much looking forward to its arrival and subsequent fettling into road worthiness  I do like a P6, and especially a V8! 

 

same London LW registration location mark as @Six-cylinder's Royce too for bonus points  

 

as an aside, the blurred background photos almost make it look like a scale model! messes with my brain that does! I also dont think I realised that Rover P6's had an extra grill bellow the bumper like that! almost looks like its putting on an awkard smile for the camera "say cheese!" LOL  

Cherokees have just gone into utterly silly money territory for a decent one.  I'd thought we might have seen a few bargains popping up given they always did seem to be popular in London with the ULEZ expansion, but it doesn't seem to have put a damper on prices at all.  Last few nice ones I'd been keeping an eye on went for north of seven grand.  Plus in terms of fleet position it would be the practical one really - and we've got a decent fit for that already in place - one which will actually do north of 20mpg on a regular basis.

Yeah, economy is going to sting.  I'm guessing 12-15mpg is probably about the best I can hope from day to day in the P6 because Milton Keynes.  Average when I had the Jag was 12, dipping into single digits alarmingly regularly.  If I can keep this the right side of 15 I'll be happy.

The extra grill is because similar to the front end of the V12 XJ-S the designers were basically going "dear god, how do we cram enough cooling capacity in here?!?" it seems like.  The lower edge of the front valance on the smaller engined variants is more or less level with the bottom of the number plate.

14 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Oof! Not sure about the ICE, but hot buyage!

Yeah, the whole "half pulled out the dash" look will need to be addressed.  The early to mid 80s head unit I can live with assuming there is enough depth for it to actually be installed properly.  It's something that would likely have been fitted early in the car's life, so doesn't look too out of place.  Or at least won't once it's been tidied.  

Let's face it...the stereo isn't what I'll be most interested in listening to with this car.

 

Should be interesting.  I've known a few folks who've had them and have helped out with a couple of jobs here and there but it's not a car that overall I know a huge amount about.  So there will be something of a learning curve over the first couple of months I'm sure.  At least there's no shortage of documentation on them out there.

 

[Crackers]

Nice. You'll enjoy it - delicious to drive, look at and listen to. 

A car I'm very glad to have owned, and could see myself having another one when it's a bit more practical. 

[Zelandeth]

The non working windscreen washers on the P4 were bugging me.  Especially as I could hear the motor running so knew there really couldn't be all that much wrong with it.

The issue was that there was originally a rubber coupler between the motor output shaft and the impeller.  This had long since turned to powder.  A previous attempt to repair this had been done using heat shrink tubing, but this wasn't a tight enough fit to transmit torque to the impeller.

After scratching my head for a while I ended up fabricobbling a coupler together using a horribly mangled crimp terminal, some wire and a screw terminal block minus its outer plastic casing.

Pretty?  No.

Does it work though?

Yes!  And as it lives actually inside the washer bottle I'm not too bothered by what it looks like.

Not exactly a huge torrent of water, but it does what it was designed to.  Nice to have ticked it off the to do list.

I'm sure the coupler is available as a spare if you know what to search for, but my attempts to find one a few weeks ago turned up nothing, save for the whole pump/motor assembly for more than I wanted to spend when it was surely fixable.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Zelandeth
Typo

[somewhatfoolish]

Assuming both bits are the same diameter a short piece of thick wall flexible hose with the inner diameter small enough to make it a pain to slide over is worth a try. 

[Zelandeth]

10 minutes ago, somewhatfoolish said:

Assuming both bits are the same diameter a short piece of thick wall flexible hose with the inner diameter small enough to make it a pain to slide over is worth a try. 

They're not sadly.  One is a blade shape like a screwdriver, maybe 3mm or so across, the other is a small circular shaft about 1mm in diameter.

Bit of stiff rubber tubing is probably a more elegant solution, but I didn't have any small enough to hand, so made what I could find work.

[Zelandeth]

New arrival is now officially on the way.  

Should be arriving here pretty early tomorrow morning all being well.

Of course the weather has decided to return to being a million degrees this week so not sure how much I'll actually be doing immediately - but there will be a load of photos from when I have a good look over it at least.

Today I have been very much enjoying the whole "having a daily driver with working air conditioning" thing again.

Found a friend while out shopping today too.

Which has allowed me to confirm that the silver trim on the rear bumper is indeed meant to be there.  I'd thought that had maybe been replaced with one from an older model as it just looked a bit odd to me.

She's been booked in to a local garage at the end of the month to have the whining noise coming from the aux belt area Investigated (my suspicion is actually pointing towards power steering pump as it looks to be weeping from the spindle), repairs made as necessary and for the full timing belt/water pump kit to be replaced.  

The belt change interval on this is a ridiculous 10 years/125K miles according to Peugeot, which does tie in with the last one listed in the service book being pretty much spot on its 10th birthday - back in 2016.  I'm not waiting until 2026 to change it...I think 5 years is way more sensible an interval.

Especially makes sense if they're going to be digging into the belt area to sort out whatever is whining, which will obviously involve taking the aux belt off (which is pretty badly glazed so wants changing anyway) so they're already halfway in anyway.

I'm viewing this as a long term fleet member at this point, so this is preventative maintenance I'd just rather have done.

[SiC]

I'm looking forward to hearing the difference you find between the P4 and P6. While from the same stable, same lineage and same premium end markets, they are chalk and cheese to each other with over a decades worth of automotive engineering progression. Both have the most powerful engine of each model too. 

[SiC]

Now you just need to buy @Saabnut P5 to complete the set! 😉😉

[LightBulbFun]

as an aside, a bit grumpy that I missed this, but a few days ago, 31st of August was TPA's 50th Birthday  

its really quite amazing how far you have managed to get her  from engineless husk

to smart and tidy daily driver! having clocked over 4000 miles!

 

I doubt 50 years ago anyone would of thought she would still be around today,  even more so after she was dumped in a field left to decay for 16 years and then robbed of her drivetrain! and then let alone doing daily driver duties around Milton Keynes!

she really is a survivor! and its been really awesome to see heres to many more miles!

[Zelandeth]

Been a busy day and evening so haven't had quite as much tinkering time today, nor any time till just now (2302) to start writing things up.  So forgive it if this is a bit rushed.  Sure autocorrect will get involved too, given I'm doing this on a phone, while tired.

Things have been very stop-go through the day as well because I've only been able to really do anything in short bursts when it's this hot.  

So this morning an exciting delivery turned up.  Right in the middle of the school rush because I was an idiot and didn't think to warn @worldofceri about that.  Sorry!

Which I was then able to get into a position to get a proper look at for the first time.

Not maybe the least foreboding thing to find as the sole content of the glove box!

At least electrics don't really scare me...much.

 Hmm...we might need a new fuel filter.

Why can't more cars provide this under the bonnet?

Boot full of stuff...which I've really not gone through yet.

Need to get a cover on at least the positive terminal of that battery, that - especially with that wheel being next to it - is giving me serious anxiety from a fire safety perspective.

Okay...so issues, which we knew there would be!  

Let's start with the obvious one, which is that it's not running on all eight.  Currently we have the rare beast that is the V7 Rover.  I had hoped that we just had a fouled up plug, but no.  Sadly we do appear to have a lame cylinder, we appear to have a major lack of compression on number five.  Haven't had a chance to do much real investigation yet, but we do appear to have the same movement on the valves as on the others on that bank, so don't *think* it's a cam issue.  Optimistic diagnosis?  Crud on a valve seat maybe?  Don't know.  Will need further investigation.

The oil was badly, badly contaminated with ancient fuel (unsurprising given the car's been off the road for a long while, especially given we've discovered a dead miss on one cylinder).  Seriously, it reeked like old paint stripper.  So before I did anything else I wanted to get that changed.  

What came out was...well...was this.

No chunks nor any glitter I could detect, but yeeeaah...we may need to turn our attention towards the heads - especially with missing compression on one cylinder.  Though it doesn't *seem* to be pressurising the cooling system, and the level was spot on...hmm.  Further investigation needed.

A reported fault was a lack of oil pressure light, pressure gauge or temperature gauge.

I noticed that we were also missing indicators.  This to me made me suspicious that we may be missing a power supply...time to investigate fuses.

Behind the passenger side glove box in case you wondered.

Turned out that the fuse in the "Ignition control" circuit was blown.  Markings in the fusebox call for a 25A fuse, a 20A one was fitted.  With that refitted still no joy...until I noticed that the pressure gauge was creeping towards full scale.  Sure enough, the leads to the pressure light and sender's were switched.  Correction of that resulted in a working light.

...And gauge.

Noticed this had also revived the choke light when I pulled the control out.

Odd that they didn't deem that important enough for a legend.  Just a plain amber light.

Brake light does work on the level sensor, but the handbrake switch appears to be stuck. 

So we do now have a full compliment of warning lights.

I find the similarity between the legends in the indicator tell tales on this dash and that on the Mk I National pleasing.  The main beam light does work, it's just ridiculously dim.

The ammeter does move, though I don't really trust it's accuracy, but it moves.  Fuel and temperature gauges?  No idea yet.  I've chucked two gallons in the tank to try to dilute whatever sludge is in there, but no idea if that would even register really given it's a 15 gallon tank.  As for temperature I've not run the engine long enough for that to register, though I'll check the gauge tomorrow by the old ground the sender test.

Radio doesn't work, but at least looks far tidier now it's been shoved back into the dash properly and the cubby hole above it been reassembled.

Answers on a postcard as to what these do?

Noticed a detail immediately familiar to me...

Same bonnet release pull as on the P4.

Quite a few nice little details.  The rear quarter light mechanism is quite pleasing.

Really is a nice looking car.

That's about as far as I've got so far.  

Well aside from the obligatory dash at night photo once it got dark anyway.

Had never seen this panel at night before, turns out it's edge lit through a light pipe effect from the base.

Watch this space for further updates in the next couple of days.

[LightBulbFun]

Awesome to see the V8 beast has arrived  I am sorry to hear about Cylinder 5 being AWOL, but the rest of it, the exterior/bodywork does look really sharp and clean  

although those bright blue HT leads are making my teeth itch, they look so incongruous compared to the lovely tones of the rest of the car!

 

BTW as a side note I have heard it said the sun visor for the Model 70, especially the later (post production replacement?) types which had a small mirror embedded in them, was a part taken from the Rover parts bin, would be curious to see if your P4 or P6 match with TPA in that regard?

[Crackers]

7 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Answers on a postcard as to what these do?

Different switchgear to mine (probably production year differences) but the rocker switch is likely to be the heated rear window and the toggle switch I think is aftermarket - possibly front fog lights (do I see a wire hanging down from the front wing?) or electric fan override if you have one fitted. 

[Zelandeth]

7 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

Awesome to see the V8 beast has arrived  I am sorry to hear about Cylinder 5 being AWOL, but the rest of it, the exterior/bodywork does look really sharp and clean  

although those bright blue HT leads are making my teeth itch, they look so incongruous compared to the lovely tones of the rest of the car!

 

BTW as a side note I have heard it said the sun visor for the Model 70, especially the later (post production replacement?) types which had a small mirror embedded in them, was a part taken from the Rover parts bin, would be curious to see if your P4 or P6 match with TPA in that regard?

Quite different visors I'm afraid.

Yes, the blue HT leads will be getting replaced with something rather less in-your-face in due course.  They will be getting held on to though as they seem decent quality - just way too bright for a car like this.

It's a shame we're missing a cylinder, but it is what it is.  Just need to cross our fingers it's just a top end issue.  Either way, given what I paid for the car I still feel I've done well.  

2 hours ago, Crackers said:

Different switchgear to mine (probably production year differences) but the rocker switch is likely to be the heated rear window and the toggle switch I think is aftermarket - possibly front fog lights (do I see a wire hanging down from the front wing?) or electric fan override if you have one fitted. 

Good thought.  Just realised now you've mentioned it that I haven't seen a labelled switch for the rear window heater so that's a good shout.  Albeit slightly surprising they didn't just use one from the BMC parts bin.  Assuming the heated rear screen wasn't added after the fact by a previous owner anyway.

Haven't been aware of seeing any remains of wiring floating around the front of the car (the dangly bit on the right is a very much too long radiator overflow pipe I think), but something like that would make sense.

[Crackers]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Albeit slightly surprising they didn't just use one from the BMC parts bin.  Assuming the heated rear screen wasn't added after the fact by a previous owner anyway.

I saw a photo of a late 2200 dashboard a while ago with the same style of switch in that location, and it's exactly where the HRW switch was on mine. The only difference is that mine had a pull-out switch. 

Not certain but I think they might have all had HRWs. 

[SiC]

Maybe the original HRW failed and replaced with a generic Lucas toggle switch from their local parts shop. Given the HRW passes a fair amount of current, I imagine they don't have the longest life if used frequently. 

[SiC]

That's a nice assortment of scotch locks and terminal block 😬

 

Presumably they're for wiring in the radio? Or do they go to the mystery switches?

[SiC]

That panel from a 1971 P6 that was on car & classic. 

Given the wiring is there, it makes sense that one of them is the HRW at least.

[Crackers]

6 minutes ago, SiC said:

That panel from a 1971 P6 that was on car & classic. 

Given the wiring is there, it makes sense that one of them is the HRW at least.

That's what I'm saying, it's the HRW, and late cars had a different switch. 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

Quite different visors I'm afraid.

interesting wonder which Rover was being referred to now  

12 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Why can't more cars provide this under the bonnet?

however I cant help but notice at least the Rover P6 does share the exact same spark plugs as the Invacar Mk12E! aint that a contrast...  (given how vastly different the 2 engines are!)

On 3/24/2023 at 8:31 PM, AdgeCutler said:

As I was informed by Dez that today was a special day in the history of invalid carriages I decided to take Brian out for a run. We have had an issue with ignition loss after having travelled around 25-30 miles, there will be a pop, sputter and then complete loss of power. I put this down to either a dying coil or plug. I sourced some new old stock plugs and fitted one today and we hit 400 miles since rebuild. Sadly we ended up having to pull off of the road with the same issue despite the new plug, next to fit the new coil I have had sat on the shelf for the past few months, hopefully then we can achieve some more extended runs.

Good luck to Brummie and Flo, hopefully you’ll crack it soon.

 

[SiC]

5 minutes ago, Crackers said:

That's what I'm saying, it's the HRW, and late cars had a different switch. 

Sorry I see what you mean now. I misremembered your first post and my brain mixed up rocker and toggle. 

This is a 1976 car and you can see the square that originally had a rocker switch but someone badly fitted a pull switch.

Presumably either a cost cutting exercise by BL (someone went HOW MUCH for a heated rear window switch) or the original was hard to get as the factory was regularly on strike...

[Zelandeth]

47 minutes ago, SiC said:

That's a nice assortment of scotch locks and terminal block 😬

 

Presumably they're for wiring in the radio? Or do they go to the mystery switches?

Haven't investigated yet.  Compared to what I'm used to finding in the vicinity of fuse boxes on cars of this age though it's remarkably free of hackery!  At least I didn't open the fuse box to find several foil wrapped fuses like on the Jag...

[Zelandeth]

Today investigated a few things.

Firstly was the fuse issue - with a 25A fuse sourced and fitted, it worked fine for a few minutes before blowing.  When it blew it did it quite suddenly, so I reckon we've got an intermittent short somewhere.  Around the steering column will probably be my first port of call given that the main things fed off that circuit are the instruments, indicators, brake lights and reversing lights.  Wiring chafing around the steering column in the vicinity of the indicator stalk sounds like a good place to start.

The rear seats have been given their first couple of treatments with the leather feed and are already starting to look a fair bit better.

Regarding our missing cylinder, I tried dumping some oil down the bore to see if that made any difference.  It really doesn't, which kind of suggests to me that it's a top end issue.  Most likely a valve not closing fully or a burned seat.  Unless something absolutely catastrophic has happened to the cylinder walls anyway, I'd have expected to notice at least some difference when the engine was turning over wet rather than dry.  I haven't actually stuck a compression tester on there yet, but based on how the engine sounds I'm expecting to see a big fat zero.  Thinking this might be the thing which finally gets me to actually buy a borescope so I can take a proper look at the cylinder.

There definitely is quite a bit of damp in this engine, though it's really hard to say whether that's down to an active leak somewhere or whether it's external contamination.  It's clearly sat that way for a fair while too.

Before I actually go pulling the engine apart to any extent I need to confirm exactly what engine it is, as there is a (so far) undocumented rumour that apparently it may have been replaced at some point in the distant past.  Given the car has 101K on the clock, definitely not impossible.  The number stamped down by the dipstick is very hard, almost impossible to read - though what snippets of it that I can make out seem to point at it being an SD1 Vitesse.  It's the only variation I can see in any of the tables with the same 9.75:1 CR and the couple of digits I can make out matching up in the right places.

I have noticed a couple of things which say "unfinished project" as well.  Firstly is that the kickdown cable doesn't appear to be attached to the throttle linkage behind the engine (which looks a joy to get at).  Secondly was this...

Which is *slightly* more concerning - that's the plate to which the brake master cylinder is attached - which appears to be missing two our of its four mounting bolts.  Yeah...Anyone know what thread those should be off the top of their head?  Hopefully they're in one of the boxes of bits in the boot.

Suffice to say I'll be going over all the suspension fixings, wheel nuts and such to make sure they're tight before we venture anywhere near the road. 

Other things which won't be sticking with us much longer...The rear tyres.  Which despite looking in surprisingly good shape, just starting to show some perishing in a couple of places...date from 1992.  Early 1992 at that.

The front ones at least have a four digit code, so are from this side of 2000, but pre-date the simple WWYY numeric format.  They're in considerably worse shape than the rears though with a fair amount more perishing, plus the offside front has two distinctly visible...what I can only describe as "dents" in the sidewall.

That's gonna sting.  You don't exactly have a plethora of choices of tyres in this size and none of them are cheap.

Did ascertain one thing this afternoon.  While this only has a single pipe exhaust system on it, it still sounds rather rowdy when some revs are involved it seems.  Which I'm okay with so long as it doesn't drone at speed.  I tend to prefer quieter for the most part these days...but I'll make a bit of an exception for a V8 provided it's not too antisocial.  I'd permit a straight pipe on something like a Land Rover, but a P6 needs to be at least somewhat refined!

[SiC]

Don't forget to check all the other basics like tappets. Would be awful to pull it apart to then find that it was simply a tappet too tight. I'd be tempted to take the rocker arm off and give them all a tap to make sure they're moving freely. Could also be a sticky valve if it's sat a long time and that cylinder happened to be the one left open.

Finger on the spark plug hole when turning over will also give a quick indication of amount of compression on a cylinder without digging out the tester.