The Antishite; Snobplate on.

[Skizzer]

May the gods be with you!  Righteousness is on your side.

[Roverageous]

Great success.

 

Now onboard my Birmingham train. Things going well.

 

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[JeeExEll]

Lancia Beta 2000. The saloon one, not the coupe.

[Roverageous]

Birmingham achieved. Bloody awful station complex at New Street...

 

Found where I need to be, and can have a breather for a few minutes. Last train of the day due at 12:49 but delayed until 13:00.

 

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[Roverageous]

Boom.

 

Trains turned out to be a nightmare.

 

Got it and on the way back. Just stopped at Leicester forest East

 

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[Noel Tidybeard]

my, my, grandma, what big doors you have!

[Roverageous]

This thing is fucking superb. Much better motorway manners than a standard length 75. The ride is better too (read waftier).

 

Will need bodywork but it's all solid so hopefully should go through the MOT in December.

 

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[BavarianRetro]

What is that? An extended 75? Factory or coach built?

[Dan_ZTT]

That looks amazing, never seen one before. Would like to know more.

[Lacquer Peel]

What is that? An extended 75? Factory or coach built?

Coach built.

[BorniteIdentity]

It was this car that first perked my interest in the R75 limos.

 

 

A  McNeillie limo in Arden Green with Deep Sea Green interior - and was property of the PSNI (Formerly RUC Northern Ireland)  Proper PSNI colours!

 

 

They had removable armoured protection, reinforced fuel tanks to protect against IEDs and had reinforced slam panels.

 

 

Well bought.  The R75 is plagued with cramped rear legroom - so this is the perfect solution!

[Roverageous]

It’s a coach built example by McNellie, however shortly after this one was registered MG-Rover started making them in-house at longbridge.

 

This car has 159500 miles on it, and it a 2.5Kv6 petrol engine. I’m pretty happy with it but its showing its mileage in some areas. It’s got smoke stone interior but comtemporary spec black seats - I have no idea if that is how it left the factory or not as these cars were built to order. I certainly know of a LWB that left the factory with Aubergine seats but sandstone trim.

 

It rides very well (better than a standard wheel base 75) and has lovely motorway manners. It seems rather more refined than my saloons, so wether there’s extra sound deadening I don’t know.

 

These have a habit of rusting on the sills and rear doors. This one has had the sills done, however there are a couple of blebs but it does at least all seem solid. The rear doors are just starting to go on the inside, with the offside being the worst culprit. I’ll see if its a keeper before doing anything about that.

 

The engine seems sweet enough, if a little ticky when its warm. I *think* it’s injector noise and seems to be coming from the 3rd on the front bank but it’s all a bit witchcrafty because it’s got LPG. I’ve chucked a bottle of Wynns in anyway, and I’ll run it for a couple of weeks before getting the oil changed. It was done 6000 miles ago, but that was just over a year ago.

 

The previous owner didn’t understand the LPG system and had no idea if there was any gas in it or not. I switched it to gas on the way home, and ran all the way back (100 miles) without using any petrol - happy days!

[Roverageous]

Standard legroom, vs LWB. On both the front seats are as far back as they can go.

 

 

[PhilA]

That looks like a thoroughly pleasant place to sit.

 

Phil

[BavarianRetro]

Like the long E38, you don't really notice it until you open the back doors.

 

Interesting old car. Well acquired.

[Guest Hooli]

It looks better proportioned than the normal ones, nice.

[Roverageous]

Done 240 miles since picking it up - and we’re still running on the gas that was in there. The petrol range has lost 8 miles since picking it up - due to cold starts etc...

 

Talked to a few people who know the car / have previously owned the car and have had a look through the ‘presentation pack’ that the previous owner had put together for the car. The car was prepared by McNellie in mid-2003 while they were still churning out pre-facelift cars and indeed McNellie were still building pre facelift LWBs. This lends itself to the theory that this car was the vehicle that was photographed for the MK2 Limousine Brochures as there were no other starlight silver LWBs around. It was originally fitted with serpent wheels and the full premium grille and bumper. I have a photo in the aforementioned pack showing the car still wearing these in 2011, however since then it’s been given a standard MK2 front bumper. I guess a previous owner has repurposed the V8 Premium Kit.

 

So potentially this is my car:

 

It’s first private owner was found by auction in 2011 - 6 years after the collapse of MGR and that period is a bit of a black hole. Since then it’s been owned by a few enthusiasts including a stint as a wedding car.

 

Still happy with it, but if its a keeper I’ll have to throw a bit of money at it to keep it in good order, especially bodywork wise. The sills are notorious on these, and there are a couple of blebs, despite the sills having been re-worked once already a couple of years back. It does all seem solid though so hopefully I won’t have any hassle come MOT time.

 

The KV6 runs very well despite its 160,000 miles. I was a bit worried on the way home about a tappy sound, but i’ve tracked it down to a spark plug - you can feel it through the top of the HT lead on that cylinder - so I need to get that seen to. I did shove a bottle of Wynns into the car anyway this morning, and it has definitely had an effect just with general engine noise. All you can hear at idle is the belts going round now.

 

 

 

[dollywobbler]

Interesting stuff. Not sure how I feel about the 'premium' nose on non-V8s, so maybe it was a change for the better.

[Roverageous]

Interesting stuff. Not sure how I feel about the 'premium' nose on non-V8s, so maybe it was a change for the better.

I'm of the same mind!

 

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[Exiled_Tat_Gatherer]

Probably sacrilegious around here - but I'not much of a 75 licker normally, the V8 rwd being an exception of course.... but that it truly outstanding. The longer wheelbase, doors etc... and proportions just 'work'. Very nice thing to be rolling around in. 

Never thought I'd ever type the following sentence..... 

 

Deeply envious of that 75 fella..... 

[oldcars]

This is class. Well bought. If your taking it to the bmc day Gaydon 2019 then i will need to make the trip down. Please show me your clock, yes i said clock. I love the way the headlining is chopped in half on these and plastic trim added and a clock in the middle.

[Roverageous]

Aaaaaaand I've found a hole in the floor.

 

[oldcars]

Shame, mot history is spot on as well. Where is the hole?

[320touring]

Aaaaaaand I've found a hole in the floor.

 

Assuming it's a 'not factory pressed' hole?

 

G'wan show us a pic. Can't be too bad!

[Roverageous]

Both sills have been done before - I know the previous owner found a serious botch on one side. It's all fairly grim in the middle of the car (the bit McNellies put in!). Can't really get a decent picture, but the attached shows plenty of orange.

 

Text my Rover man - familiar with welding 75 limos. I'll be dropping it with him in a couple of weeks!

 

[oldcars]

Be good to get that sorted. Looks a good car, and history is good to. Something a bit different. I guess the last owner was in the owners club, these boys like a few million extra stick on rover badges.

[BavarianRetro]

Anyone any idea what cheap tool I can use to program the two button remote on a 75?

[Roverageous]

Anyone any idea what cheap tool I can use to program the two button remote on a 75?

I think coding a key is a T4 jobby. There is an alternative called TOAF but I have no knowledge of that at all.

 

The car has been sat for a couple of days, so I could get a cold start to make sure no smoke or nasty noises as I hadn't really had the chance to check yet. The good news is that there's no blue smoke or any other warnings. As I said in the thread earlier it did seem to tick, but only when it started getting warm. I'd shoved a can of wynns in as good measure, and while it seems to make things run smoother, I'm still getting tick tick tick from the front of the engine bay.

 

Tracked the noise down eventually to a spark plug, it you put your finger on the top of the HT lead on that cylinder you could feel tapping in time with the noise. This afternoon I got my trusty* tool set out from the garage, where I could find nothing to fit the engine cover bolts or the bolts holding the HT lead down. A bit of ingenuity and I had the engine cover and lead off, and was able ascertain that the spark plug in question was loose. Tightened it up with my spark plug tool that I bought 6 years ago and used once and put it all back together. Success! No more tap tap tapping.

 

In other news I've been doing some digging on the car's history. It was built in early 2003 and the McNellie build process (chopping it up) started late 2003 and it was registered in April 2004. What's strange is that it is definitely a McNellie build car - the VIN confirms that - but it's been built to look like a later factory Longbridge LWB. There is no McNellie badging on the windows, and the VIN Plate is a later MG-Rover style. By rights it should be a pre-facelift car however it has been built to facelift spec including the electrical tweaks associated (such as a boot that opens from the remote key etc...). The car was built shortly before McNellie were to stop producing the LWB for Rover and they were taking it in-house as Longbridge.

 

To build a 2003 car into a facelift (late 2004 onwards) car, as well as no mention of McNellie on the car at all, to my mind, further adds to the case for it being the car that was photographed for the facelift LWB brochure (as I said earlier in the thread, there were no other silver LWB builds in 2002 / 2003 / 2004). The car remained registered to MG-Rover Fleet Vehicles until 2011.

[John F]

Fucking hell. That's not a car interior, it's a gentleman's club.

 

Looks ace.

[Roverageous]

First LPG fill up. Quite an odd experience! There are no real filling stations near me that supply LPG, but there is a hardware shop that does gas canisters etc... and they will also fill your car. You just reverse onto their forecourt and they fill it for you. Charged 62ppl including VAT and the tank took 64 litres.

 

If I managed to achieve 25mpg out of this thing (I don't know if that's realistic yet, while its running on gas) that would give me 350 miles from a tank of LPG. Cost wise, that would equate to an equivalent of 51mpg running on petrol.

 

We'll see!