Twin-Cam's Motoring Maladies: Povvo Rover Metro Restoration, Austin Metro 1.3L, BMW E46 325i

[Eyersey1234]

Good luck with the MOT. 

[Twin-Cam]

Following the government's MOT announcement this morning, Melvin hasn't had his MOT. So a bit of an anti-climax there.

Thought I'd do something though, so he had an oil change.

[Cord Fourteener]

Saved by the bell!

[dc2100k]

Looking at the fabled 1.1C rear bumper has got me thinking, just how far did manufacturers go to realise cost savings on low-end specials? Now I know the accepted wisdom is that really they did it out of spite and a lack of respect for their customers but it seems to me like they can’t have bothered tooling up for this act specifically. This specific bumper must have been a mashup of some Triumph Acclaim tin bumpers they had lying around and then the PU ends from a mould made for a pre-production mock up. Probably saved the full-bumper moulds from wearing out or gave them extra production capacity or something. Presumably this bumper doesn’t have the impact bumper behind the tin so there *may have been some actual cost savings involved.

[Twin-Cam]

2 hours ago, dc2100k said:

Looking at the fabled 1.1C rear bumper has got me thinking, just how far did manufacturers go to realise cost savings on low-end specials? Now I know the accepted wisdom is that really they did it out of spite and a lack of respect for their customers but it seems to me like they can’t have bothered tooling up for this act specifically. This specific bumper must have been a mashup of some Triumph Acclaim tin bumpers they had lying around and then the PU ends from a mould made for a pre-production mock up. Probably saved the full-bumper moulds from wearing out or gave them extra production capacity or something. Presumably this bumper doesn’t have the impact bumper behind the tin so there *may have been some actual cost savings involved.

In true Rover fashion, it cost them more to make the three-piece bumper than it did to make the standard one.

They were selling too many 1.1Cs apparently, and wanted to shift more 1.1Ls and 1.1Ss. Rather than make the L and S better, they made the C worse by putting on that bumper and those hubcaps.

[GeordieInExile]

5 hours ago, Twin-Cam said:

In true Rover fashion, it cost them more to make the three-piece bumper than it did to make the standard one.

They were selling too many 1.1Cs apparently, and wanted to shift more 1.1Ls and 1.1Ss. Rather than make the L and S better, they made the C worse by putting on that bumper and those hubcaps.

Joke's on them, those changes actually improved the C.

[Twin-Cam]

Got back to doing a bit of work on Melvin today. My mission while we're in lockdown is to give him a decent enough look over, a good clean of his underside, and repair all the superficial rust that has appeared over the last twelve months and 10,000 miles.

I started the other day with checking everything I could think of in the engine bay: dizzy, carb, manifolds, pipes, etcetera.

Today, I gave him a good clean and stripped away all of the wax on the bodywork to reapply in a little while once I've completed all the repairs. I know the first rule of washing a car is not to do it in direct sunlight, but I couldn't resist.

As I haven't done much that you can see, have a couple of beauty shots post-wash.

In the background of that shot, you can see my Dad's Rover 75 that I 'gently' coaxed him into last year. Safe to say, it's a beautiful car with a great soundtrack, but it hasn't half cost a bit to keep it on the road.

Note the original dealer plate on the back. I'd like to get a dealer sticker and tax disc holder made up, but I think I'll wait until this chaos has blown over. If anyone's got any suggestions for people that make this kind of thing, do let me know.

Cheers everyone, and hope you're all taking care of yourselves and your families. ❤️ 

[egg]

Looks great.  DMB graphics made up my Mondeo dealer Sticker and Mazda GLX badges - but I gave them something to work from.

https://www.dmb.uk.com/

 

[Twin-Cam]

10 minutes ago, egg said:

Looks great.  DMB graphics made up my Mondeo dealer Sticker and Mazda GLX badges - but I gave them something to work from.

https://www.dmb.uk.com/

 

I'm aware of this company, and heard good things about them. They have a number of different styles of early 90s Rover stickers, so I'm sure they could modify an existing design to read 'Epsom Rover' with the correct phone number.

[Cord Fourteener]

What's up, you got some spare time on your have or something? ???

Looks very nice and shiny, obviously a very well cared for motor, your metro. There is a point where rather than reducing depreciation you are adding value to this car. I imagine you are probably there already.

[Twin-Cam]

Following on from my previous post, I've started tackling some issues on Melvin.

First, I looked under the carpets as Metros are well known for their rusty floors due to pathetic door seals. Fortunately, the situation is the same as when I last checked. The passenger's side is dry, and the drivers' side is damp. I removed the foam underlay/sound deadening when I discovered the leak last year. Rather than try and tackle the issue, I just took a bung out of the floor. Either way, there's no rust.

Where there is rust however, is the fuel filler. It's to be expected, but unwanted, so I started spraying today. Tomorrow, I'll apply the colour.

FYI, I've never touched the body work of a car before, so this is a learning curve to say the least.

Here's what it looked like before:

After I masked it up and applied rust converter:

After I cleaned it up some more and applied copious amounts of primer. I would've used filler primer as it's really badly pitted, but I don't think a trip out for filler primer counts as 'essential':

Tomorrow, I'll rub back and apply the colour. Either way, I'm very happy that my numerous layers of primer seem to have smoothed out the surface somewhat. I'm not going for perfection anyway. This area can't be seen and will see a lot of abuse, so the quality of the protection is the most important issue.

Before hand, I decided I'd clean out the wheel arches before I tackle the rear valance. I didn't get an 'after' shot, but here's one from 'during':

Don't worry, there's an axle stand out of shot to the left.

[ETCHY]

Not sure if this has been posted before but I found it on YouTube, not great quality picture but ok.

From the days when Top Gear was actually about testing cars !

 

[Austin-Rover]

On 4/7/2020 at 9:10 PM, Twin-Cam said:

I'm aware of this company, and heard good things about them. They have a number of different styles of early 90s Rover stickers, so I'm sure they could modify an existing design to read 'Epsom Rover' with the correct phone number.

I've had loads of stuff from DMB over the years and can't fault any of their work. It is a great shame they don't do number plates any more. I've had a few dealer stickers and tax disc holders done in the Rover house style from the early 90's for an 800 and then the early 00's for a Rover 25. Both were completed by providing a sample (picture nicked from the 'net) and asked them to place my own required dealer details into that style. Both times, indistinguishable from the real deal. 

Excellent Metro, also. Make sure you keep hold of it. I have no doubt they'll become very collectable.

[Twin-Cam]

1 hour ago, ETCHY said:

Not sure if this has been posted before but I found it on YouTube, not great quality picture but ok.

From the days when Top Gear was actually about testing cars !

 

Ah, the amount of times I watched this in pure excitement before I got Melvin is embarrassing. 

[Twin-Cam]

Progress!

 

[egg]

Thanks @Twin-Cam  - some useful tips in there.

[St.Jude]

On 4/19/2020 at 8:38 PM, Twin-Cam said:

Progress!

 

One thing I noticed in your video was the paint under your driver's seat and how it's cracking and looks to be lifting up. The paint on the floor of my Lada was the same and I pulled it up to see a load of rust. Similar situation as to you, water got in to it, got underneath the paint/sound deadening and attacked the metal. I'd be taking it up really to see if that's the case, especially - as you pointed out - a previous owner may/probably knew that it was leaking. 

If you look on my Lada thread you'll see the video where I find it out. 

[egg]

I've got a feeling mine might be the same too....

[St.Jude]

46 minutes ago, egg said:

I've got a feeling mine might be the same too....

There'll be nothing left of yours when you finally get back to it!

[Twin-Cam]

On 4/21/2020 at 1:29 PM, sgtberbatov said:

One thing I noticed in your video was the paint under your driver's seat and how it's cracking and looks to be lifting up. The paint on the floor of my Lada was the same and I pulled it up to see a load of rust. Similar situation as to you, water got in to it, got underneath the paint/sound deadening and attacked the metal. I'd be taking it up really to see if that's the case, especially - as you pointed out - a previous owner may/probably knew that it was leaking. 

If you look on my Lada thread you'll see the video where I find it out. 

I ought to have a look. I decided I didn't want to take out that layer partially because I might wreck it, part because I don't want to  find any rust, and part because I don't want any less sound deadening!

At least from underneath, everything is solid. Of course, that isn't an indicator of the true condition but it's a good sign.

[St.Jude]

15 minutes ago, Twin-Cam said:

I ought to have a look. I decided I didn't want to take out that layer partially because I might wreck it, part because I don't want to  find any rust, and part because I don't want any less sound deadening!

At least from underneath, everything is solid. Of course, that isn't an indicator of the true condition but it's a good sign.

I mean it may be nothing, but I wouldn't let fear stop you from discovery.

I don't think there's really anything to wreck. If it wants to come up (which it looks like it) then it'll be because the adhesion between the material and the steel has been compromised - so it's rust, and rust doesn't stop. If it doesn't want to come up then it's fine. You'll break your spatula trying to take up the deadening without softening it. If it doesn't want to come up I would take that as an indication that the steel is fine.

Once it's up, and you remove the rust (if it is there) with a grinder and rust convertor, slap it with primer, add a top coat, leave to try. Then you can go to Halfrauds and buy some sound deadening material that they sell in the Audio part of the shop. It costs about £20 and does the same job as the stuff you took up. 

[Jikovron]

I wonder if there may be a sub spec to the C and L etc, my H plate carb 1.1 was billed as as a rover metro only on the v5 and had literally nothing at all as an extra, no sunroof, rear wiper,radio,4 speed,leccy front windows,solid burgundy paint,grey monotone seats and a sort of grey lino boot covering rather than carpet.

The tales of leaks surprise me as all 3 of ours were bone dry which will have assisted with the lack of rot in the rover metros  ive had although dads Y plate cityX needed extensive sill and boot floor welding at 10 years old and additionally he trimmed the rot on the front valance leaving it open to prevent it rusting out again, not sure if that required mot flexibility! 

[Twin-Cam]

22 hours ago, Jikovron said:

I wonder if there may be a sub spec to the C and L etc, my H plate carb 1.1 was billed as as a rover metro only on the v5 and had literally nothing at all as an extra, no sunroof, rear wiper,radio,4 speed,leccy front windows,solid burgundy paint,grey monotone seats and a sort of grey lino boot covering rather than carpet.

The tales of leaks surprise me as all 3 of ours were bone dry which will have assisted with the lack of rot in the rover metros  ive had although dads Y plate cityX needed extensive sill and boot floor welding at 10 years old and additionally he trimmed the rot on the front valance leaving it open to prevent it rusting out again, not sure if that required mot flexibility! 

The C was bottom of the range. It had a number of different seat patterns over the few years of production, so each individual one is quite rare. My trim is 'Harlequin'. You couldn't choose which trim you wanted, they just came how they were on the C. My car has a radio and sunroof as dealer fitted extras, 4-speed 'box, no rear wiper, and the lino type boot covering rather than the carpet you talk about. 

[Jikovron]

Mine must have been a C with cashback !, great cars though I'd have a 1275 mk1 S with some kind of special tuning stage 2 kit and the rover interconnected hydragas rigged up if I had the disposable.

[Twin-Cam]

Well I've been doing some more spraying. It's come out pretty well considering I'd never tried this before.

As per, I only took two pictures, and they aren't on this computer, so I'm sure you'll be okay if I just post the video version?

Promise I'll write something properly next time xxx

 

[Twin-Cam]

Hi folks. Haven't put anything here for a while, so thought I'd update you all.

As per usual, no problems, so just tweaks to keep everything happy and some small mods.

The first thing was more maintenance. I was missing the splash guard from the drivers' side wheel arch, so bought one from eBay for something like £15 as well as some scrivets to fit it. All went on smoothly, but the thing does rattle quite a bit. You can't hear it while driving, but you can shake it about slightly. There's no danger of it falling off though.

While I was in there I did some cleaning. Another thing I'm going to have to order is a new crank pulley. Ever since I got the car it's had a chip out of it. That'll be throwing the crank balance out slightly and will probably be the cause of my alternator belt working its way loose every 6 months.

Here's what Hydragas does when you jack a car up

I ordered a number of other parts as well, including some brake pads that I don't need, a wiper stalk with fibre-optics (fancy), and an upper timing belt cover. The final thing that I really did need was some new number plate screws. The old ones were severely corroded.

He does look very fresh with no front plate:

You can see the extended version in my video here:

Next on the agenda were mods. Not big ones, only little things. The first was the steering wheel. I'd been hunting around for a three-spoke Austin Rover wheel for a while and found this Mk1 MG wheel for £13. 

Ever since I was a kid I've wanted this wheel on a Mini/Metro, so I've been planning this one for a few years!

I'm not a massive fan of the MG look, as I want it more for the ergonomics, but as the Rover centre cap doesn't fit, I'll live with it.

Again, you can find the video version here:

The final mod was brought on by a fail. I decided one day to clean around the side repeaters. As I snapped the first one out, I found it was held in with a cut down 3M adhesive pad as the clip had broken. Bugger. New lenses on the way! But I thought I'd bling it up a little and go for clear ones instead, and I quite like them.

There will be a video version of this out tomorrow!

Apart from those little bits, I've just been doing a whole lot of driving!

Aside from the cars, I've been doing a little Hi-Fi maintenance. I've had this Denon DRM-550 tape deck for about six years and shoved it in a cupboard as it was running far too slowly. Today I got it out and had a fiddle. The belt is fine and I adjusted the speed through the hole on the back of the motor. It's a decent deck, so I added it to my main system in the place of an old Sony unit.  It's no fancy DRM-750 with Dolby S, but it'll do!

[stuboy]

looking good

[Craig the Princess]

The K-series Metros still look sharp to me. 

[Twin-Cam]

3 hours ago, Craig the Princess said:

The K-series Metros still look sharp to me. 

I certainly think so. I think the K-Series cars look much more stylish than the A-Series ones, but the older cars have that 80s charm.

[Twin-Cam]

It's been nearly three months since I posted on here, and that's mainly thanks to Melvin being nice and reliable.

However, he started getting a little too hot on motorways last month. Not scary hot as I have an IR thermometer to keep an eye on the real life temperature, but enough to make the gauge look scary.

I assumed the thermostat was sticking, so a new one was fitted and I used the opportunity to gift Melvin something he's needed for ages. A new radiator!

As they're practically unavailable brand new, I bought one in really good condition for about £40.

The old was FUBAR'd. I'm keeping it though, as there's the possibility I could get it re-cored in the future.

I did a 40 mile test drive on the motorway at 75/80 and all seems perfect!

In other news, I bought some Metro GTa steels. They're the same design as Melvin's steels just wider and therefore better. I'm going for 'OEM+', so this is another mod I'm going to do once I respray them in the appropriate silver paint. Or maybe I'll do it properly and send them off to be powder coated. 

I fitted them just for a few pics, then refitted the old, narrower wheels.