Dicky’s Disastrous Debris - free Somerset gets brakes, 15/1/24

[BorniteIdentity]

Have there ever been two cars that look so different in saloon and hatch format, other than the Mini/Hornet? 

These give me indescribably appalling thoughts in boot format, but the hatch’s just look like every other sensible car from the 90s 

[Supernaut]

All this talk of floor mats. What you need are truck floor mats trimmed to fit. While 17-Coffees was the custodian of the 316i, he trimmed a mat out of a 600,000km DAF to fit the drivers footwell in the 316. It's nowhere near being worn through yet!

It also has a lovely DAF logo for you to look at every time you get in.

[Parky]

I just had a nice set made up for Mrs P’s R56 Mini from a car mats place on eBay.  Decent fit, quality ok and it was nice to be able to specify the colour of the mat and trim so get things “just so”.

A set of dark blue mats with light blue trim would look very appropriate in there I think

[Angrydicky]

5 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Have there ever been two cars that look so different in saloon and hatch format, other than the Mini/Hornet? 

These give me indescribably appalling thoughts in boot format, but the hatch’s just look like every other sensible car from the 90s 

I feel exactly the same way about them. I think the saloon rear end, which was Rover's design, looks really nice and quite unique but the hatch looks almost the same as the Civic hatch of the same generation (of which there are a lot more left) and I just don't like the way they look, even though I do like the practicality of a hatchback.

[HMC]

@Angrydicky  do your rear seats fold? Mine do I think so it’s more practical than it might be as well as having a nicely proportioned rear end 

[Angrydicky]

@HMC I'm not actually sure! The ones in the Rover 600 folded down so I assume these do although I haven't tried them.

[Angrydicky]

The oil in the Rover looked dirty, so I ordered oil and an air filter. A genuine MG Rover oil filter was in the boot so I decided to tackle that this weekend. All went smoothly, the oil filter came off by hand which was a bonus as I was expecting to have to screwdriver the bastard. I then rolled it off the ramps to get the last drops out as the sump plug is at the front of the engine!

I then cut the cable ties holding the smashed original trims on, three of which were rattling and two missing their retaining rings completely. I fitted three good secondhand ones I got off eBay. A day later I found a set of nos ones on a FB Rover group. Sodding typical! Well I bought those as well but they’ve got the facelift badge on them so I’ll have to swap them. The correct badges are available on eBay for £1 each.

[Angrydicky]

In a moment of stupidity, I spent £30 on a new old stock Connoisseur full chrome grill for the Rover. In case you didn’t know, the centre section and the slats on the standard one are grey. I watched a video on YouTube that showed a pre-production T-reg 45 Connie and it had the full chrome grill, which I thought looked much better than the standard affair.

It was easy enough to fit - it was held in place with 8 speed nuts and one of them was missing along with its plastic stud. When I make it to a scrapyard I’ll see if I can get one to replace it. But it’s fitted ok with seven. The new badge is a definite improvement too - the old one was badly faded.

I noticed on the MoT history some corrosion advisories so I decided to drive it onto the ramps to have a look. Unfortunately, the combination of a gravel drive, ramp with missing bump stop, and cold, lazy CVT transmission meant I embarrassingly ended up with a front wheel hanging off the end of the ramp, which was jammed under the sill. A trolley jack and lots of bits of wood got it down eventually. I do have a photo but it’s rather embarrassing!

The corrosion had basically started along a spot welded seam on both front floorpans where the factory  underseal has peeled and allowed moisture to get in. The two layers of steel on the drivers side had started to blow apart but were still sound-ish. I scraped the loose stuff off with a screwdriver then used a wire wheel on my brilliant new Makita 18v cordless drill (Christmas present from folks) to clean them back the best I could before primer, then a coat of black smoothrite, then spray underseal. The passenger side was almost perfect under the flaking underseal but I just caught it in time as there was a lot of trapped moisture. There clearly wasn’t much paint (if any) applied to the underside at the factory as under the sealer that was still adhered it was just shiny bare steel! I didn’t take any pictures of this bit but it looks much better and should stop it getting any worse. Eventually, if it gets worse I will weld the bit on the drivers side, but it’s not bad enough to justify it at the moment.

In the pictures you can see some other cars. The KA belongs to my mother and only has 38k or something on the clock. It’s a bit rusty as they all are but better than most (it hasn’t yet been welded and the fuel filler surround is sound). There’s the ex-Torsten Robin LX, which recently received a service and a rebuilt brake master cylinder, and a new tailgate seal. That’s in regular use and running beautifully. The other car is my Vauxhall Royale 2.8 auto. That was great until it cracked its cylinder head, so over the last 18 months or so I’ve been slowly rebuilding the engine and converting it to fuel injection. Had it running just after Christmas but it wasn’t running for long before it choked up due to overfuelling. I need to throw some more time and a bit of money at it to get it sorted out, but with the present situation, weekend tinkering at my parents house is off for the foreseeable. I shouldn’t really be down here at the moment, but I wanted to pick up the Rover!

I can’t promise regular updates (especially at the moment) but would there be any interest if I just keep this as a general thread for different car updates? I’ve got a lot of old cars ranging in ages from 1935 to 2000 (there’s two more in the garage at the back, plus three more at mine) and obviously they require constant attention.

 

 

 

[HH-R]

Cor, now you're talking. CLASS.

I found my 45 to be better built inside than my 75.

[DoctorRetro]

Lovely car, hope to get to see it soon, once all this shit blows over. 

Please do keep us all updated on this thread for now. 

[djoptix]

Very glad you bought this off me, you're giving it far more love than I ever would have done

[wuvvum]

Definitely keep us updated.  You have a fascinating fleet.

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 3/10/2020 at 6:01 AM, Angrydicky said:

I could also get the springs for the bootlid as they're very weak and it fell down on Ken's head last week, nearly knocking him out!

just check the springs havent got extra mounting points to increase/decrease tension like montegos  sierror saphs did

[BorniteIdentity]

Absolute magic. 

[Angrydicky]

Flying Rover. Fortunately, the only damage was to my pride!

[Angrydicky]

When I got the V5 through for this car, there was a note on there that said something along the lines of "this vehicle has been salvaged because the cost of repair exceeded the value of the vehicle". I reckon it's had a repair to that drivers side front corner at some point as the paint on the bumper is a bit orange peely and the headlight silvering is in really good condition so I'm sure that it's been replaced. On the passenger side, the headlight silvering is quite yellowed and it's been pushed back in a bump so no longer lines up with the bumper properly. I'm going to look out for a new headlight for the passenger side and a wing in the right colour (Ken gave me a wing, but it's Trophy Blue or something and I can't be arsed getting it painted). The bumper isn't too bad really - worst bit is that patch near the numberplate which is where someone (possibly the old giffer first owner) has done it with touchup paint of the wrong shade! I should be able to rub that down and blow it in - once the weather gets a bit warmer.

[paulplom]

Keep the updates coming plz.

[New POD]

1 hour ago, Angrydicky said:

Flying Rover. Fortunately, the only damage was to my pride!

I take it that was planned? 

[Angrydicky]

16 hours ago, HH-R said:

Cor, now you're talking. CLASS.

I found my 45 to be better built inside than my 75.

The build quality of this feels pretty good. The doors shut nicely and a solid clunk and all the fixtures and fittings feel far better than a Montego or similar. It’s got the same stalks as my old 600 but these feel much nicer to use - I’m guessing due to having covered less than half the miles.

This 45 is an early model, I’m not sure if the build quality went down on the later ones. 

[Angrydicky]

Two lovely new ditchfinders now installed!

“Cheap” ? 

[Angrydicky]

Done a bit more on the Rover today.

The lower parts of the front doors and wings were covered in tar spots, not something I’d usually be too bothered by but they really let the car down, especially with the light paintwork. 

I made an essential journey this morning and was able to stop off en route to buy some tar spot remover and polish. When I got back, I washed the car and had a go at those spots. The tar remover was shit and my fingernail did most of the work! 

And after...

Much better!

 

[Isaac Hunt]

I've never found a decent tar remover off the high street.  

White sprit and petrol are better. 

A 'clay bar' makes easy work of it

[greengartside]

Autosmart Tardis is usually quite good for shifting tar spots.

[Jazoli]

12 hours ago, Isaac Hunt said:

I've never found a decent tar remover off the high street.  

White sprit and petrol are better. 

A 'clay bar' makes easy work of it

Yeah I just use petrol on a microfibre cloth, I have found it better than any available 'tar remover'

[Kiltox]

Why bother with the micro fibre cloth? Might as well use petrol on a brick 

I’m no detailer but sloshing petrol around paint regularly really isn’t a good idea. 

[Supernaut]

On 3/23/2020 at 5:55 AM, Angrydicky said:

Flying Rover. Fortunately, the only damage was to my pride!

I once did similar in the Xantia I owned a couple of years back.

I set the suspension on full height and pulled the ramps out from under it.

[purplebargeken]

Autosmart Tardis is usually quite good for shifting tar spots.

I hear that this is good stuff.

[Isaac Hunt]

14 hours ago, greengartside said:

Autosmart Tardis is usually quite good for shifting tar spots.

 

38 minutes ago, purplebargeken said:

Autosmart Tardis is usually quite good for shifting tar spots.

I hear that this is good stuff.

Presumably it comes in a small bottle but does a much bigger job

[Angrydicky]

I then polished the whole car including all the shuts and the sunroof aperture. I’m normally a lazy sod when it comes to car cleaning but this Rover is tidy enough to justify it, and I’ve got plenty of time on my hands at the moment! The paint is reasonable - mostly original, though it’s definitely seen a fair bit of professional paintwork to the bumpers and wings and it’s got some old giffer touch ups too. I bought a touch up paint and have done a few stonechips etc with it. Front bumper is the worst, that could do with a blow over ideally. The drivers side of the bumper has clearly been painted in a body shop and it’s had a new headlight on that side as it’s noticeably clearer than the other one. Still, overall it scrubs up very nicely indeed!

I also fitted my lovely new old stock wheeltrims. They’re exactly the same as the originals apart from the fact that they’re late ones (date code on back 2005) and have the facelift Rover logo on them. I was toying with the idea of buying a set of the correct stickers off eBay, but I can’t really be arsed - it’s a daily, not a concours contender. I think it makes a big improvement regardless!

The mileage ticked onto 66,000 on my way home earlier which is about 500 miles covered since purchase. I did top the coolant up when I first got it but I’ve checked it regularly and it hasn’t used a drop since so I dunno what that was about. I’ve had a good look round the engine and can’t see any leaks. Also checked the gearbox fluid and that was on the full mark and very clean. This Rover drives like a new car and the Much Waftiness title is very apt.

It’s 15 years this week that Rover went bust. I sadly was too young to buy a new Rover (I was 14 in 2005) but I’m still proud to fly the flag.

[Angrydicky]

@purplebargeken - any idea when the cambelt was last done or is a roulette job?