Dicky’s Disastrous Debris - Steering wheel restoration 3/9/22

[Angrydicky]

So I carried on patching. I’m not sure if this was sheer stupidity or rugged determination but I can now say that I have saved this corner! I was especially pleased with the new mounting flanges I made, and even more pleased when I nipped up the new nuts and bolts to reveal an almost perfect panel gap! And for the first time in my ownership, the wing is actually attached to the front panel and isn’t flapping around. Quite a revelation, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Shame it’s just as bad on the other side, not a job I’m especially looking forward to.

I finished in between rain showers on Sunday afternoon and didn’t want to spend ages with the angle grinder on a Sunday dressing all those welds, so that’ll have to wait until I’m next at my parents. 

 

[Austin-Rover]

Amazing work! Well saved!

[Tickman]

It is nice reattaching stuff that has never been attached in your ownership.

Nice job.

[Cookiesouwest]

Great job

[DoctorRetro]

Nice work. I need you to teach me how to weld one day!

[Skizzer]

Excellent work sir!

Almost a shame to linish and paint it, there was a really nice steampunk vibe to the raw repair that would’ve looked great just lacquered.

Well, almost.

[Angrydicky]

At least you can see it's all metal ?

It's a bit more impressive than my silicone sealant bodge job to piece the drivers door mirror back together (anyone got one?)

[MorrisItalSLX]

If the mirror is the same as a VB/VC/VH Holden Commodore than a used drivers side one can be picked up on eBay for around £25 + postage.

This is the part number from a Holden mirror:

[Bren]

Good work. It would appear the parts situation for these is very poor. When I had mine 30 years ago the only place you could get an aquamarine blue touch up was a main stealer.

[Angrydicky]

It’s quite a basic looking mirror but does have internal adjustment. It looks very much like a Chevette one and I was tempted to buy one at Billing but didn’t want to waste a tenner on one that probably wouldn’t fit. GM fitted a more modern, more substantial mirror from about 1981 I think. This one’s obviously been hit at some point as the casing had been bodged back together over a replacement mirror glass (which is too small). 

Agreed Bren, the spares situation is horrendous which is one of the reasons I’ve been converting the engine to series 2 spec because you just can’t get the series 1 parts. Fortunately, there isn’t too much else I need - I refurbished all the brakes through work, my interior is in good condition with the exception of the centre console where some idiot has butchered it to fit a modern radio.

All the cars I find most interesting you can’t get bits for. Oh well ?

[Angrydicky]

8 hours ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

If the mirror is the same as a VB/VC/VH Holden Commodore than a used drivers side one can be picked up on eBay for around £25 + postage.

This is the part number from a Holden mirror:

That’s very helpful, thanks. I’ll have to whip mine off at some point and check the part number. From a quick look on Google the ones on the Commodore VB certainly appear the same.

I’ve actually got a mismatched pair on mine, the passenger side is in good condition but physically bigger, while the drivers side is the original, broken and falling apart. So I’d say they’ve both been hit at some point!

Australia is definitely a fruitful hunting ground for spares as the Commodore took off over there in a way the Royale/Viceroy/Carlton never did really. I even found a Holden specialist that stocked repair panels for the wings. Being skint at the moment meant I made the panels myself, but nice to know the option is there. MM Opel parts in The Netherlands is another good supplier of new old stock bits.

[MorrisItalSLX]

Here is an uncropped version of that photo that better shows the part number.

Driver’s side mirrors are much easier to come by and are cheaper than passenger side ones as only higher spec models got both.

Facelift VK/VL Commodore mirrors are still available new through Rare Spares (Australia’s equivalent of Moss or Rimmer Bros). They are similar to the ones fitted to later Opel Monzas.

[Jon]

4 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

 I’ll have to whip mine off at some point and check the part number. From a quick look on Google the ones on the Commodore VB certainly appear the same.

Hello, Autoshite's resident VB Commodore owner here. I had a spare couple of minutes earlier tonight, so nipped out to the garage and took some relatively horrendous, grainy shots on my phone, as my garage lighting isn't that bright. Even had to use the flash - ugh! So apologies but here's what mine looks like:

 

Outside (no shit!)

 

Inside, showing the lever and also the funny plastic nubby addendum to the plastic cover. Apologies also for the dirt and grime, though flash photography has a habit of making things look worse.

 

Then, I took a couple of other shots, as I'm a horrible man:

Nicely solid bottom of wing and valance, though there's evidence of stone chipping damage.

 

40.5 year old rock solid headlamp area. XXXHOT.

 

One for Skizzer here - bask in my 100% PURE AUSSIE STEEL smugness! And some dirt and surface rust.

Worry ye not though, as for all my car's structural solidity, it doesn't have a crushed velour interior, so it's hard to say who the winner is, really.

Anyway, I see that the ever helpful MorrisItalSLX has been ever helpful with a recent post above but hope this helps, too. If you do need any particular reference photos, let me know.

[Bren]

Good climate and lack of salt help matters.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Nice work Dicky, looks like a fine job there with extra points for fitting it in around rain showers.  10/10

[Angrydicky]

8 hours ago, Jon said:

Hello, Autoshite's resident VB Commodore owner here. I had a spare couple of minutes earlier tonight, so nipped out to the garage and took some relatively horrendous, grainy shots on my phone, as my garage lighting isn't that bright. Even had to use the flash - ugh! So apologies but here's what mine looks like:

 

Outside (no shit!)

 

Inside, showing the lever and also the funny plastic nubby addendum to the plastic cover. Apologies also for the dirt and grime, though flash photography has a habit of making things look worse.

 

Then, I took a couple of other shots, as I'm a horrible man:

Nicely solid bottom of wing and valance, though there's evidence of stone chipping damage.

 

40.5 year old rock solid headlamp area. XXXHOT.

 

One for Skizzer here - bask in my 100% PURE AUSSIE STEEL smugness! And some dirt and surface rust.

Worry ye not though, as for all my car's structural solidity, it doesn't have a crushed velour interior, so it's hard to say who the winner is, really.

Anyway, I see that the ever helpful MorrisItalSLX has been ever helpful with a recent post above but hope this helps, too. If you do need any particular reference photos, let me know.

Why thank you sir! I'm even more convinced the mirrors are the same now, that looks identical to mine from memory, though I didn't think to take any pictures. I'll get some this weekend, hopefully.

It was so nice of you to take those pictures I'm going to overlook your "rubbing it in" over your beautiful, virgin, sun-soaked Aussie steel compared to mine that has spent most of its life dissolving in damp West Yorkshire!

(Lovely car by the way!)

[Angrydicky]

Just noticed that trim under the headlight, mine's a bit broken where someones wrestled it off in the past but an extremely boring observation is that yours has a self tapper securing it in the same place. I assumed a previous owner had drilled and self tappered it because they damaged it getting it off!

[Skizzer]

9 hours ago, Jon said:

Then, I took a couple of other shots, as I'm a horrible man:

You are a very horrible man. Nice car though mister.

And +1 on the mirror looking identical. Mine’s just outside but it’s biblical rain at the moment so I can take a pic tomorrow, if that’s helpful.

[Skizzer]

This looks promising:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F254271194251

 

The passenger side (like this one I think) is slightly different as it doesn’t have the internal adjustment lever.  I can photograph mine tomorrow for you, see if it looks like the above.

[Jon]

Are those Opel mirrors LHD spec, Skizzer? Seems that the optical magnification or whatever can sometimes alter from driver's side (wider, for passing traffic) to passenger side (magnified, for seeing kerbs easier) but I could be talking utter piffle, here.

Does remind me of one fud who bought a pair of 205 headlamps from a French seller but via Amazon UK  and had them brought out to NZ by their parents, only for the centime to drop on arrival that they were LHD spec...

[Skizzer]

Fair question. It’s possible — I believe mine are flat glass, but that one could be convex.

It looks flat in the picture, mind.

[Skizzer]

On 6/10/2020 at 7:14 PM, Angrydicky said:

Why thank you sir! I'm even more convinced the mirrors are the same now, that looks identical to mine from memory, though I didn't think to take any pictures. I'll get some this weekend, hopefully.

It was so nice of you to take those pictures I'm going to overlook your "rubbing it in" over your beautiful, virgin, sun-soaked Aussie steel compared to mine that has spent most of its life dissolving in damp West Yorkshire!

(Lovely car by the way!)

It stopped raining so I’ve taken some passenger side mirror pics from mine:

 

Excuse cobwebs.  The part number isn’t apparent without removing it, but it looks the same as that eBay one I posted.  This is the LH side (obvs) that doesn’t have the internal adjuster.

The glass is flat so no issues there.

[dozeydustman]

Your big V**xhall is looking absolutely splendid. I don’t remember seeing these when I was young; always had a bit of soft sport for the 70s and 80s griffin badged stuff.

[Angrydicky]

Rover now for sale. I’ve been unable to fix the gearbox fault and it’s caused me a huge amount of stress so I just want shot of it now.

Details in the for sale section. If anyone’s interested in it as a project please contact me.

It might be an easy fix or it could be something more serious. I don’t know and I don’t want to throw any more money at it. I’d really like it to go to one of the serious Rover lickers on here who have more knowledge and inclination than I do. 

I don’t really want to scrap it as it’s far too good for that, but if it comes to it...

[Angrydicky]

I’ve been offered £158 collected for scrap. I REALLY don’t want to do this and I’m quite upset at the thought of it, but if someone can match that or close to I’d much rather someone from here bought it and had a go at fixing it.

[SiC]

16 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

I’ve been offered £158 collected for scrap. I REALLY don’t want to do this and I’m quite upset at the thought of it, but if someone can match that or close to I’d much rather someone from here bought it and had a go at fixing it.

@dieselnutjob

[Angrydicky]

Well that cheered me up, dropped in the Robin for its  MoT and got a first time pass with no advisories!

In fairness I had gone through it thoroughly beforehand and fixed all last years advisories, and anything else that wasn’t working. Various bad connections on lights etc, usual fibreglass car stuff.

The tester commented on a nice job for the work dad and I had done on it so that was great!

Next jobs to do: fit new radiator, buy and install a heater, and make some spacers to line up the alternator better with the other pulleys.

I also had a go at fixing the warped rear numberplate.

Before:

After:

I used a hot air paint stripper to warm the plastic before bending it back to the right shape. Also used a sticky pad in the middle. It’s not perfect but a lot better.

[Bren]

Any news on the royale?

[wuvvum]

Good news on the Robin.  I need to have a go in that at some point.

[egg]

Good news on the Reliant, I see it was from Dover originally, if it lived there, it must have been fun trundling up and down the steep hills around there!