My new shite

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Check out my new heap of Rovershite, picked it up last night.

 

 

I am absolutley chuffed to bo**ox with it. The feller i got it from was the original old boy owner, 80 years old and he has looked after the car in the classic old boy style. It came with every old bill, service stamp and MOT from new, along with the brochure he mulled over when he bought it (brand new) including his yellow highlighter pen where he was checking the optional extras! There are spare keys, radio and immobiliser codes, extended warranty booklets, the lot. Marvellous.

 

I couldnt get anyone to help me pick it up so i had to tow it home on the A behind my pick-up, but that went well enough, its a surprisingly capable A-frame tugger the old truck.

 

The bodywork is super-straight, its never had a spraygun near it and seems to be almost completely free of the usual car park dents in the door skins etc. There are a few scabs on the grey bits round the door bottoms, but no holes, welding etc. I think it will come up amazing with a good wash/polish/mop effort.

 

 

 

The interior is cracking, it looks like new and has the original radio and so on. Theres no seat wear etc to speak of. It does have a faint smell of cat piss unfortunately and the old boy did have a big, pasty-faced ugly-looking cat which looked like it might take great pleasure in having a wazz somewhere where it shouldnt. You know the type i'm sure, all neighbourhoods have one or two of those cats. Hopefully that will go away with a decent airing, anyway i find a cat piss smell preferable to a magic tree smell and people pay money for those so its not the end of the world.

 

 

It runs absolutely lovely, sounds really smooth and healthy, but some attention is required under the bonnet. Its got the classic T-series oil leak out the head gasket. I've had 3 cars with this engine and all have had oil pissing out of the head joint above the bellhousing on the front side. The gasket is clearly of a thoroughly crap design and needs replacing fairly regularly. (if anyone knows any clever tricks to improve this I am all ears) I found a bill in the service history for a new gasket in April 2001, and then another bill for a service 4 months later at the same garage where they say 'head gasket leaking oil, this may be quite expensive to replace'!!! I would have told them to replace it themselves the tw@ts. Anyway 8 years of use with a leaky head gasket have made the engine bay into a right old mess, i think it will have to be steam cleaned or something.

 

 

 

I took it for a spin around the block last night and its pretty smooth and surprisingly fast, although the clutch is quite abrupt. I would love to take it for a long drive but at the moment I am too skint to insure it so it will have to wait! I will deal with the head gask in the meantime and hopefully have it on the road for christmas. For £290 (with 6 months tax) I am well happy however, the old boy even put in a tenners worth of juice and insured it for a day so i could have driven it home! What a legend.

[RedSparrow]

How mediocre is that!Love it - nice work.

[andrew e]

Cracking set of wheels Mr_B !

[michiel]

Lovverly!

[Guest]

Looks nice, reminds me of the one me and Vic used in "A Bridge Too Far 2". Same trims too.

 

 

I hope you get those bumpers sorted, they look a right dogs dinner. Rest of car looks mint though. Hope you have a nice beige/brown cardigan to wear whilst you cruise around in it.

[VWPowered]

sorted, just had one of those, great cars, forgot how good they actually are

[whitevanman]

very mice Mr B, I think I am almost envious of you for this one............

[Mr Lobster]

Nice! Bargain as well. Seller sounds a top chap as well.Bumpers should come good with a hot air gun shouldn't they?

[155V6]

Liking these too,here's my old one

It had 17 inch wheels,MG ZS front discs,coilovers,bucket seats,harnesses & 4 HUGE tailpipes,but it was only a 1400 .It did have nitrous fitted before I bought it though

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Counciltastic!

[155V6]

Counciltastic!

[Spottedlaurel]

Looks an excellent buy! I’d have happily had one myself when I was looking for a daily, that sounds like just the kind of thing I like to find. I did look at a 216GSi which should have been the equal of yours but they wanted more money for a car in not such good condition.A torquey 2-litre in that would go well I’d have thought. Is the engine something they used in 600/800 models?

[Milford Cubicle]

It was used in the 820, but not the n/a 620 which was fitted with a Honda F20 - probably for contractual reasons.Looks like a great buy Mr. Bollards, I'd love to try one of these with the 2.0 T-series. My mum briefly owned a later, lardier 420 and that was torquey, very nippy and surprisingly thrifty - shame the previous owner let the coolant turn to rust, it eroded away at a pipe and it died of dehydration.

[Cheggers]

I once had an almost identical one as a hire car for a weekend (it was a while ago...). Lovely car, really quite quick indeed.Top shite, top buy. Stick it up on Retro Rides and see how soon it is before someone suggests "the stick"

[Milford Cubicle]

Yes, every oldish car should have a derivative set of modifications applied to it. It'd look GR1 on slotmags.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

The only mod happening here is deletion of the oil torrent from the engine. Otherwise its staying 100% factory!

[r.welfare]

Looks a cracker! Bizarrely I think my 420 had the HG oil leak from the other side, next to the cambelt cover.

[greengartside]

Very nice Rooover indeed! Just goes to show good, honest motors are still knocking about The guy put petrol in it for you? I usually sell a car with about a cupful of fuel in it, but that's maybe because I'm a tightwad.

[Lankytim]

What a smashing looking motor, these R8s are great cars and proving to be real bargain motors. We had one with a 1400 K series lump in. It felt really well screwed together and drove fantastic. Id love another, one day. Top marks for snapping it up!