Jump to content

Rover 827 update.... Putting things back together and a decision .....


Marina door handles

Recommended Posts

The weather cheered up slightly so I pulled the Scimitar out of  the garage, empty the pit of water again... and see if the Rover will fit?

Swap over time..

IMG_20220108_161651929.thumb.jpg.c4efc9ced0fdff33f2563e885402246c.jpg

IMG_20220108_161752721.thumb.jpg.87c88f755f5b35db54cb3c86a176d2c8.jpg

George having just finished snorting about 7 gallons of silty water.

IMG_20220108_161846239.thumb.jpg.9f70afb37e180c96a43315a518913af6.jpg

It fits! 

IMG_20220108_170536896.thumb.jpg.92765292ef1f1401124159e8410532f3.jpg

Pit access wont be possible with the garage door shut though unless you are Eugine Tooms.

IMG_20220108_170719168.thumb.jpg.7d439000da544768ca12c470cff4839b.jpg

But hey if I need pit access I can open the door an roll it back a bit so no problem really. Tomorrow when I have recovered from all this I can start looking at the brakes and have a general prod around. Quite excited about this really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I forgot to mention it comes with some paper work..... an owners manual a Haynes manual an original dealer brochure and best of all a workshop manual!

Behold the majesty and yes the carpet needs hoovering....

IMG_20220108_193345557.thumb.jpg.ab4c8853b8fe47c3fd3d2a65bf767727.jpg

 

That proper workshop manual will make working on it a tad easier!

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Marina door handles changed the title to Isn't it odd how one week a car can languish in the Ebay tat thread...Rover 827 update....

Things are progressing a tad slowly. I have given the car a fair going over, engine seems to be sweet as a nut, the gearbox will remain a bit of an unknown quantity until I can get it on the road but it goes forwards and backwards no bother. I have found a hole in the very back end of the drivers side sill which  may be an MOT issue, its a bit border line as its in the sill but it is just in the wheel arch and doesn't seem very structural as it has fresh air above it, probably best tackle it with the high voltage tickling stick just to be on the safe side.  The rear of the passenger sill has a couple of patches from some ones previous repairs but seems solid enough.

Tyres are comedy gold,  four different tyres, one is a Conti, good start but then it plummets down to the bargain basement, there is a Mohawk and a Radial K??!! But to make amends it also has a Semprit winter tyre!

I mentioned the brakes are spongy previously, I checked  the calipers first, no leaks, sliders move, one rear has been replaced, maybe it wasn't bled properly afterwards I thought hopefully... Last weekend I tried a bleed, tried my favoured  solo method,  reverse bleeding no good at all. So I dug out my pressure bleeder, the main cap doesnt fit so had to use the universal adapter. I successfully washed the garage floor with brake fluid, fucking useless thing!  The conventional pump the pedal routine was out of the question as my better half had hurt her back.

I did manage to have a complete saga with the wheel nuts they are normal nuts covered in a kind of silver foil outer, over time he outer distorts, it should be a 19mm  but when they get mashed out of shape nothing really fits. After a fight I manged to remove all the nuts, some of the bad ones I have effectively skinned so they are now 18mm nuts and look drab and brown but at least i can get them on and off. 

Gratuitous engine bay shot, Honda made a very workmanlike V6 you are never going to mistake this for a busso are you?

IMG_20220129_164434483.thumb.jpg.a8a380db960faf99fa62066fb50d6344.jpg

Anyway, I obtained a much better adaptor for my pressure bleeder and my other half's back had recovered enough for some brake pedal bashing, so round 2 of the brake bleed. This time the fluid kept itself in the system, mostly, but the pedal did not improve, looks like its master cylinder replacement time... Minor issue but Master cylinders for ABS equipped 800s appear to be out of stock everywhere. I shouldn't be too surprised really considering its a 28 year old car from a defunct manufacturer, I will have to do some parts hunting.  

If anyone has a good 827 ABS brake master cylinder just lying around that needs a new home please let me know!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you have a hole in the very back end of the drivers side cill, then it is likely to fail the test because its within a cetain distance of a suspension component. Ask me how I know. Not too hard a job to make and weld in a patch.

800 brakes are very hard to bleed. The Master cylinder may be perfectly good and changing it may not make much difference.  This is why pressure bleeding is recommended as air tends to get trapped in the ABS modulator. The problem is that the cap for the master clinder is an uncommon  shape and size. Vacuum bleeding may give you a better result.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 29/01/2022 at 22:16, Marina door handles said:

I did manage to have a complete saga with the wheel nuts they are normal nuts covered in a kind of silver foil outer, over time he outer distorts, it should be a 19mm  but when they get mashed out of shape nothing really fits. After a fight I manged to remove all the nuts, some of the bad ones I have effectively skinned so they are now 18mm nuts and look drab and brown but at least i can get them on and off. 

800 wheel nuts are pure shite, exactly as you describe. I bought a set of these, and whilst the 'alloy' look take long to lose their shine, they are solid, 19mm and fit well. The 18mm solution for the de-skinned original is fine until one sticks, because they aren't quite 18mm.

21 hours ago, tommytwo said:

If you have a hole in the very back end of the drivers side cill, then it is likely to fail the test because its within a cetain distance of a suspension component. Ask me how I know. Not too hard a job to make and weld in a patch.

800 brakes are very hard to bleed. The Master cylinder may be perfectly good and changing it may not make much difference.  This is why pressure bleeding is recommended as air tends to get trapped in the ABS modulator. The problem is that the cap for the master clinder is an uncommon  shape and size. Vacuum bleeding may give you a better result.

Was coming here to say exactly this - it's an ongoing issue. My last Vitesse had given the previous owner all kind of grief, and it'd driven him to fit braided hoses all round, but still never quite managed to shift the sponginess - until one day, doing some routine brakework, it just suddenly seemed to go. I was too scared to ever try re-bleeding the system, knowing it would never be that good again. I doubt very much that it's the master cylinder at fault though.

I was also wondering where you'd found an adaptor that gave a good seal! As Tommy says, they're an odd size and none of the kits I've seen fit properly.

At least being auto you haven't got to bleed the clutch system. That is a proper load of balls.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 18mm skinned nut is a temporary solution, I have replacements on order from Rimmer brothers but they are a bit delayed, not sure were they are made but a lot of things seem to be out of stock until Feb or March...

The bleed adapter I am using is a Draper one, which is a fairly good design with a stepped rubber cone thing which sort of fits in the reservoir's spout and it has a solid metal top so it can't distort, its a bit trial and error but this thing is way more convincing than my old Sealey one which is pretty useless.  Apparently the brakes were okay before the car was sat for a while and then they just went squish according to the PO which as there is no obvious leaks,  mean I strongly suspect a failed seal in the master cylinder.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another update.....,In a break from painting bits of house, I decided to have a look at the crusty sill end. As is always the case the hole was bigger than I remembered and when I started prodding the lower section of  the wheel arch sort of broke up.... 

IMG_20220206_134320261.thumb.jpg.5225bdb6e9cb14ed326338f9512d28fe.jpg

IMG_20220206_135820250.thumb.jpg.51bf6a709ef03ac5ef148d7eddb3585b.jpg

Its a tad manky, so at this point I got busy with a wire wheel on the grinder and went on the attack...

IMG_20220206_141434177.thumb.jpg.09a9dfe3fa52ff34e754788648b07619.jpg

IMG_20220206_144939591.thumb.jpg.2477a75c40849ee54a9a283187eba68d.jpg

Okay its not pretty but its all fixable, I have started with the cardboard templates but at that point pretty much ran out of time, so its business as usual crap photos and little progress.  I might do some proper metal work next weekend. 

In other news I was reminded that the horn needs to work for the MOT, I hadn't checked that so thought I best try it. Oh surprise it doesn't work, so that's another job to add to the list.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Rust update....  I have been hard at work over the last couple of weekends, lots of head scratching, lots of c.a.d, lots of chopping bits of metal from my stash, and a bit of metal inert gas zappy sparky thing. Pro metal workers, body shop peeps and welders please look away!

IMG_20220219_170539491.thumb.jpg.619350b681e422e75eccc159c46f2893.jpg

IMG_20220219_170448472.thumb.jpg.bb3cf4c563dae0ac1eda539300ec2baf.jpg

 

1080825290_IMG_20220220_151116373(1).thumb.jpg.401099b1bce8906ea8416769bdca22c7.jpg

IMG_20220306_144446631.thumb.jpg.f1603009fd2d0c0b8444fcedbf3f04f0.jpg

IMG_20220306_150813374.thumb.jpg.3273fd154f0fe0318cc90bc6618e7ef0.jpg

 

Just needs fillering, job jobbed right? Wrong, it seems I missed a bit. Looking further down the sill I noticed the edge looked a bit crumbly. Trying to view the car how an MOT tester would and prodding a bit harder , I made a further grim discovery. Further prodding revealed this...

 

IMG_20220306_181903727.thumb.jpg.3cd8370d2d086a72c5e076a695294a59.jpg

Seems as though water had been sitting in  the sill for a long time rotting it out, further cutting and digging revealed this.. I do wonder if the other side is just as bad?

276891632_IMG_20220306_181853649(1).thumb.jpg.c5ba4e33c85ce4f3549bf041f459a0dc.jpg

This is going to get complicated but it wont stop me getting the car back on the road, it might just take a bit longer than planned. Still a bit annoying so much for a quick an easy project...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Well its been 9 months ish so time for an update..... 

 

 

No it isn't finished.......

 

 

So by April I had acquired a pair of sills from the Rover 800 owners club. I slowly took the drivers side sill apart, replacing sections of membrane as I went and then tackled the bottom of the B pillar which had become properly crusty. None of these panels are available so it was case of so your best with sheet steel a vice and a bit of ingenuity. 

IMG_20220621_185952663.thumb.jpg.229036174f3ee28c75f50d47f59fba63.jpg

The B pillar repair was tricky not helped by the original metal seeming to be quite thin even by Rover standards! I created a kind of over engineered triangular bracket which I fitted in place of the missing section. and then sealed up the sides (only the first part of the process shown).

IMG_20220703_183244326.thumb.jpg.015d20417ac46117ff8812b717169b3e.jpg

Eventually I worked my way down the sill and also repaired the bottom of the A pillar..

IMG_20220720_155811067.thumb.jpg.0ba98026e541ad67d3592c3c66bd5582.jpg

 

IMG_20220727_191304230.thumb.jpg.753048c0f0b1ff395ccc1574d3b0becf.jpg

 

IMG_20220728_154714657.thumb.jpg.d4432038c39f6e9ac10950fc68db8443.jpg

At this point I checked the calendar and it was about June, so time to fit an actual sill!

IMG_20220731_173448267.thumb.jpg.2a67a39c8f0fec9a7fc4f69935de35f6.jpg

The sills supplied are not full size you have to seem weld them into the remnants of the original top sill which is a bear but do able.. It didn't help that the welder broke part way through this process. Something went wrong with the torch so when it got hot it stopped passing gas (rather crucial for a good weld). this took a while to figure out and not being a modern Euro type it was fairly involved replacing the torch.

IMG_20220805_162119406.thumb.jpg.a588fdd3f8a1c58b53c0cd0bf4d7ffc6.jpg

So now its about August so I started on the other side Yay! (this was supposed to be a quick and dirty get her on the road kinda project but hey ho.........)   I will save you a repeat but it was pretty much the same on the other side.  So here is the other side nearly finished....

Obviously the welder broke down for a second time, this time the wire feed..... I am so tempted to get a nice shiny new one and give up on fixing my old Clarke but realistically the repairs have come in at less than £70 quid so far, which is a lot less than a decent new one....

IMG_20221128_101703163.thumb.jpg.f1aa7400b730f090fffc986561fbf310.jpg

IMG_20221130_141533775.thumb.jpg.f5659360e2aed0cf7adf98bf45bb37ce.jpg

As you can see late November/early December has been fillering time, to try and make it look presentable .

As ever there is another snag, the passenger side rear wheel arch is crustier than Crusty the clown, you cannot seemingly buy a Rover 800 wheel arch, in theory a Montego one is the correct shape, cant find any of those for sale at the mo either. 

So there you go getting there slowly, maybe by next Xmas...........

 

Please someone remind me , why exactly did I buy this heap?

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Marina door handles said:

Well its been 9 months ish so time for an update..... 

 

 

No it isn't finished.......

 

 

So by April I had acquired a pair of sills from the Rover 800 owners club. I slowly took the drivers side sill apart, replacing sections of membrane as I went and then tackled the bottom of the B pillar which had become properly crusty. None of these panels are available so it was case of so your best with sheet steel a vice and a bit of ingenuity. 

IMG_20220621_185952663.thumb.jpg.229036174f3ee28c75f50d47f59fba63.jpg

The B pillar repair was tricky not helped by the original metal seeming to be quite thin even by Rover standards! I created a kind of over engineered triangular bracket which I fitted in place of the missing section. and then sealed up the sides (only the first part of the process shown).

IMG_20220703_183244326.thumb.jpg.015d20417ac46117ff8812b717169b3e.jpg

Eventually I worked my way down the sill and also repaired the bottom of the A pillar..

IMG_20220720_155811067.thumb.jpg.0ba98026e541ad67d3592c3c66bd5582.jpg

 

IMG_20220727_191304230.thumb.jpg.753048c0f0b1ff395ccc1574d3b0becf.jpg

 

IMG_20220728_154714657.thumb.jpg.d4432038c39f6e9ac10950fc68db8443.jpg

At this point I checked the calendar and it was about June, so time to fit an actual sill!

IMG_20220731_173448267.thumb.jpg.2a67a39c8f0fec9a7fc4f69935de35f6.jpg

The sills supplied are not full size you have to seem weld them into the remnants of the original top sill which is a bear but do able.. It didn't help that the welder broke part way through this process. Something went wrong with the torch so when it got hot it stopped passing gas (rather crucial for a good weld). this took a while to figure out and not being a modern Euro type it was fairly involved replacing the torch.

IMG_20220805_162119406.thumb.jpg.a588fdd3f8a1c58b53c0cd0bf4d7ffc6.jpg

So now its about August so I started on the other side Yay! (this was supposed to be a quick and dirty get her on the road kinda project but hey ho.........)   I will save you a repeat but it was pretty much the same on the other side.  So here is the other side nearly finished....

Obviously the welder broke down for a second time, this time the wire feed..... I am so tempted to get a nice shiny new one and give up on fixing my old Clarke but realistically the repairs have come in at less than £70 quid so far, which is a lot less than a decent new one....

IMG_20221128_101703163.thumb.jpg.f1aa7400b730f090fffc986561fbf310.jpg

IMG_20221130_141533775.thumb.jpg.f5659360e2aed0cf7adf98bf45bb37ce.jpg

As you can see late November/early December has been fillering time, to try and make it look presentable .

As ever there is another snag, the passenger side rear wheel arch is crustier than Crusty the clown, you cannot seemingly buy a Rover 800 wheel arch, in theory a Montego one is the correct shape, cant find any of those for sale at the mo either. 

So there you go getting there slowly, maybe by next Xmas...........

 

Please someone remind me , why exactly did I buy this heap?

 

 

 

Can't get a Maestro arch either. But I did find a couple of sills made to order. When enquiring about the Maestro arch they implied they might be able to do a Montego arch. NB: 14 week lead time...

https://www.classiccarpartsandpanels.co.uk/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Can't get a Maestro arch either. But I did find a couple of sills made to order. When enquiring about the Maestro arch they implied they might be able to do a Montego arch. NB: 14 week lead time...

https://www.classiccarpartsandpanels.co.uk/

Thanks for that I have dropped them a line.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...