Rover 827 update.... Front suspension fiddling, pattern part phun!!

[Marina door handles]

Time for an update.

In between multiple tip runs (getting rid of the remains of a rather large and mostly dead hedge) I have been attacking the Rover with the welder.

The top section of the strut has now been surgically re attached. Seem welded along the base....

And then puddle welded were the spots used to go.

I also welded it from the inside to make sure of full penertration....

 

To work in awkward places like the wheel arch (see above) I have been struggling with lamps and torches etc and then I had a moment of inspiration  - why not tape the head torch to the welding mask?

Works brilliantly and cheaper than rushing out and buying a new mask with a built in torch. 

Anyway back to the job in hand I have finally got around to trial fitting of the the bracket, that lives on top of the strut tower, that the seat belt attaches to.

It still fits, so that will be the next step....

 

[mercedade]

There's some great work going on here.

I think my first fastback went in the same place on the strut tower eventually (after I sold it on)

[Tickman]

Just done a big catch up with this.

Well done for keeping going!

[Marina door handles]

Got that Friday feeling? Its Rover time! 

I finally bit the bullet and finished welding the strut top, why rush these things? Anyway the last part was the bracket which holds the seat belt reel. This wasn't exactly complicated, it was just a case of lining it up with the old spot welds.... I held it in place using a g clamp in a slightly odd way, I actually needed it to sit loosely in place so I can plug weld one spot then flex the bracket to line up with the other side, the steel is a bit springy and has clearly sproinged (I am sure that is a real word) slightly out of shape.

Plug welding commences...

Then I decided that as this is a seat belt mount I want it really strong, I think my plug welds are pretty good but nowt wrong with running a seam weld along the sides for added strength.

And t'other side...

So bar the painting and putting all the trim and seat belt back that bit is done.

Next job on the list is rectifying an issue that was caused by gravity.... I managed to drop my copper block (used for keeping metal cool whilst welding), inside the sill by the rear wheel arch.  I have been meaning to sort this for a while but I was putting it off until I had most of the important bits done, the main reason I want to get this thing out rather than just leave it in place is to stop it banging about in the sill, because that would be really annoying (assuming this car ever goes back on the road) . 

Its in there some where..

Are there you are....

That took some fiddling to get out....

And welded back up, hmm bit ugly, will the bung ever fit properly again???

Anyway progress and some poor photos! Thanks for reading. 

 

 

[Marina door handles]

Its been a while, time for an Xmas-ish update, Santa is unimpressed with my work and has sent Crampus to play havoc with my plans! 

Rover update...

I have been procrastinating again partly because I still haven't decided what to do about the fuel filler.  My initial plan using a Land Rover part , I forget that virtually any LR part comes out about 20% bigger than you think it will....

Well that clearly doesn't fit!

I could in theory make it fit but it would look fucking stupid! Anyone want a Land Rover 90 filler neck?

I do have another possible candidate, Subaru Forester filler necks are pretty similar-ish and cheap (£60 ish ) and available. I will be replacing the neck on my Forester (it leaks when you fill the tank to the brim and needs doing) so when the new neck arrives (some time in the new year when I get around to this job) I can then offer it up to the rover and see if it really does fit.  Yes I still cannot bring myself to pay the £200+ for the hand made necks that are being sold through ebay. 

Back on the body work front, I have been poking and prodding around the NS rear wheel arch, sill and passenger seat area just to make sure I am definitely, absolutely and completely finished welding on this side....  I spotted this, crusty bit right next to the rear back rest bracket.

Ewwwwww....

I just have to pick at a scab, to be fair I wire brushed it thinking it was surface and just needed cleaning but no its all the way through... 

So I cut it out

Then the holes got even  bigger, after another poke so out came the zappy sparky stick out and...

Bit of a clean up....

And finally some Ketchup oxide primer......

This car is just the gift that keeps on giving, I think it really wanted to be a colander.

Whilst waiting for paint to dry on the Rover I started fiddling with the MG, well its just sat there so why not?

Firstly I was getting a bit fed up with the mess that was in the boot so I cleaned that out, (I found that a mouse had clearly been living there)  and discovered the spare wheel was rather loose, or more accurately the spare wheel retainer was... When I took it out it looked like this......

Another thing to add to the list but at least I should be able to create a new end for it.

Also the wheel had got rather crusty so I cleaned that up.

One for the comedy tyre name thread?

Attacked with whizzy brushes

Looking a bit healthier so I then added some rust treatment stuff, possibly Kurust...

Hmmm doesn't look great, definitely needs painting! 

I also decided to remove the stupid sill cover on the passenger side, (the drivers side doesn't currently have an outer sill let alone sill cover! ) I hate sill covers you know they are just fitted to hide things.

Surprisingly the metal underneath doesn't look to be in a bad way I was expecting a gapping rust hole or three.. It actually looks okay well apart from a couple of deliberate drill holes (maybe some one decided to wax oil it from above?) .

I need to get my endoscope in the sill to really check it out but it looks like I might not have to replace the passenger side sill, I wont hold my breath! 

Anyone want a singular MGB sill cover, its scratched to buggery and looks like ass bit it will cover an Mot fail rust hole! 

Plans for the new year? Well I think I need to focus on the Subaru, not only does it have a fuel leak but the steering starts to stiffen up at a certain point, I am suspecting the rack as everything else seems okay.  I even have a used rack to try, I did want a recon one but I cannot get hold of one (in theory I could get my existing one reconditioned but I don't want to be without the car for too long) so having a 2nd hand rack gives me some options. Considering how much time and money I put into this car earlier this year (new rear subframe, fuel tank, rear dampers and wheel bearings) I cannot say I am too thrilled about this but there you go! 

Obviously I will be carrying on with the Rover, aiming to get it to a point were it becomes mobile again so even if I cannot get it on the road, I can move it around the property so I can work on certain other cars properly! 

That's all Folks, hopefully I will have a more productive new year! Thanks for reading. 

 

[Marina door handles]

Its nearly March, guess its time for an update and decision time on what I am going to do with the big Rover......

I have come to the conclusion that I don't really care for it unlike my other cars, its definitely one that seemed like a good idea at the time but that time has long gone! I have enjoyed the process of welding it and have learnt a fair amount, its been good practice.  

What I am going to do is put it back together as best I can and flog it as a fairly complete project, I wont be attempting to MOT it, as its going to need tyres a fuel filler neck,  discs and pads all round, maybe a windscreen and possibly other bits I have missed...

Anyway I might as well document the hmm wont call it a rebuild as that suggests it will be better than before and that would be questionable but errrr a re put together in a slightly haphazard fashion.....  

Firstly fit the new MGF master cylinder as this has been kicking about for nearly a year,  first carry out bench bleed

Not overly convinced by this as the connections don't seem to seal fantastically well and draw in a small amount of air! Then I transferred it to the car and lost more fluid,  and gained more air in the process 🤷‍♂️.  Even getting it "plugged in" lead to more fluid loss as the unions are tight under the reservoir and really difficult to get a spanner on, had to use this pair to get them nipped up tight....

The novelty shaped spanner being particularly useful.

Access doesn't look so bad on camera but in reality, bloody awkward!

Nicely in place but not properly bled yet....

Next job refit the passenger side rear shock as the suspension had been pulled apart and was in full droop (is it okay to use a Citroenesque term on a none Citroen?)  for welding access...

Slowly getting there,  more instalments to come, this is going to take a good few days.. 

 

[N Dentressangle]

Not going well for Rover 827's on this forum, is it? 😉

[Marina door handles]

Todays update, the wheels are off and the brake bleed kit is out...

The main reason for doing this is that I had undone a union inside the cabin and removed (and refitted a rear brake line) I wanted to make sure this union wouldn't start leaking as it would be hidden under interior trim (putting the trim back is the next job).

These are cars are notoriously awkward to bleed, I have been given various bits of advice on this, one was to crack the connections on the ABS pump another was to vacuum bleed the brakes, so I thought why not try both? Firstly I set up my pressure bleeder - pumped it and then cracked off the unions, well, 3 out of 4 unions (one was utterly seized) and created a small cascade of brake fluid down the gearbox, which is what I was hoping for I think...

Next re connect the unions and start bleeding proper, first attempt on the passenger side front and I get a steady stream of fizzy brake fluid, looks like someone has fitted a soda stream in to the brake lines! 🙃 Re check the connections on the ABS pump to find brake fluid dribbling out of one of them -possibly drawing air at the same time... At this point I was a bit concerned that I had cross threaded a Union, after a bit of fiddling I found that I simply had under estimated how tight these things need to be, really fucking tight! 

Once that was sorted, I upped the pressure a little and went round all 4 corners with my vacuum pump and......... We appear to have a brake pedal again, although as the car doesn't have a driver's seat it was a bit difficult to test properly! At least I can start re fitting the interior now, well next time I am off work anyway....

Thanks for reading...

 

[Marina door handles]

Faffage continues......

The interior is slowly coming together, gone from this....

To this...

Yep  I have just pulled everything out, re fitted the boot carpet and sides, bolted the rear split fold seat backs -back in and gone on a massive hoovering/cleaning bash! So actually not got very far but it looks better.

Next rear suspension..

Re secure the NS trailing arm.....

Yes the big washer is missing, that was just to wind the bush in, I needed to get it so far in before I could then have enough thread to get the nut and washer on.

That job done onto the rear anti roll bar issues, I had disconnected it so I could get full droop on the passenger side suspension arm for welding access. On re fitting the track rods, one of the threads picked up and jammed leaving it rattling about...

No conventional spannering technique could free the nut, the shaft kept spinning and the little square section on the other side you secure with a spanner started to round off. Time to crack out the welder then! Firstly attempt to weld a sacrificial spanner to the square section.....

This went slightly too well fusing the spanner to the shaft of the drop link and the suspension arm.. On the plus side I managed to free the nut off! It just took some serious persuasion to get the drop link free from the spanner and the arm, leaving a chunk of weld blob on the arm..

Fortunately I could get my finger sander in the gap and clean it off... End result.

Not too bad and soon the area will look just as scabby as the rest of the suspension! 

The downside of all this is that the drop link is pretty shagged and its one of those parts you cannot get a straight replacement for. Like the wheel nuts there maybe a work around but in the case of the drop link I cannot find a straight swap. So with that in mind I removed the entire rear anti roll bar and plonked it in the boot. This is a MOT friendly modification, broken ARB is a obviously a fail but no roll bar is no problem.

On the subject of hard to find parts, I am still in two minds about selling the car without a fuel filler neck fitted. By a stroke of bad luck I am having fuel leakage issues with my Subaru and have managed to skillfully use what I thought was the original part number to buy the wrong filler neck but it may yet come in use full yet.......

The top half of it is a really close match to the Rover part a bit of careful cutting and this might well be the solution... The best part is this wrong part cost me £60, a hand made Rover replacement is nearly 4x the price....

As you may have noticed the Rover pipe has some additional spaghetti, so I chopped it up to try and figure out what the pipe work was doing and if I can replicate it using the additional pipe work attached to the Subaru filler....

It just sort of loops pointlessly? Well that is easy enough to copy. 

And that is were this post ends, hopefully this all makes sense? Thanks for reading! 

 

[N Dentressangle]

Nice work. Much better to sell it sorted, up and running, if that's what you decide to do.

[Marina door handles]

Had a bit of spare time, so I have been attempting to turn the Subaru filler into a Rover one.......

Firstly weld up the hole on the back for a random valve/breather thing that only later Subarus have and remove the flange that bolts to the body....

Made a slightly crap copy of the flange on the end of the filler that has the retaining bolts, I used the original  and pretty disgusting looking gasket to get roughly the right shape 

Flange created, its scruffy but it will do (and it will tidy up a bit in due course).

Trial fit....

Next was trying to trial fit the neck and the flange in place in the car, this resulted in cutting off a slightly bent end from the filler neck and welding in a straighter 4 inch section, so it lines up with the original hose.  

Kinda works, excuse the blur (frikin camera phone doesn't like focusing on things more than 5 inches away!) but it demonstrates what I am trying to do hopefully!

Top end in place and yes the hose clamp will be going and the tabs will be welded in place but for the sake of getting things to line up I need to trial all the individual parts first.

Fuel cap on....

Wrongness! Might have to amend that, what should it say in place of Subaru? RohvA! Or maybe Undeaded Petril Ownly....

Thats all for now....

 

[St.Jude]

2 minutes ago, Marina door handles said:

Had a bit of spare time, so I have been attempting to turn the Subaru filler into a Rover one.......

Firstly weld up the hole on the back for a random valve/breather thing that only later Subarus have and remove the flange that bolts to the body....

Made a slightly crap copy of the flange on the end of the filler that has the retaining bolts, I used the original  and pretty disgusting looking gasket to get roughly the right shape 

Flange created, its scruffy but it will do (and it will tidy up a bit in due course).

Trial fit....

Next was trying to trial fit the neck and the flange in place in the car, this resulted in cutting off a slightly bent end from the filler neck and welding in a straighter 4 inch section, so it lines up with the original hose.  

Kinda works, excuse the blur (frikin camera phone doesn't like focusing on things more than 5 inches away!) but it demonstrates what I am trying to do hopefully!

Top end in place and yes the hose clamp will be going and the tabs will be welded in place but for the sake of getting things to line up I need to trial all the individual parts first.

Fuel cap on....

Wrongness! Might have to amend that, what should it say in place of Subaru? RohvA! Or maybe Undeaded Petril Ownly....

Thats all for now....

 

I hate you. You’re inspirational.

Joking aside, that’s great work with the Subaru filler. There has been someone on the Rover 800 Faceache page selling “new” ones and they just simply don’t fit, especially as they rub on the wheel.

Its good to know that alternatives exist!

[Marina door handles]

More interior faff, rear sound proofing in then carpet in but sort of loose should I need to lift the rear section for access...

Then dig out the front seats and clean them up, well give them a wipe anyway.......

They're in rougher condition than I remembered.....

Never mind, they will have to do.

Front seats in!

Then back on to the fuel filler neck. I have made up some copper nickel lines in two different widths to replace the mysterious pipe work and have started experimenting with welding on fixing plates. I have also had some 13mm wide steel tube arrive to make up the breather pipe. This is properly fiddly work and yes I have re fitted the wheel and lowered the car back down to check clearance, I have even jumped up and down on the sill to try and get full droop as it were! It seems to clear okay.

Yet more filler faffage to follow, I know how you all love the filler faff!

Thanks for reading and looking at the pictures!

 

[St.Jude]

How did you get the center console bit out? I tried and no matter what I did it seemed like it was connected to something under the radio?

[Marina door handles]

51 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

How did you get the center console bit out? I tried and no matter what I did it seemed like it was connected to something under the radio?

I cannot remember it being particularly challenging but it was at least a year ago (time can help heal painful memories!) .  I will dig it out and have a look at it for you when I get a moment. 

[Marina door handles]

Not sure if this will help but.....

The red circles are definite attachment points.

It gets a little vague at the dash end, red circles are clearly attachment points - green circles are a case of I cannot remember but there is something going on there! 

 

Hope this helps.....

 

[St.Jude]

Yea mate that’s very helpful thank you!

[Marina door handles]

Back on the fuel filler, some metal pipe arrived a straight length and a curved bit, time to make the breather....

Firstly I used an old bit of brake pipe to rough out were I wanted it to go then, copied it on the bench with steel tube, I haven't followed this through step by step so here is a rough before and after. 

Before.... And no those bits of copper pipe are not the breather, they will be in the final build as they are part of the other bit of the fuel system.

Trial fit with the main sections of breather tacked in place...

Welding the main sections properly.

Adding the end part and creating a flange to hold the hose in place...

Paint with primer but never mind focusing properly.......

Jobs left are to clean up the welded flange to make it nice and smooth, re check fit and possibly run some water through it to find pin holes in the welding. Then this part will be done. 

 

 

[St.Jude]

Might of missed it, but why did you settle on the Subaru neck? And have you checked this with the wheel in place to see if it rubs?

[Marina door handles]

Subaru neck - mainly luck I had one lying around and the top half is roughly the right shape and size. Clearance is a concern I am testing this by re fitting a wheel and jumping up and down on the sill at each stage of the build.  Its all a bit trial and error. The other thing to consider is my car is a Sterling and is on relatively small wheels, later models may have come on wider wheel and tyre combos. 

[Marina door handles]

Another day off so more work on the filler, well after an exciting morning trip to the tip, yep I know how to party! 

Firstly I smoothed off the end of the breather pipe were I had created a kind of flange.

Used the bench grinder and the finger sander, as I need to keep it flanged so it wont pull off the hose easily but it needs to be smooth for obvious reasons.

Next job was to fit the flange/collar that bolts to the body of the car, inside the filler flap area. This was a pain in the arse! Turns out that the filler is a very tight fit and fitting the collar and pipe lose is easy, getting them into place when attached is very difficult. This part took a lot of trial and error. Initially cable tied it all together but this gave a bit of a false impression as it allowed a lot of movement.  Next up I started tacking it together.

Not pretty but it works. After much faff I found that the best way was to just secure it on 2 sides so it can flex a bit.

Finally for today - another trial fit, it feels like I am actually getting some were! 

Sadly it will be painted black, I quite like it in red but that is just primer and I only have black top coat at the moment! 

 

[grogee]

Has anyone said this is sterling work yet? If not, I will. 

Your patience with the filler neck is incredible, well done. I think when the time comes on the Maestro I'll be using some combination of aluminium tube and fuel-friendly silicone/rubber hoses. 

[St.Jude]

3 minutes ago, grogee said:

Has anyone said this is sterling work yet? If not, I will. 

Rover and out.

[Marina door handles]

Well its very nearly Rover and out on the filler...... St jude..... The final little details just need sorting. Firstly the end of the filler were it meets the main rubbery hose. The end is completely smooth and which means it wont take much for the hose to pop off, which is a bit undesirable! I cannot flange the end out as the hose only just fits so the next option is to kind of Christmas cracker the end... Basically narrow the section just behind the end by cutting and welding (how else) create a waist if you see what I mean so the hose clamp has something to grip.  Sort of like this .......

Not exactly pretty (or very well in focus!) but it appears to work, well it past the yank test! 

Post yank test picture.....

Next stage the extra mysterious pipe work is rather lose and rattly (on the original pipe its all in steel and welded together, cant do this as I am using copper for the extra), I don't think that is a great idea. I decided to create a bracket that I could fit P clips to, so that I can secure the extra pipeage.   

Final bit of chopping was caused by the Subaru filler cap. The cap actually catches slightly on the hinge of the filler door. Fortunately the hinge area has some excess plasticky sections, which I duly trimmed down. Now it all fits. 

So what does it need to finish this part of the project? Well some paint on the filler neck, careful deletion of the  word Subaru from the cap and a couple of new rubber hoses and then I can decide which bit of the car to sort next as I have now decided to try and get it through or at least to an MOT.

 

[Marina door handles]

The filler saga is pretty much over and its going to be a while before it meets its first real challenge - a petrol pump! 

Petrol cap no longer has the word Subaru on it, very important obviously!

The filler neck now looks the part, mind you I did rush this a bit and didn't let the paint dry for long enough and have a few scratches to touch in......

Got to be better than the original though!

Next task is probably fix the horn as that is definitely an MOT fail.

 

[St.Jude]

Very impressive mate.

Fairly sure you've just lost 10hp not keeping the Subaru name on the cap though!

[vinyljunky]

Really clever work - most ingenious 

[Marina door handles]

Today I am suffering a bit of mission paralysis.

I have had a look at the horns, tested the individual horns and they both parp in satisfactory manner! So next point of issue probably the switch in the steering wheel (its normally the moving bits that fail) - could I get the  steering wheel pad off? No because its held on with two security bolts and I don't have a T25 security bit, so that's now winging its way to me via Amazon. 

So what to do next? I know I will see if it still starts, it hasn't moved for at least a year so....

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-aIKlN5_NT4

Yep I am no you tuber as you can tell! But it definitely runs, oh and in case you are wondering I am just pumping the brakes to start with to see how they felt with the servo in operation - the pedal feels pretty good. 

 

 

[St.Jude]

18 minutes ago, Marina door handles said:

I know I will see if it still starts, it hasn't moved for at least a year so....

 

18 minutes ago, Marina door handles said:

But it definitely runs

Show off.

[Marina door handles]

21 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

 

Show off.

Sorry... Not sorry!