RFU rescues a Rover 620ti! Back on the road - minor FTP/coolant drama :(

[fatharris]

I admit, the leak looked bad, but the price was right at 4p!

Looking great!

[RoverFolkUs]

4 minutes ago, fatharris said:

I admit, the leak looked bad, but the price was right at 4p!

Looking great!

In all honesty I think the issue was simply caused by the seal having gone a bit hard from age and there's also a bit of corrosion in the system which had built up around the seal which probably wasn't helping matters either by taking away the smooth surface

I'll look to do a couple of coolant flushes in due course to try and get some of the corrosion out of the system

[somewhatfoolish]

What is supposed to be there if not 2p coins?🤪 Some other plastic widget?

[RoverFolkUs]

On 20/12/2024 at 00:30, somewhatfoolish said:

What is supposed to be there if not 2p coins?🤪 Some other plastic widget?

I'm not certain but I assume some sort of blank, retained by those u-shaped plastic clamps

[RoverFolkUs]

Pre-christmas update

Thought I'd get it parked indoors and setup ready to go as and when I get a chance over the festive period. Thought I'd test out the bargain headlamp too - 

Before - Non existent beam pattern from the original headlamp. 

Temporary multi-ocular Rover.. I wasn't going to strip it all down yet in case there was a problem with the replacement unit 😅

After - happily, the replacement unit produces a lovely beam pattern. Happy days! 

Sit-rep - these things are a bloody nightmare to jack up high and place on axle stands as there's nothing to simultaneously jack up on and also support with a stand. I've managed the above setup though with plenty of safety measures. I won't be crawling around underneath anyway!

Now run up to temperature, no coolant leaks to report 🫡

[RoverFolkUs]

Lots of progress made on this! A good few more steps closer to being back on the road 

This post summarises the last couple of weeks. It may seem like this is taking a long time but I'm only attending to it for short periods at a time. Getting tools out and packing them away each session is time consuming, but it is what it is!

I made a start on the offside by cutting the outline of the replacement panel to shape, and cutting out the rotten section of the inner arch (it was bad all around, and beyond saving)

I found an offcut of a MK6 transit rear wheel arch which matches the lower part of the Rover's arch perfectly!

As can be seen, there was nothing left of the inner arch to weld to. This really isn't ideal, because I don't have the skill or tooling to fabricate an arch with a lip and replacement panels aren't available off the shelf.. but needs must 

The lower section of the tub was pretty weak on the edge, so I cut out the rot and spliced in a new offcut 

Whilst I was waiting for the rust converter to do it's job elsewhere (also attempting to come up with the enthusiasm to fabricate a new inner arch lip) - I thought I'd investigate the rot at the tail light instead.

As can be seen, it somewhat escalated!

Whilst I let the rust converter go off and ponder what to do with it, I zinc primed and welded in the first bit of the inner arch: 

And with the new inner arch for support, I did a test fit with the new panel. Lovely!

With most of the inner arch lip now constructed, I welded in new panels towards the rear of the tub.

I was getting bored of welding, so - next, front end off! Managed to kill three birds with one stone here - fit the replacement headlight, crash bar and fog light! 

Once I'd done these I wanted to try and suss out what was going on with the alarm. The interior light would only illuminate when opening the driver's front door, and as soon as the alarm started giving me grief, the driver's rear had stopped working. I popped all the switches apart and was greeted by this: 

Not a hope in hell of those working as they are! I managed to clean 3 of them up, but one was broken. I managed to source a set of replacements from a breaker vehicle but they were in worse condition tbh. I managed to make one of them good which is all I need for now. 

With the contacts cleaned up, all 4 door switches are operating perfectly with the interior lights! Hopefully this banishes the alarm troubles too. 

@worldofceri if you did manage to find any spare door switches in usable condition I would gladly exchange them for some beer tokens as it would be nice to have some spares to hand!

I'm not proud of how this looks, but it's solid! And it's the inner, so nobody will see it! (Except you lot reading )

I seem to have forgotten to take any pictures of the process, but this is what I came up with for the tail light. It's an awkward shape, and the remaining metal was pretty wafer thin and would have been a nightmare to weld to, therefore since it's cosmetic rather than structural I decided to use some aluminium mesh, sikaflex, filler and seam sealer to get it looking a little bit better. My main concern was to stop the water ingress which was occuring, I'm not too worried about how it looks at this stage, I may look to do a nicer job of it in the future but painting etc is a nightmare this time of year with it being so cold at the moment, so this will do for now. An hour or so well spent I'd say

Some of you may be wondering why I wasn't using the 2 post lift behind it! I thought it was easier to be sitting on the stool at first with the car jacked up at waist height but I soon decided the variable height of the ramp would be useful, so on there it went. 

Bit of a dream duo here! (Calendar pic?!) I had the MG on the boil too! (Updates in its own thread to follow soon)

With the inner arches welded in, with all rust removed, the surrounding areas treated and primed, the next step was to bite the bullet and begin welding the outer arch!

I forgot to photo it separately, so I've zoomed in to demonstrate. In order to butt weld the 2 panels, I decided to spot weld in a strengthening plate behind to make it easier to weld the joint together, and to hopefully keep the height as even as possible. 

Time for a final test fit

That orange trim tool wedged between the door was the perfect depth to maintain a perfect arch gap!

And on it goes!

All ground back 

And the final bit of welding was to the frontmost part of the body behind the bumper mounting, all done as you can see!

A skim of filler applied, ready for me to reconvene the bodywork finish at a later stage. 

I couldn't help myself but make a start on the nearside before calling it a day 🙈 - I once again cut the outline I desired. The fuel filler neck is a bit of a nuisance here because there's a lip around it underneath, hence the stepped panel. Oh well!

Once this was cut out, I now had access to the arch lip. I've once again cut out the rotten lip although the tub is much more solid on this side so there should be minimal welding required, only grinding back, treating and priming. 

In terms of replacing the arch lip, I have a different idea for this side which I had forgotten existed when I did the other side. You'll see when I get onto it. 

This leaves us with another outline to play with!

Which now brings me up to date! There's not much else left to do now other than getting this lot finished off. I've bought a sump gasket and cam cover gaskets to rectify those oil leaks so I'll probably do these before getting it in for test. All being well I'd hope to see a pass result this month!

 

[Wibble]

Absolutely brilliant! Such skill, can I book my Senator in with you please?🙂

[Lord Sterling]

Amazing stuff there. You sound like Chris off Slavage Rebuilds. Great to see a Rover 600 receiving the kind treatment it should be getting.

[Dobloseven]

GorranOnda engine,that has,mate! Seriously top work, loving the unloved, that's what it's all about.

[twosmoke300]

You can’t be nearly as fed up and bitter about the motor trade as I am yet!

 

I can’t be arsed fitting two tyres to the ST 😂

[N Dentressangle]

That looks brilliant. When you think that otherwise the car is destined for the crusher, concours perfection for guys with white gloves and mirrors is not where I'd be aiming anyway.

Can't see any issues with a non-structural filler repair. Sensible way of solving the problem with modern materials, I'd say.

[Dobloseven]

Do you find it therapeutic?I find a good time is when all the rotten metal is cut out,the remaining metal cleaned up ready for welding and you can sweep up all the debris you've produced.

[RoverFolkUs]

13 hours ago, Wibble said:

Absolutely brilliant! Such skill, can I book my Senator in with you please?🙂

With this and the MG, I've said to myself no more rusty projects 😂

I'm not a specialist in welding and bodywork so I'd say it's a capability rather than a skill but thank you

[RoverFolkUs]

8 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Amazing stuff there. You sound like Chris off Slavage Rebuilds. Great to see a Rover 600 receiving the kind treatment it should be getting.

I'd be happy if I was capable of 10% of what he can do! 😂

[RoverFolkUs]

4 hours ago, twosmoke300 said:

You can’t be nearly as fed up and bitter about the motor trade as I am yet!

 

I can’t be arsed fitting two tyres to the ST 😂

I dunno when it's a car that I actually like (there aren't many) then I can get stuck into it and enjoy the end result

I wouldn't want to do this type of work for other people 😂

[RoverFolkUs]

19 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

Do you find it therapeutic?I find a good time is when all the rotten metal is cut out,the remaining metal cleaned up ready for welding and you can sweep up all the debris you've produced.

I would say so - being able to work through it and see the end result after what I started with. I've got a box full of the rusty metal as a reminder 😂

I'm just looking back at the pictures from when I made a start 😅

On 13/12/2024 at 22:00, RoverFolkUs said:

 

This was the expanding foam side.....

I decided I wanted to remove all the arch liners and check the inner arches more thoroughly. Off comes the bumper, I'm glad I did.... 

The nearside rear isn't too bad, there was an arch liner here and somebody has undersealed it in the past. 

Unfortunately the offside rear is in quite a sorry state, the arch liner is missing on this side, so there's quite a bit of rot building up where you'd expect it. 

 

[Dobloseven]

Another question.If you weren't doing this,what would you be doing?Shopping?Watching telly? Spending time with the family?Pass the angle grinder......!

[RoverFolkUs]

8 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

Another question.If you weren't doing this,what would you be doing?Shopping?Watching telly? Spending time with the family?Pass the angle grinder......!

Telling everyone how I've got this car which Rover used to show Honda how to build a car 🤓

[RoverFolkUs]

Number plate twin spotted for sale!

[beko1987]

It's probably twice as fucked under the surface than what you've just done 😂

Copy+paste? 

[fatharris]

I won't share the tidy looking ti in white for £2k then 😬

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I've always like the look of 600s and this one deserved to live again. @RoverFolkUs deserves a Shitehood™

Kudos for the cracking work so far. 

[RoverFolkUs]

6 hours ago, fatharris said:

I won't share the tidy looking ti in white for £2k then 😬

Seen it already!

I'd rather save this one though than spend that sort of money just buying one that *probably* needs the same level of work sooner rather than later

[RoverFolkUs]

8 hours ago, beko1987 said:

It's probably twice as fucked under the surface than what you've just done 😂

Copy+paste? 

I'll leave that one for the next man 😂

[RoverFolkUs]

More progress - quick and dirty bodywork. 

It has to be said, bodywork really isn't my speciality, but I only have a certain amount of time and resources available to spend on it at the moment, so its as good as it will get for now. My current plan is to do a better job when the weather turns warmer (I don't have a climate controlled paint booth..) or possibly get it done professionally.

The photos are very flattering, this is far from an insurance approved finish!

Annoyingly, the paint I bought is clearly the wrong shade. But it will suffice for now. 

The colour code "NND" is what I ordered (elsewhere) However, I had a flick through the Halfords catalogue which listed TWO shades for NND. One brighter white, and a creamier white. To my eyes, this car is the latter - but I bought both to have on hand so I can decide. 

Anyways, time to get the nearside rear done. 

Welded in the universal wheel arch. In my opinion this was much better than fabricating the arch lip like I did on the offside. 

All primed with zinc primer

Outer arch welded in

And ground back 

Rear lower quarter welded up

And an initial guide coat on the offside to check for any low spots in the filler 

I've now finished and ground back all the welding behind the bumper (lower quarter) and applied the filler to the joins

Lower quarter seam sealed and zinc primed

High build primer built up on the offside 

First splash of colour. Did I say that paint shade is too bright 😂

And repeat on the nearside, high build primer 

A second coat of white on the offside

And again on the nearside. 

These photos are quite flattering, close up I would say there is plenty of work needed on the filler side of things. However I don't have the time at the moment to try and perfect it and I need to get things moving, so a quick job it is for now. 

I finished off by replacing both front anti roll bar linkages, I did think this was an overzealous advisory at first but then saw the split bush! They were definitely past their best and well worth doing 

Got the linkage kits from GSF, on clearance, less than £7 each! No brainer really.

Next I will sort the oil leak, get the bumper and sideskirts back on, a quick clean up, fit the 4x tyres I've got waiting for it, then MOT! Exciting times

 

 

 

[Popsicle]

Nice to see this getting some love - its coming along really nicely mate - well done 👍.

Compared to what I did this weekend, swap a wheel over for one of the kids and change a brake bulb on the van, thats a decent amount of work you've done there.

[RoverFolkUs]

I've now made a somewhat executive decision to farm out the bodywork around the new rear arches. Yes it's going to cost, but I'm not willing to waste any more time trying to get it right, I simply don't have the right conditions to be doing paintwork in so I admit defeat. Once it's through the MOT, I'll get a quote from my trusted bodywork guy. I'm not expecting much change from £500, but it is what it is. 

In other news, oil leak repairs underway!

No, this wasn't essential for the MOT but I really hate the smell of hot oil coming through the vents so it's something I always like to sort 

Usually would be a tall order for a T-series, but I "only" identified 3 main leak points

Sump gasket, cam cover gaskets and the turbo oil return pipe

Bottom end looked alright and the oil pickup was nice and clean, always reassuring!

Good news I would say is that the back of the flywheel looks nice and dry, it was hard to tell but I'm hoping the leak was isolated to the sump and not the rear main crank seal.

Sump came up nice and clean

And back on it went. Controversial I know, but I've used some PU sealant as well as the gasket. Why? The gaskets supplied for these engines are common to the L-series diesel. This means there are a couple of spare bolt holes in the gasket with captive washers, which is where the old gasket was leaking from. I don't think there's anything you can do about this because it's simply how the new part comes, so I've just added sealant instead. Hopefully this holds up better than the last one which had evidently been replaced before. 

I've also taken off the turbo oil return pipe and resealed that while I was at it. 

Next, cam cover leaks

Nothing much to report here, the gaskets had gone flat, so new ones fitted!

My choice of beverage was coffee, not K-Seal.... 😂

And that's enough for today. I'll let the sealant go off overnight, then fill it with fresh oil and run it up tomorrow. 

Next, I'll clean up and adjust the rear brakes, fit the tyres, then it'll be MOT time!

[RoverFolkUs]

Whilst I had the exhaust downpipe disconnected I remembered observing a slight manifold leak previously, (sounded like a top end/lifter tick from cold) - I was expecting a failed gasket but looked a bit closer and one of studs had worked loose, and a couple of the other nuts needed a little nip up. This has now cured the ticking at idle and vastly improved the leak to the point I won't disturb it any further! If I'm being really picky it seems to leak a little bit when cold, but hardly at all. None-the-less, it's vastly improved and that will do. 

Cleaned off all the oil residue, replaced the filter and refilled with fresh oil and ran it up at a fast idle (@2k rpm) for around 45 minutes while I had a look at the rear brakes 

Happily this now looks like a bone dry T-series! A rare sight - hopefully it stays that way

Upon replacing the filter, I thought it would be rude not to carry on @fatharris's trend of captioning the new oil filter  

Stripped the rear brakes to take a peek, the handbrake lever on the offside caliper was being pulled well past the stop so something was obviously amiss. Went back and de-adjusted the cable which allowed it to rest on the stop. 

Took the pads and sliders out, cleaned and regreased them (they were moving freely anyway) and decided to wind the calipers back in with the cables detached, pump the pedal hard to hopefully adjust them, reattach the cables and then adjust accordingly 

A nice plan, but of course the car decided to chuck a hurdle in front of me. The offside rear caliper wound back in with abnormally little resistance and started leaking brake fluid. Lovely! 

New one of those on order. A minor delay, but hey ho! 

I've also bitten the bullet and decided to get the radio clock display repaired 😂 talk about perfectionism. 

Just "one" other thing I've noticed, there seems to be something amiss with the throttle, hopefully it will benefit from a clean and lube up. After having the pedal depressed @ 2k rpm for such a duration, the revs hung at ~1800-1900 until I went over to the throttle body and worked it free. Then the idle seemed a bit all over the place. I can't say it seems very happy from cold either. So I shall investigate in due course! 

Slowly but surely getting there, buying near 30 year old cars and striving for perfection is not for the faint hearted 😂

[fatharris]

Never did that for me, but check the rubber block just before the inlet manifold, they're a known weak spot for letting air in I believe.

 

Great work so far! 😎

[High Jetter]

Your dating system is the same as mine, @RoverFolkUs. Applied to all replaceable parts, car, home & work as well as computer document files.