New Maestro baderbox shite.

[Lankytim]

Finally got this at home and on my drive now.

 

(apologies for the shite pics)

 

I collected it from a fella who lives close to my parents in Birmingham. It was his daily driver for a few years but started to run very lumpy and eventually went down on one cylinder. After giving it new plugs, leads, cap, rotor, air filter e.t.c it was taken to a garage who diagnosed no compression on a couple of cylinders- looks like its burned out some valves. The Maestro was then abandoned on his driveway for a few months until the owner moved house. It was offered up to anyone who would take it away pronto, infact when I turned up the new people were just moving in!

 

It was then plonked on my parents drive for a while before I got chance to get it back home. I'm lucky as I have very understanding parents who allow me to bring down their area with shite cars now and again;).

 

 

The old bus looked like it hadn't been cleaned properly in a number of years, moss was appearing around the trim and the white paintwork had funny black spots all over it, the previous owner told me it had been parked up for a few years before he bought it, covered in moss and grime. He hosed it down MOT'd it and cruised it around in its semi-clean state until the engine failed. After a good scrub with a half decent wash "n"wax it does look much better. I'm hoping to give it a good cut back and polish to really get it to shine. I find shiny cars have a much better rate of survival compared to dull crappy looking ones! The horrible hubcaps have been binned too.

 

Body wise the O/S rear arch is a bit grotty, having been welded for its last M.O.T. It's not falling to bits yet though, the filler pocket is a bit frilly too. Its something that doesn't need repairing yet though (if at all). Tailgate has a small hole below the screen and inside the boot the boot floor is holed where it meets the rear panel. Simple enough to weld up if needed.

 

 

Some bastard has broken into the Maestro at some point, the drivers lock has been "bodged" in typical '90s Rover group style, someone has pushed a thin screwdriver around the side to pop up the lock, mangling the door skin in the process. The steering cowling has also taken a beating, meaning it now needs replacing.

 

Apart from that its pretty good. The sills have been plated but all appears solid including the sill flanges which normally rot off in no time. The base of the front wings haven't fallen off either, another good sign. Floors and underbonnet areas are mint, too.

 

The interior is grubby but intact, apart from the saggy ripped headlining and the aforementioned steering cowling. It should clean up nicely.

 

I was lucky enough to find a Unipart GOLD SEAL recon cylinder head on ebay locally, complete with gasket set so i'm looking forward to getting cracked on with it pretty soon. The Maestro is MOT'd until october so once the head is done it will simply be a case of taxing and insuring it and enjoying some automatic motoring. The Audi needs to come off the road to have some panels fitted, along with a general tidy up so the Maestro will stand in for a few months while the work is done. After that who knows? Sell break? I'll see how I feel when the time comes.

[Tayne]

.

[Vinylseats]

Nice.

 

Can we have some interior shots?

[Pillock]

The exact spec, year and colour my mum had shortlisted for her first company car - ended up with a Rosso Red Escort 1.4LX instead. The neighbours had a white Maestro a couple of months before which probably swayed her.

[Lankytim]

Not yet, no. I haven't taken any yet and I need to go to the inlaws to upload them! I will do when I get chance though.

 

It doesn't owe me much money at all, but then a Maestro with a borked engine wouldn't! I'm planning to just accept and enjoy it for what it is. A cheap and cheerful daily runabout.

[Cavcraft]

Class, for some reason they look even more alluring in white.

[Torsten2001]

What you have done Tim is wonderful!

[Lankytim]

"Alluring", " Wonderful"? Have I posted up the wrong pictures or something?

[dollywobbler]

Nope. Just weapons-grade shite! Hope it all comes together.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

What a pile of shite!!! Nice work. When do you want the polishing mop? I can drop it in on Tuesday after work if you like

[Shep Shepherd]

Looking good! Just how I remember them in the mid-late 1990s

[meggersdog]

Maestros are full of WIN. Nice save Tim

[Angrydicky]

Lovely! Nice "traditional Maestro" rear arches as well, well done Tim

[Guest]

Those are funny-looking wheels on it, I had to look them up - forgot that there were at least two designs of steel wheel on these. Dunno why.

 

 

Get the wheel silver out! I stumbled across what I think is the part number for the centre caps too: NAM6167. Make sure to get the correct ones, then you can be a proper BL nerd and turn up at shows with it with a furious-looking old woman sat in the passenger seat for the duration. No modified rubbish allowed!

[theorganist]

Very nice, always liked the two-tone ones.

[Lankytim]

Hey, Hirst- I already have a box of centre caps, whats more I have an assortment of early steel wheels that are already silver. They are the type with the rows of small holes around them (being a shitist i'm sure you know which type I mean) However i'm trying to keep the whole experience as cheap as poss meaning they it will end up with a variety of early and late wheel types on depending on which have the most tread. Now thats what I call shite!

 

In other news I got cracked on with the head swap today. Getting the manifolds off was a bit of a faff as the bolts that hold the inlet manifold on are underneath and hidden by the exhaust but few socket extension pieces and swearing had them out. Everything came apart very easily and in no time I was lifting the head away from the block. The pistons are all fine and I spent a fun 10 minutes de-coking them. Am I the only one that takes a great pleasure in cleaning up manky coked-up pistons? The piston tops show no sign on damage or melting and the HG looked fine so the compression issues definitely lie with the valves. Frustratingly none of them show any sign of cracks or burning. I'm guessing that valve seat erosion means exactly that- the valve seats burn away leaving the valves intact and depleted compression.

 

A few bits and pieces were stripped from the old head and fitted to the new one and the whole lot was bolted into place- very satisfying! Thats as far as I got today, I only had a few hours to play and the head still needs to be torqued down, the engine mount needs bolting back up, along with the manifolds and thermostat housing but apart from that its not far off being finished. I was going to do the cam belt at the same time but its such a piece of piss to get to I'll just do it when I can be bothered. I wont get any time tomorrow I think but a couple more hours work should see the shite S series burst back into life. I can't wait!

 

Boll, Tuesday will be fine, Thanks!

 

Pics when I can be arsed to go up the road and upload them.

[Guest]

Yeah, the ones with the little holes every so often - those are the ones I'm familiar with. Do the "classic" trick of having the wheels matched per side - can't see both sides of the car at once!

[Lankytim]

Ah, but I think the older style wheels I have have slightly larger tyres on, so they will have to be matched on the axle, i.e both front or both rear.

[Guest]

Just chop the springs on one side.

[Pete-M]

A BaderMaestro!

 

Heh, the manual choke on those can make for some really scary moments from cold.

 

Mad bugger, ye.

[Cavcraft]

If you can be arsed Tim I have a manual bead breaker (basically a 'TL' bar) and a decent lump hammer plus tyre levers here and can soon change the tyres round on steels wheels without too much grief. I might even still have a couple of new (tyre) valves here too. If we can set a day and time whizz 'em up and I'll swap them over for you.

[Lord Sterling]

Nice Maestro Tim, and auto and the same colour scheme as my Sterling.

 

 

I say if you can, try and whack on some original placca trims. Sometime back I saw a couple of Ford cars sporting Austin trims (One Escort and the other a Fiesta) I was well tempted to lift them, suffice to say I didnt.

[Lankytim]

Ta Billy! Theres a few miles left in the front tyres yet though, id say about 12.

 

Lord Sterling, The wifes W reg fezza has Rover metro/214 trims on- I hope they wern't the ones you were gonna lift! I'm undecided wether to stick them on the Maestro, seeing as it should have proper Maestro ones on.

[overheadvalve]

Finally got this at home and on my drive now.

 

(apologies for the shite pics)

 

 

 

Body wise the O/S rear arch is a bit grotty, having been welded for its last M.O.T. It's not falling to bits yet though, the filler pocket is a bit frilly too. Its something that doesn't need repairing yet though (if at all). Tailgate has a small hole below the screen and inside the boot the boot floor is holed where it meets the rear panel. Simple enough to weld up if needed.

 

 

One word..........BOSTIN!

[Lord Sterling]

Lord Sterling, The wifes W reg fezza has Rover metro/214 trims on- I hope they wern't the ones you were gonna lift! I'm undecided wether to stick them on the Maestro, seeing as it should have proper Maestro ones on.

 

Lol! No, funnily enough the ones I saw were on a Red Escort for sale in Brierly Hill, the second set were more early Rover 200 ones on a L-plated Fiesta again in Brierly Hill.

[Cavcraft]

Hey Tim I did have two excellent 175/65 (or possibly 175/70) 14 tyres in my garage which have done sod all mileage pretty much. If they're any good drop me a p.m tomorrow, I was going to Freecycle them anyhow.

[Lankytim]

Thanks Billy, but the Maestro has 13" rims, so they won't fit!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Just wrap a few layers of tape round the rims to pad em out a bit.

 

Your Maestro looks well smart!!! Nice 'A' on it as well.

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I would give that Maestro a new year's kiss in the manner of Warren T Claim's Playboy jogging bottoms clad New Year's treat.

[Angrydicky]

Tim, I've got a set of genuine AR trims on my Maestro that came off my dad's old F reg Montego 1.6 L. I won't need them once I've reinstated the original base-spec centre caps, you'll be welcome to them for the cost of postage!

 

Lord Sterling, that Rover is I can't remember the last time I saw one on the road!