Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[FrazzleTC]

As mentioned on another thread, two weeks ago, I agreed to buy a slightly sorry-looking 1975 Rover 3500 auto, unseen, which was missing a few bits and pieces. The car was trailered home on Sunday, while I was on holiday in the Lake District, so I've still not had a decent chance to look around it. As mentioned, it was purchased minus bumpers, fuel tank and filler, and exhaust. The door mirrors, and bonnet badge had also been removed, but the mirrors have been sourced, meaning that all it needs is a bonnet badge, on the exterior front! Unfortunately, it has arrived without ignition leads, and a few other bits, but my sincere thanks to Spinakerr (James) for offering me a free set of leads, dizzy cap, and coil!
The background to the car is that it's one that I remember seeing when I was younger, doing the shows, and at the time, it was rather a flash-looking car! I'd spotted it on ebay for around the £1000 mark, described as having a few issues, but at the time, I couldn't justify it. When I saw it advertised for £400, missing a few bits, I made a cheeky offer, and to my surprise, it was accepted! It would appear that it's had a lot of money spent on it, at some point, as I'm informed that it has fully adjustable suspension all round, and has an SD1 V8 fitted in place of the original unit.
I'm still not absolutely sure what it needs done to it, but I'll be able to form a reasonable opinion of it fairly quickly, when I've had a bit more time to look around it. It's got black boxpleat leather, sundym glass, 3500S badging and steering wheel, and quite a few spares. From a very quick inspection, the front end seems very solid, but there's a bit of filler in the bottom of the D posts, and appears to be quite a bit of filler in the boot area. I'll take the carpets out, and have a look underneath the car, next time I'm home. Rather strangely, the windscreen washer is in the boot.
Ideally I'd like to get it running before I do anything else, and drive it along the driveway where it is stored, to get some idea as to how it's going to go.
It should give me plenty to do over the summer, and I just hope that it doesn't need too much welding.
So, in the meantime, here's a before photo, of how it looked in its heyday, a photo of under the bonnet from the ebay ad (when it still had HT leads) , and a couple of photos from the day of collection.
If anyone knows anything about the car's background, I'd be really interested to hear!

[Marc-H]

You can never tell from pictures, but she looks okay, I do not like the wheels though! I have had 2 P6's in my past a Brown 2 2 TC and a White V8S. even today I still think one of the most comfortable cars I have ever driven. Good luck with the project.
_________________
Marc
1961 Rover P4 100
"Harold"

[Rick]

I look forward to following this one, it appears to be presentable enough to run "as is" while you fettle everything properly. I had the P5B out today, these V8s do make a nice noise

RJ
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[FrazzleTC]

I've been home over the weekend, which has allowed me plenty of time to play with the 2000, and the 3500. The aim, this weekend, was to fully assess the level of rot on the 3500, and how this should be tackled, as well as trying to determine how good it is mechanically.
First of all, the structure. The car has had a huge amount of welding over the years, with patches, and sections everywhere. For the most part, the car is very solid, but not terribly pretty underneath. So far, having taken all of the interior out, and had the car on ramp, the only area which gave way to the screwdriver is under the seat on the driver's side, in the rear, so this will be welded in due course, if the car is to obtain an MOT for the summer. There are blobs of fibreglass about it, but these were chipped at, and there is solid enough metal underneath. The D posts are pretty good,with just some filler on the bottoms, as seems to be the case on many cheaper P6s!
Body. The car has a reasonable paint finish. The front valance is completely rotten. The doors are very solid, but bubbling along the bottoms, with the driver's door having a bit of scab at the front. Rear wings are decent, and front wings are solid, with some rust under the sidelights. Bonnet and boot have a little bubbling, likely due to a paint reaction. Vinyl roof is okay, but scruffy. Generally, it'll polish up, but it's been knocked about a bit. The window seals are all good, and the car is very dry inside, particularly in light of the fact that it has lived outside for quite some time. Glass is all excellent
Interior. The seats are black leather boxpleat, and are servicable, though a little untidy. Carpets are brand new. Lots of trim missing around the centre console, but all easy enough to replace.
Mechanical. The engine, gearbox, and differential all perform well, with very smooth engagement of drive and reverse, and a very willing engine, though oil pressure isn't amazing, but no worse than any other cheap Rover V8. The oil light doesn't come on once the engine is running, which is reassuring. The fluids are all clean, carbs have new gaskets, and certainly seem to have been rebuilt recently. Manifolds fitted are the standard ones, with additional rear sections, to accommodate the 2.5 inch exhaust that it had in a previous life. The tubular ones are in the boot. Once we had got a mixture of leads onto it, and got it started initially, it started on the first turn of the key on every other attempt. Today it was run using a petrol can for fuel, picking it up using the fuel pump. Brakes weren't seized, and were very responsive. Unfortunately, shortly after parking it, we noticed a leak of fluid, from a union on the nearside front brake. I'll sort that next time I'm home. Tyres and wheels are decent, but not amazing.
Electrical. Previous owners of the car have messed it about a little, electrically, but after some cleaning, and coaxing, everything functioned.

So, to conclude, it's not bad, but, it will need work, particularly in the longer term. As such, the goal is to get it to a safe, MOT-worthy standard for the summer, and I'll reassess its position at the end of August. Today allowed me to take some photos of the car, and to run it around where it is stored. Here's a video, and some photos from today!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cfV0VW2Y_E&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1

[Scotty]

Like the car, lot's of potential - I envy you, but in a nice way.

Love the colour, but this is just a personal opinion, I'm not keen on the gold wheels, however its your car and I'm sure you'll finish it to your own tastes.

I would have loved to own one and the Rover below came up for sale, however the time wasn't right and I had to pass it up.

[FrazzleTC]

Thanks Scotty. I can't say that I like the gold wheels, or even the style of wheel particularly, but the tyres are pretty decent, so they'll stay on the car for now. It's an interesting project, but, I'd say that Lunar Grey one you considered was a much straighter car. It's just a pity that this red one has had so much welding over the years!

[FrazzleTC]

Today, I had a couple of hours free, so I thought it might be a good idea to take the sill covers off before progressing much further, in order to fully inspect the car's condition. I was very pleasantly surprised, for the first time with a P6, when I took the covers off. Although they're absolutely pasted in waxoyl, I checked very thoroughly with a screwdriver, and nothing gave way at all! The driver's side sill looks as Rover intended, but the passenger side has had a slightly odd repair, which is very solid, but doesn't look as it would have originally. All in all, a good result!
While out at the car, I thought I'd try cleaning up the seats to see if they were any good, and they don't look too bad after an hour or so of cleaning, and then protecting with leather balm.
The door bottoms aren't too pretty under such close inspection, but at least the car seems pretty solid!




Some interior shots.

[FrazzleTC]

Today, I spent quite a few hours tinkering with the car. The first thing I did today was to swap over the ignition leads. I also soldered a couple of poor connections to the spade connectors that connect to the coil. I then started the car, and let it warm up properly, to make sure that it was running properly with the new leads, and to allow me to adjust the timing a little, to ensure smooth running.
From there, I refitted the grille, and bonnet badge, to tidy the car's appearance a little. I then reconnected the rev counter to the coil, to see if it still functioned. All of the instruments work properly, including the clock. All of the lights worked too, bar the brake lights, initially, I attributed this to a bad connection, but after replacing the spade connectors in the boot, I've decided that the brake light switch is at fault.
Should be fitting the rear bumper, and petrol tank in the next few days, with a bit of luck! I've also ordered a couple of new front brake hoses, as one has started leaking. I'm enjoying the project so far.
When I removed the rear seat squab to sort the carpet, I found that someone called Jules had signed it, and written that they'd restored the car in 2001. If anyone knows who Jules might be, I'd be most interested to make contact with them!
Here are the two photos.

[FrazzleTC]

Now that I'm finished university until September, I'm compelled to get on with the job, regarding this car! Funds are somewhat lacking at the moment, until I start my summer job. Until then, I'm concentrating on the cheaper aspects of the car. I've still not got the rear bumper and petrol tank collected, as the chap who has them works abroad a lot. He says he'll be back in the next week or so, so hopefully, I'll get them fitted sooner than later! As regards the front valance, I'll need to make a concerted effort to acquire a better one soon. The fuel pump I've been using to run the car until now isn't up to the job, so I'm researching the options. I think I'll go for a facet pump, as this project is being done on a tight budget, and it's not one that'll be sitting around in traffic much at all. Other than this, I also need to rebuild the nearside front caliper, as it's leaking badly, and it doesn't appear to be the hose. The car was started yesterday, and ran beautifully, considering the circumstances! The exhaust is all sitting, awaiting fitting. Alas, in my haste, I've got lovely PD Gough sections in the original bore size, but, I correctly acquired big bore front pipes. Is it possible to fabricate/buy an adaptor, so that I can use the stainless sections, with the big bore front pipes?
Anyway, yesterday was spent making the car look rather better again. I felt guilty about the car looking quite oxidised, so I spent three or four hours washing, polishing and waxing it! As you can see in the before shots, the bootlid, and bonnet were particularly bad. They're still slightly stained in places, but a lot better than they were. The rest of the bodywork, bubbles aside, has a nice paint finish, which has responded quite well! The vinyl roof lets it down rather, as there are quite a few pieces where the vinyl has peeled off, and there are white spots, or a previous owner has used some black filler. It'll never look great, but if it looks acceptable on the road, and from ten paces, then I'll be happy enough!
For those interested, I used the two bucket method, (no snowfoam this time), with Zymol car shampoo. I then dried the car off, before going round it twice with Autoglym super resin polish, three times on the bonnet and boot. I then waxed the car with Collinite 476 to add a bit of protection. I blackened up, and protected what's left of the vinyl roof with Autoglym bumper care, as well as doing the side pillars. I did the wheels with turtle wax because I saw no point in using anything else on the poorly painted alloys. I dressed the tyres with Meguiars Endurance tyre gel. I'm fairly happy with the result. It's not getting it onto the road any quicker, but it incentivises me to work harder, if the car looks nice.
The first two photos show the car before, and the rest are a mixture of half-finished, and finished shots. I'll clean it a bit more before it goes onto the road, but it's okay for now.

[hornchurchmale]

Good luck with car. You did far better than for an auto p6. I paid far over odds by thousands for one. Still off road due to fuel issues. Body solid and low mileage so not all bad news. Had to fit new tyres as old looked brand new but can't trust tyres that had been on for 13 years. Car is 39 years old . Green with cloth seats.
Very low on power too, so loads to do in spring. Car off road till then, then dreaded mot. Handbrake and emissions being biggest worries.
Have u checked eBay for spares? Rover owners club may be worth thinking about too. Hope you have many happy times with yours.