1970 Rover 3500 - EMF

[testrider]

I didn't realise that I was such a trend setter with these clear indicators!

How are you getting along with the Viper Hurricane camshaft? I had that fitted to my 3.5 when I bought it and found it a bit too lary for me, and the autobox. I fitted the Land Rover 3.9 cam to my 3.5, as it gives a bit more torque at lower revs and suits my lazy driving style. Incidentally, did you go for the Vitesse heads or standard? I think the Viper cam would probably suit the Vitesse heads for more power at higher revs?

LeeEFI, I hadn't intended to buy the Hurricane camshaft, I actually rang up the parts place to buy a 3.9 cam, but they were out of stock for a month and suggested the Hurricane instead. I'd had a fixed date to work to and need to get it back together quickly so I went for it.

I know what you mean about the laryness, it's pretty average below about 2300rpm, but above that it really does come on song. Perhaps when the novelty (and the apprehension of that intial start up!) wears off I'd be tempted to change it for one with the torque a bit lower down. If the auto box shifted down to 2nd when coming off roundabouts etc then it would be a problem at all.

Thanks for the info on the ammeter shunt and fan wiring, I'll have a poke around to locate it next time I'm in the garage.

 

[LeeEFi]

LeeEFI, I hadn't intended to buy the Hurricane camshaft, I actually rang up the parts place to buy a 3.9 cam, but they were out of stock for a month and suggested the Hurricane instead. I'd had a fixed date to work to and need to get it back together quickly so I went for it.

I know what you mean about the laryness, it's pretty average below about 2300rpm, but above that it really does come on song. Perhaps when the novelty (and the apprehension of that intial start up!) wears off I'd be tempted to change it for one with the torque a bit lower down. If the auto box shifted down to 2nd when coming off roundabouts etc then it would be a problem at all.

Hi Paul,
I see your predicament. I think the Hurricane cam would actually be huge fun in a manual geared car, but in an auto a bit on and off. I can recommend the 3.9 cam for the 3.5. I'm still running mine in at mo, but the torque is amazing at lower revs so no real need to go higher. Though I'm hoping for a good top end as well in about 600miles time.

 

[testrider]

The other camshaft I looked at was a Piper RP4 from RPi as they reckon that gives loads of torque low down too, but at the time it was twice the price of the others and I wasn't sure if it was worth it.

I might look at changing the cam again next year then.

 

[quattro]

The other camshaft I looked at was a Piper RP4 from RPi as they reckon that gives loads of torque low down too, but at the time it was twice the price of the others and I wasn't sure if it was worth it.

I might look at changing the cam again next year then.

I have the RP4 cam in mine.

It is apparently a superb cam for an auto V8 with hot wire fuel injection - so I have one in a manual car with a weber :?

It is very tourquey, not that exciting though.

The previous owner had to put shims of 1.2mm under the rocker shaft pedestals to get the pre load correct.

I wouldn't do that if it wasn't already fitted - seems a lot of hassle.

Richard

 

[testrider]

Thanks for the feedback on the RP4 cam Richard. I read that they designed it for fuel injection engines but when I told the guy at RPi what I wanted to do he said the RP4 would be the most suitable. Anyway, I thought it was too expensive at the time so I bought the Hurricane one instead.

Swapping the cam is actually not too bad a job, especially if it's all been to bits once, it's just the first start up and running in that's a nightmare. I shan't be going near that until next year though as I have other things on my plate at the moment.

 

[testrider]

The Grand Plan, Winter 2011.

After nearly five years of ownership, over 13000miles and coming up to it's 40th birthday EMF has definitely become part of the family and it occurred to me that I've done over a quarter of all the miles it had ever done. With that in mind I thought it was time to make sure it was preserved and equipped to last another 40 years.

Those of you that have seen the car at the shows this year will have noticed that the paintwork has suffered a chronic case of microblistering this year which I think was caused by leaving it out in January 2010 with a leaky cover and 6" of frozen snow on top. The only way to remedy this is a bare metal respray, it definitely won't just 'buff out' like my Dad suggested. From there it's slippery slope, which I'm sure you'll all be familar with, which leads to doing far more than work you intended and spending far more than you intended too.

If the outside is being made all nice and shiny, then it would be a good idea to paint the base unit first, I thought? Then if the base unit it all nice and shiny, then wouldn't it be a nice ide to paint all the suspension components too? The list goes on.......

Basically the plan is to strip the panels off a bit at a time then scrape, clean and paint whatever's underneath, replace the seals and refit the panels before shipping it off to be sprayed by a profesional (probably Clive Annable) in spring.

First things first, before any stripping down you need to buy new things and fit them to build your enthusiasm. So I bought some police spoilers which took about two weeks longer to fit than I thought and I haven't go the fit quite as good as I'd like, but here they are in situ.

I spent some time straightening out the edges and small dings in the valance as well as filing the stamping burrs off and neatening up the cut out for the fan

With that done and off the car it was time to remove the near side front wing to see what lurked beneath.

The answer was some dirt and lots of old underseal.

That lot was scraped of to reveal this.

Then this.

I straightened and deburred all the edges and then covered it over with Epoxy Mastic 121 paint to leave it like this.

There are a few small patches missed out on that last photo but they've been covered over now.

To be honest, I'm absolutely elated with how well preserved the base unit is so far and I was pleased with the work I'd done so far so I decided to move on to strip and paint all the fiddly areas around the headlamp bowls and radiator too......which lead to the whole inside of the engine bay being stripped. The wiring loom has been lifted out and the headlamp bowls removed too. Here's Adamhotrod scraping the stickers and paint off.

And now after one coat of paint Epoxy Mastic 121

I'm not sure whether to leave the brushed finish inside the engine bay or not though. I think I might flat it down a bit and spray a cosmetic coat of satin black over the top to finish it off, what do you think?

So that about brings us up to present and explains why I'm not making any firm plans to go to car shows in Spring. I hope it will be back on the road in time for Beamish but I don't know.

Late yesterday I took the other front wing off and the windscreen cowl so I can carry on working round the car until I reach the front of drivers door. The I'll rebuild it and start on the back.

 

[harveyp6]

That does look remarkably sound, taking panels off is always a bit frightening because you never quite know what's lurking behind there.

If you do decide to get it resprayed, from the way you wrote it it sounds as though you would get it done with the panels on the car, by far the best way is doing them seperately off the car.

 

[GrimV8]

Good work 8) You must have heard me shouting at the screen when I saw the brush marks

I always satin black my customers under the bay. Finishes it off :wink:

 

[DaveHerns]

The state of the bare metal is amazing .You must be pleased

 

[adamhotrod]

I'll be VERY pleased if mine's as solid as that when it gets done. I think satin black is definitely the way forward, that Epoxy Mastic 121 is funny stuff, you can't get a smooth coat on with a brush and it dries like rubber. It's going to be the car we all want to own when it's painted Paul!

 

[quattro]

That's really looking the business

I've used 2.5L of Epoxy mastic so far and still have some to go on the inside of the wings etc.

Seems like some brilliant stuff but impossible to get a decent finish.

Look forward to seeing the finished product

Richard

 

[mrtask]

You're really getting stuck in there, eh!? Nice one. Not tempted to completely strip it and re-do everything then? Don't blame you, after all you've enjoyed thousands of miles of V8 Rovering whilst I in the meantime have only fretted over an immoveable lump of metal and endless boxes and piles of bits'n'pieces that don't yet drive!
My old 'Police' front spoilers had been massaged a bit to conform to the contour of the front valance. They need to have a bit of material removed to allow for the 'bulge' that covers the front of the frame rails. I've tried to indicate the shape of the upper edge of my spoilers by drawing on your photo. I hope you can see what I mean. I reckon they'll fit better if you try and do the same thing to yours.

 

[Dave3066]

Looking good there!

You must be chuffed to bits with the condition the base unit is in, front end anyway. That Epoxy Mastic 121 stuff is great. I put about 3 coats on with each coat getting more and more sticky as I went. It really fills all the little gaps well. It seems to be performing pretty well in Classics Monthly's rust test which has been running for a year now.

Dave

 

[testrider]

That does look remarkably sound, taking panels off is always a bit frightening because you never quite know what's lurking behind there.

If you do decide to get it resprayed, from the way you wrote it it sounds as though you would get it done with the panels on the car, by far the best way is doing them seperately off the car.

The panels will be painted off the car, I'm only refitting the them for ease of transporting them to the painters. There was equal measures of excitment and trepidation as I started to remove the first wing, but I'm pleased with how solid it all is. It's more than justified me going a grand (that I didn't have) over budget when I bought it.

Thanks for the advice and picture on fitting the spoilers Mr Task, I'll have another go at it before I ship it off to the painters. I was quite frustrated with them by the time I took that photo a couple of weeks ago so I left it to work on something else. The offside one hasn't come out as well because I took a bit too much off too quickly.

It's going to be the car we all want to own when it's painted Paul!

I hope so but I'm not setting my standards higher than I think I can achieve, if it comes out half as nice as the lads' from Durhams cars I'll be well chuffed.

 

[testrider]

Looking good there!

You must be chuffed to bits with the condition the base unit is in, front end anyway. That Epoxy Mastic 121 stuff is great. I put about 3 coats on with each coat getting more and more sticky as I went. It really fills all the little gaps well. It seems to be performing pretty well in Classics Monthly's rust test which has been running for a year now.

Dave

I was planning to get a good thick first coat and then a slightly thinned second coat over the top to finish off. Don't you think that will get it covered completely?

To Dave and Quattro, are you going to reapply underseal over the top? I can't decide what to do. I can make a good case for both the pros and cons!

 

[quattro]

To Dave and Quattro, are you going to reapply underseal over the top? I can't decide what to do. I can make a good case for both the pros and cons!

I must admit that Sparky will be a fair weather car, possibly coming out in summer rain, so no I will not be applying underseal over the epoxy.

I have actually coated the epoxy with 3 coats of a tough satin black for good measure as the top coat of epoxy is a light cream colour.

If it was going to become a daily driver, then yes I would underseal it.

Richard

 

[chrisyork]

Hi Paul

Colin and I had a real game fitting the spoilers on Lucky - and he only needs the stubby 4 cyl version due to the widened valance! It would seem Rover had exactly the same problem, as part of the standard fitting is a (10mm?) thick "gasket" of closed cell foam. That can only be intended to accomodate "errors" of the type we've both been experiencing! I don't think they ever got round to making the fit more precise because the spoilers were really quite rare in practice. Plus there is a fair degree of scope for flex in the undertray depending on exactly where and how the front wings have been fitted.

Looking forward to seeing the final result!

Chris

 

[Fraserp6]

When I was fitting my police spoilers, I pre-drilled and measured up the spoilers and got them to fit up the best I can. I then mixed up filler (I know a dirty word.) and ran a thin bead of filler along the length of the spoiler and valance area. I then fitted the spoilers up and tightened the bolts. Just before the filler hardened, I shaved all the excess filler off with a scalpel.

Suppose it works the same way as the compressed foam.

 

[Dave3066]

I was planning to get a good thick first coat and then a slightly thinned second coat over the top to finish off. Don't you think that will get it covered completely?

I didn't use any thinners with mine at all and the first coat seemed quite runny. I left it for about half an hour then went back for a second coat, by which time the 121 had started to thicken. 2 coats will do I think but I wasn't sure how much to mix and didn't want to waste any so I used the last of it up going over it a third time.

To Dave and Quattro, are you going to reapply underseal over the top? I can't decide what to do. I can make a good case for both the pros and cons!

I hadn't even thought about underseal over the top. My car is a daily driver but I thought the 121 would suffice as it seems pretty robust. Time will tell I guess.

Dave

 

[testrider]

Regarding the underseal thing, I'm sure that the Epoxy Mastic paint will protect the steel from water and spray as good as anything, but I'm concerned about stone chips. Once the paint is breached it will rust through from behind as before, covering it in underseal would stop it being chipped. Maybe I'll just apply in in strategic, high risk areas.

I'm working cleaning and stripping a small area at a time then painting one coat of Epoxy Mastic 121 on before moving round to the next bit. Once I've got one coat on the whole front end I'll paint the second coat all in one go.

Thanks for the tips on the spoilers, the reason I left them to work on other things was down to not having the right tools to make a good job of it and also because I was trying to fit them back in December when it was minus 10 in the garage and I'm sure the cold adversely affects your brain!

I'll be working round the engine bay to the driverside this week which means disconnecting the brake lines to lift the servo out which looks like a messy job.