A 'gentle' rebuild of my 3500

Mikep

Active Member
Hi everyone,

I have finally decided that I should put up some photos and a plotted history of the work done to my 1976 Rover 3500 auto since it was purchased last year. I have been following some of the more ambitious projects on this forum and has given me some ideas for some future work but at the moment all that we need to do is rectify a few faults and get the car back to a nice usable condition.

I say we as the car was actually purchased by my Dad as a joint project for the pair of us last year. The only problem we have is that since my Dad retired he moved to the Republic of Ireland but I still live in the UK, but the car is now registered in Ireland as my dad has a large workshop and an inspection pit therefore making working on the car much easier, although I don't get to play with it as much as I would like :(

The car was purchased locally to me in Hertfordshire so my Dad flew over to drive it back to Ireland. This was a daunting prospect as the 420 mile trip over there was the same amount of mileage the car had done in the last four years! Fortunately it made it in one piece with no issue :D

2010_0711carrebuild0004.jpg


2010_0711carrebuild0002.jpg


The first jobs to rectify was a dodgy gear shift linkage which required a new ball and socket joint on the linkage and a new plastic spherical bush on the gear lever. The fuel tap was leaking so a new seal and screw was fitted and the non-operative brake lights was solved by fitting a new brake light switch which was located by the servo.

Next the main job we had to tackle was tatty interior that had some nasty rotten carpet that we, at the time, thought was due to a leaking rear door seal.

2010_0711carrebuild0008.jpg


2010_0711carrebuild0007.jpg


The night before these photos were taken we had a bit of a downpour and there was a lot of standing water in the footwells so the front and rear seats were removed and the carpet ripped out before the car was put into the garage.
Once in the garage the strip down of the interior and removal of the wings and doors commenced.

2010_0713carrebuild0004.jpg


2010_0713carrebuild0011.jpg


2010_0713carrebuild0012.jpg


Fortunately the leak, although it looked bad, hadn't caused any structural damage and all we found was a lot of surface rust under the carpet. The door shuts were very tatty so that was to be tackled first.

2010_0713carrebuild0015.jpg


To be continued......
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Our 2200 use to get water in the offside footwells. I finally traced it to holes in the inner sill which had been plugged with bodyfiller & the water was seeping through it. One of the seatmounts had to be cut off to weld the sill up, which was probably one reason why it was not done earlier.
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

How far do you plan to go with the work? I was thinking that the rust on the base unit doesn't look too bad in the pictures. Is it mostly surface rust that you coul scrub up and treat?
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

After removing all the rust from the shuts, rust convertor was applied and then filled. We decided that 2 pack paint would give a better finish than aerosol so a few coats were applied then new door sill rubbers fitted to replace the old ones.

DSC06175.jpg


DSC06176.jpg


After the carpets were completely removed all that was required was a complete rub down on the floor and rust convertor applied then a few coats of aerosol underseal to protect the metalwork.

2010_0713carrebuild0016.jpg


2010_0716rover0009.jpg


2010_0716rover0016.jpg


2010_0716rover0015.jpg


2010_0719rover0005.jpg


2010_0719rover0008.jpg


At this point my stay in Ireland was coming to an end so we replaced all the door seal rubbers and wing rubbers and splash seals and then re-fitted the wings. Whillst I was at home my dad fitted and adjusted the doors but when he water tested the car the leak was still apparant. When he looked inside the car water was running down one of the c-pillar trims and then down the wheel arch. It turned out that the worst leak was from the sunroof and the box that it slid into.

2010_1126sunroof0002.jpg


2010_1126sunroof0007.jpg


We had thought of repairing this box but after much advice from mebers of this forum we decided to replace the roof for a solid panel and managed to source a roof and headling.

Fast forward to this week and we have started the roof transplant. The old one has been removed and the base unit cleaned of all the old sealant, but when we removed the chrome trim on the drivers a-pillar we found the first bit of rot on the car :(

DSC06156.jpg


DSC06154.jpg


We have the car booked in next week with a local welder to cut out the rot and replace with good metal. in the meantime we have been prepping the replacement roof for fitting the new vinyl.

DSCF2095.jpg


DSC06157.jpg


DSC06162.jpg


Tomorrow morning we are going to attempt to fit the new vinyl, watch this space :)
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

JVY said:
How far do you plan to go with the work? I was thinking that the rust on the base unit doesn't look too bad in the pictures. Is it mostly surface rust that you coul scrub up and treat?

I was obviously typing the second part to this thread when you wrote your reply :D , but you are right it was only superficial. Its tidy now and you can now see how far we have got; the plan is to sort out the roof and get it watertight as we have brand bew carpets from coverdale to fit and all the seats have been cleaned. I travel back to the UK in a few weeks so my dad wants a useable car by then. There are some other jobs to do but the priority is the interior.
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Well done - looks like you've made some real improvememts there. Don't know if you've seen my "JVY MOT 2011" thread but my A-pillars had rotted in the same spot :D . From what the experienced guys on this forum said it is a common rot spot. What kind of rust converter did you use? From the pic's it looks like it did a good job.
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Funnily enough I have been following your thread with interest and of course when we removed the trim yesterday my Dad panicked but I said that another guy on the forum had the same problem and that its repairable. Its seems like a bad water trap. Actually the sunroof drain pipes at the front run down the front of the a-pillars but didnt cause any rot. We shall see what happens next week when they are repaired.

The rust convertor is Loctite rust remedy and it was brillant stuff :) All the base unit work you see was done last summer and has been left until now and no rust has returned. I would recommend that stuff :)
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Hi Mike

That really is good work you have been doing there! The result must be very satisfying.

I'm glad you've found the achiles heel of the P6 under the A post trims. I presume you will have the screen out prior to letting your welder loose on the rust there? That will mean you have the front decker panel at the bottom of the screen off too. At that stage you will also be close to having access to another of the less well known rust points that let water into the interior. The apron below the screen is vulnerable to rust if there have been any leaks at the top of the screen. Water seems to run down the inside of the screen and find its way into the foam rubber pad that the screen sits against the base unit on. In extreeme cases this can also extend down into the area between the base unit and the heater. See if you can get a good look at this area with the heater in place (it really is a very tricky job uncoupling the control levers to get it out - and of course the converse is also true. A real case of "assembly is the reverse of dismantling" - Not!) For come pictures have a look at Testriders thread:

http://www.classicroverforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=8987&start=75

Chris
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Looking good Mike

It's good to have such a big space to work in too. I was slightly amused to see that you left the seat runner in after removing the driver's seat. You obviously found it easier to remove that way. I usually just unscrew the 4 large philips screws at the corners of the runners and lift the whole thing out.

That underseal on the floor pan does look good too :D Makes it much easier when tracing leaks too.

It's always good to see the condition of other cars and pick up on the more common areas for rot etc so keep up the good work. I look forward to reading more as you progress.

Dave
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

chrisyork said:
Hi Mike

That really is good work you have been doing there! The result must be very satisfying.

I'm glad you've found the achiles heel of the P6 under the A post trims. I presume you will have the screen out prior to letting your welder loose on the rust there?

Chris

Hi Chris,

You may be horrified to hear that we aren't going to remove the screen! It is something that we have thought about and discussed with Aiden our welder. However, talking to my Dad this morning after reading your comments we think it would be prudent to remove the screen and check the condition underneath. If it is rotten then that can be repaired at the same time. How difficult is the windscreen to remove and would you recommend a new seal when refitting and some form of sealant?

Dave3066 said:
Looking good Mike

It's good to have such a big space to work in too. I was slightly amused to see that you left the seat runner in after removing the driver's seat. You obviously found it easier to remove that way. I usually just unscrew the 4 large philips screws at the corners of the runners and lift the whole thing out.

Dave
Hi Dave,

Well spotted :) The reason the runners were left in was due to the fact that the captive nuts in the seat mounts were loose and the bolts kept spinning, so we removed the seat then took ages to 'trap' the nuts to remove the runner. I forgot to say that is another job for our welder to fix :D

Thanks for all the encouraging comments though guys :)
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

chrisyork said:
See if you can get a good look at this area with the heater in place (it really is a very tricky job uncoupling the control levers to get it out - and of course the converse is also true. A real case of "assembly is the reverse of dismantling" - Not!)
Chris

I must say that I've never had a problem here. Glove lockers off & a tiny socket taped in place on the end of a long flat-bladed screwdriver & the jobs a good'un. The nuts only have to be loosened enough to release the fork fittings.
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Well it was decided to remove the windscreen and what a simple job that turned out to be, didn't even need to remove the bonnet as per the workshop manual. We shall see how tricky the refit is.

After seeing Testriders thread about the rot under his windscreen we were relieved to find nothing but solid metal :D I also think that we can rest easy when the A-pillars are welded now the screen isnt there to be damaged. You can see on the pictures below that under the rubber in front of the dash top it is all nice and clean. Might have to replace the foam, its a bit crusty.

DSC06182.jpg

DSC06188.jpg

DSC06187.jpg

DSC06189.jpg
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Well some work has progressed. Finally the welding to the A pillar and seat bracket has been finished so work can now commence on fitting the roof.

DSC06200.jpg


Whilst waiting for the welding to be done we have fully vinyled the roof and for a first attempt it looks very good. We did start off with a pot of glue but was very difficult to apply so we switched to spray adhesive which made things so much easier 8)

Also this week we took on the job of replacing the rear shocks and springs and other than a few little issues with missing bushes it has all been fitted.

DSC06209.jpg

Nearside rear before replacement.

DSC06208.jpg

Offside rear all new and shiny. Also the keen eyed ones will have noticed no bumps stops on either side. That will have to be addressed.

One of the main reasons for changing the springs and dampers other than the fact they were seriously old was the fact that the car sat lower on the drivers side at the rear. Unfortunately we still have the same problem after changing to new suspension??? We need to crack on with the other jobs so I will have to come back to that one later but if anyone has any suggestions then that would be a great help :)
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Ther are packing pieces that fit under the springs to alter the ride height.
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Awesome, Mike. Great work going on there. Sometimes it all seems a bit overwhelming, as I've found, but you just have to keep plugging away.

Right, time to head out to the garage!
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

WarrenL said:
Awesome, Mike. Great work going on there. Sometimes it all seems a bit overwhelming, as I've found, but you just have to keep plugging away.

Right, time to head out to the garage!

Thanks for the encouragement Warren, but you are right, its seems like I am always dismantling things and not putting anything back :roll:

Taking on board Harveys advice about 'bleeding' the shocks I removed both of them, pumped them up and down and refitted them. There does seem to be an improvement but still have a bit of a shimmy at the front but fortunately I have new front shocks to fit so we will see if that cures it altogether.

Thanks Chris for the link about the ride height. I shall Have a read of that later :)
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

At last, the new roof has been fitted without any dramas. It looks so much better than the old roof with the sunroof.

DSC06223.jpg

DSC06224.jpg


I think I may have also solved my ride height problem 8) Whilst I was in the back of the car fitting the roof screws I heard a knocking noise and looked down to find the top of the damper moving about in the mount :shock: We thought that we had tightened the top nut up but in fact it was tightened as far as the thread would allow and as it turns out because we re-fitted the old top bushes they don't fill the gap between the bodywork and the nut! The difference in ride height at the back is roughly 1/2", and as it turns out a new bush is about the same size, I think fitting that will take up the 'slack' :wink: I will have to order some replacements on Monday.
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

Mikep said:
I think I may have also solved my ride height problem 8) Whilst I was in the back of the car fitting the roof screws I heard a knocking noise and looked down to find the top of the damper moving about in the mount :shock: We thought that we had tightened the top nut up but in fact it was tightened as far as the thread would allow and as it turns out because we re-fitted the old top bushes they don't fill the gap between the bodywork and the nut! The difference in ride height at the back is roughly 1/2", and as it turns out a new bush is about the same size, I think fitting that will take up the 'slack' :wink: I will have to order some replacements on Monday.

Errrr......I doubt it, after all if you removed the damper altogether the suspension wouldn't collapse. The spring supports the weight of the car, the damper is only there to dampen the spring.
 
Re: A gentle rebuild of my 3500

harveyp6 said:
Mikep said:
I think I may have also solved my ride height problem 8) Whilst I was in the back of the car fitting the roof screws I heard a knocking noise and looked down to find the top of the damper moving about in the mount :shock: We thought that we had tightened the top nut up but in fact it was tightened as far as the thread would allow and as it turns out because we re-fitted the old top bushes they don't fill the gap between the bodywork and the nut! The difference in ride height at the back is roughly 1/2", and as it turns out a new bush is about the same size, I think fitting that will take up the 'slack' :wink: I will have to order some replacements on Monday.

Errrr......I doubt it, after all if you removed the damper altogether the suspension wouldn't collapse. The spring supports the weight of the car, the damper is only there to dampen the spring.

I hadn't thought of it that way :oops: Maybe I got carried away with myself thinking I have solved all my problems :?
 
Back
Top