Ex Rover P6/P6B employee

Demetris said:
Davey, on what year did all this happened?
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Demetris , It would be 71 or 72 wish i could be more specific ,tried googling it but got nothing !


The time and study dept.
We were told that the road testers were going to be timed on their job ,so they would have a target to get each day, silly idea as each car could need 1 or many laps of the test track to pinpoint a problem.
The day arrive and a suited gent with stopwatch and clipboard came in to the shop , the testers had picked Arthur a nice quiet chap but a top driver , a nice P6BS also had been saved ,we all watched as the gent clicked his watch saying" start ", Arthur opened the bonnet checking fluids before getting in and starting the car,the time and study guy got into the passenger side and they slid out of the test shop and onto the road leading to the test track.
ten minutes later Arthurs coming back into the shop, you could feel the heat coming off the bonnet , but he was on his own! we were all asking how he got on, and with a big smile he said "I dropped him off at the surgery he felt a bit sick!!"
The time and study never came back.. sense or sickness had prevailed.
 
Thanks Dave, that's accurate enough for me, i have never heard or read anything before about that fire anyway.

Like the others said, keep the stories coming whenever you feel like. :D
 
davey one said:
Demetris said:
Davey, on what year did all this happened?
Click to expand...

Demetris , It would be 71 or 72 wish i could be more specific ,tried googling it but got nothing !


The time and study dept.
We were told that the road testers were going to be timed on their job ,so they would have a target to get each day, silly idea as each car could need 1 or many laps of the test track to pinpoint a problem.
The day arrive and a suited gent with stopwatch and clipboard came in to the shop , the testers had picked Arthur a nice quiet chap but a top driver , a nice P6BS also had been saved ,we all watched as the gent clicked his watch saying" start ", Arthur opened the bonnet checking fluids before getting in and starting the car,the time and study guy got into the passenger side and they slid out of the test shop and onto the road leading to the test track.
ten minutes later Arthurs coming back into the shop, you could feel the heat coming off the bonnet , but he was on his own! we were all asking how he got on, and with a big smile he said "I dropped him off at the surgery he felt a bit sick!!"
The time and study never came back.. sense or sickness had prevailed.
Click to expand...

Im loving your yarns
I could never get that BBQ smell out of my car !!
 
:roll: I could never get that BBQ smell out of my car !!

Sorry GRTV8 I told them the smell would stay for ever when they gave that Almond P6B a quick blow over the charred body and sent it out!!LOL
 
Lost Rovers found!
I was on days at the time, and had progressed from a factory floater to a "snagger" on the end of stage two , basicly just had to get the car started if there were any problems ,change the odd speedo ,leaks,reroute a few wires etc.
About 10 o'clock the P6 supervisor Bill Mc cloud came over to me and said "put your tool kit in my car and 6 built up with keys right hand steering columns" ,after a long argument with the chap that sub assemblies the columns (he only made up the right number l+r for the day ) I had all the colums tools etc in Bills boot .
Off we went to a small village about 10 miles away, by now Bill had explained stolen Rovers was were we were going.
We arrive at a line of lock up garages a couple of "jam sandwich" police cars greeted us, police had most of the lockup doors open , A new p6 parked in each one,it was at this point i had to tell Bill that the st/column top bolts heads shear off as its torqued up as a deterrent and there is no power here to drill them out!,all i could try and do is undo the bottom ones slacken the uj bolt and pull it off the splines at least you could move them.
Apparently there were only two or three people involved, no computers in those days ,the guy doing the build sheets duplicated a car and once it was built and in the park for delivery destroyed all paper work ,the ferry driver had some false paper work to drive it out the gate.
How was it all found out....the trade plates in the UK are red and white and there is a saying red on white stop on site ( and its true i used to have a set when i was selling cars in cornwall and the police do stop you a lot) so they stopped this stolen Rover on its way up North (i was told a couple of Rover dealers were involved )and the guy spilled the beans .
 
Hi Dave,

Thanks for pointing me to your intro thread. (I don't know how I missed it!). Love the story about stolen P6's I had a friend of mine talk about the massive amount of cars stolen from Chevy's Ohio plant back in the 70-80's.

You mentioned mistakes in production. I've taken over a friend's '69 NADA 2000TC. He ordered it brand new in 69 with factory AC and rostyles in Arden Green. After a wait for the car to be delivered he gets a call from the dealer. "Mr. Copeland, your car has arrived. But, there's a small problem". Turns out they had sent a Zircon Blue car! The trim plate listed the car as Arden Green, but everything, baseunit and outer panels were all blue. His wife said, "We're not waiting any longer! We'll take it!"

Here's a pic of Rowland with his car a couple of years back. He's a great guy but not able to drive any longer.
 

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What a great thread; some really good info. and stories. Any more?

How did I miss it first time?
 
sdibbers said:
Hi Dave,

Thanks for pointing me to your intro thread. (I don't know how I missed it!). Love the story about stolen P6's I had a friend of mine talk about the massive amount of cars stolen from Chevy's Ohio plant back in the 70-80's.

You mentioned mistakes in production. I've taken over a friend's '69 NADA 2000TC. He ordered it brand new in 69 with factory AC and rostyles in Arden Green. After a wait for the car to be delivered he gets a call from the dealer. "Mr. Copeland, your car has arrived. But, there's a small problem". Turns out they had sent a Zircon Blue car! The trim plate listed the car as Arden Green, but everything, baseunit and outer panels were all blue. His wife said, "We're not waiting any longer! We'll take it!"

Here's a pic of Rowland with his car a couple of years back. He's a great guy but not able to drive any longer.
Click to expand...

Hi Sdibbers, Cant see how this happend , and if it was not for the trim plate i would have said the dealer just needed to sell that Zircon one , as it has the right trim (black) not sure if black was ever in Arden green? anyway this is how it all worked, the paint shop would do a color run (say Arden green)it would last about 2 days ,all the cars on the production line would be that color ,all the NADA /FEDS were then spaced every 6 car as they needed more work , inspectors would be checking the large job sheets for specs and the colour was stamped across the top of the build sheet , being a NADA even though the AC was fitted on the line it would have gone to the AC shop to be gassed then on to the shaker house for suspension checks ,stage 3 panel line/stage 4 final line/valet line , inspectors at ever station would check that car it would be impossible for a car to get through the system with the wrong trim plate fitted , he would have a problem licence it in US ?paper work and plate would say green LOL .
It will remain a mystery i think , but the Zircon was a nice colour.
 
Funny you mentioned the registration problem. I remember his wife saying they had problems with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission for just that problem. The dealer had to take it in to be inspected in the end!

It's great hearing how all this worked Dace, thanks so much for this.

Regards,

Steven
 
sdibbers said:
Funny you mentioned the registration problem. I remember his wife saying they had problems with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission for just that problem. The dealer had to take it in to be inspected in the end!

It's great hearing how all this worked Dace, thanks so much for this.

Regards,

Steven
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No worries Steve, perhaps if we had the vin number still someone on here could check to see if it matched to what colour
 
tonys said:
What a great thread; some really good info. and stories. Any more?

How did I miss it first time?
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Hi Tony, yes , after ten years there are lots , its just a matter of picking the informative and funny ones, i will have a think and put up one soon, any questions people have just put them up .
 
Row had it resprayed a few years ago. The match was a little off to my eyes. I don't think modern two pack can match the earth tones you get in cellulose paint.
 
tonys said:
What a great thread; some really good info. and stories. Any more?

How did I miss it first time?
Click to expand...
Hi Tony , Heres a funny but could have been dangerous story, The Rover company had a policy of employing a percentage of disabled persons one of which was a nice young lad called Gilbert he had a metal hand and worked near the end of stage two his job was put 2 gallons of fuel in the car (it was still a base unit at this point) tighten the battery ,fill the rad and something else that i cannot remember ,anyway that day i was snagging on the end of stage two ,Gilbert put the pipe in the filler tank tube in the boot (the petrol bowser would deliver 2 gallons automatically) then started filling the rad , now this was in the days of changing from pos earth to neg earth maybe he got mixed up i am not sure , but there was a bang and a flash ...Gilbert had managed to weld his metal hand to the servo bracket ..i had to smile untill i saw the petrol bowser pipe was now stretched between the pump and the car and the track was still moving at 12 an hour , if it did snap it would be a killer warp with the gun still on the end or there was going to be lot of fuel spewing out. There was a emergence stop at the end of stage two so i smashed the glass knowing it would stop the track but there was a bells ringing now? someone shouted "its still moving" looking back i realized i had smashed the fire alarm ....dash back and finally smash the track stop , so there we were Gilberts had by now detached himself, the Rover fire engines and crews had arrived, no one was game to go near the now really stretched pipe , in the end the maintenance turn the power off to the pump and wound the track back manually Yes under the track there was a handle that could engage a low range gearbox to do this , typical Rover thinking.
 
Good story - I guessed where it might be going when I saw the words 'metal hand' and 'battery' together :) A reversible line, now that was forward thinking by someone.
 
Please keep them coming, davey one. I am sure that many members enjoy the stories, even though they might not comment on them. I am certainly finding them very very interesting. Many thanks for those that you have posted so far.

Dane.
 
Demetris said:
Davey, on what year did all this happened?
Click to expand...
Found this on facebook

A fierce fire at the £10m. Rover car factory in Solihull, Warwickshire, last night, was tackled by more than 50 firemen in the trim shop area where new vehicles are assembled. After early reports put the damage as up to £200,000, Lord Stokes, chairman and managing director of British Leyland. said later: “We hope it is not as serious as we first thought, but obviously we will have to wait and see.”
As far as he knew only the the stores of the trim shop had been badly damaged. It was “very difficult ‘ to give any estimate, this depending on what could be salvaged. He added: “I am going there first thing in the morning.”
When the fire started workers rushed in and rescued 40 new models of the Rover 2000 and Rover 3500, valued at about £50,000. Lord Stokes praised their action saying: “I understand people going in on the night shift got the cars clear. They did a very good job indeed.”
Police sealed off the 300 foot by 600-foot trim shop, and after an hour and a half it was contained by the fire brigade. But conditions made it impossible for any work to be carried out, and the 700 workers were sent home. An official of Rovers said that the assembly line had not been damaged and production would be on the move again this morning. It was hoped to resume full production by Monday.
He said the managing director of Rovers, Mr. A. B. Smith, had discounted a theory that the fire had been caused by a firework as, “a load of nonsense”. The company carried out a detailed investigation throughout the night, and this was continuing today.
 
He must have had a shock when he saw so many cars gutted , first i have heard about worker saving 40 cars as it started in between shifts so no workers were there .when i got there we drove about 5 out the rest went up in flames on stage 4 . still did not say the year it happand
 
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