pjb1969 said:
Im collecting it next week and i must admit before i joined the forum i hadn`t realised just how rare one this early was, im getting quite excited, i hope its savable without too much greif so i can get it back to its former glory.Ive been trawling the net for p6 pics and although theres some great looking cars of all years i realy like the clean look of the series one cars.
Now i want to find out as much as i can about this and other early cars including all the details that make them different to the later cars.
Thanks for all the kind comments and information
Paul.
The good news is that the earlier cars are much better put together and made of better, and thicker, steel.
As Chris says - gearboxes can be a problem. There was a major disaster at the start of production which was very much played down, but could well have threatened the whole project - the gearboxes supplied by the new Government funded plant in Pengram, South Wales, were not up to standard and hundreds of early 2000's had to have rebuilt gearboxes fitted in the Summer of '64 by the workforce at Solihull.
Very early cars (up to around number 1000) have Rover Solihull boxes, which are OK. After that there were big problems which delayed production and deliveries for several months. The whole workforce - office workers included - were drafted in to replace boxes in a lot of cars.
You can tell a car with a rebuilt/corrected box by the orange paint on the top. My September 1964 car has the paint clearly visible (although you really need to take the box out to see this).
Dunlop brakes are, contrary to what you may hear elsewhere, really good - and the parts are available as they have commonality with Mk III Zodiacs and, more helpfully, E-Type Jaguars. I have bought a lot of Dunlop bits from Past Parts at Bury St. Edmunds and they are very reasonably priced - the only scarce bits are the front discs, which are unique to Rover 2000's. With a larger servo the brakes feel fantastic. I think the best cars to drive of them all are circa 1965/1966 cars with the big servo and the original breathers etc.
The Rover 2000 is a pretty quick car, and the early ones have no complex engine breathers to sap power. My white 2000 is quite restrained, but will cruise at 90mph, as they were designed to do.
Please pipe up if you have any queries - I'm fairly knowledgable, and I have friends who are devoted to early cars and have lots of experience of them.
Cheers
Nick