New owner in Melbourne, Australia.

T

tvr_v8

New Member
Hi All,
Collected my first P6B yesterday, 04/1976 compliance NZ CKD built 3500 auto in "French Blue".

It's going to be an ongoing restoration project as it's in a bit of a state at the moment but is structurally sound with very little rust found from current investigations, (as with all projects I'm waiting till i get it stripped down before i breathe a full sigh of relief at lack of metal worm).

Mechanically it has had an engine swap at some stage in the past and is running a later slightly bored out balanced Range Rover 355 numbered lump (so i'm told - again i'll wait till i've pulled it apart before i'm sure of exactly what has been done to it) with a high torque cam and the trans apparently has a Jag valve block in it.

The interior looks like a large Rotweiler has had a fit in there, and the paint has quite definately seen better days but both of those are thankfully quite easly fixable. It'll need a new bonnet as it's quite badly bent out of shape and i think one of the front outer wings will need to be replaced as it's looking a bit rotten.

Spec wise it has a cloth interior that will be swapped out as quickly as possible for something that looks less likely to give you rabies, PAS, aircon, roof mounted antenna etc.

It has joined 2 other Rover v8 powered occupants in my garage, a 1998 TVR Chimaera and a 1999 Land Rover Discovery 2. I also have 3 non-Rover v8 powered forms of transport, a 2003 Range Rover Vogue, 1995 Jaguar XJ6 Sovereign and lastly a 1977 BMW 633 CSI coupe.

Anyway, just thought I would say a quick hi and introduce myself to the forums.

Thanks,


Al

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Hello Al,

Welcome to the forum and to the experience that is P6 ownership. The P6 in Australia tends to fare extremely well indeed when it comes to keeping largely free of rust, so unless one has spent a fair bit of time by the sea it should be pretty good. Do you see many Rovers about in Melbourne these days? You don't see too many around in Sydney these days either.

Nice collection of cars that you have there too!
Ron.
 
Hey Al

Welcome from across the ditch that's quite a shed-full !!! but beware P6s are addictive and unbelievably good value for what is a real good quality interesting classic ,you may need room for more!I guess you know about Scotts Old Rubber spare parts right on your doorstep.
Enjoy your new project look forward to seeing how she progresses.

Cheers Phil.
 
Hi Al, Welcome aboard!

Bit of a state or not, I'd like to see a picture of your interior for the A/C set up at least. I'm always intrigued by Wellington built cars.

Nice stable you have there - I particularely envy the 6 series, the only BMW with real class in my opinion!

Chris
 
chrisyork said:
Hi Al, Welcome aboard!

I'm always intrigued by Wellington built cars.


Chris
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So would i be were it true but alas the assembly plant was in Sunny Nelson

Graeme
 
Thanks guys,

Nope, they are quite a rare sight in Melbourne too, there's a tired looking SD1 being driven by a surprisingly sprightly looking little old lady who lives somewhere vaguely in the viscinity that i see from time to time, but other than that i can't recall the last time i saw a Rover of any vintage older than the modern 75s/MG ZTs etc.

Yep, the chap i bought the P6 from told me about Scotts in Oakleigh, only about 15 mins from me and should come in handy soon as the weather seals at the bottom of the side windows and seal around the base of the panel below the rear screen are complete toast.

Here are a couple of pics of the interior with the aircon setup, it doesn't work, doesn't look like it was ever converted from R12 and the compressor belt has been removed so I am tempted to remove it totally. Did all the NZ built cars shipped to Oz have aircon? If not I think i'll remove it and replace with the non-aircon trim parts instead if it'd be in keeping with some level of originality.

I also had a quick zip over a couple of sections of paintwork giving it a very quick cut back to see what it's like under the thick layer of milky oxidation, and i must admit i'm actually quite pleasantly surprised. It's nowhere near as bad as i thought, much darker than it first appeared and has convinced me definately to keep the same colour.

Not sure what to do about the wheels, think the ones on the car at the mo are from an SD1, quite fancy a set of Minilite style i think.

Cheers,

Al

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Is that a jubilee clip on the gear knob - just right to cut your hand !

Not seen an aircon unit like that before - definitely keep it even if you can't get it working
 
By all accounts, most if not all of the late NELSON (thank you) built cars had A/C retro fitted by the dealers when they got to Australia. Your wheels are early SD1 3500 "S" spec. These seem to have been fitted as OE by Nelson. April '76 would have been just about as SD1 production ramped up in the UK and Rover were shipping large batches of CKD cars to Nelson to keep Austarlia going until they had had the SD1 approved for production down under. I guess alloy wheels were one way of keeping the car "fresh" until the SD1 came along.

Chris
 
DaveHerns wrote,...
Not seen an aircon unit like that before - definitely keep it even if you can't get it working
Click to expand...

A friend of mine owns a 74 P6B ex New Zealand, and it has exactly the same air conditioner. The glove boxes have to be cut down in order to fit it in.

Hello Al,

When I was in Melbourne in the late 1980s I would often see Rovers like these parked in driveways leading to expensive properties in Toorak and South Yarra or sharing a spot with a Jaguar or Porsche on the pebbles in front of the house. I wonder if they have all be sold on or ultimately scrapped or if they are still about but just not used much these days? My Rover is a daily driver and I know of a few others including a P4 which do the same, but ultimately they are few and far between, so its always nice when you see another one.

Ron.
 
Thanks guys, both the wheels and the airconditioner stay in that case to preserve the originality.

When having a look through the "Leyland Passport To Service" :) I found the original manual and warranty slip for the air conditioner, this type is apparently a Uniclo "Climb Air" and the unit in my car was fitted on the 7th April 1977 when it had 47km on the clock, shortly before the car was delivered to its first owner on the 20th May 1977.

We're only -slightly- outside the 12 month warranty period on the certificate that was with the cars documentation so i wonder if the place that fitted it are still around if they'll maybe extend it a little beyond the 12mths/12,000 miles and fix it for me now 33 years later... :)

Cheers,

Al

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That looks like a nice solid motor you have there... I must say I do rather like P6's on early SD1 alloys. I do not know why they were not offered as an option on UK P6's as the design for them must've been finalised by about 1972...!!! Anyhow, what are your plans for this old beast...?!
 
Thanks, I'm planning on treating it as a restoration project over winter as well as it being a learning experience for me getting to hopefully tackle some jobs that I've never done before.

I've just (mostly) finished restoring the 6 series BMW which was in a bit of a state when I got it, cheese grater style floor pans that the flintstones would have been proud of, completely non working electrics, and any bit of rubber through the car basically was totally shot. Previous owners had also taken a bit of a freestyle approach to replacement parts used so a lot of time was spent tracking down the right suspension/braking etc components to bring the car back up to scratch.

My thinking is that the Rover is probably going to be a similar experience, i'm planning on attempting a full respray on it myself for the first time which will no doubt take a couple of attempts for me to get right, any mechanical work it'll need doing and obviously I'm planning on giving it a complete new interior, carpets, etc. I'm planning on probably doing a full stripdown and rebuild on the motor, again because it'll be the first time I've attempted a full rebuild and also it'll be good knowledge that I can transfer to working on the Discovery and TVR - the later of which i am always petrified of working on since it's basically my child.. :)

Anyway, thanks for the advice & info so far guys, I'll start a thread in the Projects area of the forums keepng track of my progress as the work gets going.... Looking forward to getting stuck in!!

Thanks,

Al
 
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