New V8 auto project.

K

KiwiRover

Active Member
Right, for those of you who didn't see the other post, I have just returned from a two week camping holiday up north away from civilisation and technology and while I was away, I managed to buy another Rover over the internet. :shock:
It was totally sight unseen and described as having sat in a shed for at least a year so very dusty with a few rust bubbles and running rough. How could I resist? From the few pictures on the auction, I could see that it had a badge bar and factory air conditioning which was enough for me and anything else would be a bonus. Heres what I wound up with:
'72 V8 auto, UK assembled for the home market and privately imported into NZ in 1994. Speedo reads about 60000 miles which could be genuine.
Davos white paint which was redone not that long ago and is in reasonable condition, however, there are some trails of rust bubbles in the bottom of 3 doors, a couple of blisters on the bonnet and boot and lf wing and some rust staining here and there.
Toledo red leather interior with teardrop headrests. This is in very good condition with just some creases on the drivers bolster and a couple of split seams. It is all a bit faded but the top of the back seats are not burnt and the carpets are very good. Dash top and steering wheel are also mint.
Tyres are all good, Rear half of exhaust appears new, as does the radiator, rear bumper is perfect, no rust in rear pillars etc.
It is equipped with a number of tasty options: Air conditioning obviously, Sundym tinted glass all round with a HRW and Laminated front screen, Badge bar- fitted with a nice AA badge and an Association of Rover clubs badge. Touring Kit- mostly there but no cover :( , roof aerial attached to the Radiomobile 8 track player.
Bonnet badge is also in very good nick, front bumper is stuffed but I'm sure I have another and the interior light lens is missing.
Underneath appears to be excellent at first glance, It has obviously been loved and garaged for most of it's life. Tomorrow I will clean and try to get it running. :D Anyway, I know how much we all like piccies...
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Hi Pilkie, quite a score I know! It was sitting in the storage facility of a towing company and Honda wreckers. :shock: The guy I dealt with had no idea where it had come from or how long they had had it but I can only assume that it was cleared from a deceased estate or similar and someone thought it was too good for scrap. I think I have a spare wheel cover around somewhere. I had a rummage through my spares tonight and found a nice pair of square 8s and a set of 'S' hubcaps and wheelnuts (Cause they look great on white cars) Also found a good anti-skid mat for the dash, an interior light lens and a proper winguard mirror for the drivers door. Can't wait for tomorrow. I'll go in to work early and get stuck in!
 
AHEM??
When you go to work,shouldn't you be working on customers cars?? :wink:
AH well better go into my office and play with my toys!!
Gotta dodgy inhibitor switch to fix,or replace now its cooled down overnight!!
 
Wow! That's a real gem... I don't suppose you fancy sending it back to the UK...?!
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Not quite ready to do that yet sorry! The shipping costs would probably make it not worth your while anyhow. I think I wound up paying about 1700 pounds to ship my estate out here from UK, plus having to pay a few more little customs clearance fees when it arrived, plus 12.5% GST (VAT to you) on the price of the car AND the shipping!!!
So you'd really want to be keen and it would need to be something special!

But it is another interesting car. It's funny, I always used to read the English classic car mags and drool over all the 'special' cars being restored. Cars with history- prototypes, ex police cars, press demonstrators and such and always thought that there were no really interesting cars down here. But, if you keep looking long and hard enough, they start to turn up. :)
Funnily enough, I had a phone call this morning from a guy who had got my phone number from a wanted ad on Trade-me, wanting to offload a 3500 auto and a 2200TC suitable for spares or repair. I'll have to take a look in a couple of days I guess.
Then, I was scanning NZ Classic Car magazine and there is a '65 2000, tidy, been off the road for a year, Willow green :shock: offers over $500!!! Sadly, it's in the South Island somewhere. A very long way away. Plus, I have no room.

Back on the V8, does anyone know anything about recolouring the interior? It's all getting a bit faded. I know I could give it to the pros and spend twice what I paid for the car but is there a decent DIY, cheap option? Does Vinylkote do a fair job? Does it work on leather? Can you get a close colour match? Anything better?


AHEM??
When you go to work,shouldn't you be working on customers cars??
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I'll get to them eventually. :mrgreen:
 
Woolies do an excellent recolour kit,,
brian-northampton can give you more info as he has done his recently!!
 
Hmm, we don't have Woolies down here. Do they have a website? I'll have to do a bit of research.

You just need a 1969 car now to complete that sig line
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You're right, I hadn't even noticed that! Maybe a nice series one V8? :wink:

I came in to work early this morning and did a bit of fiddling. 'S' hubcaps are fitted, spare wheel returned inside, tyres pumped up, broken wood trim door cap replaced, interior mirror replaced with the dipping type and a quick wash and she looks fantastic! Then, I put in a battery, checked the fluids (all good, and radiator full of green) and she started up almost immediately. :D :D :D
Idles a bit lumpy but oil pressure is very good, all the electrics seem to work (including the radio!) and trans goes into gear and makes it move. If I get time today, I will swap the front bumper, fit the fog lights and put some fresh fuel in the tank. Then maybe tomorrow, a service.
 
Re: New V8 auto project, link

http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/c-117-lea ... ation.aspx

Link above to the Woolies ( leather restore ) site, I used a similar product on a Black leather A-90 Westminster interior that looked far, far worse than yours + seats came up extremely well. The carpet in yours is about 20 shades lighter than new, no suggestions there :mrgreen:

Good score TradeMe has some good deals ( ! ) Most of New Zealands P5B Coupes have made it back to the UK ( just try and find one now )

GW
 
Is this the beginning of KiwiRover's retirement home for old Rover's? We'll be able to find you on Google Earth soon, you'll just have to look for the concentration of 70's coloured roof's and you'll spot it at 25% zoom. Good luck to yer, loving that Toledo red interior too, one of my pair has that. Very fitting for the time.
 
Thanks for the Woolies link, I'll do my homework.

I'm quite peeved that in the Google Earth shot of my house, not a single Rover can be seen :x It's really annoying and I don't know why as my driveway is usually not that clear!I wish they'd warn us when they were taking the pictures, then I could arrange a line up. :D

I'm sure you'd be welcome Chris! It's quite a nice place (if I say so myself!) Still lots of old cars around 'cause they don't rust as badly as the UK, although the majority of our vehicle fleet is 5-15 year old Japanese imports. Yawn.

A bit of progress since this morning. I did swap the front bumper and fit the foglights. (havent wired them up yet though) Then I started it up and drove it home. :D It developed a misfire quite quickly so there is no power but it is extremely smooth and quiet with nary a squeak or rattle. Except for the brakes which squeak quite badly but I have some new front pads downstairs so...
Tomorrow I will give it a bit of a service and tuneup and see if we cab get all 8 doing their thing, also, the trans is leaking onto the exhaust, causing slightly embarassing clouds of smoke to emanate from under the car. :oops: Hopefully, a new pan gasket will sort it. Anyway, more pics:
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Nice before and after shot of the cleaning.
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Looking sharp in the sun. Hadn't done the bumper or fogs yet.
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Interior shot. Man, love the red interior!!! BTW, the radio works!
 
That's cleaned up well
Have you got any 8 track tapes to play in it ?
I had some but left them at my mother's house and she threw them out
 
I have no 8 tracks. I shall have to find some. There are some on Trade me at the moment but they are mostly stuff like Bing Crosby or Christmas Carols :? I'll have to try and find some decent (and preferably British) stuff. Maybe The Who or Status quo, bit of Ozzy perhaps. :)
 
OK, so I was just browsing through James Taylor's fine book and found a couple of points of interest.
"In May '71, inertia front seat belts and air conditioning became extra cost items. Air conditioned cars were invariably fitted with power-assisted steering, a viscous coupled cooling fan, and an electric fuel pump.They were readily distinguishable by a central bonnet scoop which was intended to help air circulate in the rather crowded engine bay. Air conditioning however, was never common on the 3500 and ceased to be available in October '72"
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So it's rare. I knew that but does anybody know how many were built? Less than 1000? 500? Any educated guesses?
PAS-check, electric fuel pump-check, but the fan is a yellow steel standard one and there is no sign of there ever having been a bonnet scoop fitted. James implies that all AC cars had the scoop but the VIPs didn't and I have an AC brochure dated 8.71 that shows a car with no scoop. Anyone know what the story is here? Why were some fitted with scoops and some not?

Point number 2:
"Earls court show, October '71 featured (among others) a 3500. Finished in Davos white with Toledo red trim. Fitted with Air conditioning, Power assisted steering, Sundym tinted glass, heated rear window, spare-wheel carrier on bootlid, front headrests, fog and spotlamps and inertia reel front seat belts"
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OK, now I'm interested! Is there any way of checking chassis number details for this sort of thing? Obviously I will need to do a bit of research on it's history in NZ but that will only go back to '94. And I would have no way of establishing it's UK registration but will the chassis tell us anything?
 
You have to be a bit careful sometimes with Taylor. "ceased to be available in Oct '72" is just plain wrong. It may well have disappeared from the published option lists then, but UK spec cars continued to be built right through to the end of production. What did disappear were the single scoop and NADA style intake system that went with it. I suspect they had been used origionally to use up surplus NADA parts. A/C also cropped up frequently on LHD European cars, particularely towards the end of production when lots of surplus NADA bits seemed to get fitted particularely to German, Swiss and Belgian destined cars. It seems likely this was because the cars were struggling against competion from BMW and Benz, who had credible models by then but weren't so established in the UK.

For UK cars my best guess is that A/C was fitted mainly to cars built for stock and to cars built as company cars for BL employees. You'd certainly need to know your P6's and have a cooperative dealer to order it as a private buyer.

I am intrigued by your comment re that motor show car. Red interiors are really rare on S2's so it is just possible!

Chris
 
"ceased to be available in Oct '72" is just plain wrong.
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I see what you mean. I've just been looking through my sales brochures and it is listed as an option from late '71 through to at least late '74. Oh well.
I've seen a few series 2s with red interiors. Mostly white V8s although a friend of mine used to have a '71 TC in Almond with a red interior. :?
But still, the combination of options listed for the motor show car struck me as interesting. Also, someone thought the car was worth shipping out to NZ which could mark it out as something special, or it could have just had great sentimental value.

Other things that struck me as odd in James' book. He says that Delanair was only available for the 1970 model year, though I'm sure the Yanks had it for a few years before that. And, he says that Lucas square 8s replaced the Cibie fog lights in late '73. I'd always considered the Cibies to be pre '68 ish and square 8s after that. Chrome body first and plastic body later. Any thoughts?


Not a lot of actual progress on the car today. Did manage to get under the front with the waterblaster so that should tidy up a few oil leaks. I did notice that it has a full set of fresh looking Koni classics. :D I've ordered oil and air filters, plugs, points and condenser so they should be in tomorrow. None of them are too bad but the plugs are L87Y which is probably not unrelated to the misfire. I'll change the leads too while I'm at it.
 
Hi kiwirover,
i am very interested in the NADA cars and the english cars that have air-con. there were in 1971-1972 around 15 built with air-con and the centre scoop ( basically to try out on the english market ) it did not take off, but as you say it was still a costed option but without the scoop ( i have owned 2 such cars in saloon form ) and 1 of the three estates that also had it ( that one was a blue one ) i met a guy at a rally once with a white one and red boxplete leather ( those in the know will know that red was never an option in boxpleat for this country ( was for the states ) but this had it. while talking to the guy i found out why. by the time he could afford it they had moved on from flat pleat to boxpleat, but as he was working for rover, he had the costed option of air-con fitted and they did him a set of seats in red in boxpleat. it is things like this that if you were to have bought the car from say the second or third owner, you would have thought that the seats must have been recovered at some point in it's life. there will probably be a lot of other cars about with unique little features like this. 2017 NADA cars were sent to the states, most had air-con ( mine does not ) but it was a costed option. if air-con was fitted, PAS was fitted as well as sundym glass for the USA. due to the emission law in 1970 tightening up and sales not going so well the rest of the 3500S NADA's went into europe as they were allready LHD ( how many not sure ) then in 1977 and the end of production they got rid of the last 77 cars which had been sitting around, ( most rotted away early on in life due to this fact ) badged them VIP's painted 44 in platinum ( metallic silver ) the other 33 in brasilia ( solid brown ) all had air-con, no scoop, impact beams in the doors, huntsman vinyl roof, quarters, boot mount kit, nutmeg headlining and seats ( sdi colour and material ) plus a brown steering wheel.

joseph
 
Hi Joseph, I remember seeing that blue estate on Ebay a few years ago. I was sorely tempted but couldn't raise the funds at that time. :( I hope it found a good home. I have seen at least one car in NZ with red boxpleat vinyl, maybe it was available on export models?
There is at least on genuine NADA V8 here in NZ too. It has AC but was converted to rhd by the guy that imported it.
I don't think there are any VIPs here though, and I have never seen another factory V8 AC unit here other than the NADA.
Did a bit of work on the car today. Replaced the dizzy cap with a good spare one, then replaced the air filters, plugs and leads with new. No more misfire! :D
She runs smooth and sweet! There is still a wee bit of smoke coming from under the car which I think is a leak from the selector shaft seal on the trans. Also, there was a wee bit of grey smoke coming out of the exhaust when I let it idle. It might be nothing, I put $20 of fresh fuel in the car yesterday but it still has a fair bit of 2 year old petrol in it. I might run some flush through the motor when I change the oil though.

I also shelled out for a vehicle history report today. It confirmed that the car is not stolen, (phew!) that it was owned by one person since it's arrival here and that the mileage is genuine. It arrived here with about 37000 miles on it and did about 1000 miles a year. It is now on 55000. It also provided me with the name of the previous owner so I shall have to try and track him down and see if he can shed any light on it's history.
Sadly, I don't think it could have been an Earls Court car as the chassis number suggests that it wasn't built until three quarters of the way through the '72 model year. :(
 
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