New wheels

NickDunning

NickDunning

Active Member
After owning the same two cars for five years (my 1964 2000 and HUC, my 2200 auto) In February I was offered, and bought back my old V8, NXC, with the intent of using it for a spot of caravan towing for shows etc.

The ever reliable HUC has moved on to a great new owner who I know will take better care of the car than I've been able to.

This appeared all sorted and I was just about to get some paintwork and tyres done on NXC, when I got a call out of the blue to go and see a gent in Eastbourne who wanted to move on his long-term owned 3500 as he's been unable to spend any time on the car.

Travelling down there a few weeks ago I didn't have high expectations until the garage door opened....and staring at me was a 1969 Three Thousand Five. Now I've only owned one of these before, a very scruffy one for a very short while, and always craved another, but you really only now see dead ones or restored beauties - they seem to have had harder lives than a lot of P6's.

To top it, the car is Guildford registered and fully loaded. Took me about two minutes to decide on an abrupt change of plan regarding my fleet.

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Spot the extreme rarity on UK cars....AED (Rover's notorious automatic choke). It's all in working order.

When the former owner stripped the car down for rustproofing purposes many years ago he found a large 'AED' scrawled in yellow chalk behind the rear wing, quite probably from the factory when she was being built in April 1969.

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Now here's something I've never seen before. As the car has an AED there is no choke warning light. It's just blank.

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The seats are perfect under the 1970's covers.

I was truly ecstatic to find the car and now own two Rover White tax free P6's. She's by no means perfect cosmetically and will need new front wings in due course, but the structure is perfect and unwelded, and she has really been loved by her previous owners, who were very upset to see her go. My current thinking is quite possibly an outing to Clive Annables for a respray in the future - and also sort out the nasty ding in the bonnet.

We should have an MOT on her next week. Spent the morning going over the car and there hopefully should be no hinderances to getting back on the road.

Highly delighted is not quite the word.

Cheers
Nick
 
That does look very nice!

I think the series 1 V8's went through the "banger" phase before the modern classic movement got interested in them, and that time was around the the time of the petrol crisis in the seventies, so a lot were made into washing machines and fridges because of those two things happening at around the same time. The 4 pot cars were more plentiful, and less affected by the cost of fuel, so were less affected, and hence survived better.
 
harveyp6 said:
That does look very nice!

I think the series 1 V8's went through the "banger" phase before the modern classic movement got interested in them, and that time was around the the time of the petrol crisis in the seventies, so a lot were made into washing machines and fridges because of those two things happening at around the same time. The 4 pot cars were more plentiful, and less affected by the cost of fuel, so were less affected, and hence survived better.
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That's an extremely good insight Harvey. There were under 25k Series 1 V8's total, of which just under 17k were home market, so there weren't really that many to start off with!

I was delighted to see seven of them at the National Rally, if mine gets there this year there'll be at least eight!

Cheers
Nick
 
Thanks Rich
I'll print off your wants list this week and go through it with Duncan. Speak soon.
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That'd be great when you get a chance ( i still have plenty to do so no rush ;) )

I was delighted to see seven of them at the National Rally, if mine gets there this year there'll be at least eight!
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PAE will be there by hook or by crook too ;)


Rich.
 
hi nick,
very nice looking car indeed. the NADA's choke light was replaced with fuel and obviously lit up when the reserve cable was pulled. you could always do that i have a spare plastic that says fuel and i would have thought will fit in there.

ian
 
josephp6man said:
hi nick,
very nice looking car indeed. the NADA's choke light was replaced with fuel and obviously lit up when the reserve cable was pulled. you could always do that i have a spare plastic that says fuel and i would have thought will fit in there.

ian
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Wow. I'll give that some thought Ian.

Cheers
Nick
 
Hello Nick,

That does look nice... :D Bet you woke up the next morning and though,..no I wasn't dreaming,..it is true!

The series 1 Rovers are not at all common in Australia, only ever having seen a few at the Rover display days.

Ron.
 
DaveHerns said:
What are the seats like under those very 70's furry seat covers ?
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As far as I can see they're mint. I feel a bit guilty taking things off the car at the moment as the previous owner and his wife were so attached to it. The covers are staying on for now. They're very funky :D

Another item I have taken off was the rear windscreen P6ROC sticker with the membership secretary shown as Sandy Chambers, who was the wife of Eddy Chambers, a true legend for his part in organising the notorious outing to Antwerp in 1989-ish. The stories I've heard about that one could be made into a highly amusing film.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
Hello Nick,

That does look nice... :D Bet you woke up the next morning and though,..no I wasn't dreaming,..it is true!
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Exactly. I couldn't believe it. And until I actually picked it up last weekend I still was in shock!
 
Very nice indeed Nick,it looks almost like new inside. I remember reading one of your post some time ago when you said you would love a series 1 V8, and now you have one. It looks a real beauty. Congrats 8)
 
I am so jealous, what a beauty that is. In New Zealand we may have a stock of execelent mostly rust free cars however we dont often see cars with the options fitted that you do in the UK being mostly base models sold here, indeed you are lucky to see any sundym fitted cars let alone the myriad of exotic options that prior to finding this forum I never knew existed.

graeme
 
That's gorgeous Nick, I'm envious too. :mrgreen: Nice colour scheme and all the right options.
Couple of questions. Is the hole for the choke cable blanked off or was there just no hole to begin with? And what is the extra switch by the HRW switch for and the red square thingy on the wood to the right of the instruments?
How long was the AED supposed to be fitted for? I don't think I've even seen a picture of one in a UK P6B before, only NADAs.
 
Looks like a Kenlowe fan switch on the right of the speedo & I can't see any sign of a hole where the choke-pull would normally be so it could be it wasn't cut in the first place, very cool.
AED's are normally rubbish though. :wink:
 
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