penguins p6 3500

That rear bumper is so much nicer without over riders. I used one of those Lucas number plate lamps from a Lotus bumper on my boot lid. Because of the curve of the lid I had to make a shade to stop white light shining rearward. You will be fine as bumper is flat.
Great progress !

yes i will leave the overiders off. we probably have some decent ones somewhere but i will save them for when the customers to purchase when they come back, im re skinning the rear doors as we speak, just waiting for the wet primer on the door shell to dry before the skin goes on
 
Lookin' good! Fill the badge holes on the boot lid too. It'll look great without lettering, I reckon. If you do want to add the badges you can remove the pins and fix them with double-sided sticky tape. No, really! I used some red ever-so-slightly spongy stuff and the badges are still where I stuck 'em eight years later.
 
Lookin' good! Fill the badge holes on the boot lid too. It'll look great without lettering, I reckon. If you do want to add the badges you can remove the pins and fix them with double-sided sticky tape. No, really! I used some red ever-so-slightly spongy stuff and the badges are still where I stuck 'em eight years later.

Yeah but you didn't tell him you drive a RO E 3 00

Its the way I tell 'em :rolleyes:
 
Lookin' good! Fill the badge holes on the boot lid too. It'll look great without lettering, I reckon.

yes all part of the plan, i wont be putting badges back on the front wings either. unless i can find a good bonnet badge which does cost a kidney i might leave that off too. although i do have the option of fitting an S1 bonnet, not sure how that would work without changing everything else
 
the rear doors both had a fair bit of bubbling going on, which i could of cut out and patch welded, but invariably a couple of years down the line it comes back to haunt you, so i decided to reskin them, luckily the rear door frames were in good shape, so it was literally a case of grind the edges, peel the skins away, a quick clean up and on with the new. im loving the way you can just pop P6 doors off and on the hinge posts to check for alignment :)

Amazingly the last time i fitted a door skin was in 1986, to a then one year old escort, that had more rust between the skin and frame than the P6 i bet that escort is long long gone. Back then i would of tack welded the two together, i just used a modern adhesive to bond them and try keep water out. i am trying to do do as much on my car as i can without spending any money, especially as i have no idea when im next going to see a paying customer, but i may just relent and order up some door/glass seals given the window frames are now out and tatty old seals will stand out a mile against new paint
 

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New window rubbers is a no brainer. Deleting the badges from the wings and bonnet will look great. Will you be leaving the vinyl roof, or repainting that as well?
 
New window rubbers is a no brainer. Deleting the badges from the wings and bonnet will look great. Will you be leaving the vinyl roof, or repainting that as well?

roof is in good shape so thats staying for now, And as i will be reskinning/replacing the front doors the door mirrors wont be going back on either
 
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bit more progress, painted rear doors and a NOS passenger front door.
 

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time for an update, its pretty much back together, my DIY paintwork is ok, it looks good until you look hard, there are too many small dinks and imperfections to call it really good, but its clean and shiny and there are no rusty panels on the car, i ended up fitting a new front and rear wing, one nos door and reskinned the other three, the other two wings, decker panel and valances were swapped for better ones, some of the old ones have even gone back into stock! If i wanted i could get a pro to do it again and it wouldnt take a huge effort, but to be honest its how i like to see them, concours doesnt do it for me, i like cars which are nice but clearly used. TBH if it was better i would be afraid to use it, a bit like my everyday road car, when it was an old passat i didnt care, it was a bit scruffy, dirty so i wasnt bothered where i parked it, now i have a beautiful one series i hate parking it anywhere for fear of damage.

still to do paint and body wise is a good clean inside and out and put some number plate lamps back on. lamps because its a German spec bumper, its not perfect, but its good, if it had been a uk bumper i could of sold it 100 times over. ive got overiders but i left them off, to me its a neater cleaner look without, thats the same reason its got early s1 tail lamps, no need for separate reflectors, if i get really daring i might even fit red indicator lenses...

front bumper is a Harrington stainless, on a P6 at least, you cant complain about the fitment, and its really hard to tell teh difference between chrome and stainless, if you look really hard you can see polishing marks, but im happy with it, again ive got overiders, just didnt fit them.
 

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i had noticed a fair bit more drive train "shunt" under throttle on/off off/on conditions since we swapped the gearbox, not surprising i suppose! to day i found the cause(s) the front diff mount was pretty shot, i replaced that with a much better one, and took a leaf out of something we used to do on race bmws rear shocks, and thats reverse the cup washers either side of the bush, thus reducing movement. the second half of the problem is the rear cross member bushes have died, ive ordered a couple of polybushes by way of a fix.
 

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i actually liked the original leather bound steering wheel in my car, but i didnt like using it! my everyday road car has a nice thick well padded very tactile steering wheel, by comparison it felt like i was steering the P6 with a hula hoop! so ive been searching for something aftermarket in a similar vein to the original one, in the end i opted for this 15" mountney wheel, quite cheap and i think looks at home, especially after i stuck the center from an S wheel to it,

what do you recon, i think it looks good and not to far away from what rover intended, but also the thicker rim and smaller diameter it feels way better to drive. just one downside if you ask me, it now masks the instruments slightly, but not enough to bother me
 

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Looks great. I have the same thing but with shiny alloy spokes, which can glare a little, out of a Peugeot 205 I think. Nice chunky rim, sportier to steer than the big old boat wheel these cars came with, but as you say obstructed view of the dash. I live with it! Great upgrade. Do you have power steering?
 
Looks great. I have the same thing but with shiny alloy spokes, which can glare a little, out of a Peugeot 205 I think. Nice chunky rim, sportier to steer than the big old boat wheel these cars came with, but as you say obstructed view of the dash. I live with it! Great upgrade. Do you have power steering?


yes, infact was was what endeared the car to me in the first place i liked the power steering, which is slightly odd as generally i dont, and the first thing i remove from race cars!
 
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I've never driven a racing car, but my smaller Mountney wheel certainly helps make driving my car feel racy. In combination with the PAS it is a big improvement. Parallel parking a manual with the big wheel seems arduous in comparison. One day I (or hopefully sooner some other, cleverer person on here!) will figure out how to make the horn honk when the big button in the middle of the wheel is pressed. One of my biggest gripes about my car is the horn being controlled by the indicator stalk.
 
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