A 'gentle' rebuild of my 3500

It actually came up on eBay, I had seen V8 badges come up every now an again but none were the correct interior one, they were the boot ones without the two spikes on the back. You will just have to keep your eyes out I'm afraid.

It's a shame you haven't got one as your car should have it.
 
Hi Mike, Ive just read your story.. wow you've made her beautiful. I see your new interior is similar to mine. Did you do anything to the leather interior seats or were they in that good condition when you bought them? my seats are tired and need to restore them to their former glory. :)
 
jamjar said:
Hi Mike, Ive just read your story.. wow you've made her beautiful. I see your new interior is similar to mine. Did you do anything to the leather interior seats or were they in that good condition when you bought them? my seats are tired and need to restore them to their former glory. :)
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Thanks, it as taken quite a bit of work and its by no means finished. My seats are actually Boxpleat Ambla which is vinyl, I was under the impression that leather was only flat pleat, but I could be wrong. Anyway I bought the interior off eBay and other than the fact they were REALLY dirty they were in fantastic condition with only a couple of small marks. I actually used normal household Mr Muscle to clean them! They do need recolouring on the tops from where they have been faded by the sun. I saw the picture of yours, they do look like they have sagged which maybe because they are leather and the foam underneath could have deteriorated whereas mine are solid so maybe because mine are vinyl they are harder wearing :?
To be honest one of our more knowledgable members might be able to confirm if Boxpleat came in leather as well as Ambla. If yours are definitely leather you won't be able to clean them as aggressively as I did other wise you will do further damage.

Edit: I have just looked at your interior shots and to me they look leather, they seem to have sagged and have creases which to me me would indicate them been leather which would be softer than the vinyl seats, hence the reason mine look like new.
 
I didn't know they came in vinyl ... but then there's a lot I don't know cos I'm on a massive learning curve :shock: I'm in no hurry so I'll find out more. I'll put it on the forum, Cheers Mike :D
 
That confrms it then Stina, I did suspect that leather was in Boxpleat as well especially when you see that some seats have sagged and have creases as mine are still solid, obviously the Ambla is harder wearing.
 
jamjar said:
I didn't know they came in vinyl ... but then there's a lot I don't know cos I'm on a massive learning curve :shock: I'm in no hurry so I'll find out more. I'll put it on the forum, Cheers Mike :D
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I've had my car two years and I'm still learning loads :) if you haven't already get yourself a proper Rover workshop manual and parts manual, also the complete history of the Rover P6 by James Taylor is a worthwhile investment, this has recently been reprinted which is a bonus as the first copies were selling for mega bucks :wink:
 
stina said:
Yeah box pleat comes in leather too , as mine are :D

I've got this to recolour mine ,
http://www.liquidleather.com/re-colouring.htm

Can't tell how good it is yet , it's a Christmas present :D
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My 3500S originally had ambla but now has sandalwood box pleat leather. The liquid leather stuff is very good stina :D

Here's a 50/50 pic of my front seat squab being cleaned

CIMG2837.jpg


original ambla

CIMG3201.jpg


replacement leather

CIMG4650.jpg

CIMG4649.jpg


Dave
 
Thanks for that Dave, I think it quite clear to see now the difference between Ambla and leather, the leather, even in the photos, looks softer and more supple. Well I have learnt something today that Boxpleat can come in two materials :D

Dave, would you know if the leather colouring kits work on Ambla as well as I need to re-colour the faded bits and my black headrests and parcel shelf?
 
Mikep said:
Thanks for that Dave, I think it quite clear to see now the difference between Ambla and leather, the leather, even in the photos, looks softer and more supple. Well I have learnt something today that Boxpleat can come in two materials :D

Dave, would you know if the leather colouring kits work on Ambla as well as I need to re-colour the faded bits and my black headrests and parcel shelf?
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Car's looking great Mike...congratulations!

Woolies do vinyl kits as well as leather. Worth giving them a call.

http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/c-118-vinyl-renovation.aspx
 
Hi Mike,

Your Rover is looking really nice, the interior V8 badge on the speaker panel sets it off nicely. :) My Rover, being an early 1974 model left the factory with one fitted, can't imagine not having one there.

Your leather front seats,...is it my eyes or are the backs of the leather seats not as deep as those on your ambla seats?

Ron.
 
The V8 badge is a nice addition to the interior and breaks up the expanse of black.

SydneyRoverP6B said:
Your leather front seats,...is it my eyes or are the backs of the leather seats not as deep as those on your ambla seats?.
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Those leather and Ambla seats are Dave Forresters, I only have Ambla in mine, but I think you may be right, the leather seats look a lot thinner :shock:
 
A small job that required attention today was sorting out some of the slack in the throttle linkage on top of the inlet manifold. I forget to take a before photo but basically a previous owner had used a small set screw and nut to secure two halves of the linkage but because the screw was smaller than the hole so it left a lot of slack. So I removed the components, drilled larger holes and fitted a larger nut and bolt, no slack now and it has elimintaed the inch of useless pedal travel :D


IMG_0646 by mikeyp78, on Flickr

You can see the new bolt in the centre of the photo.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
Hi Mike,

Your Rover is looking really nice, the interior V8 badge on the speaker panel sets it off nicely. :) My Rover, being an early 1974 model left the factory with one fitted, can't imagine not having one there.

Your leather front seats,...is it my eyes or are the backs of the leather seats not as deep as those on your ambla seats?

Ron.
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Ron

The ambla seats have the soft back with the roll top whilst the leather seats have the hard backing. They do look thinner but that might just be an optical illusion due to the style of seat back. I've not not actually measured the backs to see if they are.

Dave
 
Mikep said:
A small job that required attention today was sorting out some of the slack in the throttle linkage on top of the inlet manifold. I forget to take a before photo but basically a previous owner had used a small set screw and nut to secure two halves of the linkage but because the screw was smaller than the hole so it left a lot of slack. So I removed the components, drilled larger holes and fitted a larger nut and bolt, no slack now and it has elimintaed the inch of useless pedal travel :D


IMG_0646 by mikeyp78, on Flickr

You can see the new bolt in the centre of the photo.
Click to expand...


Well done Mike ,I had similar problems with my linkage ,it has made a big difference :)
 
Indeed!

The original design for the car had a seat design which is now known as "lightweight". Only one set is known to remain - in T4 in the museum at Gaydon. This design gave completely adequate legroom in the back and looked extremely modern. At a very late stage the seat design was upgraded to look more substantial and "Rover" and this did for the rear seat legroom. The fibreglass back seats introduced around mid to late '73 were an attempt to regain some of that lost legroom.

It is futile to give exact change over dates for seat types. It all depended what colour you ordered. For instance, mango interiors were being fitted that had fabric seat backs as much as a year after the more popular colours had switched over to fibreglass backs.

So there are two basic versions of leather flat pleat; S1 with a fabric back to the seat, with and without headrest sockets; early S2 with the depression in the side of the backrest to take the inertia reel seat belts and with the fabric back and only with headrest sockets,

Then two versions of vinyl flat pleat - both very rare - as per above. These have the perforated vinyl in the flat pleat area and were mainly used on Canadian export S1 cars plus a limited number of S2 UK "basic" 2000 models for fleet buyers, but they pop up all over the world and in all sorts of models.

Then one version only of flat pleat Herringbone Cloth with the side depression, fabric back and headrest sockets - very rare and very comfy.

Then onto Box Pleat, where there is always a choice of leather or vinyl, always headrest sockets and always the inertia reel side depression, but with both fabric back and fibreglass back (fibreglass back is the thin version). The leather and vinyl versions are quite difficult to tell apart at first glance, but vinyl is usually in much better condition.

Finally, Box Pleat fabric which always has the fibreglass back, inertia reel depression and headrest sockets.

Only one I'm not certain of is whether some early 3500S NADA had the box pleat vinyl without the inertia reel side depression.

Chris
 
Hi Mike,

The nut and bolt should certainly keep things nice and still. I notice that your engine breather filter is missing, had you removed it or was it never there?

Ron.
 
SydneyRoverP6B said:
Hi Mike,

The nut and bolt should certainly keep things nice and still. I notice that your engine breather filter is missing, had you removed it or was it never there?

Ron.
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Well spotted Ron but I fitted a new one when I last serviced the car, it was attached the air filter housing :wink:
 
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