Ex Rover P6/P6B employee

Well it was 40 years ago, but that looks so much like the gas turbine car I saw and heard over the experimental ,there were two large filtered intakes high up on the rear deck , if only we had phone cameras then.
 
Yes. who knows maybe they were phaffing around with the turbine for this car too
 
Great pics , first and last pics the zips look the same as Police/CID cars , that roof looks clear glass? or perhaps its the light ? . Police and CID cars had high boiling point brake fluid, larger shocks, different springs,front seats, certified speedo plus all the lights/radio , also a few for MI5 would you believe, stamped across the build card ....no machine guns behind the side lights,
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Hope you don't get locked up for telling us the MI5 bit :LOL: . Can you remember if police spoilers were ever factory fitted to P6s? These were small air dam type flaps that fitted to the front lower valance and were supposed to improve high speed stability. After driving in very windy conditions today, I was wishing I had a set :D

There is a good pic of them in this old eBay ad: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROVER-P6-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1c2ff2a860
 
Hi JVY, Well I am learning more and more on this great forum......never seen these before, the paint panel track ran high up along side the main track ,a pair of these would have been easily spotted and i was always checking new upgrades as i had a P6 at the time.
There would be a few odd balls P6s around Solihull/Birmingham area, the reason being Rover scrap parts could be bought by workers ,now the inspection dept took no prisoners and the scrap price was worked out in weight ,IE front syndim windscreen tiny scratch 5 shilling, front swivel complete with disk and calipers small ding in back plate 1 pound 10 shillings, radiator marked core 2 pound, even tyres if they were out of balance by more than 3 ozs.
I bought a damaged copperleaf 1964 and ended up with a Brigade red NADA 2000 !! right down to the scoops/square front chrome number plate, rostyles, leather NADA ST/wheel and center trim...no AC
I was also there on the night the fire that gutted a large part of the p6 , lines of cars burnt out, engines melted a surreal sight (thats another story)so much stuff you could buy in the following weeks.
 
Hi "davey one", welcome to the forum and I am enjoying your recollections with interest. My p6b was assembled in NZ, did you have any involvement with the CKD body shells that were cut at the pillars for export? I see on mine where they were re-welded. My car was sold in Perth by Faulls as it has their dealer plate fitted in the engine bay. Winterbottoms was another leyland dealership at the time in Perth and I think they merged and became WinterFaulls but don't know how they finally ended or who bought them. I tried to get into a leyland dealer as an apprentice mechanic when we came to Perth in '79 as I spent 3 months at Dutton-Forshaw in Sunderland prior to family emigrating but ended up in industry instead. Hope to see you around Perth or Freo one day,
Regards,
Scott
 
Hi Scott, another Sandgroper close by ,I am in Quinns rocks so i am looking forward to seeing your wheels one day for sure, its a nice cruise down to freo for my V8...no not P6B.... Lexus Soarer, sorry had nothing to do with CKD body shells at all , Was that Dutton kit cars??
 
Davey one asked,
Was that Dutton kit cars??

No not the kit car company, Dutton-Forshaw was a British leyland dealership with a few premises in the north east of England.

Regards,
Scott
 
Hi Davey One,

Welcome! It's great to have someone on the forum who has actually assembled these cars (we are re-assemblers!). I have a question, did the 3500S NADA cars leave the assembly line at one point? To me, it sounds incredibly complicated to assemble them betweem the regular models from the time. Different dashboard, switchpanels, seating, doorcards, window motors, wiring loom, a/c on some cars and the list goes on and on. It's amazing how much these cars differ from the standard cars.

Kind regards,
Andries
 
Hi Andries, All built together ! most days every sixth car on the track was a NADA or a FED,in between could be SC,TC,P6B (later around 1974)they did build another track to run P 6Bs only ),looking down the track you could not miss them a syn dim windscreen with a huge dayglow NADA or FED sticker ,there were 2 large job cards in a plastic bag with every P6 car with all the info.
All the jobs were timed for 12 per hour and you had a routine for every model, there was a separate air con gas shop , all NADA cars had a torque check on the suspension as there was a fine system that USA had put in place ,i was told it was $100 for each one that was under spec.
There was a lot of sub assembly done off the track ,the doors were put together with the right color, power glass if required etc and would then feed onto the track running along side the correct base unit , it all ran pretty smooth most of the time .
Hope i am not being a bore ? another rover story?....one of the line foreman ordered a zircon blue SC for himself it had cleared the bitac (underseal) were the guys had given it extra underseal and loads of wax to box members , when i arrived for work that night he ask me to go with it as he wanted extra speaker wires etc ,i made sure it had only the best..extra sound deadener,picked the best carpets etc all the guys made a extra effort ,I went home leaving the car going down the panel line the foreman on there took over .....days later I found out Collars (main agent) rang him to say your cars ready to be picked up, there had been a cancellation and a Zircon blue was registered in his name there...his car was still in the rover ,so he had to take it, so somewhere there is maybe still a well preserved ,well put together 1969 Zircon blue SC .
 
Boring? Not a chance. Fascinating insight in to the manufacture of our favourite cars.

keep the stories coming!
 
Welcome to the forum Dave,
Great hearing the stories and insights from the horses mouth so to speak, can see this thread going for years keep those stories coming and sure your not boring anyone on here :D
 
Davey, boring? Not at all! I think you have a somewhat captive audience on this forum :) . Please keep 'em coming.

BTW, bet that foreman was mad - poor guy. Thinking he must have been a good bloke to get that level of attention from staff. I can imagine that if he had been an unpopular foreman in that kind of situation that the preparation of his car might have been special in a different way :) .
 
JVY said:
Davey, boring? Not at all! I think you have a somewhat captive audience on this forum :) . Please keep 'em coming.

BTW, bet that foreman was mad - poor guy. Thinking he must have been a good bloke to get that level of attention from staff. I can imagine that if he had been an unpopular foreman in that kind of situation that the preparation of his car might have been special in a different way :) .
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Thanks guys, just let me know when you have had enough.
Hi JVY, Things were good between worker and foreman, reason being you had 5 mins to complete your job , most guys could after a while complete it in 3 mins ,you can also move off your station maybe 4 cars up the track, so you have made a 8 min break... make a cup of tea,chat to your mates inc the foreman,as long as you did your job right thats all that was asked of you, also there were" gaps " ,stage 2 was about 45 cars long this is where the base unit with suspension was dropped on to the dogs coming out of the ground if there was a breakdown in the paint shop or stage 1 and no car was dropped onto that set of dogs then that gap had to travel the full length of the track a lost car ,It was nice to work in a clean , modern, assembly plant.
 
Think if I was you back then I would have done what Johnny Cash did.

Hi Happy days, I should have also added that longer jobs were every 2nd or 4th car, IE 2 speedo guys did every other car ,roller test 4 guys every 4th car etc.

The night of the fire,
I had left home for work at 7.30 PM ,started to notice a glow in the sky as i got closer to the Rover as i turned onto Lode lane i could see the huge fire, the police were turning workers away ,it was pay night (cash in those days) and i had a mortgage so thought i would try my luck ,as my car was a smart NADA looking vehicle and telling the police i was a foreman (fib) and had to get in , they let me through.
Walked into stage two (it was unaffected but smokey ) two other mates had also made it we were told we could help the fire crews and be on full pay,.
As we approached the end of stage three we could see stage 4 (final line) was gutted, half the trim shop was on fire and the valet line was an inferno ,smoke was the biggest problem for the firemen , we loaded a range rover with batteries and head lights ,wired one head light to each battery and placed them were the fire crews needed light.
By morning it was out ,such a strange sight , lines of P6s all the same colour matt black ,tyres had gone so they were so low to the ground , bonnets and engines had melted ,inside the cars just seat frames ,large areas were covered in puddles of aluminum .
I wonder now all those vin numbers and engine numbers were they just redone or deleted? would be over 50 cars destroyed.
The fire engines were also a bit lower as they were full of new batteries LOL ,but no one minded as they had worked hard all night ,the Rover police had been told not to stop them at the main gate
 
How long did it take to tidy up the mess, do repairs and get production going again?
 
JVY said:
How long did it take to tidy up the mess, do repairs and get production going again?
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The fire was on the last night for the week , it was a weekend and a day before we returned on Mon night by then all was running smooth, at the end of stage 3 (panel line) the ferry girls drove them to another part of the factory were the final line and valet line was set up, the trim shop managed to keep up production be it only half size .
The end of the p6 factory was cordoned off as the steel roof girders had collapsed ,it took many months to clear and rebuild this end of the p6.
That week we were still producing 75 on days and 103 on nights , could not make them fast enough the demand was so high in those days.
 
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