New Project (to go with the old one)

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Well, it's been a few weeks since I mentioned a new project, and today we have spent 12 hours collecting it, well some of it anyway.

Kicked off at 8am by collecting the trailer and heading over to pickup the chassis, which has been stored for the last 15 or so years in a small barn. We had been to check it out the week before so considered this bit to be the easier part of the job. We arrived to find the field had turned into a swamp, and promptly got Pete's 405 stuck in the mud, lots of pushing and spraying mud ensued and we finally got his car out, but still needed to get the chassis.

We decided that it would be easier to pump the tyres up on the chassis and push it out to the trailer, being lighter it shouldn't get stuck, and luckily we were right, we soon had it up on the trailer and away.



Next step was to go and collect the body, and reintroduce it to the chassis. Sounds easy but took us the best part of 6 hours. The body was stored in a normal garage, unfortunately it was at the bottom of a 20 yard drive with an incline of about 1in3. We assembled all the muscle we could, but that didn't amount to much, so various plans were tried, with scaffold poles, large timbers and trolleys, not to mention using the trailer winch from the top of the drive. Eventually we got the body to the road, got the chassis off the trailer, got the body on the chassis, and got the whole lot back on the trailer.

We arrived back home at about 7pm, unloaded the trailer, then returned the trailer to its owner as it is required for another job tomorrow. We did manage to stock for a KFC on the way back !

Oh and did I mention it was raining all day long, that horrible "wet" rain that saps the energy from your body :cry:

More picks to come....
 

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I must add a massive thanks to all the helpers, but biggest thanks to Pete, we thought for a few minutes that we had lost his 405 in the mud ! And judging by the way he crawled out of my house and back into his car, he was totally knackered :LOL:
 
So come on then. I can see it's a P3 (no chassis behind the axle). But is it a 60 or a 75? I can't decide from that picture whether I'm looking at a 4 cyl or 6 cyl. And is the body 4 light (sports) or 6 light (saloon)?

Further picyures avidly awaited!

Chris
 
Ok Chris, a few more pics to help. It's a 60, 6 light, 1949 vintage. The current engine however appears to be a early series 1 landrover variant of the same unit, it's plated as an MOD recon unit (circa 1965).

It has a very unusual boot lid, have ROVER embossed in it (see pic).

Lots of work, definately, however the body is very sound (although it looks very rough, it's mostly surface rust), much repair work has already been done, 3 of the 4 doors have already had replacement bottoms etc..

Plans for the car are still very much up in the air, all the way from restoration to full on hot-rod :LOL:

My 13 year old has visions of a Coddington style full strip and milimeter perfect rebuild, but he's got a long way to go before he'll be able to manage that on his own :LOL: :LOL:
 

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That will keep you busy for a while.

Iooks like your tyre has developed a slight flat spot :LOL:

Colin
 
Can't say I've ever seen the embossed "Rover" on the wheel cover before either. Other thing to look for is the fronnt suspension. There is a major mod about a 1/3rd of the way through P3 production - from memory it's a swap of lever arm dampers for telescopic - which is very important for safe progress. I'd guess your car is very early? Actually doesn't look that frightening a job. Probably the biggest task will be the interior.

Well done!

Chris
 
Looks like a long term project!
You could always go for the minimalist look,and do the bare minimum amount of work req to get it legal,,and driveable while keeping the wind and rain out!??
A'la ultimate rat look VW style!
It could start a new trend in the rover club!! !! :LOL:
Then at least it will be an on the road rolling resto! :)
 
Cheers guys, it is definately a long term project, I'm hoping to have a garage extension built soon, so I can get it in with the P6 and out of the rain ! The plan is for my son to get his hands dirty with this one and learn some real skills.

The story goes that the previous owner started to restore it, but suffered a heart attack (happily not terminal !). At this point the restoration stopped, and the car has been untouched for about 15 years or so. It looks like most of the front suspension has been re-bushed (it has proper telescopic dampers all round).

The front wings look to have had various repairs over the years, some of which may need re-doing, I'd like to keep the filler to a minimum where possible, and try and make sure it doesn't rot too quickly. The chassis does appear to be very solid, I couldn't find any holes or significant rot at all, it could do with either wire wheeling, sandblasting or dip-stripping, and then painting properly.

The body again is solid, with little in the way of rust holes if any, it's got a lot of surface rust, having had half the paint stripped off early during the previous restoration work, proof that garage alone doesn't stop stuff rusting ! Again there are repairs that probably need to be revisited, and some filler that I'd like to remove to inspect the repairs underneath. It's a lot easier to sort these things at an early stage than have to repair them again when rust shows through after you've resprayed it !!

If it wasn't so expensive, I'd have the whole thing acid dipped, but I can't see that happening. :cry:
 
pilkie said:
You could always go for the minimalist look,and do the bare minimum amount of work req to get it legal,,and driveable while keeping the wind and rain out!??
A'la ultimate rat look VW style!
It could start a new trend in the rover club!! !!
Click to expand...

I already know of someone who's a bit like that with their rovers, in fact I was with him today. They have 2 P2's, one only just on the road - this will be coming up to the Whitewebbs RSR meet, 2 P4's - none on the road, and a P6 which has been sat looking at the same road for 6 years. These will be restored (I say enthusiastically) in the not too distant future. Or at least the P6 will have proper attention this year, at about the start of summer - and I'm hoping for this car to get up to Rugeley...

Cheers, Adam.
 
I've tried to a degree but it didnt seem to catch on.
S1032351.jpg
 
After seeing it in the flesh (so to speak) today, I must say that is going to be a massive job :shock:

Best of luck with it - can't wait to see the finished product :)

Richard
 
This is great Richard, please build it in to a hot rod - with or without the roof chop - it would be amazing, and different.
 
Adam Birch said:
I already know of someone who's a bit like that with their rovers, in fact I was with him today. They have 2 P2's, one only just on the road - this will be coming up to the Whitewebbs RSR meet,
Click to expand...

When is the Whitewebbs meet Adam?
 
Richard, what a project! yep you gotta Hot Rod it mate! 8) Rover V8 to start, 2~3" roof chop perhaps or even give it the rat look with wide steels on the rear & a Hot TVR block or SBC then hit the santa pod 1/4 mile! :wink:
 
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