Poppy the P6

arthuy

arthuy

Well-Known Member
After years on being put on the back burner Poppy has had some good news.

Some of you may recognise the car from P6 news over the years.

I bought this 2200tc in September 2001 having just a box of spanners and no mechanical skill. Since then I have went on to learn and tackle just about anything that Rover can throw at you. I had the car back on the road by November 2002 and had some interesting experiences like when the De dion elbow broke. Due to the usual things like moving house and other projects it as been on the back burner since, I even contemplated scrapping it 2 years ago until I was offered a couple of gingy bottles for it. This made me determined to finish her off. I haven't been completely idle it has had little jobs done but the big one was getting a decent paint job sorted out which was always a good excuse to leave it.

Poppy was built 14th January 1977 so other than being on of the last 700 odd built it is one of the youngest left.

Over the next few months I will be putting the car back together. Mechanically the car is good but due to being off the road I will need to redo the brakes :roll: again. There is a little bit of welding but as the poor thing has sat outside for years it is not so bad.

I will be changing the roof panel, fitting my home made electric windows and other odds and ends.

poppy004.jpg
 
Good for you Colin!

Hopefully, apart from the brakes, Poppy won't need too much work to get her back on the road.

That Richelieu looks good by the way! :wink: :D

DaveHerns said:
gingy bottles
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what are they ?
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Pretty sure they're pop bottles Dave.
 
soft drinks are called Ginger in Scotland regardless of the type of flavour. The most popular Irn Bru is sold in a 750ml bottle also know as a Glass cheque because you get a deposit back.

http://www.agbarr.co.uk/agbarr/news...ut_us-frequently_asked_questions?OpenDocument

One of the major problems with doing a car over such a long period is that you end up losing bits and pieces. I do need to change a side plate on the manifold side. I had the engine apart about 8 years ago and they were fine but I left the engine sitting with water but no anti-freeze so they ended up perforated.

Colin
 
arthuy said:
soft drinks are called Ginger in Scotland regardless of the type of flavour.
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I think that's only the case in the west of Scotland Colin. I'd never heard it called ginger until I started working with a guy from Glasgow.

Good to see your P6 getting some attention.

Dave
 
Bit of a slow start to getting Poppy back on the road.

The car sat under a pile of snow for the month of December. I sat down at the weekend and started up a list of things that need attending to. Today I even manged to pick up some Ambla seats from Dave3066, The leather I have needs some TLC, some of the leather has rips. I will try and source replacement sections so I can go back to leather in the future.

Probably like other folk with a long term project things go missing. I can only find one of the rectangle badges, none of the good door handles amongst other parts.

P1030102.jpg


Still deciding where to start, Probably best to get the mechanicals sorted. May have to strip the carbs, overhaul my spare rear calipers, change a seized half shaft.

I still have to collect the painted doors which have been at the body shop for nearly 2 months!!!
 
Even shrouded under that blanket of snow, she looks purposeful Colin!

Keep at it, even though bits have gone hidey. And I know exactly what you mean! :roll:
 
arthuy said:
Poppy was built 14th January 1977 so other than being on of the last 700 odd built it is one of the youngest left.
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The Chatterbox, a pendelican export 2200TC owned by yours truly, was built 17th January 1977. How close is that?! When you have the time, would you mind checking out the base unit number for me please? It is located behind the spare wheel (from the front), directly in front of the boot lip. The reason for my questioning is that Pressed Steel, the company that made the base units, made the last base unit in about 1976, and so our cars being manufactured so close to eachother, your base unit may just be the one before mine - or visa versa. Also Nick Dunning, the person who sold the chatterbox to me, has said that he has never seen a higher base unit number than that of the chatterbox.

Cheers, Adam.
 
The heritage cert showed build date as 14th January chassis number from memory is 49115056.

I will check it later. Rudgier will have all the details.

Colin
 
Just rechecked the cert it was 15th January 1977, The 15th Was a Saturday so the 17th was a Monday.

My body number is M214537. I have seen a few R plates but they have been 76 builds. I did meet an S reg at a rally it was UWD 188S which was a 2200sc owned by Chris Mountford, I only recorded that it was registered August 1977 and number 47 from last in the numbering range so would be 47110853??

Colin
 
arthuy said:
The heritage cert showed build date as 14th January chassis number from memory is 49115056.
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arthuy said:
Just rechecked the cert it was 15th January 1977, The 15th Was a Saturday so the 17th was a Monday.

My body number is M214537. I have seen a few R plates but they have been 76 builds. I did meet an S reg at a rally it was UWD 188S which was a 2200sc owned by Chris Mountford, I only recorded that it was registered August 1977 and number 47 from last in the numbering range so would be 47110853??
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Thanks; for the chatterbox the body number is M215629 - so they're fairly close. And the chatterbox chassis ending is 5727, so within 700 there. Also what is your engine number? Because if it's similar to your chassis number, then your car rather interestingly has a newer engine than mine... getting a bit excited :)

So how is Poppy coming along for you? The chatterbox is currently down with Nick Dunning - she's just had some welding done, and tomorrow is going to be taken for an MOT. (fingers tightly crossed).

Cheers, Adam.
 
Engine Number is 4773.

Can you see them building nearly 100 car between Saturday and Monday? good effort if they did. You should ask Rudiger some questions. I would love to see a list of remaining cars in build order.

I am just going to collect the doors from the body shop, I want to given the insides a good painting before fitting the glass frames, I am keen to see how the door/glass rubber looks. I bought them from Scotts about 4 years ago.

Colin
 
arthuy said:
Engine Number is 4773.
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In which case your engine is about 400 newer than mine. How odd. It leads me to believe that at the time rover were using purely what they had in stock at the time, because I know that they stopped making wiring looms and base units, in 1976, but I didn't know about the engines as well. Interesting.

The chatterbox has passed it's MOT today, I am pleased to report. Now I just can't wait to get down to Surrey to see her again.

Brilliant idea about painting the insides of the doors before fitting the glass, and even better that you're checking the rubbers. This is, from what I've seen at least, an often overlooked job about if you can't see it, it isn't there. The chatterbox was fully ziebarted from new, however the door to window rubbers were evidently overlooked, and the rustproofing has failed. As a result, the doors are not nice to look at. I do admit that even I have overlooked the door rubbers, but I've kept chat in the garage for most of the time, and realistically even though I have seen worse doors, chat's doors are pretty much past the sell by date.

Cheers, Adam.
 
Hi Colin.

Re you home made electric windows!
As I am stripping my doors I have again thought about retro fitting leccy front windows.
What motors have you used?
Was it straightforward?
Any info and piccys would be great,you can E them to me via the forum link if you like
 
I used SD1 regulators, cut and welded on to the original P6 ones.

The gear is the same size which helps. I still have to get them fitted to the car and wired in.

If it weren't for the tendancy of the p6 regulator to strip I would have left them. is it 2 and 1/2 turns to lower. my works Vauxhall combo take 27....

I don't have any photos but if you are hand with a welder then it all makes sense with the parts to hand. I probably wont be looking at the car until may as I have a big trip next month.
 
Cheers!!
ive got a couple of spare rusty doors and window frames so can have a play this summer.
 
haven't updated this in a while. having sat since it came back from the body shop in November I found it hard to get inspiration. We have had the worst weather for working on the car which has to live outside and was out of the country for a month and because it has been sitting outside water has been getting in. a week or so ago I was 50/50 whether to contiue or scrap it with a mind to the later. Pretty bad, I got this car a August 2001 so will be 10 years this year and all but 1 year was MOT'd and on the road.

Having seen so many nice P6 at the SARR and my cars sister car George Beatties 3500s my enthusiasm has returned. I decided to get the car running today and drove under its own power.

Sounds like I have a sticking valve and will need to have a tweak of the carbs amoungst other things. Still on the to do list is painting the inside of all the panels.

Will also need to make a list of the welding jobs needing done. With the car sitting out in all weather so areas need done. thankfully nothing serious. I will need to get the petrol tank out and spend a few weekend with the MIG. I dont mind welding it is the grinding that really bursts me.

poppy will never be a prize winner but I would like it to be a good looking daily driver.

WSC 239 R Poppy
DSC01696.jpg


WSC 299 R Georges 3500s
wsc299r.jpg
 
I have been running the engine recently, the poor thing wasnt run when it was away for 18+months awaiting paint. It was fine before.

Now we seem to have a tapping noise, I am pretty sure it is a stuck valve and have ran it for a bit in hope that it will free off. perhaps the valve was partcially open??

I have had the rocker off and there is plenty oil up to.

I will do another video of it but some of you may be able to make a suggestion as to what the fault is.

Colin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHyBZbvpVEo
 
Colin,
it does sound a bit like "tappet" noise on the video. Do you get the tapping noise when you crank the engine on the starter with the HT removed? If you do and it's a sticking valve, would a compression test reveal this?
 
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