testrider said:
Hildegarde certainly looks the part in the display hall, and you must be pleased with the (relatively) cheap fixes to get DDF running properly when the previous owner couldn't (or couldn't be bothered).
Thanks - it certainly looks that way.
At the risk of sounding like a spoiled child I am crying on the inside about this.
RED, 1972 ROVER 3500 ETR 290L by
mancbranch, on Flickr
12 months later and Ethel has gone from S to mess, as Anne Robinson might say.
IMG_20140915_153808631_HDR by
EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
It doesn't look as if this car will be able to go into the garage for a respray any time in the next year or so - there is just too much going on at the garage - other customers have cars waiting.
I don't want to take the car anywhere else - I don't trust anyone not to try and rip me off or make a mess of my car.
I need to find a working engine for Ethel to keep her on the road for another year as well as a replacement clutch for the LT77 clutch.
The big plan was (and still is) to remove the LT77 gearbox and revert to the original 4-speed gearbox.
Her present engine needs to be transplanted to the Blue McFoo.
If the Blue McFoo's oil burning problem is a quick and simple fix, then this problem is solved - the two cars will simply swap engines with one engine needing some repairs and the other with a mere 6000 miles done since a comprehensive rebuild.
Ethel's original engine also needs a full monty rebuild and one day this will happen but in the meantime I'd sooner have this car up and running rather than festering on the Staffordshire Moors.
It isn't a case of "Oh look at me I have four Rovers", it's a case of knowing what can happen if a car doesn't get used - I have seen other owners' cars fall to bits on this forecourt from lack of use.Ethel has two types of paint - here's why.
The car had a bare metal respray in 1990 from the original dark brown (Mexico brown in the Rover colour palette) to Monza red.
Within 6 months of buying the car, I hit some ice on Shap Fell and did a lot of damage to the nearside of the car when the crash barrier did its job perfectly and bounced the car back onto the A6. You can see that there is a huge gouge along the car and the centre caps on the wheels were sliced clean off.
Emailing: 26102007034.jpg by
EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
There was no question of claiming on the insurance because I had baulked at the £1800 premium for comprehensive cover in my first year as a qualified driver and opted for the still eye-watering price of £1200 for third party, fire and theft.
I had to buy a scrapper on eBay so Tom could repair the car, and so it was the the unsuspecting 2200TC, AVU526M made the one way trip to Lake View - pictured below with the seriously injured Ethel in the background.
AVU526M by
EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
In spite of how it looks in the photo below, the paint on the TC's panels didn't match so Tom had to make a batch of paint.
Mismatch by
EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
The accident happened towards the end of October 2007 and by the beginning of December, Ethel was convalescing on the Isle of Man, as one does.
While Ethel was on the Island I got a stern ticking-off from a retired traffic cop at a car show - he warned me that the wheels and tyres were in a bad way and they should be changed urgently. Ethel was back at Lake View within the week.
The nearside wheels were damaged in the accident so I replaced them with them all with SD1 Vitesse alloys which Ethel had for many years until some naughty car 'borrowed' them for a trip to Scotand and never gave them back.
A very wet Isle of Man by
EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
Tom did a fantastic job of matching the paint colour but it is a diffent type of paint. The older paint from the 1990 respray goes dull very quickly and when it rains it a chalky layer quickly accrues on both on the old paint and the vinyl roof.
Ethel has been like this since 2007 and she still shines up really well when she gets the wax treatment.
The offside doors, offside rear wing and the boot lid are 1990 paint and the bonnet, front wings and nearside are Lake View paint. The bonnet and offside front wing were resprayed in 2009 after Tom's now ex-wife bounded down the steps at Lake View, hopped into her Vitara and reversed off without a care in the world.
2009 prang by
EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
Tom used the very last batch of the paint he mixed in 2007 a couple of years ago for some emergency touch-ups just before a car show - I think it was the first one they had at Event City back in 2011 - I have been at the same show this weekend and people remembered Ethel from previous years.
After discussions with Lake View and Rover P6 club colleagues, I have accepted that there is no way Lake View can begin work on my red 3500S for at least the best part of a year.
The MOT is up at the end of the year and I have decided to get Ethel rolling again before the MOT expires. Purely because I have allowed her to be cannibalised in anticipation of her respray, she'll need a set of tyres , a new battery (Daffodil stole it), a flasher unit IIRC (Daffodil again).
There'll need to be an engine swap between Ethel and the Blue McFoo and the engine from the Blue McFoo needs some repairs - it will grace Ethel once it has stopped smoking oil. She needs a new clutch as well - another very quick job.
Once Lake View has seen to its other customers and cleared the backlog, Ethel can finally take her turn in the paint shop. In the meantime, I'll have 4 runners, all in rude good health - these won't drain my bank balance and I can get ready for the big project when the time is right - I can also get the original engine ready for return to the car.
Tom (Wizard of the Lake) and I disagree on this concept - I say it is always a pity when a car loses its original engine but he says the base unit alone defines the car and that changing the engine is no big deal.
I still have Ethel's original engine and gearbox - the engine needs major work and might always have a tendency to eventually leak oil even if this work was done but I'm willing to take that chance, even though the sight of the cardboard underneath the car brings back horrible memories - Ethel was at Lake View for yet another oil leak when she got her unscheduled nose job from the Vitara.
