Thanks for all the great comments guys!
Ahhh, Mr Quagmire and his P6.
This will be a good thread, tis a lovely car I might add.
Thanks Mr Daslandroverman – I will try to live up to your expectations!
Nice purchase!
So has it got Koni's up front or just in the rear? Front Koni's are like hen's teeth as the front's are reverse acting.
Its got Koni’s on every corner, and as you’ll see (probably in part three), the rear brakes did need doing, later followed by pretty much everything else when it got pressed into daily duties – nothing unexpected after such a long sleep in someones garage though.
you had me bookmarked at "dominated by land rovers"
my first landy was an A reg ninety 2.3pet
(later to discover the build date was a month before they went on sale in 84!)
look forward to more BL updates
You can’t beat a landy, well unless you are drag racing! Your s3 is lovely – in fact my brother has one just like it which we recently got back on the road after 14 years being in the front garden. A while ago I sent him the link to yours telling him that is what he should be aiming for!
So, P6 daily part deux…
The car was transported back to my parent’s house and shunted onto the drive.
It went to my parents because at the time I didn’t have any level parking facilities at my place, and not many tools. Having it at mum and dads kept it off the road which was good, but meant that it was 25 miles away from where I lived, which was bad.
The neighbours all gave it the thumbs up, the funniest comment being when one of them (a fairly high-up chap in the Met police force) stuck his head in the window, took a sniff and said “hmm… smells like death…” – I just thought it smelt a bit musty myself!
First job on arrival was to give it a proper wash and clean inside and out:
…during which is became apparent that the flooded footwell (and associated “smell of death”) was related to a leak around the windscreen.
The stainless trim was removed and the leak sorted with a smidge of Sikaflex in a couple of places:
I spent the next couple of months dropping in whenever I could and sorting bits on it. First order was the clutch. This turned out to be a seized slave cylinder, which was removed and persuaded to unseize with my Dads ten tonne press.
Everything was cleaned up with a bit of scotchbrite and reassembled with the original seals. Once fitted and bled it worked perfectly.
Fluids and filters were changed, next was a new rad cap as the old one was not holding pressure and it was blowing water out everytime it got warm.
Then my youngest brother was sitting in the car one day making brum-brum noises and changing gear, when the stick came off in his hand. The nylon spherical bush had gone, which is apparently common – they are all pretty old by now!
This was replaced.
The seats were removed so that they could be given a good cleaning and lathered in leather food to soften them up:
Then it went for an MOT and passed!
Which meant that I could go and get one of these – old vs. new:
And hit the open road for the first time, a great feeling!
More to come in parts 3 to...? Seeing as its still not finished even now a few years later, its a pretty open-ended story.