1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

You'd think modern would equate to better but I don't find that to be the case. This isn't some sort of retro snobbery, it's just what I'm comfortable driving. Having driven and passengered in post-2000 cars I find the vast majority to be uncomfortable, sometimes cripplingly so.

I don't enjoy having a lot of aides on a car either. Through experience, I like power assisted steering, I like electric front windows and I don't mind fuel injection. However, I can't stand air conditioning, I have no need of rear electric windows, I don't want built in sat navs and I dislike immobilisers, sensors and general economy guff under the bonnet.

For me, the sweet spot is late 70s to late 80s. Cars that at the most have power steering, electric windows, automatic choke and fuel injection and nothing else to help. That's where I'm happiest and most comfortable. Seat shapes and driving positions are important too, the newer the car generally the more uncomfortable I find it for my back. Amazingly, some 1950s cars I find very comfortable even though you wouldn't think it to look at them. Crash safety is not an issue for me and fuel economy less of an issue than I'd expected. From experience, as much as I like an old diesel, it's not suited to my driving habits.

As you might expect, all of that makes a replacement to the Rover difficult. Combine it with wanting an estate, saloon or large hatchback with a petrol engine, no turbo, manual gearbox, and with any amount of MoT for £300 tops it's almost impossible to find anything. I have two items on my "just in case" watch list one of which is a Rover 216 and the other a Volvo 940 estate.

I know exactly what I need from a car and the vast majority of newer cars are surprisingly unsuitable even before the price tag is considered.

So we'll whip off the head at some point and go from there. It's been interesting learning just what it is I want from a car and how difficult the R8 Rover is to replace for me.

I've driven two Omegas and found them unbelievably unpleasant! This was quite a disappointment as they look like a nice place to be.

How about fitting a known good engine (is there such a thing with a K Series?) The amount of ZR's being broken finding an engine shouldn't be hard. Could even stick a 1.8 in.

That said there is something satisfying about repairing a car properly and knowing it'll last a bit longer regardless of the cost. A good chance to upgrade the HG etc.

Tom

You've a couple of hundred pounds? And maybe another £100 to add after payday? You have two too many old cars to be relying on one of them as a daily.

A curve ball.

Take a trip to your nearest Skoda/Seat/VW dealer and see if they'll take the Rover as it stands as a deposit on a Citigo/Mii/Up!.

£99 a month will buy you trouble and worry-free daily transport, and allow you to concentrate on the Princess and the Renault.

A "daily" is meant to be a tool, something you pick up and put down when you need it. I've run a 1959 Land-Rover as my main transport for 25-odd years, but relief of not having to use it as the main family wheels anymore is massive.

We are all old car addicts, but like on the Ladbrookes ads, "when the fun stops, stop".

I can't actually afford finance on a newer car, even if I ditch the current ones, nor do I want to be tied down to it. For the most part, the Rover has been a get-in-and-drive car, certainly for the past few months its given me no grief. Everything that has been fixed hasn't then broken again and my annual mileage is fairly low anyway by modern standards since I don't have to commute.

I've got transport in the form of my brother's spare car and I'm making no decisions on the Rover's fate or replacement until I've inspected the head. Current theory, on talking to a friend that knows the K series well, is that it sounds like the polymer on the gasket has just failed on one corner but that I've caught it quickly enough that no harm is done. He recommends removing the head, getting it tested for peace of mind and I'll probably just need new head bolts, new gasket and new fluids to sort things out which is much less terrifying a prospect.

With this information I trundled over to the unit today to get the head removed. There's only one space at the unit I can use at the moment and Mike had cleared all the remains of a scrap car that had been occupying it ready for me to set the Rover up and get started. I arrive, the space is free, so I go into the office to get the Rover's keys, come out and find a car parked in the space. Er... okay. Tried to find the owner of the car and nobody seems to know where it's come from. It's nothing to do with Mike's business or any of the other businesses that use the space, it's just like someone has dumped it there and toddled off.

That made things impossible. Because of space constraints I can only work on the Rover in this one space, that's why it was prepped for use. I can't very well drive the Rover home the four miles it would take for fear of cooking it if I get stuck in traffic or the gasket lets go even more, thus costing me more money, etc. Comedy of errors situation really.

So all I could do today was chock the Princess' suspension with some wood and then go home. Hopefully the car that's taken up the space will disappear just as randomly as it appeared or some other work space will become available. Until then there's nothing I can really do.

should have taken the head off the random car that would teach them!
bet you were a bit peed off.

If I recall correctly the bolts are reusable if under a specified length when measured. I'll look it up for you tomorrow at work.

I'm guessing that applies only to OEM bolts as after-market bolt lengths might not be to the same tolerances. I don't know how you'd check what you have fitted though. Perhaps in this case it would be safest to just fit new.

given their length the only problem will be finding a tool to accurately measure them!