Well, my mate's been doing a bit of fleet rationalisation thanks to ULEZ, so I've gone and bought the Rover! Always wanted one, and at mates rates it's hard to refuse...
He's done a fair few bits to it since the last update. It's had a new distributor as the last one stranded him once or twice before finally packing up, and a lovely set of Compomotive FH600 split rims. The Jeep steelies had a little too much offset so caught the spoiler while steering. I think the split rims rather suit it...
The Rover's been replaced by this awesome thing:
It's an '83 E30 with an M52 and a honking big turbo!
Lots of fun, and looks to be pretty well built. A bit of searching led to this thread from the guy who built it. However, there has been some work doing to it.
Just after buying it we took it for a quick spin around the block, and after making a tea and pottering around for a bit I spotted a bolt on the driveway. 'Huh, that looks suspiciously like one of the bolts that hold the propshaft doughnuts onto BMW gearboxes' I thought while donning my anorak. Yep! Turns out it had just dropped out as we pulled back in.
Up in the air and a quick spanner check found that every single one of the propshaft bolts was either fingertight or fully loose
always worth doing a spanner check on the major components of a new car, even if it looks like a good build. You never know who's touched it last, or what they've forgotten to finish off...
Another spin around the block and there was a hell of a lot less NVH! Amazing what actually having the propshaft mounted properly will do...
Both cars actually made it to the Gathering this year, although I didn't in the Jag which was a shame.
Apparently the Rover shucked its aux belt on the way back which caused some excitement. They managed to refit it on the hard shoulder with no major harm done, though the belt itself was a bit worse for wear. This led to a bit more excitement when they brought the car up to my place for the handover and the belt finally gave way! Luckily GSF car parts actually had a belt in stock on the day (none of the others did!) and it made it in the end.
I can confirm that the drone is ear-splittingly loud so a J-pipe is definitely on the cards fairly soon. I've also ordered some clutch bits as we guess there's some pitting in the bore allowing fluid to escape. If you mash the clutch fast it works ok, but if you ease it on then it just drops straight to the floor. Peculiar behaviour. Oh, and seeing if the strut cap will tweak up or if the play it has is in the stanchion itself.
There's a laundry list of other bits and pieces, as with most old cars, but those are the main ones for now.
19mpg over to Oh So Retro and back might preclude its use as a daily, but perhaps dialling the timing in might improve that slightly. Pictured alongside my mate's E39 (another recent purchase, I think he missed the V8
)
He's done a fair few bits to it since the last update. It's had a new distributor as the last one stranded him once or twice before finally packing up, and a lovely set of Compomotive FH600 split rims. The Jeep steelies had a little too much offset so caught the spoiler while steering. I think the split rims rather suit it...
The Rover's been replaced by this awesome thing:
It's an '83 E30 with an M52 and a honking big turbo!
Lots of fun, and looks to be pretty well built. A bit of searching led to this thread from the guy who built it. However, there has been some work doing to it.
Just after buying it we took it for a quick spin around the block, and after making a tea and pottering around for a bit I spotted a bolt on the driveway. 'Huh, that looks suspiciously like one of the bolts that hold the propshaft doughnuts onto BMW gearboxes' I thought while donning my anorak. Yep! Turns out it had just dropped out as we pulled back in.
Up in the air and a quick spanner check found that every single one of the propshaft bolts was either fingertight or fully loose
always worth doing a spanner check on the major components of a new car, even if it looks like a good build. You never know who's touched it last, or what they've forgotten to finish off...Another spin around the block and there was a hell of a lot less NVH! Amazing what actually having the propshaft mounted properly will do...
Both cars actually made it to the Gathering this year, although I didn't in the Jag which was a shame.
Apparently the Rover shucked its aux belt on the way back which caused some excitement. They managed to refit it on the hard shoulder with no major harm done, though the belt itself was a bit worse for wear. This led to a bit more excitement when they brought the car up to my place for the handover and the belt finally gave way! Luckily GSF car parts actually had a belt in stock on the day (none of the others did!) and it made it in the end.
I can confirm that the drone is ear-splittingly loud so a J-pipe is definitely on the cards fairly soon. I've also ordered some clutch bits as we guess there's some pitting in the bore allowing fluid to escape. If you mash the clutch fast it works ok, but if you ease it on then it just drops straight to the floor. Peculiar behaviour. Oh, and seeing if the strut cap will tweak up or if the play it has is in the stanchion itself.
There's a laundry list of other bits and pieces, as with most old cars, but those are the main ones for now.
19mpg over to Oh So Retro and back might preclude its use as a daily, but perhaps dialling the timing in might improve that slightly. Pictured alongside my mate's E39 (another recent purchase, I think he missed the V8
)
if anyone knows of an alloy-bodied equivalent for the Rover slave that'd be amazing. The cast-iron one's a hefty little lump and I'm seeing how close I can get to 50/50 weight distribution!
