After the 'success' of the Rover 25 head job I thought I might roll the K-series dice again and had a cheeky bid on a Rover 75 craply advertised on eBay. I would post up the original pics, but they have disappeared off Ebay in the last few days and now I realise that I didnt save them like a TWART.
2004 Rover 75 1.8 Club SE for sale in Guildford, 53k, head gasket knackered, MOT just expired, blah blah, I bid £150 and won it for £149!!!!
Reading up on them, these weigh a very lardy 1400kilos so you need something pretty hefty to A-frame one, so I drafted in my mates Tranny van.
(Note: the following bit is cross-posted from the brown forum)
After getting in touch with the daughter of the elderly seller I arranged to collect it. I borrowed my mate's Transit van and set off after work one night with the A-frame in the back. I had looked where it was, 'yeah its just off the M25' but as always had failed to look properly at what I was doing and in fact it was much further than I thought. Took 3.5 hours to get there including 45 mins sat on the M25 like a twit and a lot of driving in absolutely unbelievable, torrential rain FFS. Some route:
Eventually I found the guy's house. It was down a little private lane off the main road, over a railway line then down a narrow gravel track to his place whcih was beside the grassy 'roundabout' at the top of this pic:
When i got there, in the dark and pizzing rain, the Rover was at the bottom of his drive facing the wall. The seller was an old boy of about 70 so he couldnt give me much of a push. First off I thought 'how in gods name am I going to get this out of the grass, turned round and hooked up?' I tried to start it, but it just made a lame whirring noise from the starter. Tried to wind it out on the starter but that didnt work either, not sure why not but it didnt make even the slightest effort to move. So I tried pushing it myself. To my total amazement after a fashion I managed to shift it out the grass despite the 1400kg weight and slippy office shoes on wet grass :roll: . Eventually after a lot of heaving, and humouring the old chap who was wittering on in the background, I did manage to turn the car round enougn and get the A frame on. Turned the transit round and hooked up. All lights were working and the new LED trailerboard was 100% operational. Went in the guys house and paid up (the cash machine only had £20 notes and he didnt have any change, so he ended up £11 up on the deal) but came out again as quick as poss as his house honked unbearably of animals, he had god knows how many cats and dogs roaming the place, smelly cat food bowls on the kitchen worktops and all sorts man, horrendous.
Tried to get it out. He lived at the bottom of a long narrow gravel track - To get out you drive up the track and turn a very sharp right over the hump-backed railway bridge which is tarmaced. Its so tight that I was not sure it was even possible to tow a car out of there on an A-frame, I suspected it would clobber the drivers side of the Rover on the side of the bridge as you made the turn. So, I went at it quite gingerly. curse word TYPICALLY, the waterlogged gravel track was so slippery that the van just could not pull the dead weight round the corner even if I wanted to. I got halfway round and just sat wheelspinning. Now I was going curse word mental as the stress level was going stratospheric. I backed down a bit, but you cant really reverse with the A-frame on so only a short distance, and had another go. Stuck again with the back wheels of the van spinning helplessly. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN. The old boy said 'you'll just have to come back when the weather's dry!!!' Not curse word likely chief. I asked him to sit in the rover and hold it on the brake while I unhooked it from the van. He did that, I unhooked it then got in and rolled it all the way back down the drive. Backed the van down and had one last shot. The only hope was to get some momentum up, go at it and and try to get the back wheels of the van as far as the tarmac where theyd have a chance of gripping. But I didnt actually know if it was possible to get round. There was nowt else for it though, i wasnt coming back a second time, if I smashed the rover I had already decided to tell him to keep the £160 and just weigh the curse word in (althoguh i don't know how any scrap men would get their lorry anywhere near the bottom of his drive mind you).
I shifted all the flipping wheelie bins out the way and went at it as fast as i dared. When i opened my eyes I was sat on top of the hump back bridge, i looked round at the Rover and it was not all caved in on the drivers side. flipping WOW!!!! I shook the old boys hand and set off.
Drove all the way home at 55ish mph. The Tranny van towed it beautifully, its a LWB high-top RWD van with a 2.4 engine. Not sure what it weighs but its getting on for 2 tonnes I reckon and has a payload of 1500kg I think. The Rover is 1400kg so the weight balance is pretty good and it was stable and towed well, although the whole rig was seriously flipping HEAVY!!!! I burned £95 worth of diesel altogether which i calculate is an average of 15.5mpg!!!! Must admit if I had serisouly thought about how far it was and what it would cost at 15mpg to get it, i would never have bid on this fupping Rover. In terms of rozzers i saw one going in the opposite direction in Guildford and two separate patrol cars overtook me on the M1 but didnt take any interest at all. Got to bed at 2am, utterly exhausted and with a banging head. Why do I do it to myself?
2004 Rover 75 1.8 Club SE for sale in Guildford, 53k, head gasket knackered, MOT just expired, blah blah, I bid £150 and won it for £149!!!!
Reading up on them, these weigh a very lardy 1400kilos so you need something pretty hefty to A-frame one, so I drafted in my mates Tranny van.
(Note: the following bit is cross-posted from the brown forum)
After getting in touch with the daughter of the elderly seller I arranged to collect it. I borrowed my mate's Transit van and set off after work one night with the A-frame in the back. I had looked where it was, 'yeah its just off the M25' but as always had failed to look properly at what I was doing and in fact it was much further than I thought. Took 3.5 hours to get there including 45 mins sat on the M25 like a twit and a lot of driving in absolutely unbelievable, torrential rain FFS. Some route:
Eventually I found the guy's house. It was down a little private lane off the main road, over a railway line then down a narrow gravel track to his place whcih was beside the grassy 'roundabout' at the top of this pic:
When i got there, in the dark and pizzing rain, the Rover was at the bottom of his drive facing the wall. The seller was an old boy of about 70 so he couldnt give me much of a push. First off I thought 'how in gods name am I going to get this out of the grass, turned round and hooked up?' I tried to start it, but it just made a lame whirring noise from the starter. Tried to wind it out on the starter but that didnt work either, not sure why not but it didnt make even the slightest effort to move. So I tried pushing it myself. To my total amazement after a fashion I managed to shift it out the grass despite the 1400kg weight and slippy office shoes on wet grass :roll: . Eventually after a lot of heaving, and humouring the old chap who was wittering on in the background, I did manage to turn the car round enougn and get the A frame on. Turned the transit round and hooked up. All lights were working and the new LED trailerboard was 100% operational. Went in the guys house and paid up (the cash machine only had £20 notes and he didnt have any change, so he ended up £11 up on the deal) but came out again as quick as poss as his house honked unbearably of animals, he had god knows how many cats and dogs roaming the place, smelly cat food bowls on the kitchen worktops and all sorts man, horrendous.
Tried to get it out. He lived at the bottom of a long narrow gravel track - To get out you drive up the track and turn a very sharp right over the hump-backed railway bridge which is tarmaced. Its so tight that I was not sure it was even possible to tow a car out of there on an A-frame, I suspected it would clobber the drivers side of the Rover on the side of the bridge as you made the turn. So, I went at it quite gingerly. curse word TYPICALLY, the waterlogged gravel track was so slippery that the van just could not pull the dead weight round the corner even if I wanted to. I got halfway round and just sat wheelspinning. Now I was going curse word mental as the stress level was going stratospheric. I backed down a bit, but you cant really reverse with the A-frame on so only a short distance, and had another go. Stuck again with the back wheels of the van spinning helplessly. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN. The old boy said 'you'll just have to come back when the weather's dry!!!' Not curse word likely chief. I asked him to sit in the rover and hold it on the brake while I unhooked it from the van. He did that, I unhooked it then got in and rolled it all the way back down the drive. Backed the van down and had one last shot. The only hope was to get some momentum up, go at it and and try to get the back wheels of the van as far as the tarmac where theyd have a chance of gripping. But I didnt actually know if it was possible to get round. There was nowt else for it though, i wasnt coming back a second time, if I smashed the rover I had already decided to tell him to keep the £160 and just weigh the curse word in (althoguh i don't know how any scrap men would get their lorry anywhere near the bottom of his drive mind you).
I shifted all the flipping wheelie bins out the way and went at it as fast as i dared. When i opened my eyes I was sat on top of the hump back bridge, i looked round at the Rover and it was not all caved in on the drivers side. flipping WOW!!!! I shook the old boys hand and set off.
Drove all the way home at 55ish mph. The Tranny van towed it beautifully, its a LWB high-top RWD van with a 2.4 engine. Not sure what it weighs but its getting on for 2 tonnes I reckon and has a payload of 1500kg I think. The Rover is 1400kg so the weight balance is pretty good and it was stable and towed well, although the whole rig was seriously flipping HEAVY!!!! I burned £95 worth of diesel altogether which i calculate is an average of 15.5mpg!!!! Must admit if I had serisouly thought about how far it was and what it would cost at 15mpg to get it, i would never have bid on this fupping Rover. In terms of rozzers i saw one going in the opposite direction in Guildford and two separate patrol cars overtook me on the M1 but didnt take any interest at all. Got to bed at 2am, utterly exhausted and with a banging head. Why do I do it to myself?
