1972 Rover P6 2300TC - Saab B234 Turbo

Yay snow day! No work to go to ;D

Perfect opportunity to do something to the p6. After a false start in the morning trying unsuccessfully to remove the lower balljoint from one of the front struts so I could fit the shortened ones, I turned to the front air dam thingy I'd started. Somehow it just didn't flow with the rest of the car, then I saw this:



more of it here

First I raided the kitchen cupboards to get some cereal packet cardboard, then made this:









I've brought the air dam forwards so it sits about 2" back from the mouth of the lower grille, and follows the angle of the grille back from the centre. The lower edge still sits higher than the sump and front crossmember.

I then placed the cardboard templates over some sheet steel:



And cut two pieces out:



I bent the ends round to follow the profile of the wings, and tacked the two halves in place:







Theres loads more to do still. It has been built in one piece, but will be split as the old one was where the wings join the valance panel. The lower edges under the front wings are still to be folded up once I've got the profile exactly right, giving an almost flat surface from side to side. The top corners of the air dam on the wings will be blended into the wheelarch lip, unlike the old one which sat too far back to blend in.

This now gives me somewhere to mount some fog/spot lights under the bumper, not sure how they'd look yet, then once I'm happy with it, the valance will be stripped back to bare metal and I'll paint it all over again.

I've done a bit more work to the new air dam today. I removed the extra inch off the corners and welded a another piece underneath to follow the folded edge along the base to keep the profile. Then I cleaned some paint from the eges where the air dam met the wings and valance, welded most of it up and cut two vertical lines through the air dam so the wings can be parted from the valance:







With the front bumper off I could remove the excess metal from the back of the alance:



Then smooth it all out on the back so there's no sharp edges:



The corners where the air dam meets the wheelarches need a bit more work to blend in, and a vertical strip needs to be welded onto the ends of the air dam below the wheelarch. With the valance removed, I can run a line of weld along the join below the radiator intake, and weld in two infill pieces where the air dam sits too far from the valance. Both front wings then need to be taken off to remove excess unwanted metal from inside, then I can work out a way of joining the wings/valance back together on the car.

Great fabrication skills there! Lovely neat welding too!

I haven't been able to get as much done as I'd hoped today on the new air dam. I've removed all the excess metal from inside the front wings now, and welded on the flanges so the wings now bolt to the valance via the air dam:





The flange will continue upwards following the valance to wing join.I've also smoothed out most of the welds and seemed up the valance below the radiator intake:





A little more work is needed on the passenger wing to better merge the arch lip profile into the air dam, and cut out the infill pieces to weld into the valance on the corners of the intake by the air dam. Once the welding is done, I can use the hammer and dolly to remove some small lumps and bumps, then a light skim of filler over the welds to smooth it all out.

I know what you mean, but there was always something not quite right with it, and I was never satisfied with the way the ends fitted onto the wheelarches. Personally, I think its fab now, and everything flows around the front. I'm hoping to get the car out of the garage in the next week or so, then I'll be able to stand back and possibly finalise the look of the car so I can put a final topcoat of blue on the front end.

The problem is this car is slowly evolving, every time I change one part, something else needs to be changed, and previous modifications sometimes need to be revisited.

Genius

I finally got round to getting the p6 out of the garage today. The battery is flat and doesn't seem to be taking charge, and the fuel pump has decided to run intermittently but otherwise all worked fine. This is the first time I've been able to give it a proper run outside since modding the rear axle and starting fitting the Chevy wheels .

The brakes grabbed well when stamped on, even though there's still a little air in them, and both rear wheels now spin together ;D . As I'm waiting on my second pair of rims to be blasted, I've got odd wheels on the front. It now shows up ho awful the original steels are, and how much better the deeper offset wheels work filling in the arches















The front sits too high, but when I find a set of lower balljoints (can't get the new ones out of my old struts ) I'll put the shortened struts on, and then the rear needs pushing up a bit, but that can wait until the front is done so I can get the ride height done in one go

epic work as usual!
when ever I see you've updated I always feel quilty haha..

if you need a fuel pump I have a freshly rebuilt one on my 2000sc, also new plugs and I think leads, dizzy cap etc, seeing as I'm not using that engine its a shame they'll go to waste?
they're fitted but have done maybe 20 -30 miles

yours if you want them..

That's looking great, really mean!

John