THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION - well the car has been off the road since 1996!

Hmmm, perhaps restoration is too grand a title.  Perhaps "getting him back on the road as cheaply as possible without scrimping on safety and quality" is nearer the mark.  He's been off the road since about late March/early April 1996 stored in a dry (ish) garage. 

A brief history of the car

Dad bought Roger on 13th July 1993 sold as seen for the full asking price.  Roger was purchased by us just short of his 9th birthday, having left the Cowley Rover factory on Thursday 9th August 1984.  On 21 August 1984, he was sold to ACL Ltd, Newport Road, Cardiff by Wadham Stringer (Chichester) Ltd.  Given that all the service records relate to the south east of England, I assume that ACL Ltd was the head office address.  On 2 October 1984, a FREE service was carried out at 1180 miles by Harwoods Garage (Pulborough) Ltd in Sussex.  Bizarrely, a Supershield Inspection Only was carried out on 1 August 1985 by Caffyns Plc, Brighton.  Bizarre as they supplied my car too so both Bob and Roger spent part of their youth at the same dealership.  On 25 April 1986 at 9792 miles, that car was given a pre-sale service by Penta Reading Ltd, "Austin Rover Distributors", Reading.  Further servicing was recorded by the same dealer on 9 June 1987 (18230 miles), 9 December 1987 (22186 miles) and finally on 12 December 1988 (29404 miles).  Then, it all went to pot...

Why isn't he on the road now?

Basically, Roger the Rover is my dads car (the family car at the time of purchase) and was bought when our naff old Volvo 245 estate finally failed an MoT after years of deliberate neglect on our part.  How we sighed when the MoT man kept saying "these Volvos just go on and on forever"... 

At the time, we didn't know that the Rover 6 cylinder engines have a design fault.  The oil feed to the cam carrier and cylinder head is very narrow indeed and can easily sludge up, causing a loss of oil supply to the head and disaster...  Needless to say, valves met pistons on the M4 eastbound one fateful rainy night and the car was towed home by my good self following a frantic phone call from dad.  A strip-down of the engine revealed a knackered cylinder head with bits of valve here and there and damage to number 1 piston.  As dad had recently started working abroad, there was never any immediate need to restore the old bus but I decided that with these cars becoming ever more rare (and dare I say valuable) it seemed a shame to let it rot in the garage unloved.

Spares obtained to do the job!

Spares purchased along the way include a ROSDIWATCH and a ROSDIMAN.  The ROSDIWATCH is basically a sensor which detects the loss of oil pressure and gives a visual warning on the dash.  The ROSDIMAN allows manual selection of an alternative oil supply.

   

A brand new Cam Carrier and Cylinder head was purchased a few years ago, but never fitted, owing to the need to strip the engine block and replace the damaged piston.  We never did find the enthusiasm to do that...

Recently, we stripped the brakes in order to get the car mobile again.  New drums, discs, shoes and pads and caliper seals were purchased from Winns & Co and Rimmer Bros.  Click here for the links page.

8th September 2002:  And then, after seeing an advert in the Rover SD1 Club magazine, a low mileage 2300 engine was purchased for £100 from a chap in Stevenage.  For a small fee, he even delivered it directly to the garage for me.

10th September 2002:  Roy from Tune-Rite Motor Services arrives to collect Roger.  The car is towed to their workshop using a fixed tow bar.  Especially useful as the car has no brakes...  The picture below is Roger immediately after being pushed out of the garage, waiting for Roy to arrive.

Receipts and parts purchased

Very few receipts exist so this'll be a short section!

Jobs To Do

This is too long a list and will make me cry.  So I'll not tell.  You can guess instead!  Brakes, bodywork, overhaul the cooling system, check the exhaust system and then we'll put him through an MoT to see what that throws up!