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Post by valhalla on Jan 21, 2018 1:06:42 GMT 1
I realise that it's a bit difficult now to rewind where this all started, but now I have actually made some progress, I thought I would get some pictures of "Lucy" onto the Projects part of the forum. She is a Rover 10 (nominally 21bhp) of late 1939 production. She actually formed part of Rover's 1940 model year early run in July 1939, clearly as part of the war effort, and has one or two "extras" that would indicate that she was fitted for radio in the early stages of the war - an improved generator output over standard is one of them. What makes Lucy a challenge is that there were 4 models (broadly speaking) in the line-up of the "P2" range of cars, and she is the smallest of those 4. This means that she has a different body construction to the bigger cars - she is all-steel construction - and the '10 model is not so popular for latter-day comparisons - everybody wants the 6-cylinder '14 and '16 models, and even the bigger 4-cylinder '12 has a part-wood construction. She was given to me in 2006, which was a challenge-enough to recover her from East Sussex, and had been dismantled by the (then) owner and his brother in 1971. Fortunately, he was clever chap in the Rover Sports Register who realised that absolutely everything that comes off the car must be retained and stored carefully, even if it is due to be remanufactured or replaced. This has made life a lot easier for me - it couldn't be much more difficult, already - as I do have some patterns to use as templates for vast swathes of missing metalwork. Even so, I would suggest that this little Lady is a fair challenge; She doesn't look too bad in that photo, but give a small indication of the sort of work I have had to do this Winter, this is where I started-from on the rear offside corner; This was having cut-out (after extensive internal bracing) all the previous "repairs" that had been attempted. They were all out-of-position, meaning that they were no good for alignment of adjacent panels, or even templates, so the whole corner has had to be copied and inferred from dimensions around the car. After a couple of fairly intensive weeks with my pal (who has now departed Southwards for a "normal" life again for 49weeks) we have got to the position where there is now solid metalwork holding the rear of the car together. Not everything is as pretty as a professional bodyshop, but that's life when you are so far "off-grid". My trade is clearly not in bodywork (nor is it my pal's, we are both electrical/electronic Engineers) so the learning curve is fairly steep, plus the fact that I have limited tin-bashing tooling from my previous Rover and Landrover restorations in the 1990's. Anyway, it keeps me out of the pub.
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Post by valhalla on Jan 21, 2018 1:08:28 GMT 1
So this is what she looks like as of Wednesday this week, after I had tidied-up a few loose ends;
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Post by rhyds on Jan 21, 2018 8:23:22 GMT 1
Some nice reconstruction work there. Silly question, but is the pre-war rover engine similar to the post war IOE unit?
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remmington
Apprentice
Owns Spark Eroder
Posts: 4,966
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Post by remmington on Jan 21, 2018 9:50:07 GMT 1
I have patched up countless rusty cars for MOT testing (hate it).
But...
That looks a nice project!
Get everything out of the way (strip the lot). Clean everything back to bright shiney metal.
Weld away...
Have you looked thru a "Frost Catalogue"? There is loads of sealers and things to make "old things - new!"
Oh... I can't spell "shiney" it should be shiny! (Still don't look right to me, but I did check the spelling, it is hard being a retard!).
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Post by Rhubarb on Jan 21, 2018 15:22:38 GMT 1
Lovely project and rescued from my part of the world.. Looking at what you've done so far there's going to be a lot more strength in that than there was when it was built There's a fella in Eastbourne who is a specialist in Rovers and MG's and is part of the MG club.. Just a thought if you need help with spares or info
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Post by valhalla on Jan 21, 2018 21:10:52 GMT 1
Some nice reconstruction work there. Silly question, but is the pre-war rover engine similar to the post war IOE unit? This is a genuine pre-war Rover unit, meaning that it is an OHV design, with tappet chests to the side of the block. I have shown the two sides of the cylinder head joint just before the head went back on again about 3years ago. Attachment DeletedAttachment Deleted
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Post by valhalla on Jan 22, 2018 0:06:20 GMT 1
Lovely project and rescued from my part of the world.. Looking at what you've done so far there's going to be a lot more strength in that than there was when it was built
There's a fella in Eastbourne who is a specialist in Rovers and MG's and is part of the MG club.. Just a thought if you need help with spares or info Indeed so Rhubarb! This is one measure I have used to work-out when I can start to remove support stays from the space-frame. Basically grab a corner or panel, strain it slightly, then measure what is still moving elsewhere. Lucy started-off pretty terrible.....my pal and I spent nearly a whole week in 2015 just circulating around the body whilst it was still on the chassis, prodding, looking, adding space-frame structure, shifting things that were well out of place, more prodding.......etc.etc. Once we had got to the point that we were happy that nothing bad was going to happen as we lifted the body upwards on the ramp arms, we could then start to do the main rearrangement of the panels - effectively forensically putting all the torn pieces back into line on every rusted joint until we were certain that the car was the correct shape. That took another several days. The rear boot area was distorted badly from 1960's scrapyard recovery (as was the crossmember on the chassis under the differential nose, which had to be straightened and re-welded from recovery-hook damage) and the whole back end of the car was sagging. I have made the inner sills last year (nearly lost my temper with them, actually.....) and they are the next major thing to go into the structure. They define the level of the car across four major mounting faces, and with those sorted-out, I'm hoping that I can ascertain the size and shape of the rearmost body mounts near the back of the boot. Once we had got the body clear of the chassis / running-gear, we were able to test everything out in early 2016, including the engine (first started the previous year for the first time in 45years), freshly-overhauled clutch, gearbox, propshaft, final drive, brakes, steering, etc. etc. Everything was fine, which meant that the effort of doing the bodywork, then the interior, was not going to be in vain. This is how she was tested, and yes, those are proper Rover seats, just 30year too new! Attachment Deleted
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Post by valhalla on Jan 22, 2018 0:14:00 GMT 1
This is a summary of the largest parts that have been replaced this last few weeks (about a fortnight of work in-total), which is around 50% by weight of all of the old rubbish that has come out; Attachment DeletedAs Remmington says, you need to grasp-the-nettle (after all the procrastination and measuring for several days) and just get rid of the old c**p. I find that this is the only way I can visualise how it's all got to be reconstructed again, and has served me well for many Rover P6's I have worked-on over the last few decades.
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Post by rhyds on Jan 22, 2018 0:20:08 GMT 1
Once we had got the body clear of the chassis / running-gear, we were able to test everything out in early 2016, including the engine (first started the previous year for the first time in 45years), freshly-overhauled clutch, gearbox, propshaft, final drive, brakes, steering, etc. etc. Everything was fine, which meant that the effort of doing the bodywork, then the interior, was not going to be in vain. This is how she was tested, and yes, those are proper Rover seats, just 30year too new! View AttachmentAre those Rover 45 or 75 seats?
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Post by valhalla on Jan 22, 2018 0:27:56 GMT 1
Once we had got the body clear of the chassis / running-gear, we were able to test everything out in early 2016, including the engine (first started the previous year for the first time in 45years), freshly-overhauled clutch, gearbox, propshaft, final drive, brakes, steering, etc. etc. Everything was fine, which meant that the effort of doing the bodywork, then the interior, was not going to be in vain. This is how she was tested, and yes, those are proper Rover seats, just 30year too new! Are those Rover 45 or 75 seats? No no nooooooo......they are much more vintage than that. I would never besmirch such a fine machine as a P2 with modern seats! They are a couple of (many) spare Rover 2000 seats I have, although I am fearful that the cream one might actually be out of my own 1965 2000....
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Post by givusaclue on Jan 25, 2018 0:34:54 GMT 1
very nice work i keep thinking i'd love to do something like that at home, but i know i'd never get it done, with 5 motorbikes to do & finish off renovating my cottage i've already got too much on! got a very nicely equipped home workshop, it's collecting dust at mo tho.
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Post by valhalla on Jan 10, 2021 2:18:31 GMT 1
Well, I realise that I have been a bit too quiet these last three weeks, so I should explain that I have been very busy having a "working holiday" on what has been mostly the continued restoration of this little Lady.
So apologies for any concern it may have caused, but the spirit of the North is alive and kicking.....
To compensate for this oversight, I will attempt to condense and post-up some pictures of where this project has gone since I last posted any (about 3 years ago?), but in the meantime, the summary of work is roughly;
Christmas 2018/19 : Nearside inner sill replaced front to back, lots of fabrication work around the rear body mounts, including inventing new mounts and bobbins on the chassis
Christmas 2019/20 : Largely occupied by being very sick for 2weeks with not-Covid19-but-very-similar, latterly completion of the front of the nearside inner sill and A-post area, more work around the inner wheelarches over the rear axle to reinforce the rear body structure
This Christmas : Absolutely loads of work done this last couple of weeks, and still ongoing, Fabrication and fitting of nearside outer sill, completion of rear wheelarches and boot-sides, removal of offside sills, jigging of body structure to improve fit laterally to chassis-mounts. First use of small English-wheel to get better shapes on repair sections to the extreme rear of the wheelarches. Currently looking to remove internal bracing steelwork after offside sills have been basically added-in to the body structure, and fine-fitting of the bootlid and surrounding bodywork. One more week to go, but may make this 2 more weeks due to all the lockdowns going-on!
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Post by studabear on Jan 10, 2021 9:23:49 GMT 1
Good to see you back mate, did wonder where you had vanished to.
Glad you are well.
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Post by Roverman on Jan 10, 2021 10:05:51 GMT 1
From a Rover nut great work, keep up the good work, there's a P2 on e bay at the moment
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Post by sorted on Jan 10, 2021 21:13:43 GMT 1
Great work Valhalla, I’m glad my Stag wasn’t that bad- it had had many rubbish looking repairs but was at least strong so I could mount on the rollover jig I had bought and tackle one section at a time. I now have permission to get another project this year- I was looking at that P2 Roverman mentions- but the current focus is building a new single garage next to my double garage / workshop so I can tuck the Stag safely away in the new one and stop covering it with dust or worse every time I work on anything!
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