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Service experiences in the south east

Posted: Sun May 12, 2019 6:21 pm
by Geoffrey
I am carrying out a rolling mechanical restoration of a 1947 Rover 12 I bought about 6 months ago. Some of the issues I have been able to fix myself, others I have used suppliers to help me. The car was overheating so I decided to fit a new radiator core. I used Regal Radiators not far outside Maidstone. I took the old radiator to him having removed it from the car myself. A new core was fitted in in about 3 weeks at a cost of £390. I am very pleased with the result. The re-cored radiator was refitted into the car without problems and the car now runs nice and cool. Even being stationery in traffic for a long time does not provoke the temperature gauge more than half way across.

Perhaps mistakenly, I decided to fit a new exhaust. The old one looked very rusty and I fancied it was on the noisy side. I took the car to Redhill Classics in Redhill and they fabricated up and fitted a new stainless exhaust at a cost of £260. The cost I thought very reasonable. The job took over 3 hours. I am, however, rather disappointed with the overall result. The new exhaust fits well and follows the same layout as the original standard exhaust. Pipe, silencer roughly in the middle and then more pipe to rear of car. I don't think it actually leaks or blows but it is quite rorty and booms rather a lot. It is worse when the car is cold improving a bit once it has warmed up. Basically it is noisier than the old rusty mild steel one. Possibly the cause is that the silencer is insufficiently baffled. I have also read somewhere that stainless exhausts do not suppress noise as well as mild steel ones. I might try wrapping the pipe in the sort of exhaust bandage some people fit to motorcycle exhausts. I might also try sourcing another silencer if I can be convinced it will make a difference.

Happy Rovering
Geoff

Re: Service experiences in the south east

Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 8:38 am
by TonyG
Geoffrey,

Useful feedback. Re the exhaust; I suspect that your new silencer is of the type that has a holed pipe running through it with wadding of some sort- wire wool or fibre- packed around it, rather than metal baffles. In other words you probably have a ‘straight through’ exhaust, as we used to call them. This will be more noisy, although it should improve performance. Not that performance is the aim with an old car! That said, the price you paid was very reasonable for a stainless system so don’t feel disappointed.

For my Tourer I had a bespoke four branch and sports exhaust made by Demand Engineering near Stowmarket. This has a single silencer, like the original that was fitted and is a bit noisy, but no more than expected. However, it was a lot more expensive than yours. In the next few months I hope to get them to make me a system for my 12 Saloon, connecting to the standard manifold, which I’d expect to cost around £500. Not cheap but excellent quality and service.

We must not forget, of course, that an exhaust for a Discovery 3 is in the region of £2k for a regular system. So our old cars represent considerable frugality on this front.

Tony.