Hi from South Midlands - P2/P3

[Chris C]

Hi there from deepest Northamptonshire almost on the Oxon/Bucks border.

I retired last year from almost 40 years in the motor industry and needed something
to occupy my time and keep me out of the wife's hair. So approx 9 months ago I
purchased a couple of Rovers. One is a blue 1939 Rover 14 six light, which had been
sitting in a nice warm garage since 1988 and the other is a black 1949 Rover 75 six
light, which was last on the road in 2006, but has spent the last 6 years gathering dust
in a lock up garage.

As the P3 had only been off the road a relative short time, I have been spending most
of my time getting it up and running and ready for an MOT. It didn't take too much to
get the engine ready to fire up again, just a quick clean and resetting of the plugs,
points and SU fuel pump electrics. The cooling systems was a little more of a problem,
as the radiator drain tap was loose in the bottom tank. So had to remove the rad and
get it fixed. Whilst doing so, found that the cooling system was full of "red goo" (Barrs
Radiator Sealer ??? ), so removed the thermostat housing and water pump. Flushed out
all of the "red goo" and gave the inside of the cooling jacket a good clean out. Built
everything back together, topped it up with coolant, checked the oil and was ready to
try and start the engine. To my surprise she started up on the second push of the button
and after a little tinkering around with the choke, she was ticking over nicely, however
the tappets were a little noisey. After adjusting them all, the engine is now running
very sweetly at tickover. Brought the engine up to operating temperature, the stat
opened up OK and so far, everything seems to be watertight.

Have been doing lots of other small jobs along the way, like:
Replacing the wiper motor mountings rubbers
Replacing the seal on the radiator cap
Replacing the feed hose to the oil pressure guage
Cleaning out the brake drums & resetting the brakes
Replacing the rubber ball joints on the radius arms
Driver & passenger seat cushions needed the leather recovering
The interior mirror was all fogged up and need replacing
The indicator arms needed replacement festoons & a touch of lubrication
Many of the bulbs also needed replacing, together with some rewiring
Plus a lot of spit a polish to get the bodywork & chrome looking something like
presentable (as the previous owner had the car resprayed at some point).

So hopefully soon, I should be able to get it off down the road for an MOT.

A big thanks to Mike Maher (RSR Chairman) & Philip Copperwheat the Northants
Rover P4 rep who have both been a great help over the past 9 months.

I haven't quite got my head round Photobucket yet, but will try and get some
photos available soon.

Bye for now, Chris C.