1937 Rover 16 SS

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Ballarat Bertie
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:54 am

1937 Rover 16 SS

Post by Ballarat Bertie » Thu Dec 05, 2024 11:25 am

I have been restoring my 1937 16 Sports Saloon from the ground up. I have replaced all wearing parts on the chassis with new, replaced the Luvax chassis lubrication, repaired the chassis and reset the rear springs. The two axles were broken so I fitted two from a later model along with the spider gears to match the splines and had to shorted the axels by 5/8 inch also machining the splines to lengthen them. The gearbox had new gears and shafts. The clutch was changed to a Defender clutch. The Engine was completely overhauled. It had a crank from a later model ground down journals to suit, bearing shells fitted instead of the pour in white metal, stainless steel valves, new OS pistons, new 2nd hand head, everything crack tested and balanced. The engine runs as smooth as silk. I made a new SS fuel tank. The body was mostly rust so I have had to make the A, BC and D posts, make and replace the boot floor and all of the bottom sections of the body that were rusted out. I also made a SS sliding roof tray so that will never rust out again. It won’t be long before I have to do the trim on the inside. I’m also replacing all of the timber on the inside using the rotted bits as templates. I have a query on the head lining. The lining appears to be fixed to the top of the timber cross member at the back of the sliding roof tray and I have formed cards that are nailed to the D posts and curve around to the frame around the rear window. How is the lining held up above the cards and across to the top of the rear window frame? There is no timber extending to that area. What does the eyelet screw into that carries the blind cord around the corner?

GOY189
Posts: 578
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 5:08 pm

Re: 1937 Rover 16 SS

Post by GOY189 » Mon Feb 03, 2025 9:15 pm

AS far as I remember, there was a piece of sound deadening mat glued to the roof and the headlining was glued to that. Later cars had the headlining hung on wire supports that run between the wooden fillets above the D post. The wire supports run in linen "tubes" sewn onto the headlining material

The eyelet as far a I recall, screwed into part of the rear window wooden surround. Hope this helps. Can you remember which bearing shells you used?

Mike Maher,

TonyG
Posts: 308
Joined: Mon Sep 07, 2015 4:38 pm

Re: 1937 Rover 16 SS

Post by TonyG » Thu Feb 06, 2025 3:22 pm

Hi,

I have tried to attach a picture of the head lining in my ‘37 Saloon. Hopefully this download has been successful and you can see the finished solution.

When I bought the car some years ago most of the interior had been removed and the leather was past saving. I had the seats and door cards recovered in a more cheerful colour than the original brown and I repaired and retrimmed the sliding roof as part of the body restoration. This left a fair bit of interior to address! To have it professionally done was prohibitive cost wise, as the car’s value simply does not justify the expense. As such, it had to be a DIY job and my apologies in advance to the purists reading who may not approve of my non original approach. However, the end result is satisfactory and a lot better than having a tatty interior - or no interior, as I started with!

With nothing to use as a template, I photographed a couple of P2s at RSR events but I couldn’t get much information on the proper way to create the head lining. So the solution I decided upon for the main part of the roof was to create two panels and cover these in head lining fabric. Then fix these to the wooden bearers in the roof, in the same way that modern cars often have a panel that fixes in rather than rods etc like cars of 50s, 60s and 70s.

To make the panels I used a sheet of 4mm plywood and started by cutting the hole for the sunroof and measuring out from there. The original intention was to have a single panel but I quickly realised I couldn’t get that into the car! So it was cut just behind the hole where the wooden roof timber sits. Then it was a question of offering the panels up and shaping with a view to the rear part near the window being held tight against the roof insulation by the screws forward of it into the roof timber, thereby forcing it to curve into shape. Having made these panels, but before covering them, I set about making the panels that sit around the sides and rear window using trim board (like hardboard but more bendy from Vintage supplies). Also the bits above the doors. Another piece of ply was used to make the section above the windscreen. These bits were all covered in head lining fabric using spray glue and, once screwed into place, the roof panels were offered up and fine tuned to fit without gaps, particularly around the curve at the rear. Then they were covered and screwed into place. The bit around the sun roof was left unfinished so the fabric could be fitted into the reveal before the wood trim was refitted.

Simples! No not really. In fact of all the jobs I’ve done on both my cars, this was one of the most arduous. However, the end result is pretty good and the cost was minimal. Also, with the ability to remove the two main panels, future access to the roof mechanism is possible without major removal of the glued and wired original headlining.

If this approach is of interest to you, you are welcome to view my car. I’m in Essex.

Tony.
Attachments
DMB 750 interior head lining view
DMB 750 interior head lining view
8082A74F-07A0-49C1-9A15-BF7C7E8488FB.jpeg (94.46 KiB) Viewed 665 times
Tony Gilbert

P1 12 Tourer
P2 12 6 Light Saloon
Discovery 3
Discovery Sport

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