HOW MANY ROVER MK 1 SALOONS R LEFT

[terryprice]

I have a very early p5 saloon with manual gearbox and over drive it has been stored for 15 years and i will be starting restoration soon.It needs inner outer sills on drivers side and brake seals to make it roadworthy. it has 30k on the clock.
I was just wondering if there are many of the mk1s around mine is chasis number 6259- 00045 and was made on 7th November 1958.It is Black and was sold by Rossleigh ltd in Aberdeen

[dorsetflyer]

Terry you could have well come up wih the earliest MK1 yet.
They were introduced in Sept 1958 and if yours was built in Nov1958 it was certainly an early example.
Any chance of putting pics of the car on here so we can share it?
It'll be interesting to see what other comments come on here about it.

[Phil Nottingham]

Also use Search as quite a bit has been said about the earliest one and your must be it.

Has I got drum front brakes still and ist manual, manual/od or auto.

There must a be at least a dozen running

[terryprice]

Hi phil the car is drum brakes all round and has no synchromesh on 1st gear.It has a manual gearbox with overdrive.I will be starting the welding work soon on the drivers side inner and outer sills so i will take some photographs when i take the covers of.

[Phil Nottingham]

None of the manual boxes has 1st gear synchro - it was developed from the pre-war running board Rovers of the early 1930's except they did not have synchro on 2nd as well as they had a freewheel device. That is why it sounds so old fashioned! looks very similar to my 1939 16 and 1961 P4 (has the P4 long gear lever yet later P5's had the remote typesimilar to the running board Rovers

The drum brakes were not supposed to be very good on the P5 and require careful set-up even though they were picked straight from the P4's and Land Rovers carried on using them for another 20 years!

Look forward to seeing some pics - 45th one made of the 1959 season which started 1 Sept 1958 very early indeed and with only 30k miles it may have most of its original parts

[Eric R]

P5 3 litre Mk1 XUL 658
Launched Motor Show October 1958. Production commenced January 1959. Built 22nd June 1959. Lline label 1113. Total built 15,251. Chassis 625901044 – Engine 625900542 Shadow green over Rush green – Beige interior. My car has a standard 4-speed gearbox and a bench front seat.
Dealer - Henly Motors London NW1
Time spent in Malta GC and Cyprus Repatriated from Sardinia, Italy September 2007 showing 63,564 miles
Awarded prize for oldest P5 at Brooklands National Rally 2008
Exhibited at Classic Motor Show NEC Birmingham 2008
Showing in Forum headline.

Surely the one referred to (above) must have been an order secured from the prototypes at the Motor Show!

[Phil Nottingham]

Must have been unless it was a Rover press or company car - original regstration letters?

Must be unique to drive with all its early production faults? How many of these are still tehre?

[terryprice]

Following on from my earlier posts, i have recently acquired the new log book from the dvlc it took a few years for me to get round to sending off for it as the previous owner had promised to find the original but never did.The problem i have is that the vehicle spent about 20 years forgotten in the back off a large storage facility near Cheltenham and somewhere along the line the original number plates went walkies.

The previous owner had to re register the car and was given a new registration number staring USV by the dvlc after establishing the build date of 1958 via the British Motor Heritage certificate.The problem is that as the vehicle is re registered the first date of registration on the dvlc computer is 1985 and as such they have classified the vehicle as private light goods instead of historical so i would imagine there will be a lot of problems getting a free tax disc.If anyone knows how i can track the original plate by using vin numbers and place of origin etc i would be very grateful or if possible how i can get the dvlc to re classify the car as historical. i have the build record so it will not be a problem proving the authenticity of the application

[harvey]

Apr 22, 2009 18:09:32 GMT terryprice said:

after establishing the build date of 1958 via the British Motor Heritage certificate.The problem is that as the vehicle is re registered the first date of registration on the dvlc computer is 1985 and as such they have classified the vehicle as private light goods instead of historical so i would imagine there will be a lot of problems getting a free tax disc.

Providing you can prove the build date you should have no problem getting it reclassified as Histoic and getting free tax. In fact it should say on the V5 (if you have one "registered 1985, declared manufactured 1958")

[Phil Nottingham]

No probelms at if you the heritage cert - if not the club will assist. A USV registration is an age related plate anyway if it has no year identifer - go back and get ity corrected. The PO was obviously not a club member!!

Highly unlikley that you will trace the orginal number and then even get it reinstated if remaining unissued - most local authorites lost or destroyed therir records when the DVLA tookover in the mid 1970's - you may be lucky and find a previous owner or some old docs hidden away.

The Heritage certificate should give the main dealer it was supplied eg defunct Henley's who often supplied smaller dealers in the network so you will have a rough area to start looking. If it wsa the Rosslieghs you already have near enough the correct plate as it is a genuine Scot so #SV could have been part of it even though #SA belongs to Aberdeen

[terryprice]

thanks for the info when the car is ready for the road i will be in touch to ask for some advice looks like a year to 18 months before that wot with finance and time.I am a little confused as to the previous member Erice statement about production starting in Jan 1959 as my build record states production of the mark 1 was from 1958 - 61 and my vehicle was made as a rhd for the home market on 7/11/58 the sales order ref # was 000058 with engine number 6269 - 00030 i wouldnt imagine that it was a prototype of any kind unless anyone knows otherwise

[Phil Nottingham]

Production actually started in August 1958 ready for the motor show and press cars but dealership main production on the assembly line did not start properly till Jan 59 as there were numerous production problems to sort and many more to come after. The early ones were virtually hand built - as were the last P5B's in 72/3 - bothe being well below Rover standards reached for the P5 and never surpassed in the mid 60's

Something is wrong with the numbers quoted.

If Export RHD manual 305 were made - it is VERY rare and probably unique so we will be interested to hear more as 6269 is a manual EXPORT RHD chassis number 6259 is Home market series of which 1584 were made in the 59 season (Sep 58 to Aug 59) and only 416 reached by Feb 59 or 31 Export - what do the actual plates say

???Just noticed it is a 6259 Chassis/Com number 45th built but with an Export manual engine number 58th As I said therec were production problems so egnies may have been short - has it still got it?

[terryprice]

Hi Phil the car is 100% original. the engine is the same one as left the factory.If you can add some of the photos i would be grateful i have tried to do it myself but failed miserably

[Phil Nottingham]

It is easy - but I have got your photos and will post them after my dinner!

[Phil Nottingham]

Here is another very old Mk1 - must have had the disk conversion and does look good. There are more out there than it seems. High proce but it has its original plate

cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rover-3-Litre-P5-Mk-1_W0QQitemZ250439279846QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAutomobiles_UK?hash=item3a4f5824e6&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A10|66%3A4|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A200

[dorsetflyer]

Having just looked at it Phil I agree it does look a good one.
Shame I can't get up to see it.
Perhaps Glenn could go and see it and report back on it as I don't think he lives very far from them.

[Deleted]

Are you looking for a P5? I don't know what to do with mine.

[Phil Nottingham]

Glad to see you back on-line John! Hope you are feeling a little better now.

Neither of us are looking for a P5 at the moment SP But thanks

[indianbob]

Hi folks,just bought an old p5 from north west area, a green 1960 manual, no WSK 168, was shown a few years ago by a David Blay, but its had a hard few years and i'm trying to get it back in shape. Does anyone know the car. Hope to hear some news from someone, i'm indianbob and from nottm, thanks,bob.

[Phil Nottingham]

Clearly it has been reregistered - do you know its original mark?

Welcome to the Forum anyway

[indianbob]

Thanks for the welcome, dont know original mark, but would be good to find what it was. I suppose it was something decent to have it taken off and replaced with an age-related plate. Can this be got rid of, and something less noticable used to replace it? Just been for a run in it, and been trying to get tickover smoother, only to get back and on checking the washer under economiser, found it in wrong position, so back to square one! Everything on the car has to be double checked, as it all seems to have been messed with, but i'll get there in the end. This car seems to be mostly mk1, but the front doors have quarter lights, can the window top frames have been swopped or has it had later doors fitted,[door cards are early mk1]? cheers, bob.

[Phil Nottingham]

You can find a more appropriate English mark from another car of the period & locality but it will cost the £80 transfer fee + the cost of the mark + new plates.

Later doors were different as to door handle mounts (wider and extra "stud" fixing but early type were used on Mk1a's too - the top frames can be removed but you will need to find the early type.

Later doors will fit too.

Not many know about the economiser washer or even waht it does and how to test its operation

[indianbob]

economiser washer was on top of union instead of below, slide was sticking in jet, so after stripping carb and resetting tappets etc, it ticks over almost like a sewing machine! I'll get there! Thanks again for your advice, bob.

[clive]

I own a Mk 1a (1962) I’m in the club but not been to any dedicated Rover rallies for some years now.
The car’s in good original nick, I’ve owned it 25 years, it still only has 65 000 in the clock.
It’s been giving me a bit of grief of late (see my plea for help!)
Going to classic car show’s there seems to be far fewer 3 litres left than V8’s.

[Phil Nottingham]

Coincidence that the economiser was mentioned in this thread too!