|
|
Post by doktor4carz on Mar 3, 2013 14:00:56 GMT
...in spite that nobody would expect some Rovers in this part of the world, well...at the time, there is only one. 1965 P5, 3 litre automatic Mark II, US-model with column shift...for those who paid attention, bringatrailer.com/2008/03/25/rare-black-plate-british-sedan-1965-rover-p5/ is one place of discussion, after which the car appeared for sale here: www.stolzeclassiccars.nl/ , till past April when the item was brought for good to Bucharest. Enough for first words...there's plenty of time to say more as days go by. Cheers all ! |
|
|
|
Post by johnwp5bcoupe on Mar 3, 2013 15:27:02 GMT
...in spite that nobody would expect some Rovers in this part of the world, well...at the time, there is only one. 1965 P5, 3 litre automatic Mark II, US-model with column shift...for those who paid attention, bringatrailer.com/2008/03/25/rare-black-plate-british-sedan-1965-rover-p5/ is one place of discussion, after which the car appeared for sale here: www.stolzeclassiccars.nl/ , till past April when the item was brought for good to Bucharest. Enough for first words...there's plenty of time to say more as days go by. Cheers all ! Hello and welcome to the forum a nice first post  perhaps a picture or two in the future  |
|
|
|
Post by doktor4carz on Mar 3, 2013 23:09:20 GMT
Sure thing...here are a few prior to permanent registration...        ...and some taken at my garage, shortly after the purchase of the sworn till death do them part plates...      This car and I have a sad story to tell... Initially the plans were to get it home...the price was settled for 7300 euros, from which one grant paid in advance. The pick-up time was discussed for April, and here we are in De Lier, Netherlands, somewhere near Hague. On spot, we traced a splendid Citroen DS and we couldn't help ourselves...so there we were, two bloody romanians, two cars older than my grandmother, God rest her soul, and some 3 thousand kilometers away from home. We drove quite fine until some 60 miles from Salzburg, in Austria...at 3 a.m. (local time, as if it made any difference...) Rover died on the fast lane and never woke up... We had it towed by the french one up to the first parkplace and headed for Linz. After a two-hour sleep, my partner carried on with the trip home onboard the Citroen, who behaved outstanding all the way, while I arranged with a good friend of mine to bring a trailer to Austria and meet me here. In that particular moment when the car on trailer entered Romania, while in the mean time another trailer was waiting for me at the border to carry on to the trip on my own, it was Orthodox Easter's Eve and just when I was ready to depart, my phone rang, announcing me that my father is dead. Needless to say those were the longest 450 miles of my life. Faith had it going that, 28 days later, my mother passed away too...the car became some sort of a black sheep for me. For more than six months, it was taken away from my sight. Later on, I managed to get over it, pulled myself together and brought it at my garage. After a proper investigation, a devastated timing chain caused it all, destroying the tensioner and the crankshaft gear. The necessary parts came from Beechgrove Eng. in Bedfordshire, but the surprise also came when nothing fitted...the chain was way too large, the gears too big and the tensioner sorta fitted, but not completely. Well...an unorthodox method was the winner, as I shortened the inappropriate chain to fit on the original gears (one of them, that was partly destroyed, I had it "manually refurbished"...looked like crap, but who cares ? ? ?) and finally developed a good tensioner out of a new inadequate one and the old, original, wrecked one...after the engine timing was set, I cranked it by hand and it started and ran like a charm. Since then, the car got third place twice at our local rallyes and, besides heavy fuel and oil consumption, there were no other issues. As it is not used during winter, I get the engine running once a week. Each time manually...never needed to spin it more than a half of turn. Although, it needs heavy restoration work to be done. Since first sight, everything leaked, except coolant and brake fluid...a pit stop was mandatory every 300 miles for oil refill, this means engine, gearbox and steering. In spite of the excessive care regarding the oil level while on the way home, the chain packed up as the engine had all the necessary fluids in order...that was it, tried then to explain myself why, the only reasonable idea that came to me was that one or more of the previous owners drove with low oil for long enough distances. Besides this, gearbox won't reverse while cold...each time it is used, needs 15 minutes idling. A big plus is a rust-free frame...California was gentle on that matter (those who have sharp eyes noticed the U.S. black plates underneath the RO ones...), a big minus is the interior...all the carpets inside are rotten, and this will be a real pain. Time and an appropriate amount of money will put it back on track...besides me not being driven insane and committed to a psychiatric asylum during the process... |
|
|
|
Post by djm16 on Mar 4, 2013 1:01:01 GMT
Congratulations on a great car. Nice to see another 3 litre join the club. Carpets smarpetz! A minor point. The seat leather looks pretty good as does the rest of the interior that I could see.
Fluids leak!!
Yes, my experience too. Anything that could leak did leak on mine. Most are now fixed.
|
|
|
|
Post by Warwick on Mar 4, 2013 2:00:13 GMT
Congratulations on your purchases - the Rover and the DS. Sorry to hear about the loss of your parents. It's strange how sometimes misfortune seems to come in batches, but we seem to get through it okay.
|
|
|
|
Post by mk3udo on Mar 4, 2013 17:42:44 GMT
Congratulations on your purchase. While I'm reading your post I must say a lot of details can be compared with my purchase in October. Good bodywork but lots of little technical problems. In the meantime I'm very happy with my decision to purchase my MKIII, because it's much easier to solve all these technical faults and bugs than making a body restoration.
Regards
Udo
|
|
|
|
Post by doktor4carz on Mar 4, 2013 21:23:19 GMT
Well...there is more from where I come from. I did not mention the issues underneath...constant oil leaking messed up every piece of rubber there is, steering it on the motorway is a challenge, because it never follows the path you would desire it to do...it's something similar to what you see in the 40's movies, when the driver always corrects the steering wheel to keep it straight on the road... Further on, faulty wheel bearing seals caused the grease inside to come out, also affecting the braking system. Exhaust was trash from the beginning...had to wire it up "haystack method" so it won't get lost behind us on the way. Electrical issues were something common...lucky for me I used to be a Jaguar owner in a time when I was young and stupid and that car taught me that Lucas refrigerators are the main reason why english people never have the benefit of a cold beer...since then I am d**n good at automotive electrical system so right now the only thing not working is the reverse light. Electrics was the easiest part...
About the interior...pictures can be tricky. Those who previously owned it probably decided to renew the upholstery. I never noticed whether it was leather or not...I found out a couple of months ago, when I took a look at the driver's seat bench, who seemed not to be properly fit in its place. The material that covers the bench was not replaced. They simply made a copy of the original pattern in vinyl and fitted it on, without stripping the old one. Not once, but twice... So the driver's seat was some sort of a sandwich, three-time coated, that would never fit on the steel frame. After the newest upholstery, so to speak, was stripped away, I managed to place the bench in the right manner...you can easily imagine how uncomfortable it was to drive the car before. The rest of the seats were re-upholstered only once...for the moment, this is the way they will remain, I don't care more or less if it is leather or vinyl...on a torrid day when you lack an air conditioning system, this is irrelevant. The only thing that bothers is that everything textile is rotten and stinks like crap...water that infiltrated over the years did the job...finding original stuff for the interior to match color and/or reproduce exactly the original will be a tough challenge. Especially when you reside in a country as mine...here, the ugliest part when it comes to restoration isn't bodywork or paint job, but rebuilding automotive interiors.
Overall, I began to enjoy this car. For the moment, it is the only P5 in Romania. Far from being perfect, but it exists and it works, the price paid was fair enough and chances to become a piece of scrap iron in some barn, waiting for a hen to lay an egg inside it, like many others brought here, are minimal. I am aware that this car is going to take away some two years of my life. All that I hope is for a "finis coronat opus". Right now, I am involved in two projects. Both Mercedes, both W108, a '67 250SE and a '70 280S...as soon as they are finished, Rover is next. This is a far away place from the main spares' source...this is quite tough, because of the expenses...and I will be forced to do everything just as the book describes, since no other source of inspiration is available. When I had some trouble before, it was easy to jump in my car to drive to another city by a friend who owned a similar one, have a look and be enlightened...on this one, I'm on my own. It is easy to spot a modification from the original when you know how it was supposed to be original...last month I found out, looking at some photos on a Google search, that my air filter has nothing to do with the original one.
Thanks all for your kind words !
|
|
|
|
Post by Phil Nottingham on Mar 5, 2013 18:20:17 GMT
Welcome - its nice that our overseas enthusiasts appreciate the P5 especially the rare 3 Litre versions and the even rarer RCNA exports sporting the front wing badge that on pre-production home market cars had  |
|
|
|
Post by norvin on Mar 19, 2013 19:19:28 GMT
I enjoyed your story and also the photos. Sorry about your mum and dad.
|
|
|
|
Post by doktor4carz on Oct 12, 2013 1:53:53 GMT
The story goes on...time came for Rover. I thought that I should begin with the easy part...electrics. So...dashboard out, all the wiring disconnected, all indicators out, the circus began. First car I ever owned that had a blocked speedo...no wonder that the flexible shaft from the gearbox was broken. It's a habit of mine with these speedometers...comes from Mercedes cars, that usually indicate the speed, but not the mileage, and every time I have a Mercedes speedo in my hands, I stick a small screwdriver up his ass, right in the place where the cable fits, and turn it manually counter-clockwise, in order to see if the figures on the display are moving...usually they don't, in which case I need to disassemble for refurbishment of the mechanism. Well...in Rover case, "manual cranking" was impossible. It was stiff as wood. Have to admit it...it's been 18 years for me in ancient automotive, but this was a first...would have expected something like that on a car that sat on the bottom of the ocean... Nonetheless, d**n thing works fine now, in spite of the fact that I dedicated the entire day of my miserable life to resuscitate it.
All the electrical contacts were cleaned, so were all the switches, fuse box, earth connections in the engine compartment...and then came the light. Except for the little white cold start lamp. All was fine on its circuit, except for the magical thermo-contact on the intake manifold. That was the moment I stared at the 1967 Land Rover Series IIA I also possess...the small triangular piece is contained there, but it doesn't make itself useful, ever since Land Rover IIA does not have a cold start indicator light. Thus, cars exchanged thermoswitches between each other and I was very content to acknowledge a glowing bulb, as the engine was hot enough to make it happen.
The most exciting part of all was the clock...guess it stopped for good by the time Joan Sutherland was in her prime, Lennon was still breathing and the entire world never heard about hipsters and lemon radler beer... Took me five minutes to get it in my hands, half an hour to make it small pieces, clean it up and put everything back as it originally was - surprisingly, it worked like a charm, joyfully ticking all the way - and six days to get it precise. I got to a point that I felt remorse for putting my mental sanity at this sort of ordeal...I can get used to a non-functioning clock, but there is nothing more annoying than a clock that indicates Siberian mean time when you're not actually there...
Among others, there is to be mentioned a bizarre flasher unit... The original lever that commands the process, the one from the steering column, is absent, hence no high beam flashes available. Besides that, the role of the direction lamps was assigned to a supplemental switch, manufactured somewhere in the east, very far away, in a place where the emperor receives a different name than the one he bares while he is alive right after he kicks the bucket - although no subject of his addresses nor refers to him by that name while in office, being considered very impolite to do such a thing - and where an entire era is named after the newly-dead emperor. To cut a long story short, the knob was small as a pea and looked like crap, but was working. The strange thing was that both green lights on the panel remained dimmed after the turn-signal lamps were extinguished...everything else was fine. When the panel flew out, I noticed that the flasher can kinda overheated...luckily it's not electronic, I noticed that calibration inside was gone with the wind, all that it needed was a fine tuning and that was all. Since I adore slow flashers, this was a good opportunity to modify the blink rate, a little bit too fast for my own taste. I also refurbished the switch responsible for the back-up light...there were no issues concerning authorization to start only in Park or Neutral, but the reverse light ignited only on catholic holidays...a clean switch and an adjustment to the tiny rod that drives it concluded the magic.
As soon as I am provided with stuff I momentarily lack...speedo flexible and some bits that were absent ever since I know the car, as panel lights switch, turn-signal lever and so on, this chapter will be considered accomplished.
|
|
perhaps a picture or two in the future 
