UEY - Rover P6 2000TC

[bent8rover]

[Cheap Rover P6 2000TC M reg - Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 3:39 pm]

Someone posted an ad on the Classic Rover forum for this car. He needs it gone and doesn't know what it's worth. If you're interested I can pass on his contact details. As the car's on Anglesey, I popped along this lunchtime for a look.
Below is the report I posted on that forum:

I've just been to see this car, amazingly passing another Mexico Brown P6 on the way! I was driving my own so friendly waves were exchanged.

1974 2000TC in Mexico Brown.
50K miles recorded, probably genuine.
1 family owned from new.
Parked unused in a dry garage for 15 years.
Fibreglass rear wings.
Radiomobile push button radio; roof aerial.
Tool roll, couple of item missing I think, though I've spotted a spanner from it on the dash in my photo, so perhaps it's all there somewhere.
Doors on passenger side are pretty good. Drivers side doors a bit flakey at the bottom.
Front wings presentable but signs of bubbling in the usual place below the trim strip where the strengthener retains moisture.
Bumpers straight and undented but spotted with rust.
Interior of boot very good apart from one patch of rust on lower LHS.
Recesses under rear seat squabs - RHS good, LHS rusty.
Sills - welded to floor at the rear ends with nasty patches, presumably MOT repair/bodge.
Corresponding rust/holes at adjoining rear inner wings.
Front flitch (where sill meets inner wing at front) LHS feels solid, RHS crumbles to the touch.
Under bonnet, no rust to worry about.
Engine - I failed to get it to turn at all by gripping the fan and heaving. Feels totally seized.
Bonnet badge - the usual hairline crack down centre, otherwise the best original one I've seen outside of a show.

General - looks dusty and rather sad on its flat tyres, but solid with quite nice interior. Unmolested, the only sign of fiddling are incorrect or missing knobs off the wiper and light switches.
But that's quite a bit of welding to do, and I'd have to assume that more will be revealed once the outer sills are removed. If the engine is seized I'd imagine it can be freed, but it's another job to do.
I'm sure it's restorable, but my own project car is a better proposition for me especially as mine is tax exempt.
I'd be reluctantly willing to take it for spares to save it from going straight to scrap, but can pay no more than 250 pounds to include all the goodies mentioned (radio, toolkit, etc).
I rather hope that someone else reading this is willing to take it on as a project instead.

Photos here

[bent8rover]

[Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2013 10:21 am]

This one is now mine.

Collected on Thursday, flicked a damp rag over it and had a quick fiddle on Saturday - it looks a lot less sorry for itself with the tyres pumped up, the dust gone and correct knobs replaced on the facia.
A fresh battery saw all the electrics working, including that nice Radiomobile.
The starter motor just produced a clunk, but after removing the spark plugs and squirting oil into the bores every clunk had the engine turning a couple of degrees until it freed up completely. A compression test showed all the cylinders reading between 10 and 12 so no major problems there.
I tried flicking the points open with a screwdriver and could make out a very faint click, so there's a spark but it was too weak to see. I'll try a different coil.
The carbs are dried out. I have a small fuel tank off a lawn mower so will try drip feeding petrol in and see where it goes. It'll probably leak out until the fibre washers have swollen back to size.
Then perhaps I can get it started.

Brake and clutch pedals sink straight to the floor.
Once I've removed the outer sills I'll be able to decide whether it's going to survive or not.

Other goodies - the toolkit is actually complete - the missing items were inside the car.
The original bill of sale is present from Aug 1st 1973. Buyer's address was where I collected the car from, confirming that it had been owned by one chap and transferred to his daughter in 1995 then left in the garage.

Photos to follow.

[Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 12: pm]

And it's alive!

A new set of points created a healthy spark. A fiddle with the fuel reserve tap and a clean of the pump had petrol flowing - and dripping out of both carbs. Then after a long churn of the starter she fired up and ran as roughly as you'd expect until I chickened out and switched off.

[Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2013 6:24 pm]

Fuel leak solved by replacing one float chamber. Now starts on the button, but the knackered water pump sounds awful. Hopefully I've got a serviceable spare knocking around somewhere.

Some photos:










This is the worst of the GRP rear wings - the other one doesn't look at all bad but this one's decidely ripply.

To do:
Replace water pump.
Get clutch working.
Oil & filter change.
Get at least some brakes working so that I can move it about and properly assess the mechanical condition.
Remove outer sills and decide whether to continue or not.
Or give it a polish and put it straight on eBay.

[bent8rover]

[Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2013 7:30 pm]

Right, knackered water pump replaced with one I found in my garage - which turns out to leak like a sieve. Never mind, it'll do for now. The engine sounds a lot healthier with it so once I've changed the oil and sorted the clutch hydraulics I should be able to move the car around under its own power

[Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 10:54 am]

Clutch hydraulics sorted. I just drove it 50 yards!

[Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 1:42 pm]

... but that was the end of today's good news.
I just removed the sill covers. Driver's side is as to be expected, welding required both ends and just a little patch in the middle, rot not extending to the inner sill structure. All very doable.
On the passenger side I'd noticed that a patch was welded onto the cover sill (which should just be bolted on) but hadn't spotted that the whole length of the cover sill was welded to the car's underside. After removing the screws along the top, I bent the cover sill downwards revealing a whole world of pain! Photos later, but suffice to say the full length is rotted out, extending right through to the floorpan. Still theoretically doable but as it's miles worse than my other "project" car (which is tax exempt while this one is not), I have no qualms about downgrading this to a spares car.
This might seem a shame, but all the outer panels need some attention, the brakes need a full rebuild and I haven't looked behind the GRP rear wings yet but don't doubt there'll be plenty of rot there (an area in which my project car is unusually sound).

[bent8rover]

[Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2013 11:28 am]

This is the "good" side:


This isn't:

"Rover 2000 £4 each"




Presumably the previous owner paid for those repairs when all they did was hide the rot behind new cover sills.

FrazzleTC wrote:

Some significant rot there, but it looks like it's well worth saving!

[Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:22 am]

It should be, but values are still too low for the sums to add up. As a minimum it needs:
about 4 full weekends worth of welding;
2 doors;
2 wings (3 if you don't like GRP);
full respray;
water pump;
full brake refurbishment;
4 tyres;
lots of fettling (choke cable, etc.).

Result is a non-tax-exempt 2000TC with a nice history worth £1200 or so.

Things have moved on in a few short years!  I known of a 1971 2000 SC that sold this week for £3500.  In red, with later 2200 SC engine fitted, yet it still needs some body work tidying with an interior past its best.

[Willy Eckerslyke]

Thanks!

[bent8rover]

[Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 10:20 am]

Time for an update on this Rover P6 2000TC.
We last saw it a few months ago when I'd decided that the rotten inner sills plus non-tax-exempt status meant it was best used for spares.
Then the budget declared that 1973 cars like this were to become tax-exempt from next April, and it immediately looked a lot more attractive.
Yesterday I got it started, changed the oil and filter, replaced the water pump again (previous one leaked), swapped over a few hoses, etc.

As the brake pedal went straight to the floor, I bled the front brakes - which immediately stuck on. Driver's side calliper seems to be sticking, but they'll all need stripping anyway.

Fuel feed was very intermittent. The tank was almost empty so I put a gallon in, hoping it would dilute the horribly stale old petrol enough to save me emptying it. I now think the pump is failing, but I blew through the fuel lines first, thinking they were blocked with crud.
While I was doing that, I replaced the O-ring in the reserve fuel tap (I'd recently bought a couple of spares from MGBD Parts).



Access is easy on the 4-cyl Rovers - just lift the washer bottle out of the way - but apparently a nightmare on V8s. The tap doesn't have to be removed, just undo the special grub screw and pull out the centre. You don't even need to undo the cable.

Jobs to do:
Lots of welding - don't hold your breath.
Rebuild brakes.
Replace all the tyres.
Swap the carbs - I'm about to replace the twin carbs on my everyday 2000TC with HIF6 carbs off a 2.2TC. This car can have the old ones which are in decent condition.
No doubt I'll find plenty of suspension bushes and ball joint boots that need replacing as I go along.
I'm not going to worry about the panelwork or paint until after the MOT, apart from the driver's side front wing which is rather too frilly.

[Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 8:50 am]

Steady progress on this Mexico Brown P6, starting with the worst side which needed the full length of the inner sill replacing.







The emphasis is on a lasting repair rather than prettiness as I'm simply making up repair sections from flat sheet, but all of this will be hidden from view once the outer panels are in place. I'm painting it with Epoxy Mastic 121 followed by Dinitrol 4941 underbody wax and injecting the cavities with Dinitrol 3125.

Then on to the "better" side, which is actually worse around the rear wheel arch though the sill isn't so bad without any rot extending to the inside floor.






On the mechanical side, I've replaced the leaking fuel pump, swapped one carb float chamber which had been leaking due to a sheared bolt and a few other bits and pieces so that it now starts easily and ticks over nicely albeit with a dreadful stink of stale petrol.
I'm sort of aiming to get it on the road this winter, probably wearing a mixture of the least frilly outer panels that I can sort out.
Biggest expenses will be tyres and brakes. Exhaust seems OK for now.
Also, I'll replace both rear suspension "elbows" with galvanised spares. The ones on the car look slightly dodgy and I definitely don't want to experience another one of those breaking.

[Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 3:03 pm]

Forgot I hadn't posted these...
Welding to rear quarter is finished.




Right patchwork, but it's all good metal now. This was the hardest bit of welding to do on the car. I now need to work forwards along the bottom of the sill to the front splash panel, none of which is all that bad.
The rear bump stop mount needs welding but can wait until the suspension is removed when access will be much better.

Also refixed the tie-down eyes. These pull out of the floor easily - especially if used to winch the car onto a trailer backwards against seized brakes.