Twin Plenum Vitesse restoration
Discussion
Hi all,
Been ongoing for a couple of years now but I thought I'd post some pics of the progress to date. My dad had the car from almost new, he bought it from Rover at 6 months old when it'd had been registered as a directors car. It's the only car he ever kept for any length of time having had some amazing motors. Sadly we lost him to cancer in '06 and he left the car to me. I thought it fitting to do a complete restoration even though the rust, by this stage, was rampant.
I'll be doing some choice upgrades to the engine, brakes suspension etc. When I was small and he bought the car I remember there was a choice of two ex-directors cars, one in silver, one in black. I preferred the black car, so I decided I'd re-spray his in black when the body work was complete - I felt he'd allow me that one indulgence.
Parts supply has been good so far, the only exception was for the air-con. I ended up buying another car (complete snotter) just for the air-con spares. Possibly the only SD1 even more rusty then mine.
Anyway, pictures so far:
When it'd had been standing for about 5 years (hadn't been on the road for about 5 years before that, was in one of the barns before)
After I got it home I started to have a good look at the state of the body:
Clearly I was going to need a lot of new/second hand pannels:
The interior was in good shape apart from the small lawn in the back:
All had to come out for the body work to begin:
Whilst the doors, boot and bonnet were all totally shot the body tub was in reasonable shape, only requiring patching in a dozen or so places. The arch's were quite far gone but repair parts from Rimmers welded in sorted that out. I found a car in the local scappers that had good doors and sourced a boot and bonnet via the owners club so all good there. Saldly I've lost the photos from the body work as the storms tore a load of tiles off the house and water poured into my study and onto my PC and camera, sadly I'd not backed up those photos into my archive - grrrr!!! Double grrrr in fact as some of the tiles went through the boot glass of the Vitesse. I fitted the glass from my old boot lid but that was a horrible, horrible job that I will never do again.
Anyway, some photos after coming back from the sprayers, the air-con snotter can be seen in the background:
The wheels are 16" compomotives, I have a set of lovely 16" 3 piece split rims to go on shortly.
So, loads of work to do still, I'll update this as I go.
Been ongoing for a couple of years now but I thought I'd post some pics of the progress to date. My dad had the car from almost new, he bought it from Rover at 6 months old when it'd had been registered as a directors car. It's the only car he ever kept for any length of time having had some amazing motors. Sadly we lost him to cancer in '06 and he left the car to me. I thought it fitting to do a complete restoration even though the rust, by this stage, was rampant.
I'll be doing some choice upgrades to the engine, brakes suspension etc. When I was small and he bought the car I remember there was a choice of two ex-directors cars, one in silver, one in black. I preferred the black car, so I decided I'd re-spray his in black when the body work was complete - I felt he'd allow me that one indulgence.
Parts supply has been good so far, the only exception was for the air-con. I ended up buying another car (complete snotter) just for the air-con spares. Possibly the only SD1 even more rusty then mine.
Anyway, pictures so far:
When it'd had been standing for about 5 years (hadn't been on the road for about 5 years before that, was in one of the barns before)
After I got it home I started to have a good look at the state of the body:
Clearly I was going to need a lot of new/second hand pannels:
The interior was in good shape apart from the small lawn in the back:
All had to come out for the body work to begin:
Whilst the doors, boot and bonnet were all totally shot the body tub was in reasonable shape, only requiring patching in a dozen or so places. The arch's were quite far gone but repair parts from Rimmers welded in sorted that out. I found a car in the local scappers that had good doors and sourced a boot and bonnet via the owners club so all good there. Saldly I've lost the photos from the body work as the storms tore a load of tiles off the house and water poured into my study and onto my PC and camera, sadly I'd not backed up those photos into my archive - grrrr!!! Double grrrr in fact as some of the tiles went through the boot glass of the Vitesse. I fitted the glass from my old boot lid but that was a horrible, horrible job that I will never do again.
Anyway, some photos after coming back from the sprayers, the air-con snotter can be seen in the background:
The wheels are 16" compomotives, I have a set of lovely 16" 3 piece split rims to go on shortly.
So, loads of work to do still, I'll update this as I go.
Edited by Duke Thrust on Thursday 21st May 11:53
_Batty_ said:
bloody epic save!
the rust on that car was savage!
has she turned over yet?
Not as such, I took the injected V8 out it's it quite a special 'period' Rover Craft 4.5 (not a TVR unit). More on that engine later.the rust on that car was savage!
has she turned over yet?
I dropped a carb V8 in to make it all easier to move about - couldn't use the injection as the tank has gunked up. Half a dozen wires and a petrol can was enough to get the carb motor running to move the shell, much easier than pushing.
I've put the chrome trim back on the gutters now, horrid job to do, but it's starting to look much better.
dfen5 said:
Nice job. I like the original rover wheels, strangley enough. My boss at the time had one but it had the deep front spolier.
I need to underseal the whole underside of the car - not looking forward to that messy job.
Roop said:
Excellent to see a restoration on an SD1, particularly a twin-plenum. I agree that you should put original lattice wheels on it, or failing that, something that looks period. Perhaps something like the dished lattice wheels that you see on some BMWs.
That's exactly what I have - period 3 piece lattice rims, need re-furbing:
At 8J I can put some decent width rubber on them, possibly even as far as 235 on the back.
On the suspension, yes on the 6 cylinders the suspension is more than a bit 'wafty'. Much better on the V8's, even more so on the Vitesse's. Mine will have Spax shocks and springs all round and fully poly bushed and a touch lowered.
Update.
So, I've managed to source a much fabled Jaguar brake conversion. This utlises the much larger discs and calipers from an XJ6 (possibly the XJS - will need to find out). The kit is a set of 4 pot calipers, re-drilled to suit the SD1, and a spacer ring to match the hub to disc.
Picture of the two back to back, the increased disc size and pad area should make a substantial difference.
I'll pop these little monkeys on as the original calipers and discs have fallen apart. I'll find out exactly which Jag uses them and get new discs - the calipers have been re-built recently so should be okay. (I'll probably get them re-built to be sure at some point soon).
So, I've managed to source a much fabled Jaguar brake conversion. This utlises the much larger discs and calipers from an XJ6 (possibly the XJS - will need to find out). The kit is a set of 4 pot calipers, re-drilled to suit the SD1, and a spacer ring to match the hub to disc.
Picture of the two back to back, the increased disc size and pad area should make a substantial difference.
I'll pop these little monkeys on as the original calipers and discs have fallen apart. I'll find out exactly which Jag uses them and get new discs - the calipers have been re-built recently so should be okay. (I'll probably get them re-built to be sure at some point soon).
Edited by Duke Thrust on Saturday 6th June 12:41
shalmaneser said:
just out of interest, why do people refer to them as twin plenum? It's clearly twin throttle, single plenum, surely?
back on topic though, congrats OP, excellent work!
Yes, it's more accurate to say twin throttle - not sure why they've always been referred to as Twin Plenumsback on topic though, congrats OP, excellent work!
FM said:
Rfactor for the PC is the game with the touring car mod add-on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUoYHsOz0ik
Ace!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUoYHsOz0ik
I just love the Bastos cars - I did ponder for a long while to turn Dads into a full Bastos replica.
They are so mind-bendingly cool:
Right, bit of an update:
The chrome is back on the guttering (nasty job) and most of the interior is back in - the dash will have to wait until all the front loom goes back in and I put the injection block back in.
Carpet has come up well:
Before:
After:
Moved it to clip the hedge, from this angle it's looking almost done:
Aside from putting the front spoiler back on and the door rub strips, the exterior is pretty much finished. (Oh, and getting the split rims refurbished)
The chrome is back on the guttering (nasty job) and most of the interior is back in - the dash will have to wait until all the front loom goes back in and I put the injection block back in.
Carpet has come up well:
Before:
After:
Moved it to clip the hedge, from this angle it's looking almost done:
Aside from putting the front spoiler back on and the door rub strips, the exterior is pretty much finished. (Oh, and getting the split rims refurbished)
Hello chaps,
Not much has happened since the last update, we're in the middle of moving house so it's all a bit chaotic. But things should pick up a bit as the new place has a massive garage so will look to get the old thing finished soon.
Jobs left to do:
Dash
Front loom
Injection loom
Injection engine
Re-built diff back in
Re-furb wheels
Fit Jag brakes
Doesn't sound like much, hmmm, I need to press on with this, the end is in sight.
Not much has happened since the last update, we're in the middle of moving house so it's all a bit chaotic. But things should pick up a bit as the new place has a massive garage so will look to get the old thing finished soon.
Jobs left to do:
Dash
Front loom
Injection loom
Injection engine
Re-built diff back in
Re-furb wheels
Fit Jag brakes
Doesn't sound like much, hmmm, I need to press on with this, the end is in sight.
I was looking at the door rub strips the other day - they still have the remains of the double sided foam tape that stuck them to the doors very firmly attached. Tried a Stanley knife scraper and it took a shockingly long time to do a small area and then had a brain wave!
60 minutes later I had a very cheap electric wood plane from B&Q and set to it's finest shave starting taking the adhesive strips off. Very effective!
60 minutes later I had a very cheap electric wood plane from B&Q and set to it's finest shave starting taking the adhesive strips off. Very effective!
Yep, very nice!
I think from the other forum your Compomotives are 15 inch? I've gone for 16 as there seems to be a much wider choice of tyres, now ended up with two sets of split rims
From memory should you want to go wider you can fit a 225/55/15 which will give you the same rolling radius.
From experience I can tell you that with low suspension (60mm drop, not that far off the touring cars) 225 section tyres at the front will rub unless the TC arm on the ARB is spaced back.
I know I need to update this thread, done nothing on the car really, can't even move it about as I had to return the carb 3.5 V8. I'm going to pop its 4.5 in and see if I can get hold of a twin SU manifold and carbs to get it going at least. Still making a decision on the injection set up, Emerald or Megasquirt. (Dear readers, if you have a twin SU setup going cheap, PM me)
Doing lots of work at Thrust towers which is taking a lot of time, not least of which is geting the walls rebuilt for one of the out buildings and I can get the garden tractor in it - the Vitesse can then come out from under its cover and I can work on it in the dry in the garages.
I think from the other forum your Compomotives are 15 inch? I've gone for 16 as there seems to be a much wider choice of tyres, now ended up with two sets of split rims
From memory should you want to go wider you can fit a 225/55/15 which will give you the same rolling radius.From experience I can tell you that with low suspension (60mm drop, not that far off the touring cars) 225 section tyres at the front will rub unless the TC arm on the ARB is spaced back.
I know I need to update this thread, done nothing on the car really, can't even move it about as I had to return the carb 3.5 V8. I'm going to pop its 4.5 in and see if I can get hold of a twin SU manifold and carbs to get it going at least. Still making a decision on the injection set up, Emerald or Megasquirt. (Dear readers, if you have a twin SU setup going cheap, PM me)
Doing lots of work at Thrust towers which is taking a lot of time, not least of which is geting the walls rebuilt for one of the out buildings and I can get the garden tractor in it - the Vitesse can then come out from under its cover and I can work on it in the dry in the garages.
So, to brakes:
I have sourced the Jag brake conversion, should make things a bit more brisk on the stopping front. Dad had this orginally on the car years ago but it was removed for some reason, no idea why. Wish I knew where the bits went. No calipers at all on the car, but it did have a set of skimmed vented discs if anyone would like them?
The Jag discs could do with a skim but I'd prefer to get a set of performance discs.
I have sourced the Jag brake conversion, should make things a bit more brisk on the stopping front. Dad had this orginally on the car years ago but it was removed for some reason, no idea why. Wish I knew where the bits went. No calipers at all on the car, but it did have a set of skimmed vented discs if anyone would like them?
The Jag discs could do with a skim but I'd prefer to get a set of performance discs.
I have three sets of wheels, the Revolutions on the car as pictured in the previous page and below and 2 sets of compomotive split rims. They're 16 inch diameter and 8j - I will probably sell one set as if I do any track days I'll probably use the Revolutions.
I'm going to split and rebuilt one set, or if the frustration of all the little bolts gets too much I'll use the revolutions...
I'm going to split and rebuilt one set, or if the frustration of all the little bolts gets too much I'll use the revolutions...
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