My "new" old car project - Rover 75.
Discussion
I've had a fair few threads on my various exploits with Rover 75s over the years here, so I thought I would write up what I've been up to over the past year or so - unsurprisingly this involves a Rover 75.
MG-Rover's Monogram Paint Programme is always something I've been intrigued by, and some of the colours that these cars were offered in were just lovely. The most well known being the purple / blue "Typhoon" flip paint. A few years ago I saw a 75 which was painted in "Monogram Chatsworth Gold", which is a bronze / gold colour which flips almost to olive green in some lights - it's utterly gorgeous - I knew I'd have one at some point.
About a year ago, there was a car parked up with a For Sale sign in the window in just this colour locally, so I decided to do some investigating. The car in question had one previous owner, as a "Contemporary SE" model, and had just 11,800 miles on the clock - the interior looked & felt like new. Of course I dived in with both feet and purchased it there and then:
The car appeared to be in great shape, save for some giffer marks on the bumpers which had been touched up, and some kerbing to the front wheels. The previous owner had had it serviced recently, so last March I pressed it straight into daily service. All went well, but there were definitely some issues that needed resolving:
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/wFnRZSbX.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/D2Dfv7Jd" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/D2Dfv7Jd.jpg)
One evening when I had almost arrived home from work, the aux belt let go. It had been noisy since I got the car, but hadn't got round to having it replaced. I called my mobile mechanic, but he couldn't fit me in for a few weeks. So the car got parked up and sat for a couple of weeks. When I went back to the car, the windows were misty on the inside, and the car smelt very musty. Upon lifting the passenger's side floor mat, it appeared that a hole had been cut in the carpet. I soon found out the reason - the foam backing on the carpet was damp with moisture. On investigating further, it seemed that the driver's side was suffering as well. I wanted to sort this properly, so, out came the interior!
Thankfully the floor of the car was in good shape, and hadn't suffered with any surface rust due to the moisture. While everything was out I decided to put a couple of layers of red oxide paint over the floors, chucked out the old damp carpet, and sourced a replacement.
Having the carpet out meant that I could track down any leaks into the cabin easily and see exactly where the water was coming from. Unfortunately this car is fitted with a sunroof. The drain pipes for this have a join in each footwell before they go through to the wing, and this is where most of the water was coming from. I unblocked these, and modified the drains to seal them and make sure that it wouldn't reoccur. I also found a rubber drain pipe missing from one of the plenums under the bonnet, which was allowing water to get where it shouldn't. The car got thoroughly tested with some awful weather last April / May and I was happy that it was watertight before I began refitting the interior, with a new carpet.
In the meantime, my mechanic had been able to come and refit the auxiliary belt. We were finally back in business! I began using the car again, which reminded me of the wheel wobble - so I got it booked in for a couple of fresh front tyres, balancing and alignment. I opted for Nexen N'fera SU1 tyres which made a huge difference the the car's ride quality and definitely helped towards lessening the wheel wobble. This wobble was still evident under heavy braking. I decided to see how things went, and racked up a couple of thousand miles in the car.
I had offered to use the car as a wedding car for my Brother's wedding in November. I began the 200 mile journey to Cheshire, but before I even got out of my road, the battery light illuminated & "Charging Fault" appeared on the screen. The alternator had packed up! No bother, my trusty Damson Red 75 V6 stepped in for the Wedding Duties:
As December approached work go busy and once again the car got put on the back burner. It got covered over & left to sit on the drive and ran out of MOT in December. Once I had settled back into work after the New Year, I decided to get it booked in & have the alternator done, along with brake discs and pads all round (I mean, they were 15+ years old!) and have it MOT'd. The battery was scrap after being sat with little charge in it for a couple of months, so popped to ECP for a new one, then dropped it around at my local 'classic friendly' garage.
As part of the work I had also asked them to do a full service which included: Oil & Filter, Air filter, Cabin Filter, Power Steering Fluid, Coolant & Gearbox fluid (it's an auto). A couple of days later, and after an invoice that I'd rather not talk about, I had the car back. It drives very nicely indeed now - very pleased.
The car is now in regular use, and has just over 16,000 miles on the clock. There's still more to do to get it up to the standard which I would like including:
MG-Rover's Monogram Paint Programme is always something I've been intrigued by, and some of the colours that these cars were offered in were just lovely. The most well known being the purple / blue "Typhoon" flip paint. A few years ago I saw a 75 which was painted in "Monogram Chatsworth Gold", which is a bronze / gold colour which flips almost to olive green in some lights - it's utterly gorgeous - I knew I'd have one at some point.
About a year ago, there was a car parked up with a For Sale sign in the window in just this colour locally, so I decided to do some investigating. The car in question had one previous owner, as a "Contemporary SE" model, and had just 11,800 miles on the clock - the interior looked & felt like new. Of course I dived in with both feet and purchased it there and then:
The car appeared to be in great shape, save for some giffer marks on the bumpers which had been touched up, and some kerbing to the front wheels. The previous owner had had it serviced recently, so last March I pressed it straight into daily service. All went well, but there were definitely some issues that needed resolving:
- Wheel wobble between 60-70mph
- Even more wobble under braking
- Aux belt was obviously noisy
- Front tyres were noisy and the tyre walls were cracking
One evening when I had almost arrived home from work, the aux belt let go. It had been noisy since I got the car, but hadn't got round to having it replaced. I called my mobile mechanic, but he couldn't fit me in for a few weeks. So the car got parked up and sat for a couple of weeks. When I went back to the car, the windows were misty on the inside, and the car smelt very musty. Upon lifting the passenger's side floor mat, it appeared that a hole had been cut in the carpet. I soon found out the reason - the foam backing on the carpet was damp with moisture. On investigating further, it seemed that the driver's side was suffering as well. I wanted to sort this properly, so, out came the interior!
Thankfully the floor of the car was in good shape, and hadn't suffered with any surface rust due to the moisture. While everything was out I decided to put a couple of layers of red oxide paint over the floors, chucked out the old damp carpet, and sourced a replacement.
Having the carpet out meant that I could track down any leaks into the cabin easily and see exactly where the water was coming from. Unfortunately this car is fitted with a sunroof. The drain pipes for this have a join in each footwell before they go through to the wing, and this is where most of the water was coming from. I unblocked these, and modified the drains to seal them and make sure that it wouldn't reoccur. I also found a rubber drain pipe missing from one of the plenums under the bonnet, which was allowing water to get where it shouldn't. The car got thoroughly tested with some awful weather last April / May and I was happy that it was watertight before I began refitting the interior, with a new carpet.
In the meantime, my mechanic had been able to come and refit the auxiliary belt. We were finally back in business! I began using the car again, which reminded me of the wheel wobble - so I got it booked in for a couple of fresh front tyres, balancing and alignment. I opted for Nexen N'fera SU1 tyres which made a huge difference the the car's ride quality and definitely helped towards lessening the wheel wobble. This wobble was still evident under heavy braking. I decided to see how things went, and racked up a couple of thousand miles in the car.
I had offered to use the car as a wedding car for my Brother's wedding in November. I began the 200 mile journey to Cheshire, but before I even got out of my road, the battery light illuminated & "Charging Fault" appeared on the screen. The alternator had packed up! No bother, my trusty Damson Red 75 V6 stepped in for the Wedding Duties:
As December approached work go busy and once again the car got put on the back burner. It got covered over & left to sit on the drive and ran out of MOT in December. Once I had settled back into work after the New Year, I decided to get it booked in & have the alternator done, along with brake discs and pads all round (I mean, they were 15+ years old!) and have it MOT'd. The battery was scrap after being sat with little charge in it for a couple of months, so popped to ECP for a new one, then dropped it around at my local 'classic friendly' garage.
As part of the work I had also asked them to do a full service which included: Oil & Filter, Air filter, Cabin Filter, Power Steering Fluid, Coolant & Gearbox fluid (it's an auto). A couple of days later, and after an invoice that I'd rather not talk about, I had the car back. It drives very nicely indeed now - very pleased.
The car is now in regular use, and has just over 16,000 miles on the clock. There's still more to do to get it up to the standard which I would like including:
- Refurbish driver and passenger front door cards - the fabric is sagging a little
- Refurbish wheels - these have been extensively kerbed by the previous owner
- Upgrade the radio - the radio reception is dire - so I'd prefer a touchscreen Android unit with Spotify on
- Front and rear bumpers respraying - they both have been touched up in the past in various places
- Check engine mounts - It's a diesel, but there's quite a lot of vibration through the steering wheel at idle, so I suspect a mount has seen better days
SebastienClement said:
MG-Rover's Monogram Paint Programme is always something I've been intrigued by, and some of the colours that these cars were offered in were just lovely. The most well known being the purple / blue "Typhoon" flip paint. A few years ago I saw a 75 which was painted in "Monogram Chatsworth Gold", which is a bronze / gold colour which flips almost to olive green in some lights - it's utterly gorgeous - I knew I'd have one at some point.
About a year ago, there was a car parked up with a For Sale sign in the window in just this colour locally, so I decided to do some investigating. The car in question had one previous owner, as a "Contemporary SE" model, and had just 11,800 miles on the clock - the interior looked & felt like new. Of course I dived in with both feet and purchased it there and then:
Nice to get a car that is both ultra-low mileage and an interesting colour.About a year ago, there was a car parked up with a For Sale sign in the window in just this colour locally, so I decided to do some investigating. The car in question had one previous owner, as a "Contemporary SE" model, and had just 11,800 miles on the clock - the interior looked & felt like new. Of course I dived in with both feet and purchased it there and then:
Doing a bit of stalking and looking at the MOT records, it seems to have been off the road from 2008 to 2017, and this probably explains the cracked tyres, knackered aux belt and blocked sunroof drains. But having sorted all those, you now have an ultra-low mileage car in great shape, and some regular (but not too heavy) use will do it good.
d_a_n1979 said:
Lovely looking 75 
Which engine is it?
Never owned a 75; owned a few MG ZTs and ZT-Ts (all 190 V6s)
Big fan of the Nexen N'Fera SU1 tyres here too; they're as 'cheap' as I'll go, but found them to be superb tyres and I've had them in 17/18/19 and 20" sizes and never any issues!
It's the 2.0 diesel - not my first choice, but considering the colour, spec & mileage I can't be too fussy! Which engine is it?Never owned a 75; owned a few MG ZTs and ZT-Ts (all 190 V6s)
Big fan of the Nexen N'Fera SU1 tyres here too; they're as 'cheap' as I'll go, but found them to be superb tyres and I've had them in 17/18/19 and 20" sizes and never any issues!
Yes, the tyres were on offer at the time as well, so it worked out to be very economical!
spreadsheet monkey said:
Nice to get a car that is both ultra-low mileage and an interesting colour.
Doing a bit of stalking and looking at the MOT records, it seems to have been off the road from 2008 to 2017, and this probably explains the cracked tyres, knackered aux belt and blocked sunroof drains. But having sorted all those, you now have an ultra-low mileage car in great shape, and some regular (but not too heavy) use will do it good.
Yes - although I jumped in without thinking about how much effort I'd have to sink into it, I'm glad I did it. This will more than likely be the last 75 I own, so why not make it a nice one!Doing a bit of stalking and looking at the MOT records, it seems to have been off the road from 2008 to 2017, and this probably explains the cracked tyres, knackered aux belt and blocked sunroof drains. But having sorted all those, you now have an ultra-low mileage car in great shape, and some regular (but not too heavy) use will do it good.
I can't quite piece together the history, as it was laid up and then for some reason re-comissioned and used for a couple of years with very limited mileage.
One thing that is really nice is the underside of the car is absolutely factory fresh - no hint of any corrosion at all. One thing I missed out of the first post is that I have had the underside treated by a Dinitrol agent which has included painting subframes / suspension components etc...
A few updates!
I've been chasing a persistent front wheel wobble for a while this car which was evident from about 25mph upwards. Annoyingly, each garage I took it too couldn't find an issue, and after laser alignment and various places rebalancing the wheels I decided to bite the bullet and source another set of wheels. Everyone who balanced the old wheels assured me that there were no buckles and they balance fine, but something wasn't right!
Having sourced a replacement set of wheels, and had them fully refurbed, it seems that it was the wheels that were at fault. This has absolutely transformed the way that the car drives - I'm very happy. They look pretty snazzy too!
I've been chasing a persistent front wheel wobble for a while this car which was evident from about 25mph upwards. Annoyingly, each garage I took it too couldn't find an issue, and after laser alignment and various places rebalancing the wheels I decided to bite the bullet and source another set of wheels. Everyone who balanced the old wheels assured me that there were no buckles and they balance fine, but something wasn't right!
Having sourced a replacement set of wheels, and had them fully refurbed, it seems that it was the wheels that were at fault. This has absolutely transformed the way that the car drives - I'm very happy. They look pretty snazzy too!
SebastienClement said:
A few updates!
I've been chasing a persistent front wheel wobble for a while this car which was evident from about 25mph upwards. Annoyingly, each garage I took it too couldn't find an issue, and after laser alignment and various places rebalancing the wheels I decided to bite the bullet and source another set of wheels. Everyone who balanced the old wheels assured me that there were no buckles and they balance fine, but something wasn't right!
Having sourced a replacement set of wheels, and had them fully refurbed, it seems that it was the wheels that were at fault. This has absolutely transformed the way that the car drives - I'm very happy. They look pretty snazzy too!
Those 18" Grid Spokes work really well; they suit all the 75s and ZTs IMO; much nicer than the Hairpins tooI've been chasing a persistent front wheel wobble for a while this car which was evident from about 25mph upwards. Annoyingly, each garage I took it too couldn't find an issue, and after laser alignment and various places rebalancing the wheels I decided to bite the bullet and source another set of wheels. Everyone who balanced the old wheels assured me that there were no buckles and they balance fine, but something wasn't right!
Having sourced a replacement set of wheels, and had them fully refurbed, it seems that it was the wheels that were at fault. This has absolutely transformed the way that the car drives - I'm very happy. They look pretty snazzy too!
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