1985 Rover 3500 Vitesse
Discussion
Being an 80's Rover I was bound to find a little more rust. With the rear arches presenting surprises the front mudflaps also had to go. The drivers side was unmarked. The passenger side not so much.
So the usual process began.
Unfortunately the inner arch behind was also attacked by the tinworm.
This was just as important to repair, so of course was cut back to solid metal and the repair let in.
The shape of the wing is quite odd here, so I needed a reference to go off. Luckily I've got a spare NOS wing.
They're not exactly the most perfectly shaped panels, so I was happy with my repair. I have no intention of replacing the mudflaps, so no holes in my new metal either.
Ground back and sanded smooth, wouldn't even know anything was there.
Next on the list was investigating the MOT advisory it had a few years back for corroded wings. The previous owner had slathered the return lip in black underseal to hide this.
They've lost some paint but I've seen a lot worse! It's still solid metal, time to break out the Bilt Hammer gel again!
Same on all the arches,looks like I've got a lot more work to do!
Joe
So the usual process began.
Unfortunately the inner arch behind was also attacked by the tinworm.
This was just as important to repair, so of course was cut back to solid metal and the repair let in.
The shape of the wing is quite odd here, so I needed a reference to go off. Luckily I've got a spare NOS wing.
They're not exactly the most perfectly shaped panels, so I was happy with my repair. I have no intention of replacing the mudflaps, so no holes in my new metal either.
Ground back and sanded smooth, wouldn't even know anything was there.
Next on the list was investigating the MOT advisory it had a few years back for corroded wings. The previous owner had slathered the return lip in black underseal to hide this.
They've lost some paint but I've seen a lot worse! It's still solid metal, time to break out the Bilt Hammer gel again!
Same on all the arches,looks like I've got a lot more work to do!
Joe
Edited by 1275 GT on Monday 18th June 20:42
Edited by 1275 GT on Monday 18th June 20:49
Well done OP. I owned an '84 Vitesse for a number of years back in the early 90s. Loved it. Great cruising car and very rare on NZ roads. Sold it when I went back to uni to continue my studies. Only problem I ever had was when the car suddenly stopped the middle of nowhere. Turned out a rock had hit the fuel pump while travelling on a gravel road. A quick tap with a hammer to get the pump going again and we were on our way.
Coakers said:
Awesome fab skills, there is an sd1 police car on RR that has attracted quite a lot of attention (for good reason) and the repairs on this are on par with it. Bookmarked 
I've also been following Jim's Police car, the pictures from the NEC Classic and Restoration show were stunning. I'd love to strip the entire car and have it painted, but its so much work, and more importantly expense. CR6ZZ said:
Well done OP. I owned an '84 Vitesse for a number of years back in the early 90s. Loved it. Great cruising car and very rare on NZ roads. Sold it when I went back to uni to continue my studies. Only problem I ever had was when the car suddenly stopped the middle of nowhere. Turned out a rock had hit the fuel pump while travelling on a gravel road. A quick tap with a hammer to get the pump going again and we were on our way.
I bet a very rare sight in New Zealand, I'll remember that advice if it ever conks out on me! One thing I did miss out was how far I stripped the interior out! Obviously all the seats came out, carpet, centre console, pretty much everything apart from the dash. Sadly my car suffers from the tragic 80's sagging headlining. It's extra frustrating as its already had a replacement fibreglass headlining board, but who ever trimmed it skimped on the glue and it separated!
This is definitely a two man job, so my ever helpful father was roped in.
The entire sunroof cassette then came out. As the lid needed repainting, and I'd have to re-trim the sunroof aperture it just made sense.
The floors are actually really nice, someone's replaced the drain plugs, but not painted so another task .
I also wanted to remove the deep chin spoiler and sort out the bottom lip.
It doesn't half take away its impact!
The deep chin is the original to the car and a weird rubber like material, in this picture its obvious where the paint should come up to, leaving the unpainted black material underneath.
I had hoped I could pick the overspray off to reveal the original finish, but what i actually revealed was big chunks of filler on the rear side,and some historic damage to one corner. More set backs!
I removed all the previous efforts, reinforced the rear properly with the correct plastic glues, and plastic fillered the damaged area properly.
Sanded everything down, plastic primed the area and refinished the black. The red wasn't perfect but I really didn't want to repaint the entire spoiler!
Just needs me to be brave and wet sand the red to smooth it out a bit.
Came out pretty damn well though!
Joe
Edited by 1275 GT on Sunday 24th June 22:48
Lets keep going with the updates!
This ones a good-un.
I was rather pleased with my repairs, but of course the proof it what they look like finished.
First was verifying where my paint line goes on the rear panel. The passenger side was untouched and factory finish. Perfect reference.
Exactly as late Vitesses should be, body colour down to all but the bottom seam.
Next step was pulling all the rear lights and badge bar. Of course the areas were cleaned thoroughly before painting, I've got through a lot of panel wipe doing this work!
Looks like the original lights too!
First step is the satin black.
Very happy with that crisp line, just need to retouch the red now!
I didn't get any pictures of the during painting which is a shame, but fine line tape was used for the crisp edge, and painted using 2K coloured matched by a local paint supplier. I was very happy with the results!
The boot got the same treatment, completely rust free, Bilt Hammer electrox paint left to cure for 2 weeks, seam sealed, and top coated in 2k paint, I'm hoping its not going to rust again!
With the rear lights and badge bar refitted, can't beat a nice bit of paint. With the rear and boot all but finished I moved onto painting the rest of my repairs.
Joe
This ones a good-un.
I was rather pleased with my repairs, but of course the proof it what they look like finished.
First was verifying where my paint line goes on the rear panel. The passenger side was untouched and factory finish. Perfect reference.
Exactly as late Vitesses should be, body colour down to all but the bottom seam.
Next step was pulling all the rear lights and badge bar. Of course the areas were cleaned thoroughly before painting, I've got through a lot of panel wipe doing this work!
Looks like the original lights too!
First step is the satin black.
Very happy with that crisp line, just need to retouch the red now!
I didn't get any pictures of the during painting which is a shame, but fine line tape was used for the crisp edge, and painted using 2K coloured matched by a local paint supplier. I was very happy with the results!
The boot got the same treatment, completely rust free, Bilt Hammer electrox paint left to cure for 2 weeks, seam sealed, and top coated in 2k paint, I'm hoping its not going to rust again!
With the rear lights and badge bar refitted, can't beat a nice bit of paint. With the rear and boot all but finished I moved onto painting the rest of my repairs.
Joe
Edited by 1275 GT on Wednesday 20th June 20:13
Edited by 1275 GT on Sunday 24th June 22:49
Enjoying the thread, nice restoration.
I really like the originality of the car, the colour and wheels look the part. The purist probably won't like the suggestion but it looks like you could easily lose a couple of inches of ride height and it would still look "correct" for a road car and not slammed as it were, just saying...
I really like the originality of the car, the colour and wheels look the part. The purist probably won't like the suggestion but it looks like you could easily lose a couple of inches of ride height and it would still look "correct" for a road car and not slammed as it were, just saying...
Brilliant work!
My Dad had an early v8 in 1977/78 and it was this car that got me hooked! The looks were sensational back then, proven by the fact they still look great today.
He used to let me sit in the boot which had a shelf in it of sorts (only on short journeys, jeez you'd get shot doing stuff like that today!)
Keep up the great work, looking forward to more updates!
My Dad had an early v8 in 1977/78 and it was this car that got me hooked! The looks were sensational back then, proven by the fact they still look great today.
He used to let me sit in the boot which had a shelf in it of sorts (only on short journeys, jeez you'd get shot doing stuff like that today!)
Keep up the great work, looking forward to more updates!
MX6 said:
Enjoying the thread, nice restoration.
I really like the originality of the car, the colour and wheels look the part. The purist probably won't like the suggestion but it looks like you could easily lose a couple of inches of ride height and it would still look "correct" for a road car and not slammed as it were, just saying...
The problem with lowering a Vitesse, as i found out, is that they are already slow slung as it is and you will be forever scraping and grinding your way places. My poor car has many scars from the time it spent lowered. The deep chin spoiler that was fixed half way up this page is the first to hit things, and doesnt fare well.I really like the originality of the car, the colour and wheels look the part. The purist probably won't like the suggestion but it looks like you could easily lose a couple of inches of ride height and it would still look "correct" for a road car and not slammed as it were, just saying...
They look great lowered though...
sinbaddio said:
Brilliant work!
My Dad had an early v8 in 1977/78 and it was this car that got me hooked! The looks were sensational back then, proven by the fact they still look great today.
He used to let me sit in the boot which had a shelf in it of sorts (only on short journeys, jeez you'd get shot doing stuff like that today!)
Keep up the great work, looking forward to more updates!
I think they've aged really well too! My dad loves the earlier series 1 cars like your dads, I prefer the later series 2s though. I'm not surprised you used to fit in the boot, it's massive!My Dad had an early v8 in 1977/78 and it was this car that got me hooked! The looks were sensational back then, proven by the fact they still look great today.
He used to let me sit in the boot which had a shelf in it of sorts (only on short journeys, jeez you'd get shot doing stuff like that today!)
Keep up the great work, looking forward to more updates!
KelvinatorNZ said:
MX6 said:
Enjoying the thread, nice restoration.
I really like the originality of the car, the colour and wheels look the part. The purist probably won't like the suggestion but it looks like you could easily lose a couple of inches of ride height and it would still look "correct" for a road car and not slammed as it were, just saying...
The problem with lowering a Vitesse, as i found out, is that they are already slow slung as it is and you will be forever scraping and grinding your way places. My poor car has many scars from the time it spent lowered. The deep chin spoiler that was fixed half way up this page is the first to hit things, and doesnt fare well.I really like the originality of the car, the colour and wheels look the part. The purist probably won't like the suggestion but it looks like you could easily lose a couple of inches of ride height and it would still look "correct" for a road car and not slammed as it were, just saying...
They look great lowered though...
The SD1 suffers from a rather large arch gap but a very low sill line, and combined with the deep chin spoiler they've speed bump scraping fodder at standard ride height!
The deep chin spoiler even failed Rover's driveway entry requirements when it was new, but because it was for racing homologation they just included a warning when you bought one!
Joe
Plenty more paintwork to go!
With all the exterior panels repaired, and areas of filler removed to check the quality of the repairs, it was time to return some red to the old girl.
The front wing repair went well.
But the rear quarter I was really pleased with.
The rear wing into the door step was also blown in, and you cant see any repairs now, just how I wanted it.
Next step was to finish off the wheel arch lips, they'd had all the surface corrosion wire wheeled out, soaked in rust remover, and coated in rust preventative paint. Time for some top coat.
Nice layer of paint for protection now, instead of gunge over surface rust.
Joe
With all the exterior panels repaired, and areas of filler removed to check the quality of the repairs, it was time to return some red to the old girl.
The front wing repair went well.
But the rear quarter I was really pleased with.
The rear wing into the door step was also blown in, and you cant see any repairs now, just how I wanted it.
Next step was to finish off the wheel arch lips, they'd had all the surface corrosion wire wheeled out, soaked in rust remover, and coated in rust preventative paint. Time for some top coat.
Nice layer of paint for protection now, instead of gunge over surface rust.
Joe
With the rest of the bodywork starting to look nice again, my dad wanted to pull the bumper to investigate what lay behind. I wasn't too keen on this as I knew it'd mean more work for me, but I knew it was the right thing to do.
It was pretty gross. A previous owner had lathered the car in underseal, and although it had done a brilliant job of protecting the car, it did look awful.
It does come off with panel wipe though.
Revealing pretty much factory finish paint.
Off came the grill and out came the headlights. Lots more underseal behind those. The headlight brackets were awful!
Everything bolted to the front of the car was completely stripped, a lot of time went into this!
Where paint had come off I used the deox gel to remove any trace of rust before touching it back in.
It's amazing how nicely the front panel came up just with cleaning it. I bolted the repainted bumper brackets back on, the other brackets needed a bit more work!
It's always the way with a project, that to move forward you end up making it look worse! Definitely worth doing though.
Joe
It was pretty gross. A previous owner had lathered the car in underseal, and although it had done a brilliant job of protecting the car, it did look awful.
It does come off with panel wipe though.
Revealing pretty much factory finish paint.
Off came the grill and out came the headlights. Lots more underseal behind those. The headlight brackets were awful!
Everything bolted to the front of the car was completely stripped, a lot of time went into this!
Where paint had come off I used the deox gel to remove any trace of rust before touching it back in.
It's amazing how nicely the front panel came up just with cleaning it. I bolted the repainted bumper brackets back on, the other brackets needed a bit more work!
It's always the way with a project, that to move forward you end up making it look worse! Definitely worth doing though.
Joe
Edited by 1275 GT on Thursday 28th June 17:32
Great thread, good to see the progress being made.
I had V8 SD1s back in the day (but not a Vitesse) when they were current and when the Vitesses first came out they certainly attracted attention, especially if in red. I'll confess to fitting a towbar to one of mine; they were great towcars at the time.
IIRC the ride height of the SD1 can be adversely affected by the rear self- levelling units, if the Vitesse actually had them (can't remember now). Personally I prefer the look at standard ride height, it's already reasonably low and were certainly noticeably lower than the other SD1models at the time, including the Vdp EFi.
Best modification I made to mine was to fit a 15" circular MotaLita wheel as I didn't like the standard wheel in either the Series 1 or Series 2. Made a huge difference.
Still sometimes regret not buying a lovely low-mileage red E-Reg one (so one of the last) that was for sale local to me when it was about 2-3 years old.
Keep up the good work.
I had V8 SD1s back in the day (but not a Vitesse) when they were current and when the Vitesses first came out they certainly attracted attention, especially if in red. I'll confess to fitting a towbar to one of mine; they were great towcars at the time.
IIRC the ride height of the SD1 can be adversely affected by the rear self- levelling units, if the Vitesse actually had them (can't remember now). Personally I prefer the look at standard ride height, it's already reasonably low and were certainly noticeably lower than the other SD1models at the time, including the Vdp EFi.
Best modification I made to mine was to fit a 15" circular MotaLita wheel as I didn't like the standard wheel in either the Series 1 or Series 2. Made a huge difference.
Still sometimes regret not buying a lovely low-mileage red E-Reg one (so one of the last) that was for sale local to me when it was about 2-3 years old.
Keep up the good work.
tonys said:
Great thread, good to see the progress being made.
I had V8 SD1s back in the day (but not a Vitesse) when they were current and when the Vitesses first came out they certainly attracted attention, especially if in red. I'll confess to fitting a towbar to one of mine; they were great towcars at the time.
IIRC the ride height of the SD1 can be adversely affected by the rear self- levelling units, if the Vitesse actually had them (can't remember now). Personally I prefer the look at standard ride height, it's already reasonably low and were certainly noticeably lower than the other SD1models at the time, including the Vdp EFi.
Best modification I made to mine was to fit a 15" circular MotaLita wheel as I didn't like the standard wheel in either the Series 1 or Series 2. Made a huge difference.
Still sometimes regret not buying a lovely low-mileage red E-Reg one (so one of the last) that was for sale local to me when it was about 2-3 years old.
Keep up the good work.
I can completely understand the towing appeal, just not for me. I had V8 SD1s back in the day (but not a Vitesse) when they were current and when the Vitesses first came out they certainly attracted attention, especially if in red. I'll confess to fitting a towbar to one of mine; they were great towcars at the time.
IIRC the ride height of the SD1 can be adversely affected by the rear self- levelling units, if the Vitesse actually had them (can't remember now). Personally I prefer the look at standard ride height, it's already reasonably low and were certainly noticeably lower than the other SD1models at the time, including the Vdp EFi.
Best modification I made to mine was to fit a 15" circular MotaLita wheel as I didn't like the standard wheel in either the Series 1 or Series 2. Made a huge difference.
Still sometimes regret not buying a lovely low-mileage red E-Reg one (so one of the last) that was for sale local to me when it was about 2-3 years old.
Keep up the good work.
Yes the rear Nivomat self levelling rear suspension can fail high or low, mines currently at standard Vitesse height, and will stay that way.
I've got both the round North America SD1 steering wheel (NAS), and a black 15" Mota-Lita waiting...
Now I bet that would have been an amazing car, there was a black E reg Vitesse on ebay last week with 20k miles on it, I'd have loved to add that to my garage....
_dobbo_ said:
I like this thread a lot!
Thankyou! Usget said:
Especially in this colour, I really struggle to think of too many cars better looking than the SD1. What a fabulous machine.
I've been spending a lot of time looking at it recently, still has some real presence. I have to admit I really wanted a black one! Joe
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