Rover P6b - four runners
Discussion
This motley quartet meet my motoring needs with room to spare.
They are all Rover P6B - a red 3500S, two green 3500 and a blue Three Thousand Five.
They are all runners but three of them need urgent attention to their engines and the other is overdue a respray.
It has been quite a soap opera to get them into this running state.
They each have a name - Ethel, Hildegarde, Daffodil and The Blue McFoo.
Red Ethel has been a joy to own since 2007 and she's never unready.
Hildegarde was made to order to my own specification and Daffodil and The Blue McFoo just sort of presented themselves at the garage and made themselves at home in the last year.
WP_20141118_002 by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
The Gruesome Twosome by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
WP_20141003_004.jpg by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
WP_20140822_029.jpg by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
WP_20140822_032.jpg by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
Rover P6b by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
RED, 1972 ROVER 3500 ETR 290L by mancbranch, on Flickr
They are all Rover P6B - a red 3500S, two green 3500 and a blue Three Thousand Five.
They are all runners but three of them need urgent attention to their engines and the other is overdue a respray.
It has been quite a soap opera to get them into this running state.
They each have a name - Ethel, Hildegarde, Daffodil and The Blue McFoo.
Red Ethel has been a joy to own since 2007 and she's never unready.
Hildegarde was made to order to my own specification and Daffodil and The Blue McFoo just sort of presented themselves at the garage and made themselves at home in the last year.
WP_20141118_002 by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
The Gruesome Twosome by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
WP_20141003_004.jpg by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
WP_20140822_029.jpg by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
WP_20140822_032.jpg by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
Rover P6b by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
RED, 1972 ROVER 3500 ETR 290L by mancbranch, on Flickr
Ooooh nice collection!
My third car back in 1979 was a 1973 Rover 3500S in Mexico Brown with the touring kit. Loved the V8 performance but it handled like a blancmange! Especially when one of the upper mounts for the De Dion rear end tore out (then discovered the other side had already been welded back in).
Bought it because being a 4 door saloon it was easier to insure than a 3 litre Capri or a Stag, but so many happy memories of that car.
You would score quite high in the cylinders/capacity thread - 32 cylinders and 14 litres but BHP may be a bit down!
If I remember right PAS was optional on S models - mine didn't have it and it was a b****rd to park - 3500S also had Ambla (read plastic) seat coverings whereas the autos had cloth or leather, but mine had to be a manual!
Hope you get them all sorted - lovely cars!
My third car back in 1979 was a 1973 Rover 3500S in Mexico Brown with the touring kit. Loved the V8 performance but it handled like a blancmange! Especially when one of the upper mounts for the De Dion rear end tore out (then discovered the other side had already been welded back in).
Bought it because being a 4 door saloon it was easier to insure than a 3 litre Capri or a Stag, but so many happy memories of that car.
You would score quite high in the cylinders/capacity thread - 32 cylinders and 14 litres but BHP may be a bit down!
If I remember right PAS was optional on S models - mine didn't have it and it was a b****rd to park - 3500S also had Ambla (read plastic) seat coverings whereas the autos had cloth or leather, but mine had to be a manual!
Hope you get them all sorted - lovely cars!
Mr Tidy said:
Ooooh nice collection!
My third car back in 1979 was a 1973 Rover 3500S in Mexico Brown with the touring kit. Loved the V8 performance but it handled like a blancmange! Especially when one of the upper mounts for the De Dion rear end tore out (then discovered the other side had already been welded back in).
Bought it because being a 4 door saloon it was easier to insure than a 3 litre Capri or a Stag, but so many happy memories of that car.
You would score quite high in the cylinders/capacity thread - 32 cylinders and 14 litres but BHP may be a bit down!
If I remember right PAS was optional on S models - mine didn't have it and it was a b****rd to park - 3500S also had Ambla (read plastic) seat coverings whereas the autos had cloth or leather, but mine had to be a manual!
Hope you get them all sorted - lovely cars!
Thank you. The BHP is modest compared to what modern cars are capable of but three of these cars have (or will have very soon) uprated camshafts which give a big boost to torque and a more modest increase in BHP. I have bought all my engine parts and The Blue McFoo is first up - it has a later engine (SD1 or Range Rover - we will find out when we remove it) and a ZF422 gearbox. The engine smokes a lot of oil. This engine will be removed, repaired and put in WXC 426K along with the gearbox. My third car back in 1979 was a 1973 Rover 3500S in Mexico Brown with the touring kit. Loved the V8 performance but it handled like a blancmange! Especially when one of the upper mounts for the De Dion rear end tore out (then discovered the other side had already been welded back in).
Bought it because being a 4 door saloon it was easier to insure than a 3 litre Capri or a Stag, but so many happy memories of that car.
You would score quite high in the cylinders/capacity thread - 32 cylinders and 14 litres but BHP may be a bit down!
If I remember right PAS was optional on S models - mine didn't have it and it was a b****rd to park - 3500S also had Ambla (read plastic) seat coverings whereas the autos had cloth or leather, but mine had to be a manual!
Hope you get them all sorted - lovely cars!
The Blue McFoo gets a nice reconditioned 10.5:1 engine (standard camshaft) and a BW35 to compensate for the loss of the ZF. The Rostyles are coming off as well and one day I might have the Blue McFoo resprayed back to her original tobacco leaf. She'd still be The Blue McFoo though even if she got resprayed and stopped leaving a long blue plume of smoke everywhere she went.
Daffodil (DDF) is a sweetheart but has very noisy tappets - she has an uprated camshaft to go in. She was tobacco leaf too.
WXC (Hildegarde) had her unknown but original engine since she was rebuilt to spec last year.
That spec included lowered ride height (60mm), 30% uprated springs, adjustable shocks and wider tyres - SD1 alloy wheels as worn by Ethel for many years. The SD1 alloys are a popular upgrade on the P6B and I replaced the set taken from Ethel immediately.
The engine is a big disappointment - it knocks furiously under load and it overheats due to a warped block - she sprays coolant everywhere and will probably become a coffee table. The engine and gearbox from The Blue McFoo will make this car fulfil its promise.
Ethel got the uprated camshaft and full monty engine rebuild a couple of years ago as well as the LT77 gearbox - an upgrade but let's not pretend the LT77 is a nice gearbox.
She also has an Edelbrock 500 carburettor.
I've not tested one like this for a few years! by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
I think you may be right about the PAS, certainly for the S2 models. Both the S2 3500 cars have PAS. Ethel did have PAS from the factory but it was removed when she was restored in 1990 and only replaced recently. The Blue McFoo, being a S1 car, has no PAS.
When Ethel was restored in 1990 she got leather box pleat seats from a 3500 donor car - when I restored Hildegarde I went the other way round - she has Ambla box pleat all in black as well as a bespoke black interior - black headlining, carpets, sun visors.
The Blue McFoo has S1 leather seats which were restored by me a few years ago for another car. The S2 seats that arrived in The Blue McFoo, tan ambla flat pleat, were just perfect for Daffodil, who arrived with a ruined, composted interior.
Edited by Chris486 on Thursday 12th February 00:23
Great, not quite standard then!
I didn't know Edelbrock made carbs, I thought they just did inlet manifolds with Holley 4 barrels being the carb of choice - after all twin SU's are pretty cr*p!
If I remember right the Monza(?) red is a pretty rare colour. I looked at one of these but it also had no PAS, a small Momo steering wheel and lived in a less than salubrious area of "Souf-East" London so I gave it a miss!
At the time my cousin had a Cameroon Green 3500 on a K plate (probably why I wanted one, but he only had his a year or so before he got a Dodge Charger that he put on its roof)!
Some years later a mate of mine raced an SD1 for a while - there are just so many options for this engine!
Let us know how things go!
I didn't know Edelbrock made carbs, I thought they just did inlet manifolds with Holley 4 barrels being the carb of choice - after all twin SU's are pretty cr*p!
If I remember right the Monza(?) red is a pretty rare colour. I looked at one of these but it also had no PAS, a small Momo steering wheel and lived in a less than salubrious area of "Souf-East" London so I gave it a miss!
At the time my cousin had a Cameroon Green 3500 on a K plate (probably why I wanted one, but he only had his a year or so before he got a Dodge Charger that he put on its roof)!
Some years later a mate of mine raced an SD1 for a while - there are just so many options for this engine!
Let us know how things go!
Nope - very few cars that get to this age can be truly original, especially if they get used.
Yes, it is 'Monza Red' and Ethel was a victim of 'red shift' when she was restored in 1990 - she was originally Mexico brown.
Like Daffodil, she was registered on 1st August 1972 and unlike Daffodil, she was put away in a barn for 7 years around 1983 - there are 7 tax discs missing. I have the full history of the car - she has been in books and magazines and if I have it my way, she'll be in a movie.
Daffodil was also a 1st August car but I don't have much history - I know she was kept going with botched repairs in the 1980s as she navigated her way through Banger Valley because my archaeologist sorry I mean my mechanic unpicked them all, removing 4 layers of rotten repairs, some welded, some riveted, some free-form.
She was allegedly dry stored but in fact she got sopping wet - sodden electrics, rusted fuel tank, stuck carburettors. She passed her MOT fairly easily but she was a colander.
Upgrading the firmware, Lake View style by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
I had all the arches, sills, floor pan replaced with high quality repairs and it was worth the effort.
Even though she's stock she's a really nice ride - I love Daffodil, much to my mechanic's disgust - he built Hildegarde and invested many hours in the project, only for me to go and buy a soggy tart-with-a-heart of car and fall in love with it.
Just to show how much we put into WXC, here's the tub below on a special rotating spit - the car was able to be turned upside down for ease of access. Tom (mechanic) didn't have that option when he did the extensive welding on Daffodil - he had to do it the old fashioned way and jack the car up one side at a time.
Golden Jubilee P6 by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
As for the Blue McFoo, she's quite famous as well - she used to belong to Danny Hopkins, editor of Practical Classics and the McFoo might have more column inches than Queen Ethel.
Once I am done with the McFoo in the next week, she'll be very near stock condtion except for that strange P5 blue sprayover - P5 rostyles and even P5 3.5 Litre wing badges.
As for the Edelbrock - a gratuitous upgrade that was ill-advised, ill thought out. I wanted to buy my car a gold watch because I loved it, not thinking it might be happy with the watch, or SU carbs in this case.
Ethel taught Tom (mechanic) and I a lot during this episode but it's come good in the end - the performance is awesome but we blew a lot of engine seals out before we eventually got her happy again.
I learned my lesson - don't mess with a car unless the car gives you fair warning that it needs messing with.
Good SUs are actually just fine for normal motoring - of course they are agricultural by modern standards.
When I respray Ethel (or rather Tom does) it will again be in Monza Red, much as I decry the loss of the original 70s colour schemes.
Yes, it is 'Monza Red' and Ethel was a victim of 'red shift' when she was restored in 1990 - she was originally Mexico brown.
Like Daffodil, she was registered on 1st August 1972 and unlike Daffodil, she was put away in a barn for 7 years around 1983 - there are 7 tax discs missing. I have the full history of the car - she has been in books and magazines and if I have it my way, she'll be in a movie.
Daffodil was also a 1st August car but I don't have much history - I know she was kept going with botched repairs in the 1980s as she navigated her way through Banger Valley because my archaeologist sorry I mean my mechanic unpicked them all, removing 4 layers of rotten repairs, some welded, some riveted, some free-form.
She was allegedly dry stored but in fact she got sopping wet - sodden electrics, rusted fuel tank, stuck carburettors. She passed her MOT fairly easily but she was a colander.
Upgrading the firmware, Lake View style by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
I had all the arches, sills, floor pan replaced with high quality repairs and it was worth the effort.
Even though she's stock she's a really nice ride - I love Daffodil, much to my mechanic's disgust - he built Hildegarde and invested many hours in the project, only for me to go and buy a soggy tart-with-a-heart of car and fall in love with it.
Just to show how much we put into WXC, here's the tub below on a special rotating spit - the car was able to be turned upside down for ease of access. Tom (mechanic) didn't have that option when he did the extensive welding on Daffodil - he had to do it the old fashioned way and jack the car up one side at a time.
Golden Jubilee P6 by EthelRedThePetrolHead, on Flickr
As for the Blue McFoo, she's quite famous as well - she used to belong to Danny Hopkins, editor of Practical Classics and the McFoo might have more column inches than Queen Ethel.
Once I am done with the McFoo in the next week, she'll be very near stock condtion except for that strange P5 blue sprayover - P5 rostyles and even P5 3.5 Litre wing badges.
As for the Edelbrock - a gratuitous upgrade that was ill-advised, ill thought out. I wanted to buy my car a gold watch because I loved it, not thinking it might be happy with the watch, or SU carbs in this case.
Ethel taught Tom (mechanic) and I a lot during this episode but it's come good in the end - the performance is awesome but we blew a lot of engine seals out before we eventually got her happy again.
I learned my lesson - don't mess with a car unless the car gives you fair warning that it needs messing with.
Good SUs are actually just fine for normal motoring - of course they are agricultural by modern standards.
When I respray Ethel (or rather Tom does) it will again be in Monza Red, much as I decry the loss of the original 70s colour schemes.
[quote=- he had to do it the old fashioned way and jack the car up one side at a time.
Well that is probably a better idea than have it bend in the middle!
Good SUs are actually just fine for normal motoring - of course they are agricultural by modern standards.
Good SU's - oxymoron there! Those 2 words should never be in the same sentence!
When I respray Ethel (or rather Tom does) it will again be in Monza Red, much as I decry the loss of the original 70s colour schemes.
[/quote]
Why is that, Monza Red is a 70's colour and much better than Almond or
Pistacchio - they must have been nuts!
And thanks for keeping them going!
Well that is probably a better idea than have it bend in the middle!
Good SUs are actually just fine for normal motoring - of course they are agricultural by modern standards.
Good SU's - oxymoron there! Those 2 words should never be in the same sentence!
When I respray Ethel (or rather Tom does) it will again be in Monza Red, much as I decry the loss of the original 70s colour schemes.
[/quote]
Why is that, Monza Red is a 70's colour and much better than Almond or
Pistacchio - they must have been nuts!
And thanks for keeping them going!
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