Barn find Rover p4 100

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Rice

New Member
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99
Wasn't sure which section to put this in, thought this was the most relevant!
Thought id chuck this up here for anyone whos interested to have a look at. This is a barn find me and my old man found in 2011. This is copied from my local forum from over the past couple of years, so forgive some bits which might not make sense.

So, its a kinda long story, but my dad discovered a 1960 (i think) Rover P4 100 2.6 straight 6 in a barn near this old mill, in between ottery st mary and tipton st john. Its taken 6 odd months to manage to convince the old guy who owns it all to sell it to us, but yesterday he gave in and we purchased it from him. Then it was the job to try and get it out of where its sat for over 30 years, which we started on last night! Anyway, Ill explain with some pictures!

This is the old mill which its in the grounds of:
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As the pictures show, the exterior does need a clean up, theres a small amount of corrosion here and there, but over all its very solid (as far as we can see). But really its in outstanding original condition!

Safety first! lol
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Pumping up the tyres... Yes, they actually held pressure!!

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Now for the really amazing bit, the interior!! Obviously it needs a bloody good clean, but, its pretty much perfect.

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See what i mean!!

Trying to free the brakes up.. luckily the front ones are fine, as they're discs, but the rears were a little stubborn!

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So much so that one of the rear tyres decided to blow out! Which made my dad jump slightly haha.

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The engine is seized, not that thats really any problem, hopefully it wont need any welding doing underneath.


.... the next day.



We went there today to collect it, hoping that it wouldnt be too much of a pain in the ass.
I'll let the pictures do the talking.

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Mobile tool kit!

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Jacked her up to try and find the problem as to why the rear wheels werent turning

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Took the drum off, that wasnt the problem, as it still wasnt turning

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Decided the best thing to do was to disconnect the prop, which we did.

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SORTED!

In comes the landy to tow it out! - Which was a slight challenge because of all the wet weather, even in low range diff lock, but she pulled through! This hill was alot steeper in real life.

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After looking over it all, theres a few small spots of corrosion, the front o/s wing has a hole in it inside, but it can most probably be repaired. Think we're going to get the whole thing resprayed, as repairing/spraying each panel just isnt worth it.

He's got the engine out, ended up being one very seized piston, but that's all free'd up, ordered new piston rings, engine enamel ordered, head sent away for a skim and one or two of the spark plug threads to be re-tapped or heli-coiled

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So the engine got taken out (with more than a claw hammer and mole grips :lol:)
Wings off, these have been repaired as there was some rust, but luckily not too much!

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Back home and into the garage to take the suspension off clean, to put new bushes in and paint up the front of the chassis and suspension with this special chassis paint (awesome stuff!!)

Back to the garage...

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Now the engine was ready to go in, which has been rebuilt with one new piston (as one of the previous was ceased solid and ended up needing replacing) and new piston rings - everything else was in such good nick! And obviously all cleaned and painted, as close to original as possible. The more we look at it, the more it looks like the 17,000 miles on the clock is genuine.

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Couple of nicely painted up pieces -
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And the best bit ;) VIDEO!!! vvvvv



^^^^

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Underside

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Not long now til the rover should be on the road! Bottom half has been painted.

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Finished! Apart from some small interior bits to finish off.

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The old boy who used to own this was clearing out a room the other day and found these!!

Original service history. Last serviced in 1976 with 16666 on the clock. And other original booklets. The service schedule is so detailed, although it shows how much more maintenance engines from back then required. Here's a picture of a couple of pages.

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Also an Autocar magazine from 12th August 1960. Which has a road test for the Rover 100 in it!

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A couple of examples of prices back then.

1954 Jaguar mk7: £295

1955 Jaguar xk140: £565

1951 Mercedes Benz 220: £295

So yeah pretty exciting stuff!... Alright maybe it's just me.
 
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Ta :)! The other car - an Austin A55 cambridge estate was so rotten it was half sunken into the ground. Think it was because it was half outside.
 
Nice resto job. I used one as a daily driver a few years back and got involved with the Rover P4 Drivers guild. Those motors get a Guild cos they are to posh for a club!
 
I saw one of these in a breakers yard in Runcorn years ago.. Thought of taking it on, but money was tight.. So had to pass on it, I do love these old motors..

It looks great.. Love the pics..
 
That is very nice, makes you wonder how many other jems are out there. A mate of mine was on holiday in wales and saw an old motor through a barn door that was open, walked up the drive and paid 50 quid for a 100% complete Morris MM with no rust whatsoever.
 
Thanks, much appreciated :)!

I always think when I walk past a barn that doesn't look like its been opened for a while, hmm I wonder what's in there!
A chap met my old man yesterday from the rover guild, he looked up the chassis number and he's infact 1962 not 61! Now just the case of sending the paper work off to the dvla, who no doubt will take their time.
The guy also had a son in law who works for practical classics magazine, who was very interested to write an article about our Rover :)!
 
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