1973 humber sceptre mk3 one last gift

[Ebejeebies]

So about two months ago a brought a Humber sceptre mk3 of my mates step dad. It started, it moved and it had two months MOT. So I was thinking it would be a great rolling project. Keep it MOTed and work on it whilst driving it. That plan lasted for about 45 minutes.


In its current state it doesnt start, the roof was covered in surface rust due to the owner removing the vinyl roof. The bottom of rear quarter panels are 3/4 filler, 1/8 rust and 1/8 non exsistant. The interior is moldy, damp and well just plain ugly. The wooden dash literally fell apart in my hands upon removal and every bit of rubber needs replacing.


So far I've sanded and paint the roof with good old hammerite.
I've replaced some leaking gaskets in the engine. Rocket cover gasket, disturber timing gasket etc.

[stevietuck]

45 mins of happy motoring is good for this place

[grifterkid]

Lovely cars these...! I can see this being a good project... What are your plans at the moment?! I imagine just getting it running again is at the top of the list?!?!?!

[Ebejeebies]

Dec 22, 2014 13:45:25 GMT grifterkid said:

Lovely cars these...! I can see this being a good project... What are your plans at the moment?! I imagine just getting it running again is at the top of the list?!?!?!

Actually the body work is my first concern. I've got a communal garage space at my work for the next 4 months. So I'm gunna try and do all the rust repair during that time. Getting it running is actually bottom of the list atm. I'll put so more pics up in a minute of all the rust I've found so far

[Ebejeebies]

Dec 22, 2014 13:24:03 GMT stevietuck said:

45 mins of happy motoring is good for this place

Well that doesn't fill me with hope haha. Sadly, due to the lack of insurance, it was my dad driving it for the 45 mins. I've only driven it about a mile.

[Ebejeebies]

so i was going to upload some pictures of the progressive made on the car but I've made very little progress. what i have done is found a metric f**k ton of filler and more rust that i really care to think about.the week started of with me finding a bit of rust in the boot. so i set about patching this up, believing that this was last of the rust major i was going to find on the car. i made up some panels and went about welding them in. after a days work i had sorted out about 1/3 of the rust and was feeling pretty good about the project.



next day i just having a little poke around on the car, i found a little bit of rust at the drivers side rear inner wheel arch, i knew there was already a hole there, so i though i would see how big it was. turns out it was nothing to bad about 2 inches long, i went to check to see what the other side was like and it was solid......however the sill wasn't there. some one had glued in a metal plate and then covered it in what looked like black bath room sealant. and there was this black bead of it running along the entire sill. safe to say my heart sank, i removed it and suprise suprise, i found more rust and more worringly filler along the entire sill.







so rolled the car and set to it with a grinder, i asked my dad to grinder the other side at the same time. on my side at certain points the filler was a good 1.5 cm thick. but suprisingly the metal underneath it was shiney and solid. my dads side wasnt as good, it was rotten top and bottom.




most sane people would scrap the car, it is in that a bad state. however I'm not a sane person, some I'm going to try and save her. wish me luck.

[retrolegends]

Nice to see another old Rootes motor on here, best of luck.

[grifterkid]

It is great to know that you're not sane and are going to rescue this car from the brink of death...

It may bring you close to breaking point but when the car is back on the road and running right you will know that you made the right decision...!

[bazzateer]

These old Rootes cars need saving more than the contemporary Fords as they are so much rarer and less well supported. They're also better cars!

[Ebejeebies]

so here are just some more pics of the car in its current state, the front wings are damaged, the rear wings need repairing, the driver side sill isnt attached at the bottom.the passenger side sill is weak at the top. ive welded plates into the boot to fix/strengthen the panels and to sort the rust. On plus side i managed to source some new sills so that will be the next step in the project.

below are pics of the rear drivers side sill




below are pics of the front of the drivers side sill




and heres what came out of the sill



heres just some pics of what still needs to be done











and to end on a lighter note,heres some of my repairs (and yes i no the welding isnt fantastic,but I'm self teaching and you've got to start some where)

[Rob M]

Great save.
The welding looks fine. Its amazing how tidy you can make a weld with the angle grinder.
You are making the car solid once again, that's the main thing.
Keep up the good work.

[Ebejeebies]

Jan 3, 2015 15:20:29 GMT Rob M said:

Great save.
The welding looks fine. Its amazing how tidy you can make a weld with the angle grinder.
You are making the car solid once again, that's the main thing.
Keep up the good work.

thank you, i do plan on grinding it all back when its finished and covering it in black carpet.

[fred]

Well done sir for saving this fine bit of History.

My old dad had one, Never been in a car with walnut dash before! I was quite young mind, about 11 !

Look forward to seeing her being put back to former glory

[luckyjim]

as said,well done for saving this piece of history,i do know these like to rot.my dad had one of these (a 68 or 69)and he ended up scrapping it back in the late 70's because of rust and it was no more than 10yrs old.keep up the good work,these are lovely cars.

[Van]

I had one of these when I was a student in the early 80s. It was so rusty that water sloshed into the front footwells from the inner sills under heavy braking. I could see the road through holes in the toeboard (I think that is what that part of the floor is called). Also I had one of the rear doors welded closed as it was falling off! The car was less than 10 years old. I scrapped it for £20.

[Ebejeebies]

Wow, 10 years is really short time for a cars life. Makes me wonder how badly these cars might of been made and out of what kind of materials. Also makes me wonder how mine survived.

[fred]

Back in those days rust proofing was only for Top end cars, and even those only had a smattering, It wasnt unusual for a car to last less than ten years back then, it was only careful owners who rust proofed and took care of cars back then we still have them now!

[nomad]

Don't know how I missed this so far, but now I know about it ... bookmarked!

First thing I did when I got mine was to buy 2 new sills, it's a good place to start for rust repairs 

Keep up the good work, shout if you need any parts (or factory workshop manuals / parts books ) as there are a few Rootes fans on here.

[djefk]

Well done for pressing on in the face of the rust surprises, I had a base model 1974 Hunter deluxe many years ago with a very worn iron head 1500 engine - slow as hell but likeable enough as a daily driver for an 18 year old. I passed it on to someone free of charge as I wanted it to go to a good home and couldn't weld: it needed a new front outrigger and a patch on the floorpan by the accelerator pedal. I later heard it got banger raced. RIP XMC 290N!

I also had a rust-free 1976 Sceptre Estate in bright metallic green with fake wood down the sides that my mates affectionately called the national lampoons wagon, we took that down the Slough cruise once which was hilarious with all the chavs in their XR3is and Astra GTEs not knowing what the hell to make of it / us. Apart from the worryingly low oil pressure I really liked that car but it was just too big and cumbersome for my needs at the time.

Good luck with it!

[Ebejeebies]

Jan 21, 2015 4:25:49 GMT djefk said:

Well done for pressing on in the face of the rust surprises, I had a base model 1974 Hunter deluxe many years ago with a very worn iron head 1500 engine - slow as hell but likeable enough as a daily driver for an 18 year old. I passed it on to someone free of charge as I wanted it to go to a good home and couldn't weld: it needed a new front outrigger and a patch on the floorpan by the accelerator pedal. I later heard it got banger raced. RIP XMC 290N!

I also had a rust-free 1976 Sceptre Estate in bright metallic green with fake wood down the sides that my mates affectionately called the national lampoons wagon, we took that down the Slough cruise once which was hilarious with all the chavs in their XR3is and Astra GTEs not knowing what the hell to make of it / us. Apart from the worryingly low oil pressure I really liked that car but it was just too big and cumbersome for my needs at the time.

Good luck with it!

its a shame when a car you have memories with gets banger raced :/ Sounds like the road trip in the estate was a laugh, i could imagine the chavs confused faces as practically no one i know has any clue what it is, i say its a humber and every one looks back with a blank expression. i have recently found alot more rust and came very close to selling it, but i'll up date on that in a bit