1972 Rover P6 2300TC - Saab B234 Turbo

[tommyp6]

Jun 19, 2009 18:45:23 GMT sowen said:

An extra piece will be added below, and I think an aluminium grille off the series one p6's painted black would finish it off just fine ;D

Oh yeah, I've bought some more paint and set the compressor up so I can continue spraying, yee ha!

you should do a rear diffuser to match, now that would be awesome. ;D

[sowen]

Jun 24, 2009 22:23:08 GMT 10mpg said:

this is an epic build I was sceptical at first but it really looks the billy boll*cks now, all it needs is a decent lump of Detroit iron (or ally) under the bonnet to give it some real grunt...

How about a buick 455 engine to keep the rover/buick theme going, would 420bhp and 500lb/ft get it shifting...

[glow=red,2,300]CHEVY LS1[/glow]

I've roughly measured an LS1 recently, and it looks to have very similar dimensions to the rover lump, and if my cashflow remains good, there is a very high chance of an ls1 going in

[10mpg]

That would be beyond awesome......

nothing more needs saying..

[FJSigma]

What an awesome project!

[sowen]

Jun 24, 2009 23:01:55 GMT tommyp6 said:

hey can you give me some more specs on the diff like what car it is from... there are a lot of jag diffs out there and is it an lsd and powerlock? thanks tom

It's now a powerlock/lsd (actually the same thing) using the case and 3.058 gears from a mid seventies XJS (I think) and the lsd unit is from an early S-type, but they're almost all a standard unit based on the american dana44 diff design, manufactured by Salisbury.

Jun 25, 2009 0:37:55 GMT tommyp6 said:

hey is it possible to put the rover sd1 2600 engine in the p6?

Contrary to popular belief, the p6 engine bay is really small. The chassis rails are close together, there is a hefty bulkhead behind the engine, which sits a long way forward, giving very little room lengthways for anything, which is probably why the p6 came as only a 4 pot and v8.

Jun 25, 2009 12:35:12 GMT 10mpg said:

That would be beyond awesome......

nothing more needs saying..

I'm seriously sold on the idea of an ls1. Practically, I must get this on the road first before I mess around with the engines too much more, and I need to start thinking about spending some money replacing my old daily/parts chaser (285k miles and counting ).

Anyway, the front wings and valance have now been fully sprayed up in blue, just need some minor filling in some corners and flattening back a little to give a nice smooth topcoat. I'll probably leave the paint to go off for a bit and move back onto the rear arches and doors/wings next and get them finished (a bit of deja vu there, thought I'd got the arches sorted before lol)

More pictures to follow when I remember to take the camera out with me

[tommyp6]

update?

[sowen]

[Deep breath] I've almost finished the front valance now, by fitting some small endplates to locate the valance to the wings with two bolts each side:







Then rubbed down both front wings and valance, and re-painted them:









It was once I'd painted the front wings and refitted one, that I remembered thet the bonnet catches on the front because it's been raised at the back, so I dug out a few washers and welded them on the wings to space them out a little:



And while the blue paint was flowing, the scuttle had a blow over:



With the consistant good weather, both sills got sprayed satin black:







Then I pulled the drivers door apart, dowsed it in paint stripper, rubbed down all the rust spots, primed and painted it:

[sowen]

With the drivers door off, I could get to the last rust hole (actually it was the only one on the car) and weld it up:









With the doors progressing, I found all the door shut rubber assemblies, removed the old rubber from the aluminium strips, cleaned and painted the aluminium, and fitted fresh rubber to the strips:







Then a package arrived, in the shape of a genuine rover rear door skin. I was never happy with the repair I did to the passenger door, so I've dug into my pockets and bought two new rear door skins. While I'm fitting them, I'm adding small 1 inch square steel tube along the centre, for rigity when the remaining skin gets cut off, and some extra protection in the event of a side impact, and modifying the door frame where it sits over the rear arch so I can relocate the door seal:























The bar is just tacked in place to start with, and will be fully seamed in when the old skin gets removed. The door skin has been stripped to remove some tiny rust spots (must be at least 33 years old so I'm not complaining) and will be welded on when I find a sheet of the anti vibration stuff that was on the old door skin.

[sowen]

The bar got fully welded to the rear face of the door frame first, then the door was refitted with all latch mechanism attached and adjusted so I could shut the door close to it's final position. Using a big adjustable spanner, I tweaked the allignment of the bar on the hinge side, so that the rear of the door frame alligned with the rear wing, and welded the front of the bar to the frame:







After all this welding, I trial fitted the window frame and skin to see how well they fitted:



New door skin just hanging in place:



The fit of the frame and skin were good, and the frame is now very rigid, so I could then splash some paint over the panels prior to final assembly:





With tape measure in hand, I transferred the measurements to the passenger rear door and replicated the bar fitting process:



The drivers rear door is now waiting for the sound deadening mats to come through the post, and the passenger rear door requires full stripping and wheel arch modding before it too can be painted and re-skinned, then finally all trace of the original yellow will be gone ;D

[tonybmw]

Excellent work and some great progress

I am glued to this thread

Tony

[sowen]

Well, the door skins fit:









Only attached with panel pins right now, but at least they fit, only requiring minor fettling around the top crease line and to the hinge shims ;D

[tommyp6]

love it

[luckygti]

Amazing work coming on really nicely and that front end looks outstanding.

[sowen]

New wheels...



...fitted...



= happy Simon ;D

[Speedle]

that car looks awesome!!!!! some amazing work!

[Colonelk]

this is really coming together now

[Davenger]

This is epic in it's awesomeness

[10mpg]

stunning! what are the wheels nicked from?

[sowen]

Aug 13, 2009 10:21:16 GMT 10mpg said:

stunning! what are the wheels nicked from?

I'm led to believe a Chevy Blazer, of '79 vintage

[sowen]

Things are slowly coming together after a long period of hard graft and no visible progress. Another parcel came through the post during the week in the shape of a series 1 aluminium grille set for a 2000.



With a little trimming to the lower edge and to the outer end, they are now both roughly fitted in place:



The gap in the middle will probably be filled in with pieces of steel to replicate the original Rover aluminium, then the whole lot will be sprayed black to match the wheels and bumpers.

I've also been gathering parts for the rear brake, and finally got round to putting the Jaguar brake calipers through the blast cabinet at work so I could spray them up in red today:







The Jaguar rear brake pads are the same size as the original front pads the car originally came with, so some work may be required to the braking system to reduce the effectivity of the rears. This could involve fitting a dual master cylinder and only having servo assistance on the front.