The classic 1970s experience
Last time, I introduced one of my two Rovers, the 827 Coupé. As you can see, the other Rover is also green, but that is pretty much where the similarity ends. The P6 is often referred to as 'the last proper Rover.' I don’t really like that term because it can be applied to just about every post-war Rover, but then again the P6 was the last car to be designed by an independent Rover, so I guess that gives it some justification.
Anyway, some of you may recognise OFL 134J because I covered the story of its discovery and return to the road in this magazine some six years ago. To recap in brief, it spent its first 23 years on Jersey (as J4490) before being bought in 1994 by a dentist based in St Neots in Cambridgeshire. He died in 2005, at which point his widow had his car fully restored by local specialists Ely Service as a tribute. However, once the car was restored, she hardly used it, and though her gardener took it for an MOT annually until 2011, it rarely covered more than 400-500 miles a year. Then from 2011 to 2017 it was left in the garage.
I acquired it after the widow had passed away. I was emailed by the solicitor dealing with the estate – who is also a family friend – to ask my opinion of 'an old green car' they had found in the garage. From his photos I could see what it was, and while it looked pretty good, P6 appearances can be very deceptive because bolting good outer panels to a terminally corroded base unit takes only minutes. That, incidentally, is why you quite often see P6s as the scruffy car in period films and TV programmes.
Anyway, the Rover was available for basically scrap value, but on condition that it was removed within 48 hours – after, remember, not having been moved for at least five years – otherwise the house clearance company would take it. I agreed, even though by that point I’d only been able to give the car a rudimentary look over due to the amount of clutter surrounding it.
Getting it running was easy enough; a levels check followed by fresh fuel and a fresh battery soon had it fired up. Extracting it was, however, another matter. For starters, the brakes were binding. Secondly, and more worrying, reverse gear in the automatic gearbox seemed to be slipping. And then to cap it all, the garage was at right-angles to a fairly narrow roadway, but the width of this had been reduced still further by a crash barrier on the other side which I’m sure had been installed since the car had been driven in. So yes, it took a fair amount of aggro to get it out.
At this stage I knew next to
nothing of the car’s history, though I could now see that it had been restored. I’d already arranged for Ely Service to do the recommissioning work, and when the car arrived, they of course recognised it and were able to fill me in on its history as outlined above.
Getting the car roadworthy involved mainly freeing the brakes off and a full service and fluids change; good oil and coolant are crucial on the all-alloy Rover/buick V8 engine. The gearbox problem turned out to be caused by a failed seal in the reverse plunger piston. This is, apparently, not uncommon on Borg-warner boxes if only reverse is affected, and is often the problem if a box has been left standing and then reverse is used before any forward gears.
Since 2018, the P6 has become basically my road-run/
driving classic. In this respect it complements Minxy (the 1958 Hillman Minx) rather well. Minxy is the show queen, the car that I take to static events and let people look over while my other half Sarah keeps a running tally of how many people’s fathers/grandfathers/ uncles/neighbour owned the exact same model, how much they loved it, and how it was the best car they ever owned.
The P6, on the other hand, is the car that I use when I want to relive the 1970s classic driving experience, or attend an event outside the immediate area. It’s good to drive, and extremely enjoyable if you forget the 22mpg at best thirst coupled with a total dislike for anything but the best Super Unleaded fuel. I never tire of hearing the lazy V8 come to life when the right pedal goes down. The only drawback is that thanks to the three-speed Borg-warner 35 autobox, it runs out of revs at motorway cruising speeds. People who use their cars regularly have got around this by fitting later gearboxes. I don’t, so my ‘solution’ is to avoid motorways and going over 60mph...
A few jobs have, of course, been needed over the past five years. There have been ongoing issues with sticky brakes which do seem to have finally been cured by rebuilding the front calipers and fitting exchange rear ones supplied by specialist Mark Gray of MGBD Parts and Services. All now have stainless steel pistons which, of course, won’t rust. I’ve also changed the tyres, and it’s had regular servicing.
Two jobs are currently outstanding. Firstly, there’s a rather nasty water leak into the boot which I’ve so far been completely unable to trace; I did try taking the rear scuttle panel (in front of the bootlid) off and cleaning up underneath, but that didn’t work. The other issue is the seats. As you can see, the front passenger seat has a nasty rip in it. I did try using a leather renovation kit, but as you can also see, the recolouring didn’t go too well and I gave up after doing the driver’s seat and rear seat back. I stress that the failure here is probably down to user error rather than the product. Anyway, the bottom line is that I need a set of good brown leather seats; can anyone help here or point me in the direction of some?