Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

Some good graft done there bud.

can you do a dash cam shot of the rear seats?

I'm intrigued.

Also if it feels any different to drive without the rear stiffening braces?

Got in and did a bit more today. I wanted to do the underseal, fit the tank, and get the door cards on. I managed some of this. First, the underseal. It probably doesn't need it but since this is an all-weather-car and I have taken it through a couple of winters now, it seemed prudent to give it a lick of the old black gunk anyway. There's a handy pressing the length of the sill which means you can put a modest tidemark in without it being visible once the car is on its wheels. Masking tape was my friend for a nice crisp edge to the black stuff.

20180821-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


20180821-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


The fuel tank is a tricky operation to refit, luckily there were two of us and a gearbox hydraulic lift which made the job bearable. There's a whole host of pipes that needed reconnecting and I hadn't had the foresight to plug the various tubes on the petrol tank while it was off the car so quite a lot of fuel has evaporated away, unfortunately.

20180821-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


20180821-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


Mike did battle with the fuel lines and I busied myself with other bits and bobs. After that, I re-activated the seatbelt pre-tensioner things which is a simple case of taking the red tag out of the slot and clipping it back onto the end of the tube where it lives before refitting the trim.

20180821-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


20180821-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


20180821-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


Also got the lower windscreen trim reinstated. Annoyingly, one of the A pllar trim clips has broken a leg at some point between removal and coming to refit, to stop it flapping about I'll just glue it down with some sealant when I get a chance. Windscreen arms will go back on once I've repainted them satin black and bought a pair of new wipers, since new windscreen deserves brand new wipers.

20180821-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


I looked over the spare doors and realistically the only things worth salvaging for me are the side trims, the door seals, and the glass. The doors themselves aren't really better or worse than the ones on my car. So if you want a full set of Flame Red doors (fit both saloon and hatchback, probably estate too) that are basically sound shells, they're free to anyone that wants to collect them. I shan't be moving house with them so if they aren't collected they will go in the bin.


I swapped over the driver's door seal. This involved knocking out the roll pin for the door stay to get the seal in the correct place and salvaging a good two thirds of the clips that hold the seal in place since my old one had barely any attached. The old seal was fairly knackered too, stretched on the bottom edge and had a hole missing at the top so this will hopefully be an improvement. It's a bit of a weird seal, when I salvage the others I'll try to remember to take some photographs to show you the clips on three edges and the rail it squidges into on the top.

20180821-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


Finally I tried (and failed) to fit the driver's door card. I salvaged a speaker off one of the spare doors since my original had torn, and I made sure to swap my original window switch pack onto the new door card since I wasn't as sure the new one worked. The last time I did this door card it fought me quite a lot, it seems just as you've got one bit seated, two other bits pop out of place and when you correct those, it jumps off somewhere else. Probably the worst job on the car so far, and I've four of them to do. Oh well.

20180821-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


The car was started after I'd completed the magical mystery dance of the buttons to get the keyfob to talk to the car again since the battery has been off. No fuel leaks, no problems, all good. So pre-MoT we're down to fitting some new bushes at the back - not a fail or even advisory, but I've got them and now is the best time to do them - finish fitting the door cards, new wiper blades, and then a really thorough clean. Should be sorted in the next few days.

Those diagonal braces aren't for stiffening, they're just to stop the back seat collapsing into the boot. All the stiffening is going to be in the parcel shelf that runs the width of the car, and since that's tied to the towers with the new brackets, I doubt there'll be any noticeable difference. At some point I'll do a proper shot of the back seats in action, they work exactly as they should.

I wouldn't recommend it as a job, all the same. I'd also use rivnuts instead of welding in nuts and bolts, because that would be loads easier. I may find other tweaks I want to do to improve things once I've tested them a bit but for now they seem sturdy and will be practical come house move day since it'll allow me to put more stuff in my car easily.

Coming along though.

As a ham fisted amateur, reading this and other detailed threads (the orange engined track car for example) is a good push for me to tackle some jobs. Not saying that they will be on these kind of scales but there are some simple maintenance bits in these threads that I will adopt, not only for my Rover but for my other cars too.

Thanks to all concerned....and keep it up.

Everyone starts out as a ham-fisted amateur, just a few years ago I barely new one end of an engine from the other, now thanks to the internet and forums I'm moderately competent, even adventurous, with my tinkerings. So never be afraid to have a go, just get out there and get spannering. You'll be amazed at what you can achieve, and in some cases, completely fudge up.

---

So nearly finished now, certainly finished enough to go for an MoT. Courtesy of a chap on the club forum who was breaking a tourer, some trim bits arrived. I've not had much joy finding the chrome bezel for the rear window window so that was particularly welcome and the square blanking plates are another tricky item to source if you can't get to a car that's being broken for spares.

20180822-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


Primary job today was getting the door cards in, which is a thankless task. Between the new and old door cards I had just enough trim clips. I also had to swap the driver's door grab handle as it had lifted on one corner on the new card where on my old one it was in good shape. Happily, the only interior bit left to do now are the rear arch trims that go alongside the seats and the revarnishing of the wood, both of which are low priority and will get done after I've moved house if need be since I don't need specialist tools to do them. Here's the rear seat in action, I suspect this is going to be quite useful come moving day.

20180822-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


Base up. You do have to make sure the front seats are far enough forwards, these seats are chunkier than the velour versions it seems.

20180822-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


You can leave the base down and fold either half of the back rest forwards, just not flat because of the shape of things. So while it is a 60/40, because of the solid base it's not as much of a benefit as it could be. Still, 60% side down.

20180822-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


40% side down. Nice flat loading space. There's a few times this would have been handy over the last few years so now I've done this I expect I'll never, ever use it after the house move.

20180822-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


I still haven't trimmed the excess corners off the moulded boot sides yet and I forgot to push the carpet down flat from when I've been fiddling with stuff. You get the idea though. The red bodywork will be hidden once I've trimmed the plastic arch trims down properly and in use I'd stow the head restraints in the rear foot well rather than leaving them on the parcel shelf like that. It is nice being able to remove the restraints, and necessary for folding down the seat back properly.

20180822-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


20180822-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


Then I remembered I hadn't welded up that crack in the driver's door. Since I'm not swapping doors around, it made sense to do this job now since it's an easy one, which annoyingly meant disconnecting the battery again.

20180822-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


A blob of weld, a flap of the angry disc, and a splosh of paint and it's nice and secure again. No discernible difference in using the door but at least I know it's done and safe to stick the door card back on.

20180822-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


Surprisingly, key fob and car communicated almost instantly when the battery was reconnected. New seats are quite firm, but supportive in the same way as the old ones, I think I'll get on okay with them. It's nice not to have the springs and stuff in the base poking me in the bottom since these new seats actually have some foam left in them, so I hope dead-bum-syndrome won't be an issue on longer drives now. Cabin feels a bit more cramped with everything being so dark in there compared to the grey velour, especially without the wood trim, but this is balanced out by the carpet being an actual colour and pulling the colour out in the seat cloth, which at least prevents it being a plain black hole.

20180822-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


Technically, it's now MoT ready. I'm going to replace the suspension bushes before then anyway so I know they're done. It was very strange getting behind the wheel of it after using the Princess for so many months, I almost felt too big for the car.

My 111 had an identical loadspace arrangement, very handy.

Can I step in to save your spare doors...

You may. I did send you a message about the passenger one you were interested in but I suspect it got lost in the aether.