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Our Cars: 1976 Rover 3500 SD1

9 January 2010: SD1 progress

I’ve been getting a lot of people asking me about my Polski-Rover SD1. Is it MoT’d yet? When will it be on the road again? Will we be seeing it on the show circuit?

Well, with a little help from my friends, I went a long way to getting the first question answered today. Regular readers will know that, following my shake-down drive over the Christmas period, I discovered that the brakes were going to need ’some work’. There are a couple of issues – the pedal’s on the floor and the car pulls violently to the right when you do find stopping power.

The passenger side front brake caliper bleed nipple has been broken off and that means that whoever last tried to bleed the system only got as far as doing one side. Bad, but at least I know why it’s pulling.

However, with the weather being what it is and the roads what they are, there’s no way the car’s fit to drive to an MoT station. Cue another day towing the old girl – and adding to the mileage (on the back of a trailer) it’s covered since the restoration in Poland was completed. I reckon it must now be at leat 1600 miles.

Anyway, an early start had me heading up to Rimmer Bros to borrow their trailer once again and, at about 9.00am this morning, we were digging it out from under a liberal coating of snow in order to get it hitched to the Subaru.

Then it was back home (a round trip of 140 miles) to get the Polski-Rover on the back of it. Within a while, we were back on the road and heading to MOTEST in order to get it fixed and ticketed. The garage is in Farnham, which has been particularly hard-hit by snow the past few days, and its boss, John Ball, smiled as he said that he did wonder about my sanity in choosing today to get it down to him.

There’s method in my madness… get it done now, and it’ll be ready for the road in plenty of time for spring. That’s when I want to be enjoying it – and not worrying about getting this-and-that done.

I’ll keep you posted about how the MoT goes – but, before it goes near the bay, those brakes are going to need to be sorted.

Rover -SD1-looking -good

« Earlier: Testing times     Later: SD1 progressing nicely »

Updates
We decide to take a £200 Rover SD1 to receive a full body restoration. Here's the story...
The work in Poland carries on in earnest
The Rover SD1 goes to a new home. It's been emotional...
Back in daily use, the SD1's odo ticks past 50K
The SD1 enjoys another MoT test - and passes, with a few advisories...
An incapacitated Keith Adams hands over the SD1 to Richard Kilpatrick
Time to get the SD1 out to a show... and look what we bump into.
Now it's up to scratch, it's time to get the SD1 looking as good as it drives...
This running report is boring - nothing has happened. And that's a blessed relief
Rover SD1 powers to the Pride of Longbridge... and suffers not a single breakage!
Pride of Longbridge approaches and Mike Humble is looking forward to taking the Rover SD1
Mike Humble carries on working on the SD1 - it's nearly finished. Promise!
Mike Humble gets the SD1 through its MoT without too many issues
Mike Humble is never 'tyred' of working on a classic motoring icon, only a few more details and the mission is complete.
Let's get rid of that carbuncle off the rear of the SD1!
Mike Humble - once again - sets about fixing another set of SD1 maladies
Getting the SD1 up and running again...
Something's not clicking with the SD1. Maybe some factory alloys might improve matters
Mike's spent weeks getting the SD1 into a roadworthy condition. He's literally sweated cobs over it - and we're not sure he'd like to repeat the experience.
Mike Humble has been having some truly epic battles with the Rover SD1. He's winning, though.
We've handed the SD1 over to Mike Humble in order to fix all those niggles. It proved to be a bit of a battle
It's getting a thorough work-put now, and one or two teething problems are working their way through
To to start undoing some of the unwanted cosmetic modifications
We're now trusting the Rover to take us out and about on jobs. Good idea?
Has it been worth the wait. Five years after buying it, we're finally able to legally drive the freshly MoT'd Rover SD1
Plenty of work needed for the MoT - and we're not there yet!
9 January 2010: SD1 progress
The Rover's been shipped to MOTest in Farnham for its first post-restoration MoT. Fingers crossed.
First drive, and we're going to have a bit of work...
So now it's home, it's time to take stock of what needs doing on the project Rover SD1
The SD1 is pretty much paid for, now we just need to get it back to the UK
We've just dashed to Poland to drop off a few finishing touches to our SD1 restoration
After three years, the Rover SD1 restoration in Poland is finished. Now the work begins
 

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