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ROVER-HAULIN
WEDNESDAY 11:00AM
Once again, we have a lot of work done after starting in at 8:00am. The last of the painted parts have been handed over to us, and all the detail work on the parts has been completed this morning. The deluxe hood above already has the tire bumpers and the hinges installed, and the fenders have been assembled and made ready to go onto the front of the Rover.
Now it really starts to look like a finished product, even though it is far from finished at this stage. In more unexpected work, all the front signal and marker lights had to be replaced. The housings were all completely rotted out and you could not even remove the bulbs. We installed new housings and wires with the old lenses to give the 88 the correct look. The new bumper and a nearly complete front end give the 88 the look it deserves and seeing it this close lifts our spirits to make sure it gets done on time.
The new inner fender was combined with the original outer fender and with the new radiator support the accident damage is now history.
Here you can see that the missing front apron has been painted and installed. The correct apron and the new lights make the front end of the 88 look a lot more finished off.
The new sills will give a more finished and correct look to the Series IIA and will give Jeff a grin of joy. For many years he has made grumblings about the fact that his 88 did not have sills, or the correct steering wheel.
A new battery, new battery hold down (something that was missing before) and all new hoses will make the 88 a lot more trouble free down the road.
This image shows the new stainless steel radiator support set up with a new cloth strip and that long missing hood latch that caused the old hood to flop around and fail. Having a hood that stays closed may not seem like an "upgrade", but in this Rover, it is.
Here you can see the dash buttoned up and ready to go. Everything from the horn to the turn signal has been tested and retested to make sure that the Rover will easily pass its required state safety inspection.
New doors and door tops have been installed. We made some small cover plates and painted them to match to cover the opening in the door tops for the Series III window catch, and you can also see that the doors we supply have the correct Series IIA door retainer mounting points on them, for an easy fit and a correct look.
The collection of badges has now been installed on the front bar for that unmistakable "British" look.
We are pushing hard toward the end of day 5 to get everything up and running. The hood is now installed and adjusted to open easily and the doors now have retainers to stop them from swinging all the way open. Again, you may not think doors that don't swing open and hit the fenders is an "upgrade", but to this Rover... it is.
Just in time for the needed move to the paint booth the new tires have arrived from Eastern Tire, a new set of donated Cooper 235/85R16s will replace the worn out old BFG's.
All the mud sheilds on the 88 were long gone from rust, only small bits remained. These shields keep road dirt and mud out of the vital systems in your engine bay and they should be in place. Here you can see we have fitted a new galvanized mud shield to the RH wheelwell to protect the new heater.
Same thing on the LH side, a new galvanized steering box cover and mud shield to protect the brake and clutch systems from road debris and the early failures all the debris would cause. All the hardware used in these is stainless steel for ease of service down the road.
Inside the 88 we have installed a new set of seats and repaired and re-painted the seat braces. Yes, it will be hard for Jeff to not carry that roll of duct tape around to customize his seats with, but we think this works a little better.
We also fabricated new wing mirror mounts and installed them and got all the final assembly check list complete from top to bottom. Now it is off to the paint booth to paint the rear tub.
Once in the booth Steve and Mike M. will mask off the front end and get ready to strip, prime and paint the rear body.
A little more masking and the rear body will be ready for prep. and paint to match the front end. Steve and Mike M. will stay into the night to get the rear body done, as Ian and Mike S. will need it first thing in the morning to sort out all the final details and do road tests to make sure it is 100% ready to go for delivery day. We are looking good for the delivery day, but we have only driven the 88 across the parking lot at ECR, day 6 may be full of surprises.
Once the rear body is painted it will be the end of day 5.
Click the days below to see the progress of that day. These pages have lots of images.
INTRODUCTION
DAY 1: THURSDAY
DAY 2: FRIDAY
DAY 3: MONDAY
DAY 4: TUESDAY
DAY 6: THURSDAY
DELIVERY DAY