75ZT Community

S750 LJW one of Rover's original Press Cars and is currently the earliest known Right hand Drive Rover 75 by VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) number.

Although she looks rather nice in the top photo time hasn't been kind to her. She is 12 years old this year and has the rather ubiquitous honour of still being on her original Cambelt. Bearing in mind the V6 Cambelts are due to be changed at 6 years or 90,000 miles this is some achievement! Other problems at first glance are short MOT, Tax and various trim items being missing and damaged.

I will update this thread with the work I carry out on her and my findings.

Happy Viewing:}

I picked up my new car (S750 LJW) today. I was a little worried about the Cambelt but the car disappointed me, she purred her way home along the 7 Miles to RR Towers.

Having just arrived...


Initial impressions of the engine are very good. Despite having only covered 71,000 miles the Alternator is Whistling and there is a clicking noise which I suspect may be an inlet manifold problem. Both of these little faults are in addition to the required Cambelt Change.

When viewing the car on Saturday morning I noticed the Plenum Drains were well blocked so the first job was of course unblocking them. After taking off all the covers this is what I was greeted with...

A nice little pool of water which was soon dispersed using a trusty garden cane and the other side followed in quick succession.

After the Plenum drains were unblocked I gave the engine bay a good valet- the first one I think it has received in many years:D Here are the finished results.



After having a quick look around the car I noticed these areas of bodywork requiring rectification.

O/S Rear Wing

Front Bumper

Missing Fog Lamp

On my walk round I also noticed this...


A Boot handle on the inside of the boot. It doesn't have any part numbers on it so I am at a loss as to if it's genuine or not. Any ideas?

Part 2 tomorrow...

Good to see progress already, my offer still stands for the paintwork (at the cost of materials) but You need to pass your test first or alternatively I could take it home with me next time I'm down there (what & leave Grovey down there? ..........)

Looks pretty good to me.
The boot grab handle is the left handed model, very rare indeed.

DeuxGazoles wrote:Good to see progress already, my offer still stands for the paintwork (at the cost of materials) but You need to pass your test first or alternatively I could take it home with me next time I'm down there (what & leave Grovey down there? ..........)

Take it home in a skip at the current rate ! Are you about tonight?

Thread sez "saving" erm what exactly di you save it from lewis? Was it in a scrap yard?

I know we need a handle to lift the boot floor cover so we can get at the spare, but -- What is a boot grab handle for?

And -- Why did you buy it, when you already have a nice car??
...

James.uk wrote:I know we need a handle to lift the boot floor cover so we can get at the spare, but -- What is a boot grab handle for?

To close the boot with.

Most cars have em these days.

Chris

Cowley_MOA wrote:

DeuxGazoles wrote:Good to see progress already, my offer still stands for the paintwork (at the cost of materials) but You need to pass your test first or alternatively I could take it home with me next time I'm down there (what & leave Grovey down there? ..........)

Take it home in a skip at the current rate ! Are you about tonight?

What's up mate? I'm not around tonight but if you're quick you'll get me at work PM'd number

Well done! Lewis

She is a beauty, and soon in time be more beautiful I see from reading your threads.

Excellent!

be interesting to see how it goes given your great knowledge about the cars and the history

Having had a day off because of the rain I decided to attack the interior today.

As well as fighting with the general dirt the carpets gave me an unpleasant surprise: Sand and lots of it. It was a quite a task as the Neptune Blue Carpets were in places grey in colour from all of the sand trapped in the pile. After a long session with the vacuum cleaner the carpets were clean.

I then moved onto the headlining which in places was quite badly marked. After cleaning the headlining I gave the seats a good clean and polish using Gliptone Leather cleaner and finished the interior off with a liberal spray of Autoglym Apple Silicon Spray.

Here are the finished results...

Cowley_MOA wrote:
Take it home in a skip at the current rate ! Are you about tonight?

Problem diagnosed by telephonic diagnostics device (me) & hopefully now solved so no more

That looks a fabulous car - and destined to be a classic of classics! You have made a huge difference already just with the deep cleansing - but a lot of the damage looks quite superficial and if some is still visible after you have done your work, just think of it as all part of the car's history. "War wounds" if you like. Well done anyway. (In my day cars this old would have been used as chicken coops for at least a couple of years - so thin yourself lucky )

How many owners?

As for that interior boot handle - do you think by any chance a warning triangle might fit onto it....?

My goodness! You have done more to that car in a couple of days than 'A.N. Other' restoration project has managed in over a year....

Looking very promising!

Bartonrover wrote:That looks a fabulous car - and destined to be a classic of classics! You have made a huge difference already just with the deep cleansing - but a lot of the damage looks quite superficial and if some is still visible after you have done your work, just think of it as all part of the car's history. "War wounds" if you like. Well done anyway. (In my day cars this old would have been used as chicken coops for at least a couple of years - so thin yourself lucky )

How many owners?

As for that interior boot handle - do you think by any chance a warning triangle might fit onto it....?

Only just seen this so sorry for the late reply...

We are the second Private owner. The cars owners were Rover 1998 - 2002. Robert (the person I bought it from) 2002 - 2010 and then us from 2010 - ?

That is indeed a warning triangle mounting bracket however the boot handle is visible just to the left of it.

Zeb wrote:My goodness! You have done more to that car in a couple of days than 'A.N. Other' restoration project has managed in over a year....

Looking very promising!

Thanks very much Carl! I am pleased with progress thus far. However over the next fortnight much less will be done since I am on holiday Once the cleaning has taken place the next job will be a new MOT which it will need before the end of September and then all of the other little bits...