Police rover 800

[Jon R]

Glad to see you're having a go Kate, looks like you're well on the way.

Jon

[TDHFastback]

With the headlining ordered I thought I'd get on with one or two cleaning tasks.

The seats were given two scrubs with fabric cleaner with hoovering in between and left out in the sun to dry. Then the same with all the carpets.



Always a good sign, a dry rust free bootwell.



The spare was a bit dirty



so a bit of Unipart wheel cleaner and elbow grease.



With the bootwell washed and polished, the pressure of the spare is checked and its popped back in. Much better.



When I bought the car the rear boot carpet was all uneven and rippley. This was due to there being no cardboard boot shelf over the spare wheel and no jack kit.
Good old Bradders supplied the shelf . The jack kit and polysterene holder I got for a tenner off E-bay. Its nice to put original bits back into a car when they are missing



The sunvisors came in for attention next. I don't think they've been cleaned since they left the factory
You can see the difference in colour



With one washed and the other not



The holders for the sunvisors and additional lighting were left to steep in Milton overnight which got rid of the grubbiness.



The bar light was taken off to sort out the holes and the wiring. Found under the roof liner was a lot of excess wire for the bar light. Between the roof and the bar light was a horrible mess of cut wires, bodged connectors and insulation tape. This mess was cut away and fresh wire fed up from inside to make a neat finish. Susie then wired in the bar light using photos taken before it was all disconnected.





It weights a ton that roof light and took two of us to lift off. Heavens knows what it must do to performance/fuel economy.



After two coats of anti rust primer and paint, tight fitting rubber grommits are fitted into the holes in the roof. With a good squirt of automotive silicon sealant these won't be leaking again. This is how it should have been done in the first place. Met Police mechanics



With the speedy arrival of the trim from Woolies (next day) and with Susies help we decided to quell the butterflies in our stomachs and have a go putting the liner on. The cardboard was brushed/hoovered again and (using Jons guide he very kindly sent me ) the material laid on so the excess could be trimmed. We couldn't use the old material a s a template as it was to manky.



If anyone takes a liner out be aware there are four metal brackets on the fastback,rivetted through the cardboard liner which attach with a self tapper into the chassis.
One on each C post and one at each B post. You can see the C post one here to the left of the tape. The B post brackets are missing.
As the liner had been pulled about over the years by job mechanics and the liner became damp re the leaking holes in the roof, the B post brackets had just pulled off the liner with rivetts still attached (and shreds of cardboard). Be careful if your liner has been out before or if the roof has leaked (sunroof seal perhaps?). We cut the old rivetts off and araldited the brackets onto the liner which seemed to work.
The black tape is were the liner had been torn in the past. An attempt to smooth down the rough edges.



The glue from Woolies is like party happy string. We applied it to both surfaces putting extra glue in the curves in the liner. We weren't exactly sure though how much to put on.



Following Jons advice we did the front half first , smoothed it all down, then the back.



Turning it over we then stuck the edges down and made small holes for sunvisor screws etc



The auxilery lights are just screwed onto the roof liner.



The liner was then put back in by taking it in through the hatch then sliding it back into the C post supports. This camera was a real pig to fit .



More good advice from Jon. Around the edge of the material was an area devoid of foam. There was quite a difference in colour between the roof buttons and the Empire grey material so this edging was used to cover the button. A little super glue was put on the back of the button and the material spread over it giving this very pleasing result.



With the buttons in place and all the sunvisors, grab handles etc fitted.



Before the seats were put back in, all the carpets were hooverd again and all the plastic trim washed with soapy water and Jif. Look at the colour of that water. Yuk



Susie worked hard cleaning and relubrictating all the seat runners and mechanisms which are now much smoother. Then it was back in with the seats.





Finally its looking like a car again
PHEW!!!!!

For a first attempt I think the roof looks 1000 times better than before.
There are one or two places I'm not exactly happy with it and I'm not sure if its due to the knackered state of the cardboard liner I was working with or my own mistakes. I'm not sure if I put enough glue on or too much.Was it to hot or dry I'm just not sure.
It is rippled in a couple of places and has not quite formed into one or two of the contours as well as it should, such as the ridges under the sun visor.Anyone any ideas?

Overall I'm happy with the result. It is much easier with two people (thanks Susie for all your help)and and gloves are essential when refitting the liner to stop grubby finger marks all over the light grey material. The material on the sun visors is,despite being washed, a little grubby and the wrong colour but I'm not sure how to remedy this as the material seems to be glued into the plastic.
A real learning curve and very enjoyable. The car smells much fresher inside with the last of that little dogs hairs hooverd up from all the nooks and crannies.
A much nicer place to be.

PHEW (again)

Kate

[vito]

WOW.........well done the both of you

Maybe a hairdryer/hot air gun for the wrinkles ?

[rovercoup]

A fine job well done to you both and not a bloke in sight shame you picked such awful weather to do this in though

[Richard Moss]

Nice work by Cop-Shop Kate

[Jon R]

Looks like you have done a good job there, well done.

[Marc-827-Vitesse]

Looks amazing,especially when you think about the fact that a lot of bad guys started to sweat when they looked in the mirror and saw this girl steaming up the boilers and flashing her lights.

I am quite surprised to see that even after a hard live the body is ok, not new of course but a good start.

Keep up the good job and keep us posted!!

[TDHFastback]

Thanks guysfor all your kind comments. Its a real time/money pit though after rough time at work recently, I find it quite quite theraputic and relaxing doing the work especially seeing before/after shots.

Had a go at cleaning the hinge areas as they all looked like this.



..and now look like this



They have all then been freshly lubricated.

The rear towing eye area was a real mess (you can see a before shot, I think on page two, when he was up on the ramps having his tyres done.)

With lots of Gunk,the area was cleaned off,dried and then sprayed.



I have a plastic cover to fit over this which is another job , as it is grey and needs spraying. (Thanks VTB).

Its a real labour of love but I'm determined to get it back to a proper show condition car.

Kate

[SJG]

Spraying as well Kate, that is fantastic. Well done you, the car is a real credit to you. I really enjoy looking at the work logs that people put up here.

[Richard C]

You did a far better job than I with the headlining, its a fiddly job isn't it.

[TDHFastback]

One of the items missing when I bought the car was the re chargable seek and search torch located in the back passenger area.
The holder was there but no torch. This was not unusual as they used to go missing all the time. Heavens knows why as they were no good without the chargers which were fixed/ wired into the vehicle. (Coppers eh )
It has taken a while but I've finally managed to get one in exchange for an expansion tank. Probably a bit of a one sided deal as expansion tanks seem to be going for big money at the moment but its all part of restoring the police car to its former glory and is a nice period piece.

Here it is



And back in its rightful place



A nice touch was that it (many years ago in the early 90s) was originally from a TDV vehicle. The same Traffic garage, the car came from.
Who knows was it the original torch finally reunited with its original vehicle.

After standing for six months, with a quick battery boost the car started first time and ran really well on our test run this afternoon in preperation for Longbridge tomorrow.
Huzzah

Kate

[Richard Moss]

A most illuminating bit of history.

[Very Tall Brad]

Nice read, this thread. I hadn't seen the write up about the headlining, Kate, and was very impressed. I've done a few of these and the first is always the hardest. Yours especially so as you had so much extra gubbins to reinstall. Nice work. And, as you say, a better place to sit in as well now.

[Manalishi]

Nice read, this thread. I hadn't seen the write up about the headlining, Kate, and was very impressed. I've done a few of these and the first is always the hardest. Yours especially so as you had so much extra gubbins to reinstall. Nice work. And, as you say, a better place to sit in as well now.

I second this, hadn't seen it and I'm very impressed with it!

[TDHFastback]

Well the police car has just passed its MOT with flying colours in preperation for the BMC.
Finally all the cash spent on it has payed dividends and its running really well.

HUZZAH

Kate