Engine cleanup

Todays project was cleaning the engine. It took a bit of time to close up the various exposed orifices, and then some scrubbing and degreaser.
It is looking better, but not sure if it is clean enough to hold a coat of paint.

Getting down to business

I'm now ready to really get into the nitty gritty of this restoration. But where to begin? I managed to talk my wife into buying me a great Christmas present, an engine stand found on Craigslist in Sechelt. It took a bit of jimmying to get it hooked up, but it is now ready to go.
I'll begin with a cleaning of the outside of the block, head and valve covers, then will disassemble it enough to assess whether or not it needs a complete rebuild.
Being a bit of the impatient sort I tend to go with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" line of thinking. On the other hand, it would be rather annoying to install the engine, fire it up, and discover blue smoke billowing forth from worn rings, oil seals or valve guides.
Will keep you posted.......

Treasure trove!

It was a very busy Autumn for me, and so I'd had the car a couple of months before I git around to opening the trunk (boot). When I finally did, I found a treasure trove of very good, not so good, and rather useless bits and pieces.

Some useful.....

 Some not so useful....

Some quite remarkable bits of trim....

How did this all fit in the trunk of a Rover P4?....

But I did finally get a good look at how ready the interior is for an easy cleanup...

A new garage for the white Rover

OK, so now I was faced with the dilemma of needing the garage to rebuild the black '53 Rover, so where to keep the white one? We did have an old garage tent affair off of our driveway to store Michelle's now sold VW Westfalia, but it was smushed by a tree that some idiot felled onto one end of it. (I wonder who?)
So, we decided to make a more proper job of it with a platform of gravel and a new tent.
With a few yards of crush rock, and a couple of hours of work from our neighbour with his backhoe, the '56 Rover P4 90 is snug as a bug in a rug!

Engine found! 2103cc

Well, here it is! I still can't get my head around the fact that the only engine that I could find for a Rover P4, in all of the world, turned out to be the correct engine for my car, but also happened to be only a 2 hour drive from me. This is even more remarkable when one considers that there are probably no more than a handful of early 1950s Rover P4s in all of North America.
Barry Lafberry is a retired BC Transit mechanic who is having fun rebuilding old Rovers. Here is a photo of his lovely 1949 P3.

.... and loading up the engine into my trailer.

... and arriving in my garage.

You will note that it was not only the correct engine, but also the correct gearbox, complete with the freewheel unit.
Barry and his wife treated me to a very nice lunch of potato soup and homemade bread while we chatted about Rovers, and some friends of theirs whose daughter lives in my home town of Gibsons.

Another Rover P4 Project

About this time last year I noticed a '53 Rover P4 75 pop up on the Rover Guild facebook page. I certainly was not in desperate need of another project, but this car was certainly tempting.
So pat and I took a little weekend trip up to Summerland to have a look. It turned out to be the first big snowfall of the year, so it was lucky we bought snow tire for our Echo the week before.

The car turned out to be pretty darned solid for a 62 year old machine, and the interior in particular is pretty complete. What is particularly appealing is the two very unique drive gear features, a four speed column shifter and the Rover's unique freewheel system.

We hemmed and hawed for a couple of months, and after one false start of a deal, we let it go. Lat August, out of the blue, the seller called me up with a much reduced price, $1,000, as he did not want it to go to a fellow who was going to rat rod it. So, I bought it!

A month later, I arranged for a commercial towing company to ship it down, and here it is in my driveway alongside my '56 P4 90.

There are two big catches... the most serious of which is... no engine! The original apparently had a cracked block, and so it was scrapped. The second is a somewhat damaged hood (bonnet) caused by the so-called professional tow company which did not tie down the hood on the flatdeck truck!

I have hardly so much as looked at the car for two months, having been extraordinarily busy as a Campaign Manager in the recent federal election, but I am just now getting moving on it.

The first task was to find an engine. I did get a response to my Facebook posting from a fellow in Reno, Nevada who is trying to acquire a P4 75 as a parts car for himself. This was looking like the solution, especially since his in-laws live in Nanaimo, BC, just across Georgia Strait from here. Meanwhile I did post a second appeal, and have heard from a fellow in Chilliwack! Amazing that probably the only spare Rover 2103cc engine in all of North America happens to be only a 2 hour drive from here!
I am off to pick it up this week.... next post.

  The four speed column shift.

The freewheel control.