LIVING WITH MY ROVER P5B SALOON.
Now I'll start from the beginning, I first bought my Rover P5B back in 1984, early part of, I was 19 years of age, still living with my Parents, but already owned a first car, a 1964 Vauxhall Victor FB series, I loved my first car, great fun, and was where I taught myself the beginnings of basic mechanics, I was keen to learn the running and maintaining of my ride, after a couple of years on the Vauxhall, I decided to move onto a Rover P5B, simply because a couple of friends own one, and figured I wanted some of that, I eventually purchased my one and only P5B, and soon other friends followed, turned out 8 of us owned Rover P5B Saloons, mine was bought from an owner who bought it when new back in 1971, who used it as a chauffeur car for a while, when i first saw the car was whilst going to school parked on his drive, had no interest in car then, strange that years later it was to be mine, looked as though it hadn't been touched for years when I first went to view, it was filled with news papers and other light junk, took me and friends a week to eventually fire it up as it had a cold seize, so out with the plugs, oil down the bores, crank by hand, and return the next day to do the same, until we were happy to replace the plugs, and with a fully charged battery crank her over on the key, it eventually came to life, and at idle with choke, it burned the oil in the bores and smoked form the exhaust, but only for a short while, I didn't want to rev it up then just in case I did any damage, owning a V8 was exciting to me, and although the Rover was rough looking, mould every where, all over the engine, seats, dash, body, smoke from the exhaust, tapping from the engine, I still held on to that smile, now at this time I still had my Vauxhall to run me around, the Rover was parked on my Parents drive for a good number of months, I would come from work and do what i had to do, remove the mould, wash and polish, although it was not legal i still fired it up every day, the engine was sounding quieter and running smoother, the gears worked well as I took it for a spin around the block when Dad was out, looking back now, considering the Rover was sitting on a drive for years, it drove considerably well. Months went by and I became brave as a youngster, and took it on my self to start rubbing down the body work, removing all the shiny bits, and priming areas of surface rust, I eventually primed the whole car, in grey, a P5 friend who worked in this line of work, gave my the advice needed, and let me get on with it, I actually enjoyed it, and has helped even now with any body issues that may arise.
Skip years to now, and I have done so much, I must admit, back then the Rover was my every day wheels, once the Vauxhall was sold, the inner and outer and spacer sills were replaced, new shocks, replacement back axle, stainless steel exhaust, rebuilt SD1 unleaded engine, uprated timing gears, piper 270 road cam, uprated oil pump, rebuilt autobox, new steering joints, complete interior recolonise, lower door skins, rear valance, rear wing sections, all replaced with new, back in the early years I use to work with Rolls Royce and came across a set of tires, 235/70/15 off a rolls, so I fitted them to my Rover, although they looked fat, I loved them, and have fitted them since, good enough for Rolls, good enough for Rover, another mod I done was electric windows up front, only because my winder snapped I needed a replacement and another friend owned a Jaguar 4.2 coupe, happen to have a spare electric window motor, which fitted to the rover as if it was made for it, result. Now back to modern day, it spends winter wrapped up in a garage, and comes out on sunny days after April 1st. Running the Rover P5B is a joy, I love it, still the same smile as it was in 84, I have a straight though stainless exhaust with a cherry bomb exhaust box and an original back box, this gives it the lovely burble sound, I also replaced the SU carbs with an Edelbrock carb and wolfrace inlet manifold, this gives it a crisper acceleration helping for smooth gear change, mpg isnt great compared to a modern car, but it is a V8, now this year (2016) I plan to replace all the brake pipes, callipers, suspension bushes, steering joints and shock absorbers, remove the engine, replace a autobox sump gasket, wrap the exhaust, tidy the engine compartment and pretty the engine, give it its yearly oil service before putting it back in, well that,s the plan, and giving my self a week to do it all!
