Fitting a Heated Rear Windscreen

My heated rear window has never worked since I've had the car ........ since 1995. There were so many cracks in the heating element that no amount of silver "electric" paint would fix. I don't know why it was like that, but I've a suspicion that my Mum might have given the window a quick scrape on the inside to get rid of the frozen condensation!!! Nooooooo!

Anyway, a chap (Simon Owen) I met on the Rover Forum (best Rover Forum around!) was offering a free heated rear window along with the best part of half a gearbox. He was only 40 minutes drive away so I took up the offer (thanks Simon). The window was green and had been sitting in his back garden for over a year. I cleaned it up, brought the copper elements back to the right colour and connected a battery ......... it all worked, superb.

As I had plans to fit a boot mounted spare wheel (another blog entry!) I waited until then to fit it. It is so much easier with the boot lid off.

First thing to do is to remove the petrol cap so that we can remove the rear decker panel. By undoing the jubilee clip and wiggling the pipes will dislodge the sealant sticking the pipe to the rubber tube.

Remove the four screws that fasten the petrol cap to the decker panel and pull the petrol cap out.


Next, to remove the rear decker panel, remove the 3 bolts near the boot hinges - one at either side and one in the middle.
Then underneath the decker panel, on each side there is a nut and washer on a bolt that is attached to the decker panel. you can see it in this photo. remove these nuts/washers.
The decker panel should now lift off, it will be a little stiff and tight but it will wiggle free.

Remove the centre screen support and the nylon spacer underneath.
On each side there is a screen "jack" like this  photo. Remove the dum-dum covering the thread and nut and turn the nut to wind the jack down as far as it will go. Do the same for the other side.
There is now nothing left holding the screen in place, except whatever sealant was used when the screen was last fitted.
Open each rear passenger door, remove the seats and inner rear quarter panels and disconnect the heated rear screen wires. With one hand on the inside, and one on the outside of the screen, wiggle and push the screen in a downward movement to try to slide the window out.

You might find it useful to slide a blunt instrument underneath the
rubber seal around the stainless steel trim to free off the sealant
there.
Constant wiggling and pushing from alternate sides will eventually free the screen and rubber from its hold and it will come out.




Here is a photo of the old screen upside down. You can see on the bottom, a metal piece of angle, the same shape as the window, this needs to come off along with the rubber underneath so that it can be fitted to the new window. This (after 39 years) took some removing, and I think the rubber was glued to the glass in a spot each side - probably to help the fitters originally building the cars, so that it doesn't fall off when you hold the window the right way up!
Remove it, along with the sealing rubber from the top and sides and clean them up. Apply screen sealant and fit to the replacement window.

Insert the replacement screen by reversing the removal procedure - by sliding the window up into the aperture, make sure that the rubber seal goes inside the aperture with the rubber lip around the stainless steel trim.

Jack up the window gradually on each side to push the window firmly home. Periodically pull the window up into the aperture by hand (one hand inside the car, the other outside) to make sure that the window is being correctly seated and to check how much play is left to be taken up.
Continue to jack up the window until it is fully home. You should be able to see where it was before by the marks left on the stainless steel trim by the rubber seal and you can 'feel' the jack getting tighter. Don't over tighten, otherwise it could crack during use as the car will flex while driving.

Another view.......












Refit the rear decker panel and the petrol cap. Apply a gasket compound around the petrol pipe and connect the rubbers and do up the jubilee clips.
Refit the four screws holding the petrol cap to the decker panel - use a magnetic screwdriver, if you drop on of these down the pipe, it'll end up in your petrol tank!!




All Done!!

Fitting the Boot Mount Kit

Fitting the Boot Mount Kit
When it comes to fitting one of
these kits, there are those who say it can be done with the boot lid
still on the car, but I found that it was much easier to take the boot
off. Removing the boot on a P6 is very simple, however one thing that
is easier with it on the car is measuring! I didn't, and it would have
been easier if I had. Using a soft pencil, mark the centre line down
the boot, then measure a mark 314mm down from the top edge (nearest the
rear window), this is where we want the centre of the hole!

With the boot lid off and the hardboard removed, you can see the 'A' shape of the bones inside. The cross-bar of the 'A' needs to be removed to enable fitting of the spider brace.








The cross-bar is only made of aluminium and spot welded in place. Drill the spot welds out carefully, there is no need to drill al the way through, the spot welds will break off with a wiggle of the cross-bar.









Turn the boot lid over and drill a small pilot hole (I used a centre bit) at the mark previously made on the outside. Go carefully, using a centre punch will really only chip away the paint, so a very slow controlled drilling is required. Fortunately, the boot being made of aluminium, slow drilling will easily drill a hole.
Turn the boot lid over again and using a set of dividers set to the radius of the hole in the spider brace, scribe a circle using the hole as the centre of circle.




Position the spider brace in position using the scribed circle as a guide. Check for a good fit and because not all boot lids are the same, and the spider brace will likely be second hand, you might find as I did, that the bones of the boot lid might need some persuasion with a hammer and the spider brace bending a little in a vice.






When satisfied that the spider brace is about as good as you can get it, position sufficient shims between the spider brace and the boot lid to take up all free space and prevent the boot lid from denting when you tighten up the locking plate.
Hold the spider brace in place and mark the position of the first rivet. Drill a 5mm hole, then reposition the brace. If the drilled hole is not quite right, elongate the hole until correct, then insert a 5mm pop rivet.
On the opposite arm, drill the next hole and pop rivet. Now the spider brace is in it's final position.
Careful drilling these holes, it is easy to put too much pressure on the drill and when it goes through the  'bones' of the boot lid marking the inside of the outer skin causing a dent.

Next drill all eight of the holes around the large hole of the spider brace using the spider brace as the guide. After cleaning up the holes on the outside of the boot lid, position a spare shim on the outside and using a few screws tighten up spider brace. This will keep the brace nice and tight while the large hole is drilled and also preventing the drill slipping and marking the perfect boot lid!





I used a hole saw for this. The hole saw is really meant for wood, but I figured that it would make small work of an aluminium boot lid. It soon went through it. It made a bit of a poor finish, but the burrs were on the inside. My rotary tool made light work of cleaning up the burrs and making a perfect hole






And from underneath.....
At this point it is well worth re-fitting the hardboard cover to the inside of the boot lid. Then with a pencil, draw through the hole and trace the outline of the circle. This will enable you to operate the locking plate when fitted.







Now, remove the shim fitted to the outside as a guide and fit the locking plate and the stainless steel slotted plate on the outside. screw these up with #10 UNF countersunk screws and nyloc nuts.
That's the middle bit finished, and it holds the spider brace nicely in place too.
To finish off, drill and pop rivet the remaining holes in the spider brace one by one so that it is held firmly.





When finished, the boot mount badge slots into the stainless steel slotted plate and finishes the boot off really well for those times where you want the spare wheel in the boot. Otherwise, the rain would get in the boot!








Here is the hardboard boot lid liner with the hole cut that we previously marked out.
Cut this with a stanley knife, do it gradually and eventually it will cut all the way through. Don't try to cut all the way through in one go otherwise there is a tendency to apply too much pressure and cut too much.






Here with the boot lid liner in place, the locking plate can be accessed to ensure that the spare wheel or the badge cannot be stolen.










Next, the boot lid handle needs to be fitted. This is all described in the instructions and the measurements fr the holes needs to be made first, and then drilled on the face of the boot lid.
To be able to fit the handle, we need to make two large holes on the inside of the boot lid either side fo the lock. These holes need to be large enough to get a socket through to offer the bolts through the outer holes.
To avoid losing the bolt, put blu-tak in the socket, and put the head of the bolt into the blu-tak, then feed it through the large outer hole and through the small drilled hole and screw into the handle.

Here is the boot handle fitted (boot lid upside down).
Note that the boot handle is actually a P6 Series 1 door handle fitted upside down!










Here is a close up of the boot handle fitting. The large hole capable of accepting a socket, and inside the hole, you can see the head of the bolt that is fastening the boot handle on.









Finally, the boot prop needs to be fitted.
The best way to find the right place to fit both the bracket on the base unit, and the bracket on the boot lid, is to make a template. Using the measurements in the instructions, make a paper template. The boot lid bracket is positioned in relation to the hinge bolts, the base unit bracket is positioned in relation to the bolt attaching the rear top-link of the suspension - in the bottom left hand corner of the photo.
Correct positioning of these brackets enable the red prop rod to slide up and down the bracket as you open and close the lid.
The prop ensures that the spare wheel does not come into contact with the rear screen, and also locks the boot lid in the open position to prevent it landing on your head!

All finished.......... nearly













I only found this out when I'd finished. When I re-fitted the boot lid to the hinges, I let the boot lid 'hang' or flop against the hinges. As a result, it temporarily put stress on the outer skin cracking/chipping the paint.
When you put your boot lid back on the car, put it on with someone else to lend a hand, and keep them helping while you do the bolts up!
Now, I've got to wait until the warmer weather to sand it back and respray it :-(

What is the Boot Mount Spare (Continental Kit)

It was back in the Spring of 2009, I'd started getting fed up of the amount of free boot space the Rover didn't have. Sure, it was fine for days out where you just needed the cool box, deck chairs, table and a few other bits and pieces, but if we wanted to go away overnight then that was a different story. Generally, going away meant a suitcase (girls take loads of 'stuff'. I don't know what it is, or why we need it, but it's loads of 'stuff'), cool box, other bags of 'girls stuff', my tool bag and power station (jump starter, also good to power the cool box when parked up for a period of time!). The P6 has a very limited boot space as you can see from this picture.
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There are two solutions to this problem, either put the spare wheel on the floor of the boot, or put it externally on the boot lid.
Rover came up with some ingenious solutions for this, the first one, putting the wheel on the boot floor would be fine if your wheel was nice and clean so you didn't mind it coming into contact with your luggage, but what about after a wheel change.... To combat this, Rover came up with the false floor. Here you can see two photos, one showing the wheel and tool bag in the bottom of the boot, and the second with them covered up by a false boot floor.

Here you can see the false floor on the left, folded up, and the wheel , tools etc lying on the boot floor.












And here you can see the false floor laid out. It looks rather good, and it is. However, as can be seen with my power station in the boot, there is excellent width, but very little height. I can now fit a suitcase in, but no longer have the height to fit the cool box doh!!
It is a very neat, but also restricting solution.




The second type of fitment for the spare wheel, is to put it on the outside of the boot lid, thereby giving the whole width and height of the boot for luggage.
The boot mount kit consists of:

A "Spider" brace:

This brace is to replace the existing braces on the inside of the boot lid. The standard boot has two horizontal braces to give the panel strength, these need to be removed (by drilling out the spot welds) and this brace inserted in its place by using pop rivets.

This brace was a second hand (well, hardly going to find any new ones these days are you!) painted black and covered in surface rust. I took the angle grinder / flap disc to it and took it back to bare metal. Gave it a good coat of Jenolite to kill the rust, etch primed it, and then gave it a quick top coat in Almond (same colour as my P6). The colour really isn't that important as it is never seen, but I know it's there, so wanted to give it a top coat. I didn't spend alot of time on it, and it is cold outside (New Years Day 2010) so not good painting conditions, but it is the right colour, even if it doesn't gleam and shine. Damn sight better than a rusty black one!

You can see the middle of the brace has the hole for the fitting kit, and that the spare wheel therefore is actually fitted to the brace and not just the boot lid.


The boot fixing:

This part of the kit fits to the centre of the brace - you can see by the ring of holes in the brace, and matching the picture here. The top of the picture shows the stainless steel plate that is positioned on top of the boot lid. This has a bayonet fitting in the centre (looks oval in the photo) so that the spare wheel fitting is inserted and then twisted to lock. This plate is usually sealed by a sealant of some sort, I'm thinking of using the same stuff that is used to seal windscreens. On the right is a set of four shims (two thick, two thin) these are used as required to fit between the spider brace and the underside of the boot lid to take up any space. The black ring on the left is the locking mechanism. This contains the thread for the knurled wheel (below) to screw the wheel to the boot lid, and also contains a locking mechanism to prevent anyone stealing your spare wheel. This locking mechanism is fitted underneath the spider brace. All these items are screwed together using #10 UNF countersunk screws and nylock nuts.


The "Cup":

The cup is an often misplaced or forgotten item when searching for the boot mount kit. Many old P6's, if they don't have the spare on the boot, but do have the facility, have often 'lost' the Cup, or the people breaking the car for the sale of the parts, often don't understand the significance.
You can just make out on the underside, there is a bayonet fitting that will mate with the stainless steel plate in the above photo. This Cup attaches to the stainless steel plate on the top of the boot lid, and then the spare wheel sits on top of this Cup. Of course the stainless steel plate cannot take all the strain of the wheel, but then it's not yet fastened down. That's where the knurled wheel comes in.



The Knurled Wheel:

The knurled wheel consists of the knurled top and threaded bar, a metal plate, and a rubber 'washer' that holds the metal plate onto the threaded bar.
When the spare wheel is stowed upon the Cup, the knurled wheel is inserted down through the wheel, through the cup and into the black locking mechanism where it is screwed up tightly. then the spare wheel is properly secured against the spider brace.
The threaded bar has a slot cut into the end of the bar. This is the how the black locking mechanism works, It drops a metal bar into the slot thereby preventing the knurled wheel from being turning and hence being unscrewed.

The Boot Prop:

With the added extra weight of the spare wheel on the boot, the boot springs will no longer hold the boot open, so Rover provided the boot prop. It didn't matter what colour your P6 was, these are always red!
Yes, I've given this a respray as well. this red prop slots into the special bracket that is pop-riveted onto the boot lid. The small black plastic 'fork' shaped piece is a locking mechanism to prevent the red prop from coming out of the bracket and the weight of the boot and wheel landing on your head!
Also, with the extra weight, Rover provided a handle on the boot lid to give you something to lift the boot lid with. Sometimes these are listed on eBay as boot mount handles. Actually they are the same as Series 1 P6 door handles ... just mounted upside down!


The Boot Badge:

For those times where you just want the spare wheel in the boot, you can't just leave the boot lid exposed to the elements, there's a big hole in it! It has to be covered up. This is the Rover boot mount badge, it is rarer than rocking horse droppings and slots into the bayonet fitting on the stainless steel plate.
A good quality badge really looks the business.



When not in use - because the spare wheel is on the boot, the badge fits into the top of the knurled wheel like this.

Engine Bearings ...... How on earth do you do those?

Well, she's been running a treat just lately. Even returning 32 MPG which is superb for a car 38 years old! Mind you, she's had the carbs rebuilt, runs on electronic ignition, rebuilt distributor, and an electric fan. The electric fan should make quite a difference, the original fan was fixed to the water pump and turned at the same speed as the engine ...... all the time whether it was required or not ...... which does take power away from the wheels. Anyway I digress.....

I've notice for a couple of years now, but never been too worried, because she's old and I do little mileage, that when she's really really hot and idling, the oil pressure drops from about 60PSI to 30-40PSI. From memory, she should stay at or near 60PSI at all times.

I started chatting on the P6 forum (www.classicroverforum.com) about this, and apparently it's a sign of wear in the big-end bearings, well, don't want them to go suddenly, might go bang! A number of chaps on the forum had had this happen to them and I was advised to get them changed. The 'Haynes Book of Lies' also gives some interesting recommendations to change the big end bearings every 30K miles and the main bearings every 50K miles to ensure a long engine life. Well my old girl has done 65K miles and no changes done yet! At least with the Rover always having been in the family, I know that no major engine work has ever been done. That means I know that the crank has never been ground and that I need standard bearings instead of over-sized.

As luck would have it, I managed to pick up a set of BE bearings off eBay for £24, bargain I thought! and found a set of main bearings from Thorntons of Shrewsbury for £68. Not bad either. But how do you do it???

Both the Workshop Manual and the Haynes book state that the Big-Ends can be done with the engine in-situ, but the mains is definately an engine out job..... oh dear. Again my friends on the forum start coming to the rescue. We've got a very helpful and knowledgeable chap called Harvey in our club who has worked on these cars for most/all his life and he's changed all these bearings with the engine in-situ loads of times.

The trick to doing the mains it seems, is to loosen off all main bearing caps, then take them off one by one (so us amateurs don't get confused) and then using a very special tool - a lolly stick - push the top bearing over the top of the crank, then slide the new one in. Apparently, by loosening off the mains caps, enough play is created to slide the old out, and the new in! Result! Well, that's what's happening on Saturday. A mate of the P6 club forum Dave (Bigmoose) is coming round to lend willing spirit and support (the spirit will be Whisky, and only when we've finished!) . The bearings are currently soaking in oil (not sure how that works, but apparently they're a little porous) , and I've just received a tube of Graphogen off eBay. Apparently Graphogen is a graphite paste applied during engine building that ensures lubrication when you start her up ..... and before the oil reaches everywhere. Sounded like a good bit of advise from Harvey, so I bought a tube. Lets hope we're ready!

I'm a bit late completing this blog entry, but here's how it went....

Close to the day of reckoning, Dave Roan joined the P6 Club and also the forum having bought a 1972 2000TC. Dave was just down the road from me (I’m in Northampton, he’s near Milton Keynes) and having made contact over the forum, asked if I’d like a hand. I couldn’t say YES quick enough! It is one thing doing a job on your own, it’s entirely different doing a job with someone else, even if neither of you know what your doing! We set a date of Saturday 4th July to do the work, so a couple of days before I prepared the way.

• Drained the oil
• Removed the spark plugs (to help turning the engine over by hand)
• Removed the fan belt (to take the strain off the crankshaft – we need it to drop!)
• Put the car up on ramps

First, we followed the Workshop Manual (1967 edition) page 32A, Operation A1-13 “Sump and Internal Oil Filter Remove and Refit”, to gain access to the crankshaft.
Note that when removing the sump, there are two long bolts either side of the crank, at both the front and the rear of the sump, don’t get these mixed up. There are also two bolts fastening the bellhousing to the sump.
With the sump removed, you’re faced with a good view of the crankshaft.

 


Big End Bearings


By gripping the crankshaft pulley, turn the crankshaft until the number 1 Big End (corresponding to number 1 piston) is at 4 O’clock (Just past Bottom Dead Centre) This will give you room to access the top bearing shell as you’ll see later.
Undo the nuts on the bearing cap and remove. You’ll have a crank like this:
 















And bearing cap and shell like this:














Slide the bearing shell out from the left hand side – the side without the ‘notch’ or ‘lug’ so that the lug comes out first. Then put the new shell in, in the same way that the old one came out. Plain end first starting on the ‘notch’ side so that the ‘lug’ goes in last and sits in the notch. Smother the new bearing in Graphogen.
Then do that top shell. Push the Big End off the crank, pushing the piston up into the cylinder, and lift over the top of the crank to the other side – that’s why I said set it at 4 O’clock to give you enough room, and repeat the same remove / replace procedure of the shell – and smother it in Graphogen.

Dave and I worked great as a team during this operation. Both of us under the car (I got a great sun tan on my legs that day!!). I’d been told by someone that I mustn’t let go of the Con-Rod or the piston might fall out of the cylinder which would be more than a real pain. Later, another mate told me that they were ‘having me on’ because the piston can’t fall out of the bottom because of the way they’re made. Well, I wasn’t taking any chances. We had our bearings prepared, clean and oily in a box with us under the car. I held on to the Con-Rod, Dave passed me the bearings, took the old bearings off me and put them in a separate box, and squeezed the Graphogen onto my fingers. Proper team work.
We then put both parts of the big end back together. Note that when replacing the Big Ends, the notches/lugs on both upper and lower bearings go together, and on the one side of the Big End cap and the upper part of the Con-Rod both have the number of the cylinder. These numbers also go together, make sure you don’t get these the wrong way round. Replace the nuts and torque up to 30 Lb ft.
Repeat the same process for the other 3 Big Ends.

Main Bearings
If you look at the main bearing caps, they are all numbered and all have an arrow pointing to the front of the engine. They are also sitting on lugs to prevent them being put on the wrong way round.
 
Because they’re all numbered, I took all 5 Main caps off. I had to use the torque wrench to get them off, they’re very tight. Once unscrewed, they should come off by wiggling them backwards and forwards to get them off the alignment lugs. Main cap number 5 is different to the others, it goes all the way back to the bellhousing and holds the rubber semi-circular sump seal, which I replaced with a new one, and underneath is the rear crank lip seal. This main cap was very stiff and needed repeated tapping with a rubber mallet to free it up.
The next thing to do is to release the tension off the bottom chain tensioner. Unscrew the hex head plug on the end of the tensioner housing and remove with the copper washer. Insert a 1/8 inch Allen key and turn clockwise. You might need to pull on the allen key at the same time to ensure the tensioner is backed off into the housing rather than the allen key get pulled in. I initially forgot to back the tension off mine, and wondered why my bearings were so difficult to remove!
Now, give the crank a little wiggle and you should notice some play, we don’t need much so don’t put a lot of weight behind it!
I started from bearing 5 and worked my way forward to number 1. Now this is the point when you use Harvey’s specially crafted tool, the lolly stick. Cut the rounded end off one of them so that we have a nice flat end. Insert the lolly stick on the other side of the bearing to the lug/notch and push/tap the bearing in. When you have about 5mm or so, it's possible to get a grip on the lug with your fingers and pull the bearing all the way round until it is sitting underneath the crank, you can then just lift it off!
This the old bearing being removed from Main 5 - hence the orange rear crank lip seal.

Next, oil the new bearing (don't use Graphogen on this one or you'll never push it round) and put it on the bottom of the crank with the plain end next to the notch and slide the bearing  round the crank until the lug sits in the notch.
This is a new bearing being slid into the centre bearing - No.3


And repeat this process for all main bearings.
I had trouble with number 1 Main. First I forgot to release the bottom chain tensioner which was preventing the crank from dropping, then it was still stiff, so Harvey suggested we turn the crank by hand (gently because it's the wrong way) to help twist out the bearing. That worked. However, after we got it out, it was obvious why it was stiff. The chain is still pulling on the crank, and pulling it towards the right hand side of the car, so Dave pushed the crank towards the left and the new bearing slipped in nice and easy just like the others.
Replace the bottom bearings in exactly the same way as the Big Ends, smother them in Graphogen and replace them on the engine block. These torque up to 65 Lb ft.
All done!
Now put it all back together.

• Don't forget to replace the Internal Oil Filter 'O' ring gasket with a new one. Any leaks here could mean that your oil pump is sucking air out of the sump instead of oil!
• Don't forget to put the tensioner back onto the lower chain. Turn the Allen key clockwise to release the tensioner. Put the hex head plug/washer back, it’s a bit fiddly and needs to be done by ‘feel’ so take your time.
• Don't forget to replace the rear sump oil seal on main No 5 bearing cap.

When you refit the sump, use  ‘Hylomar’ or similar, and do up all the bolts (26 of them) loosely - you need to refit the two bellhousing/sump bolts and torque them up to 25 Lb ft. first to ensure that the sump is pulled in nice and tight to the bellhousing/gearbox before you tighten them all up.
After 65,996 miles, my Big End Bearings were not actually in too bad a state, it looks as though my low oil pressure was a result of wear on my Main bearings. This is one of the worst, this is the old shell bearings from number 2 Main.

The bottom bearing shell has taken most of the wear and down to the copper colour underneath.
It is a relatively straight forward job. Dave and I completed the job in 6-7 hours, and that included a lunch break and lots of prodding 'umm'ing and 'aah'ing and of course lots of Rover talk. We did the job very slowly, very methodically, very carefully, and we’ve done it right. The only areas that held us up were:

• Main bearing cap 5 being tight, but progressive tapping with a rubber mallet freed it.
• Main bearing number 1 being tightly held by the crank. But by releasing the tension off the lower chain, and having someone push the crank to the left will enable the old bearing shell to be pushed over the top of the crank, and the new one inserted.

I now have a healthy oil pressure of 50-60 PSI, hot or cold, driving or idling. So a job well done!

Tow Bar or not Tow Bar

Well, us classic car nuts, sometimes we do things just for the sake of it. This time, I spotted a P6 tow bar on eBay. Hmmm, I haven't got one of those .......... I have now! Not that I've ever towed anything, or got anything to tow, or intend to tow anything. That's not the point, it's on optional extra and I've got it!

Here's the photo of the towbar on eBay:

Well, it looks like a rusty bit of rubbish here, but its actually very solid.

The main bar on the left hand side runs between the two bumper irons.

The small bar attached to it bolts onto the rear jacking pad under the car (picture below)

The bar on the right attaches to the other side of the rear jacking point and extends under the boot floor. This bar helps to prevent the twisting action that pulling on the tow bar tries to do.

I gave it a damn good clean up with a wire brush in my drill and some of it was covered in age old underseal - it was absolutely perfect underneath. Anyway, I gave a good coating of Hamerite Smooth and fitted it, looks good .......... or nearly!

Scrubbed up well didn't it! You can see just underneath the push button for the boot where the tow bar bolts onto the rear jacking point. Of course I've taken the rear bumper and valance off to trial fit, because they're in the way to drill the jacking point, and I'm taking the opportunity to respray the valance at the same time.

Now, why did I say it "nearly" looks good? Look at each side of the towbar iron, it looks like this:

The tow bar, even though it was removed from a Rover P6 (I've emailed the seller to ask how it was attached when they removed it - but not holding my breath!) is too short by about 3/8 inch each side. At the moment, I'm using flanged nuts (oversized, nuts are M10, bolt is M8) to act as spacers that I can tighten the two up good and tight. Still not sure how it will fit once the bumper is back on, but that'll have to wait until the weekend when I've finished painting the rear valance.

I've checked measurements with my P6 friends, and it's definately the towbar that is short, my bumper irons are in the correct place!

As I'll probably never tow anything - or if I did it would be no more than something the size of a camping trailer, I'm not too worried. What I'll probably do, when I eventually get round to buying a welder (in how many years time?) will be to weld on a thick extension plate that will make it the right size overall and get rid of the spacers.

So, now were just waiting for the valance to be painted..........

Well, I heard back from the seller and they don't understand it either, never mind, it'll be fine.

I finally got the valance painted, I bought some aerosols from Sayers of Northampton that were colour matched to my car, good matching job they made of it too! The chrome flipper arrived and so too has the 1½" spacer so she's all back together.

Super job, really pleased the way she's turned out and I do think the chrome flipper looks great. You've also got to admit, the colour match of the valance is outstanding.