Rover 417 TD...not the typical Rover :D

[Stephen]

Pictures aren't loading for me

[p_b82]

Great work again, and it looks stunning now that you have got it out the paint shop, you must be very pleased with it

[andys1981]

excellent work,and great attention to detail,your doing very well with this project buddy.

[Malteser]

A teaser of my next update and also a How-To ...

[Supercharged_Z]

Wow I have no idea how I missed this thread over the years. Prob one of my fav threads on here. The work you put into that is mental and the job is very good

[Malteser]

Wow, so I feel like a complete dork after just seeing how long it has been since I last updated this post! A Year ago yesterday!!!

So, here we go for a lengthy update on things as they have gone and what to look forward to!

Since I moved the battery to the trunk of the car, I had to find a way to safely split and get power at the front if needed. So in my own fashion, I looked to another manufacturer for parts! I got this distribution box from an EVO as this is a great little bit of kit that they have.



Now considering I had all of this space here now to play with, I decided to reroute my air filter to get cold air from the wheel well and attached it to an enclosed filter.









Will get a picture of the enclosed filter soon to put here 

Then I also installed the retrofitted headlights and tested them, cleaned a coolant expansion tank and then took it for a midnight wash and photoshoot.





With angel eyes only



Cutoff with low beams



With projector brights and HIDS in the orginal brights sockets



The new face





The cleaned expansion tank. Used ball bearings and turned on the song, “Shake, shake, shake, shake your booty, shake your boooooty”!



And the evening wash and photoshoot







Smoothed bonnet and roof













Went on a trip to Gozo with Claire, my now fiancée in the car

[Malteser]

And some Gozo Scenery







And some shots that really show the smoothed roof (no aerial, washer, or runners)



And you can somewhat see my custom led taillights





Then a little mishap. During the winter here, there is rain and water everywhere! It puts a British rain to shame. Because of this, there are potholes everywhere which you can’t see because they are filled with water. This is one such pothole.



And this is the result of that pothole.



And the result of the rain it does here since it picks up sand and grit from the African desserts and crap like that





Then another mishap… Was behind a car going to Valletta and an idiot in a Honda Accord comes screaming out of a side street. The car in front brakes, I do as well but it wasn’t in time. Everyone was ok and the guy in front was very cool about it. Minimal damage, but still disheartening.











Also bent in the front slam bar as well



Then I needed a change. The transplanted engine also got its gearbox in as well. The gearbox was a very robust one and I could hillstart in 3rd but it was a very low range box and with welded shafts, I never felt 100% safe.

Solution? Find another Rover ready for the scrap yard and break it for parts. Here I found a Rover 420 SDi with the PG1 gearbox. Took all the necessary components from it and took it to the garage in August to start work on mating it to the Isuzu engine. This is the donor car.







Battlescars…healed by garage first aid kit…torn cloth shirt and masking tape



And at the garage



The red one ready for scrap









Finally got around to cleaning up the rear anti roll bar, which I will eventually put into the car as well. This was fully polybushed as well to get the maximum effect from it.



Then, as usual, I came up with 2 other projects. (I never learn do I?)



Can you tell what this is? 5 Points to the person who can guess it

[Malteser]

And project 2…









For this tablet install, I am going to remove the headunit completely and run everything from the tablet. From the tablet, I run to a USB DAC which will then run to the amps to power the speakers. It has GPS, USB ports will be put in, and also a WiFi Hotspot as well.

And if something happens, I might have a spare part or two.













And the car as it was last week. Still at the mechanics, but I should be able to go pick it up tomorrow and then take it to get the exhaust tidied up because it had to be cut and moved for the shifter. All I can say is that it will be a very loud trip from the mecahnics to the exhaust guy tomorrow!









Hope you guys enjoyed this lengthy update. If you have any questions or comments, I very much so welcome them! And if you have any other ideas that you think might suit this project, let me know (I just won’t tell my better half )

Hopefully, it won’t be long till I update you all again!

[talkingcars]

What a busy year.

I used BMW M3 parts for my battery to boot on my mk1 but had to extend the cable so when I did the mk2 I did it from scratch.

I used the same gap in the chassis rail for my induction but I have the filter in the engine bay drawing air through the triangle.

[Malteser]

I have the filter in the engine bay as well but didn't have a picture on hand. I might change the setup though now as with the new gearbox, I have a little more front room in the bay so might change the positioning of the intercooler and air filter...We'll just have to see about that...lol