Well, I thought I would create a thread for the work that I have done on my 1996 Rover 414. When I moved back to Malta a year and a half ago I bought this car for 500 Euros and it was a mess to begin with.
The interior was falling apart and had stains everywhere, the trim was cracked in places from constant abuse, the exterior looked horrible with scratches everywhere, side skirts from a Ford Escort that didn’t fit right, and mismatching rims.
I then found other rims that went with the set and now they all match!
The engine was also blown. The 1.4L had the head gasket failure with seized internals as well. The only good thing was that the owner included a 1.7L Turbo diesel Isuzu engine with it. The parts to fix the 1.4 were too expensive here in Malta so we decided to swap in the Isuzu engine. It was a task but it fit nicely.
Once I washed the car and saw the extent of the disaster that I just bought, I got right to work. The first thing we did was replace the rear suspension bushes and shocks. That made the ride more bearable. That's my cousin in the first picture (without him, this would have taken a LOT longer and not been done as cleanly.)
Next, once it passed its VRT (MOT equivalent), I got to work on the interior. The first thing was to fit an actual gear shift boot and knob (yes, it didn’t even have those!)
With the boot and knob:
Next was to get started on the entertainment system. I brought this radio with me from Canada:
I didn’t like the fact that there was no armrest, so got that sorted in a jiffy,
And some seat covers as a temporary solution,
After all of that work, I started to feel more comfortable in the car and take pride in this purchase because I saw where I could take it. This is how it looked after tidying up the exterior a bit,
Now onto some mods. I blacked out the grill fin insert,
Manufactured some hydraulics for the bonnet. No more prop stand for me!
Then transferred my HID kit (another thing I brought from Canada) from my Canadian car as well,
Threw on a bee sting antenna,
One thing that really bothered me was the fact that the pedals didn’t even match!
So I quickly sorted that out,
So since parts are really a pain to get here and super expensive for these cars when you do find them, I did the next best thing, I bought another one!
This had a scrap title because the owner's son didn't want to spend the money to repair the shocks after his father passed away. Got the little 33000km gem for 200 Euro!. From it I replaced the wheel, and a bunch of the broken trim like the long dash piece,
and the side skirts,
After that, it was taking up a lot of room in the garage, so I did this to it.
Then chopped up the rest, keeping the parts that I thought I might use in the future,
All that was left of the poor thing before it went to scrap yard heaven,
Now back to my Black Beauty. Now is when I could start getting a little creative. The first thing to be modified was the amplifier switches. They were on all the time before and then I thought, I don't need the clock anymore! So I fabricated this instead to take the spot,
The thing in the middle is the microphone for the Bluetooth portion of my radio. One switch for the shelf speakers and the other for the sub underneath. This is what it looks like (the grey patch in the middle is what is covering the shelf speakers,
Added some Freelander side repeaters with LED lights,
And now came the MAJOR overhaul of the interior. I didn't like the cloth seats and all of the fabric was coming undone from the roof and the doors so I went home and thought of what I could do. After 2 night of mulling it over I came up with this design. The seats were done by a local upholsterer who had a really low price but AMAZING work! He stiffened the seats a bit on the sides for more support, and covered them in the material and added the stitching that I wanted. This is how they turned out,
He even did the centre console top and the shifter boot in the same style and material,
Then I went to work on the rest of it, The interior pillars are all covered in similar material but in the same colour gray as the lower trim all the way around,
The roof liner, is covered in the same material,
And similarly the doors. I got them stitched by another upholsterer but they were put on by myself and my cousin and also front electric windows fitted with homemade wiring looms by us as well,
That is how the car is sitting at the moment. I have a few other mods that I am currently working such as led mods and such. The major projects this year will be however, some exterior body modifications, taking off that sticker, projector housings for the headlights and a fresh coat of paint (the same colour). I will continue to update this post as I go. Hope you guys like!
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