I bought this car way back in March 2012, the restoration started the very same month, lots of hard work has gone in this project in the last 3 years.
I hope everyone enjoys the story of this restoration.
A Brief introduction of the car.
(Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_P3 )
The Rover P3 series were produced by the The Rover Company Limited in 1948 and 1949 known as the Rover 60 and Rover 75. The Rover 75 had a six-cylinder engine of 2103 cc. Two body styles were available, a six light saloon and four light sports saloon.
The cars were expensive at £1080 for the Rover 60 and £1106 for the Rover 75, and with early post-war production problems and material shortages it was never intended that the cars would be produced in large numbers. Eventually, 1274 of 60 and 7837 75 models were made before the car was replaced by the all-new Rover 75 (P4) at the end of September 1949.
Now about my car :
Just after finishing the restoration of my Morris minor, I heard about this Rover which was for sale in Kanpur, the car had been under restoration by the previous owner and was totally messed up, they had started upon a full scale grounds up restoration, and lost track mid way, the entire car was opened up and many parts were lost or stolen in the process.
Here are the first few pictures I received from the seller.
This thread is inspired by the great restoration stories of KPS and Karl.
KPS, Kasli, Fintail,
Thanks for your words of encouragement.
After receiving the pictures, the next thing I did was to start looking at pictures of complete cars on the internet and also on our forum, the Rover P3 looked great and I got very interested in the project.
Meanwhile I received the list of missing parts, which is as follows:
1. Inlet manifold.
2. Half of door handles.
3. Dash board and the entire instrument panel.
4. Windscreen frame.
5. Seat frames.
6. Radiator.
Well, any one in right senses would have not taken up this project but I was naive and I frankly got carried away and by just looking at the pictures made the deal. The car was to be delivered in march 2012, and I started working on procuring the missing parts.
Next thing I did was to join the Rover sports Register, I began asking questions there on their great forum and also bought the workshop manual and the parts list from the club.
Further, Chris C from RSR was very kind in gifting me an original instruction manual.
I now had the car/chassis no. which is 841xxxx and 841 indicates it is a 1948 75 6 light saloon. Further I contacted the British Motor industry heritage trust (BMIHT) and I recieved the following information from them.
"The records for details of your car Chassis No. 841-xxxx,are as follows, but are as are the details of all Rovers of this period are rather spartan:-
Rover P3 75 Six-light Saloon, dated 20th October .
Specification, RHD CKD. (Exported as a kit of parts for final assembly Overseas).
Despatched, 21st October 1948 to Dewars Garage and Engineering Co. Calcutta India.
Colour, No.10 Grey.
We are afraid that that is all the information that was recorded in the UK about this vehicle at the time, but one wonders if there are any surviving records in India. "
Meanwhile, I also got in touch with Mike Couldry at Meteor Spares in UK, and started procuring parts even before the car reached me.
Finally I got the delivery of the car and we unloaded at a friends farm, who also has a great collection of cars and owns a workshop here in Jaipur.
Here are the pictures the first time I saw her in person, notice the bits and pieces and what a total mess it was. I will let the pictures do the talking.
I had bitten the bullet and had a choice to abandon the project and mark it as a total loss or to get on with the challenge, I went in for the latter and though it has been a tough as well as enjoyable project, personally I would not suggest anyone to embark on such a project with so many missing parts, but I think one learns with experience.
more later....