Project Sally, restauration of a 2600

The restoration of "Sally" a 2600 Rover SD1 vanden Plas.

Lee Allen got two Rover SD1 2600 models, one of them is called "'Blu-Belle" and can be seen live on television at BBC1 on the 28 of February 2005 in a programm called "Faith". We all be watching, Lee! The second car is "Sally" and named after his wife who is keeping up so long with him. Lucky you!

In this article we follow Lee in the restoration of "Sally", his 2600 vanden Plas, not his wife!

Back in 2003, Lee was helping with the Rover SD1 Club exhibition at the Classic Car Show in Birmingham when he was approached by a guy asking all about the 2600 displayed on the stand. After several minutes of general chat he offered Lee a car for free, for restoration. After some weeks with arranging he travelled south to London with a trailer in tow, to bring the car home. Althought he had some details of the car, he was very unsure about the task he was taking on.

The handbrake of the car was left for 5 years, and as you Rover drivers know, it won't get of simply by releasing. They had to drag the car out of the garage and after they jacked up the car it was possible to release the brake. Now it was easy to winch the car onto the trailer, tie it down and drove back the 150 mile home.

Blu bell meets "Sally"...

He decided to track down the parts for his restoration first, so that year nothing happened to the car. Untill March 2004 the car was parked on the driveway, when his sister agreed to let him put the car in for storage in a dry garage and to start the restoration. (whish we all had sister with a garage...)

Here you see the damage on the rear of the car. You definitely need to have two right hands to do this job, and don't be afraid for metal!

Before Lee, started the restoration he checked the under side of the car, the floor plan to see if he needed to do structural work underneath. There was nothing wrong with this car, there was no welding needed.

The first task was to strip the car of its interior and cut out the rear light panel.This was quite easy to do, he used a 5" cutting disc and cut the panel as close to the joins where it meet the rear wings. The remainder of the metal could then be ground away. Some panel beating was needed on the nearside rear wing and also the boot floor. And once the panels were back in shape, or at least sort of, the new rear light panel was fitted into place. It was then clamped and then 'pop riveted' and then the clamps were removed. The reason I have chosen this method is to allow easier access for welding. the pop rivets will be ground away and weld filled.

My next task was to remove and re upholster the headlining and sunroof panel. Simple really, remove all the post covers, remove grab handles, remove sun-visors and interior mirror and all the clips that you can find. It is easier to do with two people, but as I was on my own, it was a case of lie on my back, with hands and feet in the air, supporting and feeding the headlining out towards the rear hatch. Next job was to removed the sunroof panel, again an easy task but you do need to mark and log where everything goes.

Until nex time.

Lee Allen.

Project Sally...

Lee Allen, Home click here...

Stripping a car click here...

Sanding click here...

Headlining repair click here...

Fitting the sunroof click here...