MG Rover collectables for sale on the web
 

Hi, nothing to do with me but I guess maybe one of our members would like to be attended to the sale of these things:




https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/clas...-collectables/


https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/clas...sign-on-board/


https://angliacarauctions.co.uk/clas...alership-sign/


Cheers from Holland,


Emiel

My son was trained at a Rover dealership, he had been there about 9 years when Rover went under, and I still remember driving into the garage car park and seeing all the signs that adorned the frontage and the rear together with loads of POS stuff from the showrooms just being dumped into a skip. The mechanics had a field day as it was virtually a free for all, the T4 and all diagnostic equipment just "went missing" one Friday afternoon but no one knew who had taken it, nor did anyone really care as they had to make almost 30 people redundant, some had been there for many years. My son later found out that one of the other techs had simply loaded it all into his car and no one batted an eyelid, there was also full Renault and Hyundai Kia diagnostic equipment that he took, he later gave my son the Hyundai Hi Scan Pro which he still has today.

There were so many items trashed but back then no one really thought that someday these would become iconic and very collectable.

The spares department was just emptied too, lots of spares that couldn't be sold to other dealers were trashed or simply taken to the scrapyards and weighed in.

Thinking back, it was a crying shame to see it and a missed opportunity to save so much.

When I started on the railway in 1980 it was still the old paraffin tail lamps. When they were replaced by rechargeable electric lamps the paraffin ones were chucked. They now go for stupid money, 80 odd quid unrestored. If I'd have foreseen that I would have filled the garage with them.

Hindsight is wonderful, I used to mould the white fir tree clips that Rimmers sell for £3 each!!

Those signs are nice :}

This one is nicer...

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/s...d.php?t=309155

And still available but for more than can justify spending.

When they closed down the BMC competition department at the Canadian importer in Ontario They had men smashing Comps engine blocks and heads with sledgehammers and they were lifting straight cut Cooper S gearboxes up on a forklift and dropping them onto concrete to smash them.
I also heard stories of people who rescued truckloads of MGA Twin-Cam engines gearboxes, and brand new Dunlop wheels when they discontinued them. 20 years ago there were rumours of a shed somewhere in the eastern states that was full of BMC crated Twin-Cam bits being hoarded by a Twin-Cam owner.

When I did my YTS at Austin Rover in Canley Coventry C.1989 the design studio used to use staff company cars that were returned after 6 months as donor cars for panels etc in the design studios. All the bits like MG interiors and wheels
and stereos etc we sold on a Friday afternoon from a counter on the site. This would help the employees to get parts really cheaply and raise a few bob at the same time. Then one of the employees was on the fiddle so management decided that everything had to be destroyed!:eek:
There was a chap who used to put a stanley knife through the velour seats etc and smash the Philips stereos and slash all the tyres before throwing them into a skip.
Heartbreaking when you saw it!