My new purchase - poorly Rover 75

[Rick-sta]

Hi all,

A couple weekends ago I purchased this Rover 75 from a scrap yard, it was listed as breaking for spares on ebay but decided to buy the car whole.

I'd intended to break the car myself, to use some of the parts on my other two (the ZT and 75), but now I'm not too sure and am considering repairing it and getting it back on the road.

Little bit of background about the car, it belonged to a chap who unfortunately passed away in 2011, and his wife refused to sell the car due to sentimental value. But unfortunately, instead of looking after it, she just left it stood still for 5 years and I'm guessing it must have been left on grass or near bushes/hedges or trees.

I gave it a good jet wash on the weekend and was amazed to find that it came up very nice, and the bodywork is in great condition. Not a single dent or deep scratches on the sides. There are some scratches on the bonnet and bootlid but will have to see if they come out.

However there are quite a few issues:
- the brakes don't work at all, really have to stamp hard on the brakes and the pedal goes very low down. When the scrappy went to collect the car they said one rear calliper had seized. Not too sure how to sort this, would new brake disks and pads all round fix this or would callipers and other bits need replacing?

- The interior is flooded due to the sunroof drains leaking water inside the car, the waters probably been there for much of the 5 years its been there. Will need to take the carpet out to see how bad it is underneath.

- The boot spare wheel well was completely flooded, which contained the sat nav drives. Hence the sat nav/head unit doesn't work at all.

- The wipers like to come on by themselves now and again, I think this is a common issue due to the flooded satnav drives from memory?

- The aircon doesn't work, says "err".

- The indicator stalk doesn't work at all, no indicators etc.

- windscreen and headlamp washer jets do not work at all.

- the rear seat needs replacing completely.

- Drivers side headlight is all fogged up and dirty on the inside, im guessing the cap on the back of the headlight must be missing allowing dirt to get in. Is the headlamp easy to dismantle to clean and then put back together and seal properly?

- Sunroof does not work, not sure if this is due to a failed motor or because of the electrical issues.

- the mileage on the dash is showing 999999.

- Haven't checked fuses, not sure if a lot would have blown due to the water getting in over the years.

- There was no history with the car, so no idea when it was last serviced or if the belts had been done. Is there a way to check if the belts have been done i.e. are belts dated and is it possible to check the dates?

Other than the above, amazingly it starts first time everytime and sounds lovely. Drives smooth too. And I couldn't believe that even with all the leaves all over the car, the plenums were completely dry! It's got some nice toys too, headlamp washers, cruise control, rear power blind, electric heated memory seats, auto rain sensor wipers, auto dimming mirror. Has a walnut steering wheel too.

Can't quite decide whether to just break it, or to try and fix it and sell it on. I need to have a look under the car yet to see what the underside is like, but from what I could see it seems pretty clean. It could turn out to be a lot of work to get it through an MOT, which wouldn't be worth the cost involved.

Here are some photo's of it from the weekend:




























After a jet wash, came up lovely: