I bought another one! a '59 P4 100

August 28, 2013

Well, why just have one Rover when you can have two?
I chatted more with Bill Sharp of Victoria about the 59 P4 100 he was selling. He assured me that the interior was good, which is exactly what I am looking for. So, off I went by ferry and bus to Swartz Bay where Bill picked me up and drove me to his barn in Metchosin.
It was a fun visit... he had a 54 "cyclops" model 75 I think it was, a 1948, and the grey 100 that he was selling. Sure enough, the upholstery was quite spiffy. He was willing to sell it for $3200, which is less than it would cost me to have upholstery made, so no matter what mechanical issues it had, it was worth it.

And mechanical issues it had!... as I discovered as I drove it up the Island Hwy to the Nanaimo ferry. the first thing I noticed was the steering was all seized up. It took both arms to wrench the wheel around, and on the road it would not self correct.... I had to always manhandle it to the correct alignment in the lanes. The second thing I noticed was that the brakes were almost non-existent. they would work at about 25% once pumped a bit. Needless to say, I kept my distance from vehicles ahead, and watched carefully for stale traffic lights. Oh, and by the way, no seatbelts!
And, last but not least, it didn't want to go uphill. It would chug and lose power on any kind of upslope. Thankfully it somehow decided to make it up the Malahat if I nursed the throttle carefully, but there were a couple of other hills later on where she chugged to a stop and I had to let her rest for a while.
I missed the 5:30 ferry which raised the dilemma of getting from the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal at 9 pm up the hill the hill to the Caulfield turnaround with no power and no lights. So, i cut my losses and parked it in the parkade there, walked on the last ferry to Langdale, then returned on the 6:20 am ferry next day to retrieve the car. Surprisingly, she ran OK up and around Caulfield, but getting from lower Gibsons to home later that afternoon was very difficult.
Talking to Bill Sharp, he beilieves the lack of power may be due to a slipped timing chain. I will worry about that if and when I decide to rebuild this one.
The main point is that I have solved the upholstery issue!