Ricks Custom Rover P6

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A New Start…

Here you will find details of the new base vehicle, its condition and the basic stripping ready for modifications.

New Sill Section

04/01/2007 20:51:16

Following the construction of the folder, and making up the sill strengthener,
I offered it up for the sill.
New sill section
Just held in with mole grips, as is the b/c post.
As an indication of the strength of this panel, after I had tack welded the A post end
it was very hard to move the b/c post end at all.
Once I was happy with the position the panel was seam welded along the bottom and plug welded at the top to retain the stock look.

Sill Strengthener

09/12/2006 20:51:45

Ok so with the B/C post removed a new strengthener section was required a) to add some additional structural strength to the sill, and b) to fill the gap created by moving the B/C post back. But first what I needed was a folder capable of bending roughly 3 ft of 18 guage steel. I had some steel box section, so I bought some angle iron from B&Q along with some threaded rod and some nuts.....

Once the folder was complete I made the sill strengthener section.....

Moving B/C Post

09/12/2006 19:10:15

Moving the B/C post was the scariest thing for me so far, but turned out to be quite straight forward. Basically it involves drilling out all the spot welds around the bottom of the post, cutting the top of the post near the roof, slinding the post along the sill to the desired position, and plug welding the drilled spot welds.

As you can see from the third picture, the outer sill mounting panel doesn't continue through the B/C post but stops and then restarts. That was fine for me as I am replacing the front door section with the sill strengthener.

Conversion to 2 Door

06/12/2006 23:26:07

The plan is to create a 2 door coupe/convertible. To allow better access to the rear seats I need to extend the front doors. This involves moving the B/C post as well as creating longer doors and longer rear wings. For details of the door and wing modifications see the Doors/Wings section.

So firstly I needed to decide how much longer the doors needed to be, and hence how far I need to move the B/C post back. I spent a little time measuring the doors of a number of modern 2 door cars, Clio's, Rover 200 & 800 coupes, Alfa Spider, BMW M3 etc. I came to the conclusion that I needed to extend the doors by 10 inches so obviously need to move the B/C post back 10 inches.

Rover built a prototype convertible, and decided that the structure of the P6 was strong enough so as not to require additional support after the roof was removed. On my previous convertible I added considerable extra structure to the sills mainly because they were already rotten and also because I wasn't aware at the time of Rover's original version. On this new project I decided to add a small amount of additional structure to the sill area by replacing the thin section that normally supports the outer sill cover, with a new 18 gauge section that fully encloses the area effectively giving a third sill layer.

The new car arrives...	06/12/2006 21:36:17
OK so here it is, the new project. It's a 1972 shell, apparently only having done 27k miles. Certainly looks good from first inspection. Stripping work has already started and the signs are very good, having removed front and rear wings and sills the only rot I can find is a 10p size hole in the rear splash panel where the mudguard is attached.