Rover Maestro 1.3 LX (H48HPE)

[H48HPE]

I've had this Maestro since 23rd December 2001 - it was my first car and it had about 77k on the clock, back then it cost £400 and had a couple of months test on it - it was MOT'd within a week and it went through with only a carb adjustment required to bring the CO level down.

pictures of it when I got it are on film, but this is one from 2004 when i got my first digital camera...



I kept it fairly standard keepinbg the original stereo in and just adding an econometer and the rev counter instrument cluster...

I used it daily from buying it until spring 2004 when i got a company car. I kept the Maestro road legal betwen that time and August 2008. at this point the MOT ran out and the sill was badly rusted so I deceded not to waste my time testing it as I kew it needed a lot of work.

It stopped on my parents drive until january 2011 when i took it back to my house and attempted my first restoration project; which I'll post about later.

[H48HPE]

Moving on then - 3 years later in January 2011 I got the car to my garage to review the damage, this was photographed initally in February 2011 and the damage isn't pretty as can be seen in the following photos (I wish I'd done a proper setr of photos detailing every bit i did but i didn't so this is just a bit of what i got up to):

the nearside sill wasn't bad.... the floor to sill joint wasn't bad either - well nothing a wire brush and a good application of Jenolite wouldn't sort.



the o/s sill was a different story - the front section was bad enough, it might have wire brushed up a bit but there was going to be some work to do:



but a bit of poking about at the back of the o/s sill revealed this & no quantity of wire brushing & Jenolite was going to deal with this...



and now for a confession - this is what happens when you fill a small hole in the back of your sill with filler 6 years before (big lesson learnt here then!):



some good news though - the back panel was in good nick

the fuel filler pocket didn't look good though and was going to present a challenge to sort out properly:



so I started with the rear quarter. I got a spot weld drill and drilled out all the spot welds, I cut a few areas with the grinder too. Normally you wouldn't change the full panel if the majority of it was ok, but in this case the top seam joining the roof was blown as well so I decided to renew the lot.

this picture shows the rear quarter with the spot welds drilled out:



and this one shows what was underneath - not good! note the trusty Jenolite in the bottom of the shot. all this damage was welded up before the new quartr went on...



This is the back of the wing showing how the rust spreads on the inside, what doesn't look bad on the outside is often a real nightmare inside!



I got the new rear quarter years ago off ebay for something like £100 - which I thought was good at the time, it probably was as I definitely needed it here, and i dont think you can buy them now? the filler at the sill to quarter panel joint was removed later - at this stage I still had ideas about patching the old sill but that idea didn't last - the filler was covering a seam weld. the fuel filler pocket was from ebay - a lucky find.



Unfortunately i stopped taking photos as aften after this, the last photo I have is of the new sill (from rimmers) being fitted. the old sill was totally removed as was the joint to the floor section, the new sill was all plug welded in. I seam welded the rear panel to the sill and had to make up a repair to the joint at the front of the sill.

this picture is of the new sill half way through fittinmg, it still needed welding at the bottom...



I'll get some photos of the finished job


The welding was finished in December 2011 and I then fitted a new rear wheel bearing, steering column bushes and handbrake cables for the MOT which it went on to pass in January at the first attempt. its now road legal and wearing a coat of 'rattle can' derived paint! the sills are painted in stonechip shield...

What remains now is to get some paint bought and have a go at spraying!!

One big tip with the welding is not to let the grinding sparks fly over your glass as it sticks to it and wont come off!! also I'm a big believer in not stripping everything out of the car unless its absolutely neccesary - in most cases I got away with it, but I did burn a seat belt - stupid - but thanks go to Richard Gelder for supplying a replacement!!


I'd never touched a welder before attempting this so i was quite pleased with the result. I've learnt a lot and advise anyone with the proper facilities to have a go themselves. www.mig-welding.co.uk was a great help in learning.

unfortunately I find maestro steel isn't very easy to learn to weld on - when i weld my Avenger its so much easier as the steel is much thicker!

[H48HPE]

following from the MOT - This month I've been trying to recommission the car for reliable use.

The work I wanted to do included:

New Thermostat,
New Radiator,
New Waterpump
New Fan Belt
New Valve Stem Oil Seals

Unfortunately that didn't really go to plan.

Changing the radiator was easy - the old one wasn't leaking, but it looked like it was on it's last legs 10 years ago - and I've got two spares; so I thought it might as well get changed.

The waterpump replacement was simple - if a little but difficlt to get to. so was the fan belt.

The Thermostat was a nightmare, I sheared off two of the 3 bolts that hold the enclosure together; and ended up having to cut the thermostat housing up to remove it. Rimmer brothers came to the rescue with all the replacement parts i needed - delivered for about 30 quid if I remember rightly.

I thought whilst the water was drained I might as well do the valve stem oil seals - I'd been suffering with clouds of blue smoke on start up for years. the job went entirely to plan, and was nearing completion when i cracked my inlet manifold. Chris Y has sent me a replacement that once fitted saw me back on the road. a 100 mile test drive yesterday confirmed it was in good order and running better than ever after I'd done the valve seats.

be careful with alloy castings - mine hadn't seated right and tigtening up caused this:



and this was the scene for about 2 weeks whilst I waited for an inlet manifold... The new thermostat housing wont get stuck again! i plan to losen the bolts off yearly to guard against that...



Andy

[H48HPE]

putting right Graham Day's wrongs - I've slapped an Austin badge on the back of my car. I've resisted this for the last 10 years - because I'd always thought of it as a 'Rover Maestro' - but without branding i think it lacks some identity, and I don't like them with Rover badges on (it was never designed as a rover) so an old Austin badge it was. Raiding my childhood car badge colection in my parents loft I came up with one with the Austin Morris logo attached - Excellent!!



should have done it years ago.... If this was a show winning car i'd not have done it, but it's never going to be a show winner - I don't really want it to be; i just want a nice 'practical classic out of it..

Andy

[G51 NAV]

Well you probably know you have my full backing, but I'd say it needs the later-style badge

[H48HPE]

looking at it you might be right John, i kind of like the logo at the end, but without it; it probably looks a bit smarter, and slightly newer - in other words - perhaps the logo makes it look too old for the car wheras i could have fooled more people with just a plain Austin badge...

I've got ideas about having a go at a re-spray on this though - so nothings forever; although at the moment that badge is stuck on with the super sticky trim tape you advised me on in another thread... if i try to take the badge off now it'll take the rattle can paint off with it...

[G51 NAV]

lol! Has the trim-tape held up? Nothing dropped off?

[Austin-Rover]

...but I'd say it needs the later-style badge

It looks to me to be an Austin badge from a Metro, just after they dropped the 'miniMetro' name for just 'Metro'. Like the Maestro, they upped the font size considerably, but for some reason the big version of the Austin badge on the Metro very briefly came with an attached Austin Morris logo, where the Maestro/Montego version did not.

[H48HPE]

John: the trim tape has worked a treat - the door rubbing strip is still on, and I used it on the new rear plate - which is still rock solid. I must admit when I first got the tape I thought 'it'll never work!" - but it did...

Rich - you're probably right about it coming from a Metro, I seem to have a few metro badges, but no spare Maestro ones...

[G51 NAV]

I must admit when I first got the tape I thought 'it'll never work!" - but it did...

Ye of little faith If it can survive the 300 days-a-year of rain and wind we get round here, it'll survive anything you inlanders can throw at it

[H48HPE]

pleased to report another years MOT was issued today... No advisory notes. it's holding up well thanks in part to the waxoyle underseal I put on when I fixed it up last year, what underseal i put in the wheel arches and underneath hasn't shrunk or split, it seems good stuff. The main thing is not to slap it on heavy rust and expect it to be ok - you have to clean it up / cut the rot out and weld and put the underseal on it on when its bone dry so you dont trap damp in the seams etc...

[BIGDAVE]

re maestro

well done it was nice to read your story.and the waxoil underseal i always use it. but not on rust as rust will always get worse if untreated.