12th of January 2016
Accidentally did more work than I intended to on the Rover today because I had some help with sorting out the front and the rear of the car. As a result, I'm much happier with how things are now.
I really wanted to get a look at the front headlights, the passenger side one has always been badly aligned since I got the car and I wanted to know why. Usefully, I had the better condition headlights from my brother's old 216SLi which I also knew had better headlights than the ones my car had. So, off with the headlights which is a fairly involved but straightforward job of undoing the top bolts, the screws holding the indicator and under-headlight trim and the one really difficult lower nut holding the bottom of the headlight in place. First thing I noticed is a broken clip.
Nothing looked to be bent or damaged in any way. I was expecting some minor damage to explain why the headlight sat so badly but all was good. There are signs the under headlight trim has been repainted and was originally white and there's some evidence of a good respray on the driver's side front wing, I suspect the wing is a good replacement to get rid of a crusty original rather than accident repair. After a bit of wiggling about I got the replacement headlight to sit almost as well as the driver's side (which I also replaced since I had the better units to put in). I did have to bend the lower bolt bracket up slightly so I wonder if there has been a minor parking incident on this corner like on the opposing rear corner.
Alignment was still a little off and after inspecting the leading edge of the bonnet it turned out that was ever so slightly bent outwards on the passenger side. Gentle persuasion with a soft cloth and a rubber mallet had it sitting as well as it ever does on these cars.
The driver's side was much easier to swap the headlight on apart from the lower bolt which was nigh on impossible to access no matter how I tried. Mike ended up doing that one for me because he has small sensible hands. Both sides now look much the same, so I'm happier. The headlights are brighter and the alignment better, I could see far better on the very wet drive home.
Front all sorted I turned my attention to the back of the car. The side vents are the likely culprit for letting water into the car and to sort those the back bumper needs to come off. That's actually a good thing because the lower bolts for the bumper had sheared before I got it so it gave me chance to make a rudimentary repair to one of the brackets and weld new bolts on to the bottom of both to replace the sheared items. It's not pretty but you never see it so it doesn't matter. Liberal coating of rust treater and stone chip paint to keep things as good as I can.
Dropped the ball a bit here because I didn't take a picture of my now sag-free rear bumper. It was a devil of a thing to get seated back on the car because of the side pegs but we did it and it looks better than ever.
Before the bumper went back on I removed the rusty bubbles on this corner including the rear arch warts, gave it some rust treatment and a quick coat of red and lacquer. I'll redo the arch properly when I've got better conditions to do so but for now it's good. Everything cleaned up very nicely back here. The other side didn't need anything.
Mike was meanwhile turning his attention to those vents. The old gaskets had started to perish and judging by the water trapped between them and the bodywork they were likely the cause of the leak. After removing the old rivets, Mike cleaned up the vents and surfaces and replaced the vents with a suitable sealant and new stainless steel washers, nuts and bolts. A more than acceptable finish to the job I thought, particularly for something that isn't ever seen.
I'm leaving the boot trims out both to dry and to make sure this is the cause of the water ingress. Time will tell.
Another little job I wanted to do was fit the small rear door Vikings to my centre caps so they look like proper Rover alloys. I've only got two at the moment so put them both on the same side of the car. I have another two heading my way but no eta. I quite like these, finish the wheels off nicely.
Finally, a job that is incredibly small but which has been bugging me since I got the car; radio end caps. Those little bits of plastic trim being missing has been a visual irritation since I got the car, always seen just out of the corner of my eye. It is an eyesore no more.
![Image](http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab16/volksangyl/Rover%20414%20SLi/2016/20160112-12.jpg)