78 replies to this topic

[Jacinto]

Hello!

My name is André, I am from Portugal, and I have a different kind of 3rd gen Civic Saloon... A Rover 213SE!

It was bought back at 14th April 1987, by my grandfather, on a rare colour: Silk Green.

It was supposed to have electric sunroof, but there was a mistake, and so, no sunroof.

Still, it is not badly equipped - 4x electric windows, electric & heated mirrors, rear armrest, and so on.

It is a mk2 Rover 213, so, you might notice some differences from the Civic and 213 mk1, such as the clock and radio position (and centre console), and the way the boot opens.

Enough chat, some photos:

The first photo of the Viking: (from late April 1987)





I have lots of older photos of it, but lets get to the newer ones.

My grandfather always kept it at the garage, as he loved the car. But in 2002, since with his age the 213 was not the best car for him (mainly because of the heavy non-assisted steering), he had to buy a new car, and he gave the Rover to my mom.

So she used it ans abused it, without any care at all. And after that, it was used by my older brother sometimes (when he got his driver license) and my middle brother, daily (also, right after passing the final driving exam). So, as you might excpect, some dents and scratches and rust started to appear.

Back in 2009, this was it:



I actually liked the car, but an year later or so, as I was turning 16, I started to search for a car to myself. I was looking for another Rover, a newer one, probably a 414GSi (almost a Concerto, but with a 1.4 Rover K-series engine and 103hp instead of 90 from the Honda 1.4), or Rover 45.

All I wanted was a british-style saloon (with wood and chrome), with a reasoable boot, 4 doors, which was someway exclusive, comfortable, but which would be fun to drive, on the other hand. It had to be reasonably quick and it had to have a petrol engine.

But soon I realized the 213 had all of these things (except for the quickness and handling). Still, I was watching it getting worse every day that went by, so, I decided do ask my parents to have it.

The first thing I did was to switch the original wheels (165/80 13) to our ex-Concerto (we had a 1.4GL, which suffered an accident) ones (175/65 14). Just that made a difference on the 213's handling. But I wasn't still satisfied.



Another thing which was bothering me, specially knowing the other cars I had at home had bigger engines (apart from the Autsin Minis, Honda Civic Aerodeck, and Datsun 1200 pick-up), was the fact that the EV2 was really, really slow. Soft, silent... But slow.

And also, it was giving me some hard time, related to overheating problems.



So... EV2 out.



And D14A1 from the Concerto in.




I know, I could go for a bigger engine, such as the D16A8/9, but I already had the 1.4 at home, and I didn't wan this 213 to be quick as hell. I want it to be soft and comfortable as it already was, but a little quicker.

And I rather like the 1.4 in here than in the Concerto. It is quieter (the Concerto had no soundproofing whatsoever, the 213 has... Actually, more than the Civic Aerodeck, which is 11 years younger!), and quicker (thanks to the weight diffence), at last, until the 150-160 kph.

After this, the 213 started to get some age problems fixed, and some modifications, in order to be exactly what I wanted it to be: It has to look differently from a stock 213, with some exterior details from the Rover 216 Vitesse.



But, in the interior, it will be as "top range" as possible, Like a 213 Vanden Plas:

[Jacinto]

The roof was in a pretty bad shape.



So, I fixed it.



You Civics also have this part made from cardboard? Normally, on newer Hondas and Rovers, they are made from glassfibre!

Some members of the MG-Rover club Portugal wanted to see the progress on the project, and we took advantage od it to take some photos:



(MG ZS, Rover 400 and my 213)

This is what happens when an engine isn't used for two years straight:







My 18th anniversary cake:

[Jacinto]

And, a week after that... I got my driver's license!



A month later, I left home to go to college.



And there, I already had some friends, which I met from the MG-Rover club. So, we got the three generations of Rover 200s together (they borrowed me some wheels, from a Rover 214SEi):






The wheels were perfect for the car. I loved them:



But, as they were 15", and here in Portugal the government loves to make us pay to have these kind of upgrades on the documents, I thought I would never have them on my car. I was wrong.

As my side repeaters flew away, I bought new ones, but not orange. Transparent! They look better.



Back to the Concerto steel wheels, I got some wheel covers from my dad's Austin Montego.



Shortly after, in early December, in a rainy day, helped by the terrible tyres (EuroTyre Evolution), bad road pavement (on a roundabout), and a minor lack of attention, resulted on this:



No problem. A new headlamp, flasher and bumper mounts (the original ones were already broken before de accident, as I found out), and he was looking good again:



And then I waxed it, and he looked even better!

[Jacinto]

And a Christmas present:



But it seemed I wasn't satisfied with the 15" wheels. So, 16" Hairpin wheels, from a MG ZS.



Just a minor problem... It looked like a jeep. That was when I really started to think about taking some centimeters off the suspension (3,5-4cm at the rear, maybe).

With the new 15" Regal wheels fitted, and new Bridgestone Potenza 195/50 15 tyres fitted.









With these wheels/tyres, the car handles much better than with the stock ones. Now, I just want to have the suspension sorted.

[eec4tuner]

Nice car!,
Now just get some torsion bars from upgrademotoring. Since you're in Europe, so getting some good twin-tube shocks and struts EG:Koni, Bilsteins, shouldnt be a problem.

Edited by eec4tuner, 22 July 2012 - 05:06 PM.

[Jacinto]

Nice car!,
Now just get some torsion bars from upgrademotoring and you're in Europe so getting some good twin-tube shocks and struts EG:Koni, Bilsteins, shouldnt be a problem.

Thank you!

Actually, it is. I can't find anything! The best shocks I can get are from Boge.

The torsion bars were also a problem. Thanks for that!

And rear springs, which ones do you advise? Where can I get them?

I also am having some trouble getting all kinds of bushes and struts to do a total refurbishment to the suspension (my 213 has almost 220 000km... It really needs it!)

Moving on. At some point, I felt that the Rover wasn't braking as it should. Soon I found out why.





And this is another future upgrade: I want to have the Civic's and 216 Vitesse's Vented discs and callipers on my car.

Is there another conversion I could easily do? I tried the ones from the Concerto (262mm, Vented), but the calliper offset wasn't right.



(Our ex-Concerto is on the background)

New mats:






And boot soundproofing:

[Jacinto]

Shortly after that, I saw this on the expansion vase:



I was already alarmed, as sometimes it (cold) started with 3 cylindres.

Soon the diagnostic was confirmed: it had an head gasket failure.

So, I switched to the younger sister:



And the 213 went to my dad's workshop.




Things looked pretty bad...

There was corrosion on the head.






And the gasket. Well, most of it.







The coolant:

[Jacinto]

You might be familiar with this... I "stole" it from a 3rd gen Civic in the scrapyard. That Civic had A/C, electric windows and this.



With the head off, I wanted to do some soundproof on the firewall...







And shortly after, he was back on!



I also soundproofed the bonnet:



I switched the electric mirrors' switch for the ones available on the last gen Rover 200s, as these, altough they look similar, are much better made. Not only visually (the 213's units are always worn out), but they don't make the "plastic" rattling noises that the older ones do.





To be continued.

[eec4tuner]

Here's where you can source the springs, suspension bushing kit and torsion bars:

http://www.ground-co...hp/II=517/CA=71

http://www.upgrademo...ng Torsion Bars

http://www.energysus...p?prod=16.18101

Hope that helps.

[CRXer87hf]

This car was actually famous for a time. In England too. It was the daily driver for the British TV power couple of the 90's, Richard and Hyacinth Bucket. Check out Keeping Up Appearances and you see the car in almost every episode. The show is actually a scream. I never realized that rover had done anything with honda.

[Jacinto]

This car was actually famous for a time. In England too. It was the daily driver for the British TV power couple of the 90's, Richard and Hyacinth Bucket. Check out Keeping Up Appearances and you see the car in almost every episode. The show is actually a scream. I never realized that rover had done anything with honda.

Yes, recently I watched the entire series!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRNhOJkrR2M


Well, the partnership started with the Triumph Acclaim... Which wasn't different in any way from the Honda Ballade. And, unfortunately, this model was not properly used by Austin-Rover, once they only produced the saloon version.





Then, the 213mk1. It was a little different, mainly the headlights and tail lights.

[Jacinto]

And then, the 200/400 XW series (based on the Concerto)

200 5 door:



200 3 door:



414GSi:



414 SLi (restyled version)



Tomcat Coupé:





And Cabriolet:



They had the 1.4 K-series engine (96 or 103bhp), 1.6 D16A8/9 engine (122 or 130bhp), and later the 1.6 K-series (115bhp), 2.0 T-series and T-series Turbo (around 200bhp). And a 1.8 Peugeot Diesel engine.

[Jacinto]

Finally, the 400 RT series. Based on this Civic:



There were Saloon and hatchback versions.







And then, in 2000, the facelifted Rover 45 and MG ZS appeard.





The engines available were the K-Series 1.4 (103bhp), 1.6 (109bhp), 1.8 (120bhp), 1.8VVC (160bhp), 2.0V6, 2.5 V6 (180 bhp) and 2.0 Rover L-Series Diesel (which was used on the MB Civics and some Accords). I think there was an 1.8 Honda engine in the automatic versions, but I am not sure.

And then, MG-Rover went bust...

[CRXer87hf]

Awesome! There are few who know about Keeping Up Appearances in the US. It's good to hear there are more out there that appreciate great comedy! Also, thanks for the extensive history of Rover! I didn't know a whole lot about rover, but now I do. Thanks!

[Jacinto]

You're welcome!

That's only the most recent part of it... Before that, you would only see Rovers as top-of-the range models. Oh, there was also the Rover 800 (Honda Legend), and Rover 600 (mid-90's Honda Accord). After that, there was the Rover 75, which was made with the BMW collaboration (which owned Rover at the time).

Rover always tried to keep distance and be independent from outher manufacturers, but the government always made their life hard, and also, there were some corruption in the administration, which originated Rover's sad end, after more than 100 years of history.

Nowadays, they are seen as cheap, unreliable cars. The award-winning (and even by today standards, advanced) K-Series Rover engine, had a little problem... Thanks the head gasket was not properly made, so, they are known by their Head Gasket Failures (HGF), which can already be solved with better quality ones... But nobody cares. The damage has been done...