86-years-old, and maybe still Roving ?

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white exec
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Joined: 21 Dec 2015, 12:46
Location: Sayalonga, Malaga, Spain
My Cars: 1996 XM 2.5TD Exclusive hatch RHD
1992 BX19D Millesime hatch LHD
previously 1989 BX19RD, 1998 ZX 1.9D auto, 2001 Xantia 1.8i auto
and lots of Rovers before that: 1935 Ten, 1947 Sixteen, 1960 P5 3-litre, 1966 P6 2000, 1972 P6 2000TC, and 1975 P6B 3500S
x 1752

86-years-old, and maybe still Roving ?

Post by white exec »

Did a browse on the DVLA site yesterday, and was amazed to find my very first car still on the system, and listed as "Tax expired 18 September 2017".

Now that's quite an achievement for a car that first hit the road in March 1935 . . .
DSCF3842.JPG
Here it was, outside where I grew up in West Ealing, in about 1965.

My Dad had been given it by a neighbour, and then proceeded to learn to drive, aged about 45. Passed his test on fourth attempt, iirc. After a few years, I learned to drive on it too, taught solely by Dad - and passed first time!

Just before I went up to college in '67, the same neighbour presented Dad with a 1947 6-cyl Sports Sixteen, and so the Ten passed to me, and became my student drive at Padgate.

After a couple of more years, a P5 3-litre beckoned, and the Ten went back to Ealing to be sold, which it was - to an old school friend - for £50. After that, no more was heard if it...

So, I'm amazed and delighted that it was obviously still in the land of the living (presumabaly SORN) in late 2017.
Golly gosh.
_________________

Some other "Ten" pix from the web...
This one with original mechanically dipping headlights
This one with original mechanically dipping headlights
1389cc 'four', with S.U. and lots of Lucas<br />Top speed 69mph
1389cc 'four', with S.U. and lots of Lucas
Top speed 69mph
My first Rover, a 1935 '10'.jpg
Classic Jaeger dash, Freewheel, and opening windscreen
Classic Jaeger dash, Freewheel, and opening windscreen
Chris
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NewcastleFalcon
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Re: 86-years-old, and maybe still Roving ?

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Thought if it was still a viable vehicle it might have appeared at shows, but have drawn a blank. Needle in a haystack search but the vast quantity of photos somewhere like flickr may have been tagged with the reg no/1935 Rover 10/Rover Ten etc but like I say blank.

September 2017 last V5 issued so may have changed hands then, or had some details changed, and a good sign that it still exists as a whole vehicle somewhere.

If there is a V5, DVLA will hold registered keeper info, but only specific reasons for releasing that info would be valid.

Best I can do is an original brochure for the 1935 Rover 10, for which the seller wants £79.99. Still they have provided a few pages in the listing which may be of interest

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROVER-CAR-RA ... 4219388045


Regards Neil
Only One AA Box left
687 Trinity, Jersey
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white exec
Moderating Team
Posts: 7445
Joined: 21 Dec 2015, 12:46
Location: Sayalonga, Malaga, Spain
My Cars: 1996 XM 2.5TD Exclusive hatch RHD
1992 BX19D Millesime hatch LHD
previously 1989 BX19RD, 1998 ZX 1.9D auto, 2001 Xantia 1.8i auto
and lots of Rovers before that: 1935 Ten, 1947 Sixteen, 1960 P5 3-litre, 1966 P6 2000, 1972 P6 2000TC, and 1975 P6B 3500S
x 1752

Re: 86-years-old, and maybe still Roving ?

Post by white exec »

Thanks for checking all that, Neil. That was my conclusion, too - that the car must have been re-registered/changed hands in 2017.

Never seen an original sales brochure, so a great find, and confirms the original list price of £248.

The car was 28 years old when we came to own it. Bodywork good, except for a leaky Webasto sun roof (now where have we heard that before, I wonder?), mouldering cloth headliner, and a tatty rear window blind. Blind!! Presumably so ladies in the spacious rear seat could adjust themselves with decorum...

Dad renewed the headliner, and sealed up the sunroof. The rear blind was scrapped - you know, it actually had a pull-cord, which travelled forward to the front, via some tubing, so the driver could close/open it! The car had no heater, so we fitted one, over the sizeable front passenger's footwell.

The engine was pretty worn, and burned copious quantities of oil. Even before he'd passed his test, Dad bought a complete spares car - a 'newer' Ten (1938!) - for a fiver from someone in Slough. Hence an engine/gearbox transplant, and a whole shed-full of spares. Fortunately, a neighbourly Polish garage mechanic lived opposite, but the engine, block and tackle nearly brought his wood-and-asbestos home garage tumbling down, as the wooden uprights were somewhat missing/rotten at ground level. Anyway, the transplant was done. Years later, I would get the block re-bored (in-situ) by an outfit in Hanwell, and fit new pistons and hot-metal re-dipped con-rods; no bearing shells for those rods!

Dad did a complete re-wire on the car - easy for a professional design electrician - so most of the cotton-covered (and nearly all brown) wiring was replaced with pvc. The wiring diagram took up just half a page in the owner's booklet, it was so simple. I think there were as many as two fuses, both 35amp.

Of course there was a Rover Freewheel, and the Lucas 'Startix' automatic re-start system (should the engine stall while freewheeling). You'll need to go away and look those up...!

The car had the luxury of a Girling-Luvax automatic chassis lubrication system, driven off the manifold vacuum, and which dispensed metered quantities of SAE90 to king-pins and leaf-spring shackles. Last I heard, the system enjoyed decades of use on 'buses and hgv.

I still have the car's original Owner's Handbook, complete with one muddy tyre-print, from when I briefly drove over it, after carelessly leaving it on the car's roof one drizzly day in Caversham.
Chris
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