Hello all, I've just taken possession of a '79 850 which is actually pretty "solid".Well, the sills are ok 
It had some work done about 6 years ago and has apparently languished in a container for the last 4 of those. Was originall that 'orrible chocolate-pudding brown that permeated the 70's but successive owners have painted it amatt light purple and latterly that pseudo-metallic BRG that rover used which I'm not keen on at all. The p.o. has also done all the cliches like fitting spacers/arches and plastering "cooper" badges here and there. Ugh.After starting for the first time - not too difficult the next hing was to check the brakes, which have all had new shoes and moved smoothly. Even the adjusters weren't seized! This gave an opportunity to remove the spacers and give the rims a cursory spray witha nice old ivory paint so they all look the same colour now.
The majotr issues with this one are the A-posts and wings. The wings weren't actually that bad but had been fitted with repeaters which again I'm not keen on and had a bit of rot near the scuttle panel. A new pair of minispares wings acme with it as did the A-posts and A-panels, so it makes sense to do it all in a oner early days and, hopefully, forget about it for a few years. So it's acse of cut away all the old stuff and renew with nice new metal which will be rustproofed with about a dozen products - and still the rust will find it's way in! Hopefully all this should be done this week.
Personally I like the older styling, hence ta-ta repeaters. So I'll be doing a bit of "retro-fying"It was important to me to get a pre-rover model. Austin or Morris has so much more cachet. So, in that vein, I'll be replacing the "cooper" bonnet badge with a mk1 Austin one. I've also removed the front lip from the bonnet to accomodate a wavy grill and moustache which will accomodate the aa and rac badges from my old '71 van that was my first car in the 70's. So the bonnet is getting painted. I've gone with RAL 1016 Broom Yellow which ahs a slightly green, mustardy tone. I'll do the bonnet in that and probably the roof which currently has chequerboard stickers - it's an 850 for god's sake!! The yrlow /green combo reminds me of old school homemade paint jobs of the era so , I'm happy with it. BP used it, as did Lotus, not that I'm trying to make any unfounded "performance" claims. I don't care about the performance really. - at the moment. My oldmini van had the 850 relaaced by the lump out of an Austin 1100 back in the day, so an engine upgrade may be an option and only takes a day or so. I'maiming at a solid, mechanically sound, usable daily driver. Nothing flash but with a nod to the heritage and original styling of the marque.
Curses! My pics are too large! I'll post them when I've reduced them...
Edited by Cyclops63, 16 October 2022 - 05:36 PM.
