[Pete]

Saturdays seem to come round very quickly. Well, they do for me anyway. After another week spent toiling away it was a relief to put on some scruffy jeans and head down South of Coventry to continue the analysis of S525 OVP. Maybe it will even fire up for a while and do the white smoke trick again. Ah the joys of tinkering with an old car!

And so we gathered once more, with the temperature dropping and the wind increasing, to get closer to forming a better picture of just what on earth we’ve let ourselves in for. During the week Lates had removed the rather destroyed front tyre and fitted the spare so at least it can now be pushed round much easier than previously. So first job was to get it fired up again to do some fault finding – which meant it needed some fuel.

On the way to Lates a fuel can had been filled to the brim and it was soon chugging its contents down the filler neck. Until it mysteriously stopped. A cursory check of the filler didn’t throw up any blockages, so the rear seat was duly swung aside to get at the tank. Seconds after starting to remove the pump the problem was diagnosed – despite the gauge insisting there was barely a drop inside, the tank was full. Yep, we can add a fibbing fuel sender to the list of things to sort out.

With the jump leads attached we once again turned over the engine. Nothing. Even after attempting to persuade it to burst into life it continued to sulk.

We’re certain the engine is receiving fuel so it must therefore mean the cam or crank sensors – or both – have waved goodbye to this cruel world. And when a car like a 75 displays such symptoms there’s only one thing to do. Plug it in.

Out came the diagnostic unit, on went the ignition and the unit was soon hooked up. And we soon found out that, er, the car is in a real state of confusion. Despite the diagnostic unit identifying the software and last update – January 2004 – it simply didn’t want to go any further. The sheer number of odd bits added to this car over time looks likely to have finally overwhelmed the MEMS software and it’s shrugging its shoulders now.

Looking at the instrument panel gives you a clue to the probably vexatious position the system is in. Turning on the ignition gives a long list of issues the electronics are trying to talk to, the instrument panel grappling with a host of features it can’t find and items it thinks are not working as the IPK was originally either from or destined for a ZT Tourer.


But hey, it was right to say the doors were open.

In the meantime the bodywork was looked at more closely. Starting from the rear all seems pretty good, with the bumper and bootlid only requiring new paint. We’ll know for certain once that huge MG badge and the rear plinth have been removed though, but it looks rust-free and straight. Lifting the boot carpet revealed some interesting build codes, with a dye mark stating R2 98 09 10 20H00 and a steel strip showing 4MB 10P 00987Z. What these state we’ll find out in due course. No signs of any accident damage and the wheel well was rust-free.

Moving along the offside the rear wing again is in good shape, with no rust around the filler aperture and the wheelarch is problem free. Only a dented chrome trim marks it down. The rear door is similarly fine, although the lack of any sound deadening does make it shut with an annoying clang. Which begs the question whether we should fit any at a later date of course. Things start to get more interesting with the driver’s door. The skin has a nasty foot-long scar which has rusted, and that can be rectified. More tricky to resolve will be the shutline with the sill, which closes right up about 4 inches before meeting the front wing. It means that the door rubs on the sill finisher when opened and although it doesn’t look to have suffered greatly as a result, it’s a scruffy detail that has got to be sorted out when the bodywork is attended to. Opening the door reveals another quirk. Virtually no sealant between the doorframe and the skin and some significant gaps as a result.

Moving forwards, the front wing also looks a bit odd, with the rear lower section simply not looking quite right; it isn’t a square fit along the sill, indicating it’s either been modified at some point or it’s a pre-production panel – the first ones off the line had a far better fit and finish than this. Overall the wing is repairable but the tinworm has got a good hold in the front edge and this will need some time to sort out.

The front of the car is as straight as the rear, with the bonnet displaying some minor corrosion along the folded edge at the front and a little bubbling nearby. Not necessarily something to be worried about but it will need a good session with the BiltHamber range to cure it.

The nearside has some issues. The front wing has had a bit of a hard time and is wrinkled in an awkward sport at the front above the chrome trim, and rust around the folded edge next to the A-pillar, while both doors contain minor dents. The nearside front door fits just as badly as its opposite number by the way. The big concern is the state of the rear wheel arch where it meets the sill - which for some reason is a weak spot. Overall it looks to be okay but it is showing some signs of corrosion here, so it will have to be stripped back to bare metal to make sure.

The roof thankfully is absolutely fine, although the gutter trim looks scrap, and the window trim is all in good shape. Finally, one big sigh of relief – the sills are fine too, no dents and no rust.

But what of the front panel? Well, you will recall it had been fitted with a ZT front end and I may have mentioned it will be put up for grabs. Unfortunately, when we extracated it from the back seat we discovered it had been butchered to make it slide inside the back door. It's scrap. But never mind, we've salvaged the indicator lights and driving lamps from it.

So, not too bad on the bodywork side but the oily bits are potentially a very different story. How are we going to start it up?