Rover 3-Litre. A blend of value and expense

I'm told by someone who knows these things that all Ferrari leak. I wasn't expecting the Rover to though. The window rubbers on the front and rear screens were totally shot, with the result that in a heavy downpour, anyone sitting anywhere on the back seat would get very wet hair, and the driver would need to keep the water from running onto the instrument binnacle by holding various cloths against the top of the screen.

Kind of funny looking back, but a bit impractical when heading into Melbourne's wet season. So I took myself off to Scot's Old Auto Rubber and got a front and rear seal for less than $200. All going well I thought, casually asking Scott if I just called up the 24 hour windscreen people to fix it in. After all, 'tis what I had done for the Marina...

Scott's reaction was fairly extreme - an emphatic "NO". Now Scott has years of Rover experience, including P5's, so I listened carefully. He explained that windscreen rubbers on a Rover P5 is a specialist job, and there was only one person in Melbourne who would be able to do the job properly. Pete.

I rang Pete. Eventually he was able to squeeze me in - unfortunately I had called during the Melbourne Grand Prix build-up, one of his busiest times.

The Rover screens were fitted by hand, usually by two blokes (one on either side of the production line). P5s were largely hand built. The windscreen rubbers are screwed in! Each of the many self-tapping screws holds a plate. There are lugs on the plate that hold the stainless steel window trim.

The plates are not all the same, and not necessarily used uniformly by each of the two car assembly chaps. Given that 45 years of movement, vibration and so-on has happened since the car was built, it is quite important to get each screw and each plate back in the same hole and position.

It took Pete (who knew exactly what he was doing) half a day to take the two screens out. This is the pile of disintegrated rubber...

You can also see a sheet of cardboard on the table with each screw and plate attached in the 'in-screen' positions, so that each could be returned to the right place.

and a day and a half to put them back - a week later...

Bear in mind that the production process meant that the self-tapping screws were screwed in after the body shell had been painted, so once the screen rubbers start to let water in, it can eat away at raw, unprotected metal as it works round the screw-threads. Normally (Pete tells me) on a P5, once the screen is removed, the metal supporting it tends to disintegrate straight away, leaving nothing to put the screen back into. The result is some awkward and expensive bodywork reconstruction.

Mine, bless it, was not like this with only surface rust at both ends - which I scrubbed back, rust-converted and then primered and painted for the new rubbers.

Pete took away the screens and rubbers to give them the necessary week to adapt to each other.

I started the scrubbing and painting job. The end result was very satisfying, if you don't count the various points of over-spray. In the end, I also bought a new screen as the original had a few chips and was also 'toughened' rather than laminated.

Now that it is done, it is great to be able to drive in the rain without worrying about leaks.

Next challenge is to try and work out the adjustment on the windscreen wipers - because they are no longer doing the greatest of jobs. Overall, I spent $1,100, on the rubbers, new screen and Pete's labour. The fact that the car has always been garaged saved me thousands in body repairs, which I am very pleased about.

Had my car been one of those leaking Ferraris, I might have been shelling out $15,000 just for the screen - but a more earthy comparison is the trusty old (not hand-built) Leyland Marina. New screen, second hand rubber (which I cleaned up) and fitting - all for $210.

I still think, for what it is, the Rover is great value...