The 3-litre has had its diff seal replaced (took less than an hour on the local friendly garage man's hoist), so my weekly crawling under-the-car-to-top-up-the-diff nightmare is over. he showed me the seal afterwards - it was hardened to bakelite fragility, so hardly surprising it went.
Just took her out for an hour with my youngest daughter - great run, smooth as anything. Don't think I've driven a 10-year-old car that runs as smoothly as the P5 - let alone a 45-year-old.
We went up into the hills and stopped for a coffee at the small town(?) of Sassafras (Dandenong ranges).
I know on paper the car is a slow old thing, but most of the time I find myself quite frustrated by the cars in front of me - so it can't be that bad.
I have driven her on dirt roads - and she copes with them well. It isn't something I normally do though. Rovers are tough cars and Australia's roads would have allowed them to prove it. This road is just a side road in Sassafras.
Perhaps I should rewind a bit. Last weekend I went on 'camp' with about 30 other guys from Church. Mens camp, it was called - so minimal cerebral activity, plenty of carbs and protein and almost no vegetables (there was a tin of beetroot, but I don't think it got opened).
Anyhow, the 'camp' was up country in a small town called Rawson. Plenty of 4-wheel drive opportunities and an on-site paintball complex. Awesome. Rawson is (sort of) between Mount Baw Baw (mountain resort) and Walhalla (remote but once thriving gold town) - look it up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walhalla,_Victoria .
Managed to get the 3500 back from carburetor surgery just in time - which is good, as Rawson is about 2 hours from my house and not near a train station. Picked up friend Allan and off we went. Burble burble down the freeway. It really is a magnificent car to drive.
Takes about 8 minutes to fill the petrol tank though because I have to fill at the slowest possible speed - otherwise the filler just cuts out (why IS that?) .
I didn't stop to take pictures of the route - was having way too much fun driving - but here is the car at rest - having arrived. Weather forecast was not great - cold and damp - but spirits were high.
The next day we had quite a bit of free time. Those of a particular nature went paint-balling. Others went off to do a bit of tame 4-wheel driving on the bush tracks. Some went to Walhalla for a look around. I wasn't sure what to do (other than NOT paint-balling) so I took myself to Walhalla (15 mins on even windier roads - great fun) and had a look round. The shock of having to drink instant coffee at breakfast had been significant, so I consoled myself with the real thing. Took a few photos - and here are some of them:
It was unfolding to be just a really peaceful day with me doing things I like doing and having a great chill. It was literally a Godsent break from the ups and downs of work etc.
Soon got bored of being peaceful and unstressed, so had a bit of a look at the map and decided to drive to Mount Baw Baw, which is about 30 km the other direction from Rawson, on a dirt road.
Now this is a logging track, so there is plenty of room for two large semi-trailer trucks to pass each other - but is still a dirt road. And 28 km long. In my typically philosophical and patient manner, I decided to take it quickly to iron out the bumps.
Pictures in sequence are of a burnt out swathe of forest about half way there (from the big fires last year), then where I turned round at Mt Baw Baw because it said I had to put chains on, and another shot of the burnt forest.
So 50-odd km on dirt roads at between 40 and 100kph. in a 35-year-old car? But it IS a Rover - what could possibly go wrong?
Well nothing, surely...
Not exactly. Couldn't really tell on the dirt, but once I was back on the sealed road, it became really obvious that I no longer had functioning rear shock-absorbers.
And I have no-one to blame but myself. Curiously, whereas before the car used to do a sort of hip-shrug when I braked at speed, now it doesn't. This and one or two other things about the way it cornered unevenly, lends me to think that in fact one of my shock absorbers may have already been either gone, or on the way there.
Left and right bends are now consistent. Trouble is, they are consistent in a rather floaty kind of way. And speed bumps set up a trampolining motion like you would not believe. Have a very reasonable quote to fit a 'good' pair of second hand shocks, but currently no money as a result of the battery-alternator-gearbox-radiator and carburetor expenditure over the past 5 weeks.
On Sunday - with a bit more free time, Pastor D and friend L and I drove to Walhalla again, with L providing a useful ballast to compensate for my undamped springs. Dave had heroically risen at about 6 am and driven the 60 km round trip to bring back a coffee plunger and real coffee - so a trip in Green Lightening was the least I could do in return. L has a vast store of local knowledge which made the return to Walhalla really interesting. Beautiful spot and a really interesting history - I'll definitely go back.
Quick reference note for the non-car nerds amongst you - Rover classified it's various post war generations of car in sequence as P1, P2, P3 etc, where 'P' stood for 'Post War' and the number was the sequence of appearance.
Here in succession are the P2, P3 and P4 (I used to have a P4 in the late 80s / early 90s)
My black car is a P5 (the 5th model since the war) and my dark green car is a P6. Leyland bought Rover during the gestation of the planned P8, which morphed into the SD1 - not quite so logical, I guess... 
There is a fair bit to do to both cars - in summary: - P6 rear shockers
- P6 Heater unit needs reconditioning so it is not on all the time
- P6 Plastic tabs that are siliconed over the vents to stop knees cooking need to be removed (once the heater unit has been fixed)
- P6 Aircon needs regassing (once the heater unit has been fixed - no point in having the aircon and the heater on at the same time)
- P6 Need to identify the shake/wobble and fix
- P5 needs a new Alternator (the battery is fine, but the alternator is stuffed
- P5 Wipers need fixing (may be related) they only go half way up the screen
- P5 gearbox needs a recon (if poss, I will replace the BW DG with a BW type 35 or 65 (easier to maintain and keep leaks to a minimum - and likley to cost abut $1,500 less to do)
- P5 A whole heap of paint / bodywork (dented driver's door) and upholstery - all of which can wait (at least she photographs well!)
- One more for the P6 - when I am brave enough I need to look under the lambskin seat covers to see what needs fixing - but I am not yet - still recovering from lifting the covers on the P5
- Oh - and if I can rip out whatever stops the petrol going in at a normal flow speed, I will do that too - my old P6 in the UK was sometimes a bit awkward, but never this bad
D took a heap more pictures in Wallhalla (the sun was shining on Sunday) so expect these in the next posting
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