price quote question

[O'Brien]

yeah, i think they must have been confused when i said that i wanted to be able to have it as a daily driver! i'm actually quite excited about working on it myself. that number really threw me for a loop too. i guess if i had cash like that i could buy the dalai lama's rover!

i just really wanted to get these brakes dialed in by someone who had a lot of experience, and could do it for me while i was at work. I guess as i get older im getting lazy. time to get some nice jacks and jackstands i guess. also, any leads on finding a nicely priced green bible anyone?

thanks!

[BackInA88]

both of whom are super friendly, and honest to a fault.

I hope they were going to kiss you first!!

At $2700 for the brake job they better be replacing all the lines, every piece including the backing plates and replacing all the wheel bearings. Than taking me out to dinner.

You can get the Green Bible on CD.
Than just print out the pages you need at the time and you don't worry about getting them greasy!

Doing it yourself is half the fun of owning a rig like this is getting your hands dirty.
Impress your friends with your automotive repair skills.
When they come by and see the parts spread all over the garage floor!
Then they see you driving it later.
But be careful they will be calling you everytime their cars make a new noises.

I have friends I swap tires over for in the fall and spring.
It amazes me how helpless some are when it comes to picking up a tool and unwilling to even try.
The friend that was over the other day would rather put 4 dirty tires in the back seat of his Mustang and drive them over to my house to change than just do it in his own garage?

[greenmeanie]

Well taking a very rough quick parts pick you can very easily get yourself up over $2200 buying parts from our hosts. This is, of course, assuming you have a 2.6L and not the 2.25 L which is alot cheaper on the brakes. It also assumes you are replacing everything from the backing plate to the drums on all four corners. If they are the type of place that thinks the only way to fix a truck is to put all new parts on everything and that is the path you want to take then their quotes are not stupid. Unfortunately they are telling you to build an entirely new truck which rather defeats the purpose of buying a 30yr old Landy.

For your purposes its amazing how well a part will R&R with a can on PB Blaster, a wire wheel to clean of any old rust and paint and a quick coat of POR15, Rustoleum or whatever paint is you passion.

When I first got my 101 over here I took it to a 'respected' british car garage in Tucson to get it tuned for emissions. They were also super nice but ended up telling me I had a missing problem which needed new heads, manifold and swap to SU carbs all for a tidy 5K+ so that is was 'done right'. I took it to Ernie's MG garage and for the princely sum of $135 he tuned the truck and overhauled one of the carbs. He pointed out that the other garage had thrown the carbs waaay out of balance which is why it was missing on a couple of cylinders etc. He was even happy to show me some of his tricks to help set her up.

Just saying that a good mechanic doesn't have to be expensive. Find the right guy and he will understand any problems and fix them in the most economic fashion. Experience goes a long way in understanding what a garage is offering. The 'throw bright and shiny new parts at it to fix any problem' method gets very expensive very quickly.

One of the fun things about these trucks is learning to fix and maintain them yourself. It can be invaluable to understand the systems on the truck so that you know what is making that particular noise or, more importantly, what has suddenly stopped making that noise.


Boy do I go on.

Cheers
Gregor

[O'Brien]

well friends, i'm very thankful for the DIY encouragement. i don't have any people i can talk to in person about rovers, so you are all a valuable resource for me!

greenmeanie in fact i do have the 6cyl brake set-up up front, and the regular drums in the back. i haven't had the time to dig too deeply into the history of my 109, but i'm fairly certain that it's a '67, titled in California as a '66. Also fairly certain that it was originally fitted with the rover 6cyl, but was converted to a chevy six, probably really soon after the original owner took ownership. the chevy motor is a '66, and the title history shows it's 'always' had that motor in it. I'm excited to learn more about it once i get it back from the shop. i'll check the plate and see what i can find based on the numbers there.

i was looking at the offerings from our hosts, and noticed the series IIa CD rom. I also noticed that it was 'only' compatible with windows XP and acrobat 7.0 or earlier. anyone have this CD and run it on a MAC? I don't see why it wouldn't work, but just want to throw that question out there.

i should have the rover back either tonight or tomorrow, i'll post some pictures and maybe you guys and gals can throw out some ideas.

any other suggestions for genius and cheap mechanics in the greater Los Angeles area? would be nice to learn about someone else incase i come up against something i don't know how to repair yet.

btw, you are all awesome!

[leafsprung]

Finding a quality inexpensive mechanic in LA is tough. Peter at marina motors on Lincoln Blvd is a decent fellow with lots of rover expierience. Not inexpensive but maybe less than Huntington Mobile. http://www.englishcars.com I have some used manuals if you want one:

http://www.pangolin4x4.com/pangolin4...ooks/books.htm

Most of the manuals are online as PDFs as well.

[ctrover]

80-100K?!!!!They must be messing with you.You can get a great restored example for around 15k.

[jp-]

I hope they were going to kiss you first!!

At $2700 for the brake job they better be replacing all the lines, every piece including the backing plates and replacing all the wheel bearings. Then taking me out to dinner.

And a nightcap...good hooker...etc...

You can get the Green Bible on CD.
Than just print out the pages you need at the time and you don't worry about getting them greasy!

The grease adds something to it. That way when I flip to any particular page, I can say, "Yep, been here before."

Doing it yourself is half the fun of owning a rig like this is getting your hands dirty.
Impress your friends with your automotive repair skills.
When they come by and see the parts spread all over the garage floor!
Then they see you driving it later.
But be careful they will be calling you everytime their cars make a new noises.

So true! I can't tell you how many times I heard, "You'll never get that thing running..." Six months later it's, "My car is making a noise can you fix it?" "Well maybe... for $2700."

[greenmeanie]

"My car is making a noise can you fix it?"

The answer to that is "Bring it back when it stops making the noise."

[Bertha]

New to the board but pretty familiar with 109's. They are a tough truck to get a good hard pedal on. Unfortunately 2,700 is probably not out of line to have a reputable shop refurbish the entire braking system, especially on the 6cyl. If your only issue is pedal travel, then your best bet might be an adjustment to start with. I find on the 109's, when replacing the drums and shoes together, you should have the shoes shaved to meet the contour of the drum. This is what creates a lot of the problem with the pedal feel. Good luck with your truck.

[Jim-ME]

Brake work on a Rover is relatively simple to do compared to other vehicles. For the kind of money that you have been quoted to fix/replace your existing brakes everything should be gold plated with a lifetime no wearout warranty. Do yourself a big favor and do them yourself. The better you know your Rover the better off you will be in the long run and there is no better teacher than trial by error. If you make a mistake you will only do it once. Don't be afraid, buy the parts, do them yourself and the reward of doing it yourself will be beyond description. Besides you aren't alone as we will help as most of us have already been there done that.
Jim