archeology in/under the rover

[kwd509]

My father's rover now sits in my back yard, with the beginnings of tinkering. Two interesting items.

1- In 1965 they paved our road using gravel and pouring down oil. It made a heck of a mess on our vehicles and dad was really pissed about the oil on his nice new rover. As I recall he had us washing the stuff off with diesel soaked rags. This week as I lay under it inspecting the frame I can see that crossmembers adjacent to the wheels have a clearly identifiable layer of what looks like asphalt against the frame but lying under the years of accumulated mud. I think inadvertent undercoating occurred early on for the vehicle and the frame seems more sound as a result. Quite the irony.

2- In the door pocket I found a vinyl pouch from rover motor co with a document confirming clearing of customs, the shipping company and the freighter (american chieftain)........the one thing I can't find is a precise date, though I think it was April 1964......

I do recall as a kid once finding a screwdriver left in the engine compartment presumably by a mechanic. I wonder what other finds lay ahead.

[disco2hse]

Sounds great

Keep us posted.

Old Rovers

[73series88]

thats really cool
my friend said back in the day
when they were bad his dad made them clean the wire wheels on his mga
thats a pain.

[NickDawson]

We had a similar experience remodeling our house - you find all these clues from people who lived there over the years. I was recently remarking to someone that I had a similar feeling working on the rover.... "oh look, this guy at some point used metric bolts" or "I think this door panel was once green"
Its pretty cool and even neater that yours has family meaning. Keep it up and keep us posted

[stomper]

I love finding things left behind, as long as it is not a cobbled together mess that some prior owner did to avoid buying the correct part. My father and I once owned an international scout, which had almost a full set of sockets plugging all the vacum lines and hoses. When we removed the gas tank, I found a SnapOn screw driver in the bottom of it, which the P.O. must have dropped in there by accident.

I lost my father several years ago, and wish I had the privilege to own a vehicle he once had. Don't cut corners on repairing your Land Rover, You know your father wouldn't have.

[amcordo]

1- In 1965 they paved our road using gravel and pouring down oil. It made a heck of a mess on our vehicles and dad was really pissed about the oil on his nice new rover.

... could've been worse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Beach,_Missouri#Dioxin_contamination

[yorker]

2- In the door pocket I found a vinyl pouch from rover motor co with a document confirming clearing of customs, the shipping company and the freighter (american chieftain)........the one thing I can't find is a precise date, though I think it was April 1964......

I do recall as a kid once finding a screwdriver left in the engine compartment presumably by a mechanic. I wonder what other finds lay ahead.

I wonder if it was this freighter:
560American Chieftain560' Challenger Class FreighterUnited States LinesNew24 Apr 1963Scrapped 1988

http://www.hazegray.org/shipbuilding/nnsb2.htm

[kwd509]

I wonder if it was this freighter:
560American Chieftain560' Challenger Class FreighterUnited States LinesNew24 Apr 1963Scrapped 1988

http://www.hazegray.org/shipbuilding/nnsb2.htm

That's the boat as far as I can tell.... This rover seems to have outlived it.

[kwd509]

... could've been worse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_B..._contamination

Tony, you raise something that has entered my mind occasionally over the years. Are you suggesting I get a sample tested?

[amcordo]

Tony, you raise something that has entered my mind occasionally over the years. Are you suggesting I get a sample tested?

Nah, I wasn't suggesting that (unless you have a reason to believe it was making you sick). I think oil's been spread on roads for a long time just about everywhere in the US and that's the only story I had ever heard about where there was something more nefarious involved. Was just supplying some interesting reading!

[kwd509]

Nah, I wasn't suggesting that (unless you have a reason to believe it was making you sick). I think oil's been spread on roads for a long time just about everywhere in the US and that's the only story I had ever heard about where there was something more nefarious involved. Was just supplying some interesting reading!

Interesting reading indeed!. No immediate concern with illness. But, the reading triggers 'playful paranoia' as this was near Oak Ridge, TN. The atomic energy commission there had a reputation (deserved or undeserved?) of doing lots of things to get rid of waste (apparently mercury and PCBs were their biggest problem).

As far as the paranoia is concerned, nothing that can't be diverted by the depletion of my bank account buying rover parts.