The Rovers, British Car Day 2018

Well, another year, another British Car Day. This time, I came equipped with two Rovers.

It’s funny, in 2016 I swore I would have my own SD1 in the show the next year, and sure enough I managed to get Effie to the show. Last year I joked about bringing two Rovers to the show in 2018….. Well, both Effie and Tess made an appearance at the show this year. Apparently I’m not allowed to have three there next year.

This week was a little crazy trying to get both of the cars ready, with Effie needing fairly major work on Tuesday, and then a flying visit to my WOF workshop on Friday since the warrant on Effie ran out last month. Thankfully she passed, only needing a headlight and foglight adjusted (completely forgot I hadn’t properly adjusted the foglights since I fitted them). Later that night Mrs Petrol helped me wash and dry both cars, and then I moved Tess into the garage, and Effie under the cover for the night.

Saturday was spent working on Tess. Since getting the car I have washed it once, and although the paint didn’t look too bad I was keen to see how much more shine I could get out of her with a good polish.

I turned Tess around so I had more room to work on the bigger parts of the car, and then started with my usual combo. A green Hexlogic pad on my DA, and Ultimate Compound.

I did learn one thing though; when the car was painted black, they used single stage paint. How do I know? Well, the pad was brand new and started green.

Single stage paint isn’t a bad thing. It does mean that with minimal work you can get good results, as you don’t have to work through clear coat. It’s also easier to work swirls and scratches out (although, easier to get them in the paint initially as there isn’t a protective clear coat)

I tried to photograph some of the defects in the paint, but damn black is hard to get a camera to work with. None of the photos came out well enough to use, but picture this; Lots of fine swirls, a few deeper scratches, and lots of oxidation in the paint. The Ultimate Compound did a great job at fixing a lot of this up, taking out a lot of the swirls and scratches, and bringing back the gloss.

After I had completely polished the car with UC, I moved onto a new product that I was keen to try. Its Chemical Guys BlackLight. Its meant to be a specific coating for black paint, to give it more depth and gloss.

I’m not overly convinced it lives up to the massive hype they were pushing, but it did seem to give the paint a little more depth and gloss. Plus, it smells like grape. Kinda pleasant.

After 15 minutes of curing, I buffed that off with a microfiber, and then set about the final stage. Coating the whole car with a layer of Gold Class Liquid Wax. I’m a big fan of this wax; it goes on easy, comes off easy, and leaves a nice glossy finish. It also beads really well.

The results? It’s not even the same car. I thought the paint was OK to start with, but no, it must have been very flat compared to how it is now. So much gloss.

Oh yeah, the I MEH I plates went on too. Just a little irony given how un-MEH this car really is.

Sunday was the day of the show and there was a lot of concern whether the show was even going to go ahead as the weather forecast was for utterly terrible rain. I got up early to check the Facebook page for the Yay or Nay on the show, and was stoked to see the show was going ahead.

It was still drizzling when we fired up the two cars and began the trek to the show. I was piloting Tess, and Mrs Petrol was in Effie.

I have never seen an SD1 in my mirror before, and damn it’s a sight to behold. They’re quite an imposing car on the road.

We made it in one piece though, thankfully, and lined on the Rover Club stand…. next to Nick’s Vitesse, which having just passed its WOF the day before, made it to the show. Very happy for Nick, it was great to see his hard work there.

Driving through the paddock to the stand had everyone’s heads turning to look. The moment Tess was parked up and I was out the door, people were taking photos and having a look. She drew a lot of attention at the show.

Effie drew a fair bit of attention too, with a few people seemingly taking a look to compare the two different models of SD1.

So much shine.

So many beads

And some more random photos of the Rovers from the day

We didn’t stay as long as we could’ve because when it wasn’t raining it was horrifically humid and muggy, and then it started to bucket down and didn’t let up. Oh well, I achieved what I wanted to; to get the two SD1s to the show, and saw some other cool cars there too.

I have a full gallery of photos on my Flickr from the show. Most taken by the lovely Mrs Petrol.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsksW9Qrn