The oldest Maestro in the Club?

[MaestroMatt]

I would like to stake my claim as owner of the oldest Maestro in the club - does anyone out there own an earlier example?

Mine is a 1983 VDP and is obviously an early one as the engine number plate says "BL Cars Ltd" instead of "Austin Rover Group" as my friend's dad's identical car says. The numbers on mine are

S DI0S 0514642
SAXXCWWY7AM157789

and on his identical but slightly later model...

S DI0S 0670697
SAXXCWWY7AM175759

I can't spot many differences between the two. Interestingly, my car has Kangol seat-belt retainers front and back, and his has much nicer looking ones with wider push buttons and a nicer profile. Also, the carpets are secured slightly differently in his car. Does anyone have any useful archive information about the earliest Maestros? I would also like the non-Kangol seat belt retainers (as the cases on mine are all held together with Araldite anyway!), so if anyone is breaking a brown interior Maestro, let me know!

[e692wtt]

It's details like this that make this Forum so interesting, coupled with the fact that many other people, certainly on the 'old' Forum (and this one too, as numbers grow, I guess), show the same levels of interest in the 'nitty gritty' about our cars.

In my 1987 VDP Monty Auto I have a full set of seat belt equipment, colour keyed brown. I presume you mean the 'latches' that hold the seat belt 'tongues' when people have their seat belts 'on', when you refer to 'seat belt retainers? If so, let me know and you can have them for the postage. The front 'retainers' pass through the centre console, but as I am breaking the car this should be ok. Or if yours is an auto, do you want the centre console as well?

Let me know.

The other other Rich.:)

[SimonR]

You're right Other Other Rich, these are indeed the latches we are referring to.

My father's car is the other one referred to by MaestroMatt, I drove it into work today and can report that the seatbelt latches in the front are stamped 'Britax' with several numbers above and below that, while the rear ones are all Kangol.

How does that compare to your Monty?

Btw, you wouldn't happen to have any good brown door seals on the Monty would you ?! :)

[BIGLAD]

I tried to fit some Maestro rear door seals to my Montego Estate the other day but found they were a different size :confused:

[e692wtt]

On my VDP, all except the driver's door seal are 100% ok, but the driver's door seal is 'torn' for approx 6" halfway up the B-pillar. Only thing is, as BIGLAD appertains to, the Maestro's wheelbase is shorter (by 2"?) than the Montego's wheelbase, and the Monty Estate's rear doors are a different shape (the window frame is a different shape, the trailing edge where the door meets the C-pillar is more vertical) to the Saloon anyway. You are more than welcome to the door seals off my Monty Saloon, but you will need to be crafty in choosing where to 'cut and shut' the rear door seals... on the Montegos, there is a 'trim' that covers the inner sill and could 'cover' such a join... not sure if this is the same on a Maestro.

On my Monty (the original 1.6L, not the 'new kid on the block' VDP) I have changed the door seals as necessary, and the front passenger door seal, and its associated 'trim' (between the door and the 'tray' at the side of the seat) is from a grey-trimmed Maestro, as is the door seal on the driver's side. I can live with this as I am happy to drive a high quality 'banger' or 'junker' that is aesthetically questionable but has a heart of gold and has no cencerns about the MoT. In the case of your Maestro, with its historical interest, I'm sure you don't think the same way. If you're really stuck, a product called 'Vynilkote' will colour plastic trim.

I'd say take all 4 door seals and see if you're happy with the driver's door seal. When the car goes, all 4 doors will be in my garage anyway so I will have no need for the door seals. Let me know... again, send the cost of postage, that's all.

The other other Rich (just call me Rich!)
:)

[MGTurbo]

I nominate our early MG Maestro as being one of the first/oldest 2.0 Efi models. It was registered in August 1984, i'll get the last 6 digits of the VIN next time i go into the garage...

Gareth

[MaestroMatt]

Other Other Rich, I have e-mailed you re: parts. Thank you very much for the offer!

[matthewsemple]

Hello,

I used to own a 1.3HLE which was 156060 so earlier than the two that you mention. I now have an A-reg MG1600 which is much later. The 1.3HLE also had BL Cars on the VIN plate, the MG1600 has Austin Rover Group and I once owned an 1990 H-reg MG Maestro 2.0i which had Rover Group (without the Austin).

Did you know that they changed the remote mirror joysticks during the first year? My 1.3HLE had mirrors that kept coming astray from the joysticks but on the 1600 they are permanently connected and much better.

On the subject of the earliest Maestro, there must be someone in the club with a Y-reg car (March-July 1983) which would be earlier.

Those early Maestros are the best, don't you think? I have an MG Maestro Turbo as well which has fantastic acceleration but the MG1600 is much more interesting and has a great character.

The last Maestro is up for sale at the end of June at the auction at Gaydon but the first one is in the collection as well. It is a 1.3 Base model in Arum White which used to be on the "Through The Ages" display.

Lets see if anyone else has an earlier car!

Cheers, Matthew

[MaestroMatt]

You were lucky to have electric mirrors! Must have been an MG thing as the Vanden Plas didn't have them until the Mark II dash came into play. It is a mod I intend to do on my car though - adds a certain air of sophistication, I think. Not that my car needs any more sophistication - as Matthew rightly says, the early Maestros are definitely the best! One think I have noticed recently is that my R series engine is much quieter at high revs (well, 2.5-3.5k) than my mate's S series engine. Sadly, though, it isn't quite as fast either. :(

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by MaestroMatt
You were lucky to have electric mirrors! Must have been an MG thing as the Vanden Plas didn't have them until the Mark II dash came into play. :(

Sorry they are not electric - when I say remote mirrors I meant the manual adjustor on the inside of the car that can be used to adjust the mirror. On the earliest cars they came detached from the mirror very easily and I found them pretty useless on the 1.3HLE I had so I replaced them with mirrors from a 1986 MG Maestro.

By 1984 when my MG1600 was built the mirror adjustors had been improved considerably and they are fixed onto the mirror. It doesn't have electric mirrors though.

Both my 2.0 litre MG Maestros had electric mirrors which are also heated but these were 1990 models so much different.

Cheers - looking forward to seeing your lineup of cars, Matthew

[MaestroMatt]

Mine have become detached from the mirror on both sides and so are utterly useless - I feel an electric mirror conversion coming on... At least the electric windows work, so it is easier to poke the mirror into position with my finger :laugh:

[tony]

if you have eletric windows does that meen that the wiring for the mirrors is also there even if not fitted ?:p

[MaestroMatt]

Sadly not. Entirely different circuits. There is a handy blanking panel where the choke would be on a non-VP which is where I can put the mirror controls, and the electric mirrors themselves should be a fairly easy conversion if I can find a scrapped later Vanden Plas somewhere and remove them whole. It must be a VP as I absolutely insist on having chrome-backed mirrors, you see! Must keep up appearences...

[Maria]

I wonder if it would be possible to remove the innards from a chrome-backed set of mirrors and replace them with the electric innards from a non-chrome set. I've got a whole stack of mirrors in the garage that I keep meaning to play with - I'm sure there's at least one set of electric ones in there.

[MaestroMatt]

I was thinking of that as a last resort - it would be far easier to just swap them whole. I suppose that with a Dremel and some Araldyte, it could be quite an interesting project to swap the innards around.

[Dave]

You can just remove the chrome covers, and pop them onto a set of electric mirrors - after removing the colour co-ordinated backs. Unscrew the innards of the mirror - to expose the 'tags' that keep the backs located.

OR - i'm *fairly* certain you can transplant the electrical bits into the original plastic bodies. I seem to remember that is how i did mine.

Dave

[tony]

going back to the thread i have a mg montego 1,1,85 2.0l efi does this mean i have one of the oldest or has anyone have one older?:cool:

[Rich]

I know for a fact that the brushed steel covers are glued onto the mirrors, which makes removal very difficult without damaging them, they arn't clipped like the body coloured ones. Best thing to do is to transfer the electric "guts" to the chrome mirror. Its not that hard to do, and I know Agony Uncle has done it that way. All there is is a small loom and an odd sort of grommet, the motor unit which has 3 screws to hold it in i think and of course the heated glass.

Another tip is to enorparate an extra switch which controls the heaters, in a normal setup they are on all the time the ignition is on, they hardly take an amp if i remember correctly but in the summer it does not do them much good, obviously. I put in an extra switch from a police spec Maestro which I found, and it doesn't look to out of place, however iniatally i was going to add them onto the rear heated screen circit, that way they only come on when the rear screen does, and you cant leave them on as they would turn off with the screen after 10 mins, its worth a thought to save the elements burning out!

Rich

[MaestroMatt]

Good idea about the heated mirror switch. On my car, I could add it to the rear demister circuit as the old VPs (and, I imagine, all the other older models) don't have an automatic cut-out. The switch is the sort that clicks in when you press it and stays clicked in until you press it again.

[e692wtt]

The brushed-steel covers come off easily enough when some b*gger drives into them... they are glued on. Good idea re the hrw circuit, though!

The other other Rich.
:cool:

[JollyMG2]

What about the 82' X-reg Maestro development car (pic in the Maestro history link) surely this has to be the oldest Maestro? where is this car now? does it still exist? :rolleyes:

[matthewsemple]

Originally posted by JollyMG2
What about the 82' X-reg Maestro development car (pic in the Maestro history link) surely this has to be the oldest Maestro? where is this car now? does it still exist? :rolleyes:

Development cars are almost always scrapped because it is considered that they are not safe for public use after the intensive testing.

The oldest Maestro I have seen is in the 1983 Miracle Maestro brochure - it is a white one with orange indicator lenses and funny little Metro mirrors. If you look at the contraption that the car is being tested on it is clear why such cars never get sold on. It is wearing a W-reg number plate - so 1980/81

[Beaker]

Originally posted by MaestroMatt
I would like to stake my claim as owner of the oldest Maestro in the club - does anyone out there own an earlier example?

Mine is a 1983 VDP and is obviously an early one as the engine number plate says "BL Cars Ltd" instead of "Austin Rover Group" as my friend's dad's identical car says. The numbers on mine are

S DI0S 0514642
SAXXCWWY7AM157789

and on his identical but slightly later model...

S DI0S 0670697
SAXXCWWY7AM175759

I can't spot many differences between the two. Interestingly, my car has Kangol seat-belt retainers front and back, and his has much nicer looking ones with wider push buttons and a nicer profile. Also, the carpets are secured slightly differently in his car. Does anyone have any useful archive information about the earliest Maestros? I would also like the non-Kangol seat belt retainers (as the cases on mine are all held together with Araldite anyway!), so if anyone is breaking a brown interior Maestro, let me know!

Not sure if mine would beat yours now :) When was yours registered?

Skatie

[Simon]

My B reg Maestro 1600HL had non-Kangol seatbelt stalks, the same wide button type as described above. These were "Prussian Blue" and the car was fitted fitted with these as standard. The car was registered in Jan 1985. I believe these stalks might have been of Britax manufacture. I wrote the car off in a frontal impact in 1989, and even though both myself and the front passenger got out unhurt, both seatbelt stalks were twisted round funnily enough. Makes you wonder...

[MaestroMatt]

Yours is older, Skatiechick. I have to confess to being a teeny bit jealous!