My Maestros...

[threelitre]

Hi there!

As you may have read my trusty silver Maestro LS got damaged in an accident while beeing parked lately. A closer look showed the following damage:
- Both bumpers completely scattered
- panels behind front bumper bent, only screwed on, so that's not major.
- rear end doesn't look to bad, at first only one rear lamp shows a strange angle, but all in all: boot floor folded, boot will only shut while using brute force with the lock catch removed, RH rear door does open/close with difficulty only.
So apparently the problem is, apart from finding uncracked bumpers again, that the rear RH corner is completly bent. From an economical point of view that car is a total loss. How hard is it to get that repaired again (so that it cannot be noticed!)? Depending on the money I get from the insurance and the estimate of a body shop the car will prabably have to be scrapped - rustfree :(

So my fleet of Maestros currently looks like:

- a well bent 1988 LS in silver leaf over grey,
- a very rusty 1984 1.3 LE (needs welding to the floor and arches) in opporto red,
- a rusty (afaik doors and arches only) 1984 MG Maestro 1600 in black
- and probably soon a rusty 1984 1.6 HLS in opporto red which I found on Ebay and was not sold for even 1 Euro - so I can have it for free :)

I thought that the 1.6 HLS should be a parts donor for the LE since colour and trim is the same. But depending on the verdict from the body-shop I am still unsure which one I will be driving around during the next months as my daily (and therefor reliable) runner.

Does anybody want any LHD car from that collection for restoration?

Regards,

Alexander

[Maria]

Which bit is bent? If it's the rear quarter, they're still available, but only the full quarter inside and out - one outer rear quarter is no longer available from Rover. If it's the rear panel, they're still obtainable, as are bumpers, and I have a boot floor in the garage.

See if you can spot the knackered bit from this pic?

http://maisie.accelerator.org/spares.jpg

[threelitre]

Hi Maria,

it might be possible to use panel 20 and replace it to ease the process of straightening the rear end again. How much would this panel and a pair of new bumpers (with claret trimlines) be? This would be helpful when I am going to get an estimate of the damage next week.

Today I collected the 1.6 HLS. Not too bad, it runs (well, it had to drive 170 miles today :) ), first inspection showed cracks in the bumpers, rusty arches, 2 rusty doors, a crack in the windscreen, a blowing exhaust. The engine seems fine - it has only just done about 120000 miles... At least it will deliver some useful spares, like an original VP-style grille (yes, the German-HLS had these! - and bright mirrors!). Does anybody know, why certain bits of brown trim on old Maestros just disintegrate with the age, and only brown - the grey ones are usually fine?

Regards,

Alexander

[H48HPE]

Does anybody know, why certain bits of brown trim on old Maestros just disintegrate with the age, and only brown - the grey ones are usually fine?

Its caused by ultraviolet light. answer is to keep them out of sunlight, but thats not very practical.

My car has the grey trim and im suffering it on the door lock tabs and a small amount on the interior door handles. so happens to the grey ones too.

Andy

[threelitre]

Originally posted by H48HPE
Its caused by ultraviolet light. answer is to keep them out of sunlight, but thats not very practical.

My car has the grey trim and im suffering it on the door lock tabs and a small amount on the interior door handles. so happens to the grey ones too.

Andy

Sure, but the brown ones seem to respond very well to sunshine... I remember seeing early Maestros (like my brown-trimmed cars) in southern france scrap yards, and the grey or blue trim was nearly perfect. And there was enough sun. So the brown colour seems to have a negative effect on the quality of the material. And it's only certain bits that disintegrate: A-post covers, lower B-post covers start first. And these do get much less sunshine then the dash wich is fine...

Alexander

[threelitre]

Hi!

There are chances that I get an agreement with the insurance to get the Maestro repaired at least. That's better then scrapping it and driving around one of my other rust buckets...

Did I get you right, Maria, that the rear valance and the bumpers should be attainable new from any Rover dealership? I don't want to drive the 50 miles to my next one only too hear that they can't deliver them anymore.

Regards,

Alexander

[Maria]

Yep, should be. I think I paid just over £100 for the valance. Not sure how much bumpers are at the moment though.