6 Most Popular Rover 25 Posts

To celebrate the fact that this little blog about my MG Rover 25 has reached 20,000+ page views, I thought I would put up a post with a couple of interesting facts and figures, and a list of your favourite updates.

The blog gets a massively diverse array of visitors, from the UK to USA, Spain, Serbia and Russia. It is becoming more and more popular each month, with around 1,300 page views last month.

Most of you are using Internet Explorer, closely followed by Firefox and Chrome. Almost all of you are viewing the blog from Windows, and as for the mobile readers, it appears this blog is more popular with iOS users than Android.

A little while ago my image hosting site changed the number of images you could host with them, and a lot of my images got taken down as a result. Unimpressed I am now part way through uploading the pictures to Google. Using this as a positive I have gone to all the old posts and rewritten them with more details and more pictures, so in the long run it's worked out better for you guys.

At the end of the day, I hope it has inspired and helped all that have come here, and may continue to do so in the future for many years to come.

Enough chat, onto the most popular posts, click on the titles to go to the related post:

New Powder Coated MG ZR Hairpin Wheels

Seat Leon Cupra R Custom Moulded Splitter

Vibe Subwoofer and Amp box fitted

New MG ZR half leather matrix seats

Exhaust Manifold Heatshield Refurbished

Front Door Speaker Upgrade

Site Updates

Well I would just like to say thank you to all the people that contributed to the detailing guide it has now been updated with even more pictures, more sections and more accurate information.

Product suggestions have been changed for better solutions, with the help of a professional detailer, and various forum members who are keen detailers too.

The guide will be updated periodically as I want it to be as comprehensive as possible, and as useful as possible. So please do check back regularly.

Click the following link to visit the detailing guide.


Quite a few visitors to the site have been asking for a guide on how to fit an MG ZR front splitter, but as I already had a post on fitting mine I chose to update that instead of create a new one. So instead of just pictures showing how I did it, there is now text to support the pictures and hopefully give a full picture of how to do it.

How to fit an MG ZR front splitter


Finally, I have started work on a servicing guide which I am quite excited about due to the success of the detailing guide. It should be launched soon so check back for that.

Engine Detail

The exterior of the car is now looking pretty darn good, the MG ZR body kit, Cupra R splitter, de-tango'd indicators etc. all complimenting each other perfectly.

Wanting to make use of the good weather, I focused on an area of the car that was looking a little lacklustre, the engine bay. Being a bit of a wuss, I chickened out of using a pressure washer to tidy it up as I didn't want to mess up the electrics.

Instead I resorted to some good old fashioned elbow grease and a new product I'd not tried before, Autoglym Engine and Machine Cleaner.

Using some old brushes I found lying around in the man cave, I worked the cleaner fluid into all the surfaces. I didn't go too mad, only addressing the worst of the grime, but it was making quite a difference.

After wiping all the surfaces to remove any excess cleaner fluid, I applied a coating of Meguiars Vinyl and Rubber Protectant to give everything a nice sheen.

Before and After

For a couple of hours work, it was well worth the effort, transforming the engine bay from that of an unloved commuter vehicle to someone's pride and joy.

MG ZR Body Kit

This post is really a culmination of the work carried out in the following posts.

Face Off Grille Finished and Fitted

How to Fit an MG ZR Front Splitter
MG ZR Rear Bumper Fitted
MG ZR Side Skirts Fitted

Seat Leon Cupra R Custom Moulded Splitter

I have to say that the car looks great with the MG ZR body kit (lower valences really), and the custom moulded Seat Leon Cupra R splitter sets the car off a treat. The splitter also works well with the face off grill, resulting in a subtly aggressive front end and a great stance on the road.

In my opinion the omission of the MG ZR spoiler really works well for this car, giving it a sleek profile and maintains the red and black theme throughout.

How to fit an MG ZR front splitter

A number of site visitors have been interested in how I have attached the front MG ZR splitter, so instead of doing a new post I am rewriting this one.

I bought a front MG ZR splitter a long while ago now and have been working quite hard on it, few things needed fixing; end cap had snapped off, paint was bubbling up a treat and there was some bumper tape left on it.

As I received it, end cap fixing snapped off and bubbly paint etc...





Using various grades of wet and dry paper (roughly 200 to 400) I smoothed it back to as good a base surface as possible.

Wet and dried back to a smooth surface



A small fixing was fabricated out of some plastic to replace the broken one. This was then glued into place.

End cap fixing replaced



I then had it resprayed at a local body shop.


Sprayed



Now onto the part about fitting. Both end caps were screwed on to help with the positioning of the front splitter. As the car was on jacks in the garage the front wheels were off, this made it much easier to work on, a recommended step if you are going to undertake the same task.

I already had some strapping lying about in the garage, which was ideal for the job at hand, holding the splitter tight to the front bumper. Each end would be tied to the suspension and pulled tight.

After deciding on the straps to hold the bumper on, I started applying some silicone sealant to the inside ridge (joining face) of the splitter, as you can see it was applied liberally. Once the whole strip had been siliconed, it was moved into position, and then held in place by the strap.

It was also necessary to support the splitter from below, to do this I used two blocks of foam which were also lying around in the garage. They were bent and put under the splitter. They had just enough energy to keep the splitter up, but not enough to move it any higher and out of place, spot on luckily.

It was then a case of waiting overnight for the silicone to go off thoroughly. Upon taking the supports away the splitter didnt fall off so it was a job well done.

Silicone on



Held whilst drying

MG ZR Headlights Fitted

I finally got a hold of some MG ZR headlights to replace my broken Rover 25 ones.

I'd been after some for quite a while, the black insert of the MG ZR (and later year 25's) headlights looks much better in my opinion, and more in keeping with the red/black theme I've got going on.

Whilst work was ongoing with fitting the MG ZR front bumper, it was the ideal opportunity to fit the headlights.

Once the front bumper was off it became apparent my old one wasn't just slightly broken, it was smashed to bits, the previous owner must have given it a fair whack. The fixing bolts were actually holding the fixing tabs together, once removed they fell to pieces.

Likewise when the rear bumper was off, I gave the front end chassis a good clean. If you are going to do a job you might as well do it properly.

All clean, it was time to fit the new headlights, once attached to the car I set the beam correctly. Basically all I did was close the garage door, turn the headlights on and level them up.

 

After everything was set up it was time to put the front bumper back on and see how they look.

A big improvement in my opinion, much meaner at the front end now combined with the face off grille. A worth-while upgrade to any 25 with the original chrome headlights.

Exhaust extension

The MG ZR rear bumper and valance, although subtle, really transformed the back end of the car.

However, I hadn't realised that the valance was actually fitted over the top of the standard Rover 25 bumper lower. (On later Mk1 models the ZR bumper and valance was moulded as one part). This meant the lower part of the bumper was actually further rearward than it was before.

When buying the Longlife exhaust, which was custom made to suit a Rover 25 bumper, I didn't account for this difference. Clearly, some modification was required to extend it.

Rather than cut and shut a section of the exhaust, be it mid pipe or back box, I chose to make a short extension section between them both.

I wanted the exhaust to sit flush with the bumper, not stick out, so by simply measuring from the end of the exhaust tip to the valance gave me 45mm (1 3/4").

Making use of those preschool skills, I took a rubbing of the joining flanges of the back box and the mid pipe. This could then be used to make two metal flanges and a set of 4 gaskets. For the gaskets I used Klingersil C-4400 which can tolerance constant +200°C temperatures and a maximum of +400°C.

To join the two metal flanges together I used a section of tube equal bore to the rest of the exhaust system, then welded the flanges to it.

Everything was going rather swimmingly, so it was time for the first minor hiccup. When test fitting the exhaust extension piece, the Longlife exhaust wasn't mating correctly. This was due to the flange on the back box being welded to the pipe at an angle, to match the mid pipe, but the back box pipe not being cut to the same angle.

Not a major problem, to rectify the problem I simply cut the pipe off flush with the flange.

Minor mod complete, the two parts now mated perfectly.

For such a subtle change, it's made all the difference, taking the car from looking like a clumsily modified car to something close to, if not better than, factory fit. I'm really pleased with the result, and must thank my Dad for his help throughout the mini project, without his skills I'd have been quite stuck.

Before and After