That rust is appalling. Sadly, we have all gotten the pig in a poke. You are a brave man who tried to save the beauty he saw. Your efforts merit celebration, sir.

Many times I listen to the birds after the anguish of finding problems

What a real shame. Hopefully it gets restored. I sold my 850 T-5R to the right guy who totally restored it, looks like a showroom piece now.

That was fun, Ian. Vice Grip Garage would have pealed back the weather sealing about 2 inches, surreptitiously replaced it, patted the car on the roof and declared that job done. Not, Hubnut - invites a nightmare by attacking it with a wire brush. I had a "G" reg 800 and had to fork out for rot repairs in 1993. Your 800 has survived remarkably well. May it rust in peace.

its always the same with rust/rot Ian, soon as you start diggin, it stares right back at you, like a viper.

"Far more rust than I anticipated" Sounds like me on 1st May when I started poking around on the rear lower sills of the MX5 (90's car!). I had no choice but to get on with it. Fortunately I have a mate who knows how to weld. But it took us 5 solid ten hour days to get it sorted between us.

These are a very rare sight on the roads today...!!! 😊

Weirdly Ive found cheap old Rovers to be wildly popular...it cant all be reminiscence or they'd be as valuable as old Fords, and people would have bought them new... Mk3 Cav was the last, best Vauxhall, Id love one too

My step dad was a car dealer in the 90s called "Paturn Cars" - and every so often we would keep a car for a while. My mum had one exactly like this one and loved it but obviously being a car dealer there came a time it had to go. Mum was very fond of it and was furious quoting "you always let me get attached and then you take them away" to my step dad... it wasn't often she got attached for obvious reasons but she really liked her rover 8 series.

Ah that is a terrible shame. Bloody rot - destroyer of fun. My Dad used to be on the British Aerospace Employee Rover Leasing Scheme....probably for about 8-9 years. We had a couple of 820s. They were both with us for about a year a piece. Great cars. Fond memories. Hope she goes to a sympathetic home.

You're gunna need a bigger feather duster.

I wonder if that has actually gone through from the inside as a result of the leaking sunroof? No corrosion protection in the box sections or pillars.

I poke things then wish I hadn't...I think we have all said that at some point in our lives 😂😂

...Hubnut buys a welder, Hubnut binge watches Urchfabs welding videos, Hubnut saves the UK's finest rusty bangers! Good to see you have not wasted any money on racking the new unit, hell there's so much more floor to pile stuff on than starting tidy, mun.

Pete C would see that as a minor issue. Sadly, for the rest of us, it's the end of the road.

The lack of mark 3 Cavaliers on the road anymore is indeed a shame. I drove a dark blue 1995 4 door saloon model Cavalier that belonged to my parents as my first car for several years. It had NO power, but was comfortable, and I actually think that 90's GM slippery styling shared by these and the larger Carlton and Senator was gorgeous.

On the upside...that looks like a cracking storage unit👍🏼

Goodbye to another heroic Hubnut heap. Love your videos Ian. Very relaxing at the end of a hectic day. Looking forward to future projects and adventures

Sounds like some big changes are afoot. Sad about the 800 but maybe some good will come from it, I can weld but would find that repair a daunting and time gobling task. Sad too about Mrs Hubnut not being about. All the best for what's to come young HN. I will keep a weather eye out.

You have certainly made good on your promise to give us videos aplenty since filming this. Keep them coming, they’re all a joy (even the ones where I bury my head over some recent dodgy acquisition of yours!)

Lovin the Nut-Cave , you could put up Lancaster insurance sponsored by posters on the back wall,so much space for activities , after the world tour. We can have a lot more to look forward too. 😃

Sad news Rover-wise but you're not doing too badly overall. Not many of the cars you bring home are in need of quite that much bodywork. Chin up! At least the Fox won't rust up top.

The landscape shown when the C130 flew overhead was truly stunning. You live in a beautiful place Mr. Hubnut.

Pretty much rust free compared to my Lancia a year ago. You have to weigh it up and cut your losses. Needs a good home, it's so nice nice to see a rare series one 800.

Sad to see the Rover go, but I think it was a very wise decision as it needs serious work. Congratulations on the new storage unit, it looks great and can hold the current and new fleet of Hub Nutters 😀 👍

I love this channel. Can't wait to see what cars you discover on your travels. It always amazes me when I've been travelling what old cars you see (that are practically rot free) , just a shame most of them have the pedals on the wrong side!

This car must of have been stored in a moisture ridden environment. These cars were known for rusting but I've never seen them rot under the door seals. It's a shame it couldn't be fix. Hope the next owner will take care of that issue. The Rover has and will be my favorite car on this channel. TWC and Elly are amazing but the Rover 800/Sterling 825/827 have a personality and style that is paramount to other cars.

I had an 820 and I really loved it. Sadly it spent way too many journeys on the back of a break down truck. But, when it did work it was nice.

finding rovers even facelifted ones is like looking for a needle in the haystack. I think the 75 may be quite modern but i think the 2.5 v6 connoisseur will be a classic, especially the pre 2001 models

Father was a panel beater for nearly 40 years and he's always had a disliking for Rover's thanks to how they rot. It's always funny the cars he hates often originates from how much of pain they were to work on (and how much bonus he lost out on!)

I've had this experience 😂 there is few worse parts of car ownership than that "the rust is worse than expected" sinking feeling 😪

I used to hate working on these. Even relatively newish ones were rusty. And as for the cooling system, long steel pipes running along the front of the car which became like lace in no time leading to the coolant exiting and the engine overheating and the head warping.. We used to replace them with copper pipes. They were also prone to interior water ingress and the smell of damp mildewy velour still haunts me to this day.

My heart goes out to you. My last older care a Peugeot 307 had some what i thought was suffice rush on the sills ... wrong ! they were rotten thru and needed welding😥😪😢😭

How about a Rover 800 convertible, lol roof problem sorted. 🤣

Oh dear, that terrible sinking feeling when you find things like that rust. I do empathise. I have had a couple of those with my Austin. As draft-excluding as they are, those darned modern rubber seals only seem to trap water and cause rust. My 1993 Corolla had the same problem along the top of the windscreen and around the tailgate window. I could never have fixed it. Went to the scrap yard at end of 2018. Anyway, back to the present. Sorry to see the Rover go but lovely bird song and fab new storage with electricity for boiling the kettle!

Will be sad to see the Rover go, I loved my 800 vitesse and my current 75 contemporary 2.5 v6.

I hope it does survive! Wishing this lovely motor all the best.

Ever so slightly rusty there.....still, there's some nice singy birds.

Never seen rust like that before. Overall not a great experience as you said Ian, we live and learn. Good luck finding your new pile👍

That is some of the best quality rust I've seen in a long time and should I feel be preserved as part of the car's journey and history.

I had a 1992 820Si from 1995 until 2001 which I picked up very cheap from a mate (wonder why ;). It really was a lovely car - and I loved it. Apart from: the hilarious electronics (electric windows worked occasionally, sun roof - don't try it! - busted fuel gauge and speedo, wipers that went on strike the moment it rained. Etc, etc.), and the knackered dash board (separated from the binnacle after one year - something I did not think was possible in a modern car). The engine and body were sound as a pound for the duration, thankfully. But then one day the clutch stopped working. It just disappeared. After a brief consultation with my friendly local mechanic (who has the manner of a sympathetic vet), it was gently made clear to me that that was that. Rover could not (should not, actually, unless I'm stupid) be saved. It was very sad to see that elegant blue-green road-boat unceremoniously dragged onto the back of the scrap lorry. It was the same resentment and sense of injustice I felt several years later when I lost my beloved dog early to a disease that wasn't breed-congenital. Poor Rover.

It's a shame Pete C isn't into Rovers - he'd have had a roof swapped over from another one in days, with a proper spot-welded and seam sealed factory spec repair. Even if he'd done that though the cost of paint would have still outweighed that of the completed car. Still, if you need a little parts hauler an R8 Tourer would also give you a '90s Rover fix. Lovely wee cars - especially in Nightfire Red.😉

This video has encouraged me to order some rust converter to treat the small patch of rust on the boot of my Jetta, before it develops!

A small electric oil radiator on a temperature switch will be your friend in that storage, just enough to keep the moisture levels down :)

So you are coming to New Zealand. You will love it here. Loads of Japanese cars that you rarely see in the U.K. Fantastic car culture here. Recently attended a British and European classic show in Auckland. Over a 1000 cars entered. Lots of rust free British classics including a Commer van (based on the Hillman Imp) that I had never seen before.

I have a feeling we'll be seeing the first HubNut Van shortly. Seed planted.....

Shame she looked so clean she was hiding a lot behind the door seals. Ach well you did your best.

Sorry about the Rover. Best of luck to you on your own world tour.

That's really sad Ian. Oh well at least you had a buyer lined up. At least its one less car to find storage space for.

I had a Rover 827 Sterling which I bought from Beadles Rover Dartford in 1995. It has exactly the same rot starting around the sunroof aperture where Rover had folded the metal down. It also had the start of rot around the door seal channels exactly the same as this car. I had it all fixed under warranty and they did a decent job. When I sold it a few years later it was still ok. My Sterling was built early 1990 around the same time as this car. Suggests they had some production process problems with the roof on cars around this time. Don't forget this was when a lot of changes were being made at Cowley as they were moving production between old Pressed Steel works and closing the old Cowley North and South works.

I'm the sort of nutter who has owned 8 800's over the years, and I've never seen one rust up there. Everywhere else, but never there! They certainly seen to be disappearing fast, I haven't seen one on the road for ages now, and they used to be all over the place.

Sorry to see the 820 in such a way. But I can certainly see why you spend so much on your cars, they are very much a labour of love and much like many things in life, you may never get out of it what you put in but they are still so damn worth it in the end! :D

That video is tinged with sadness😭 My heart broke a bit when you peeled the seal back. On a positive note, the new unit is something I would love to have and I am also intrigued by what your future adventures will involve! I certainly wish you all the best with your journeys around the planet! In the mean time, can we have a ‘because......Hubnut’ (with the hippy head) tee shirt in the hub nut emporium?

Your videos are absolutely superb! I always enjoy them.

Oh man, I loved that car! On the flip side, I fully understand why you've made the decision you have.

Unfortunately rot like that is pretty common on cars from that sort of era. The mounting lip for the rubber seals is the panel joint between the roof skin and the body sides, the A, B and C pillars, and they're spot-welded together. A lack of finishing and then putting the rubber seal over, in a way that forms the drainage channels for the roof, means that the area is pretty much permanently damp, especially of vehicles that have lived outside a lot, debris can collect there which retain damp and the spot-welds mean that the damp can penetrate into the panel join with the result that it becomes a perfect breeding ground for horrific rot and, because it's not an area that is subject to regular examination as part of the MoT test, the rot goes unnoticed until it has broken out to a paint where it is visible in the door apertures and the roof skin, by which time it is the sort of mess you have here. Newer vehicles avoid the situation, partly by using galvanised panels and partly by having the panel join actually in the roof, which is why a lot of newer cars have the trim strips along the roof, that is where the panel join is, so it is something to be very careful of if you have a car from this era. A lot of careful owners will remove the door seals every year and does the area with Waxoyl or similar, and it does work well. Although it looks terrible, most of what you have here is fairly easy to fix if you can weld well and are good at shaping your own panels. Based on previous HubNut exploits, having said that the next vehicle should be something practical to aid in moving stuff to the storage unit I fully expect the next arrival to be a small two-seater sports car with a microscopic boot. Maybe a Honda Beat...

Also the rover deserves a chance to live on as in history it does play its part in the rover story successor to the SD1 and the massive changes to the British motor industry that followed

Good luck with new garage and venture mate.

Even early 00's cars rot. My neighbour's son's 51 plate BMW mini cooper is starting to rot along bottom of the doors.

MIg welder and plasma cutter is the next stage, sounds grim but not as difficult as you may think. We the back yard garage enthusiast will on a very few occasion make any money doing well if we brake even on the parts let alone labour. But the places i have been the people met the knowledge gained priceless, Transylvanian in the Summer ( Commer camper) big ends willing., as with all things classic it may well be next year thought it was going to be last, OH and it is much cheaper then drinking and smoking. Thanks for the videos from paradise.

2:24 - "Oh this has escalated horribly"...haha that tickled me for some reason. Good old Rover.....I remember someone telling me the factory would leave the new MGs, straight off the production line, with their convertible roofs down in the snow. They never gave a dam about build quality.

We saw you going past Devil's Bridge Station last Friday in the Rover; we went on the Vale Of Rheidol after your video. Farewell Rover indeed.

Great watching and I hope you enjoy your Trip in NZ..Right now its a bit cold due to its Winter..Enjoy.

Now you'll have to tidy the garage. At least there's Scotty Kilmer for untidy garage action. Good luck with your travels Ian, you are a real one-off and highly watchable.

Sad news about the Rover but good news about the continuation of your videos regardless of where.

It was a nice video Ian as usual I got a rover 75 in the end from an old man on the Wirral who had Alzheimer's poor guy but car is 2004 auto with 67000 miles from new story has it it was the last car to role of the production line and the guy who owned it was the managing director of long ridge so feel as if I have to keep her going she's in good nick

I'd have called the video 'Good Riddance Rover' Ian lol. Yes, it is what it is, no ones fault. These things just happen sometimes. That's a nice new 'home' you have.

Might be able to put you in touch with a 92 Cavalier Diplomat. Auto 2litre 8 valve. With towbar!

That’s genuinely shocking rot and in a strange place. May be worth repairing for sheer rarity value but that’s stil a lot of work.

Oh man, never seen rust there before or at least like that... I think if that was me I'd bury my head in the sand, proper 'lalala' style and put the strip back on.... ...bah, no I wouldn't. I'd be like you and it'd ruin my day! We need a list of welders in the country who would like to help keep our old boxes on the road. I need a mate who can weld. There's a welder at the local garage I use but I doubt they'd take on this kind of work for a decent price lol. This is some specialist shizzle. Honestly, if you learn to weld you're guaranteed work for a long, long time.....

It just will not be the same with out the steam train, and the country setting. I hope all goes well for you, keep smiling 😃, an old friend of mine always calls rust tin worm ,I think this should be adopted by Hubnut, Peter would like that kind regards Mike in Durham.

Love the sunroof or what my old Lexus used to say on the trip computer ‘moon roof left open’ .😹

You had fun with it. We had fun also. Job done.

Aw man I'm gutted about this, really liked this motor. But I guess it wouldn't be a true Rover if it didn't have a good amount of body rot going on lol.

I had a similar rot problem on a '90s car I had. It was on the rear wheel arches on my old 1998 Honda Accord (Rover 600 sister-shape model). I was washing it one day when I noticed a few tiny bubbles and rust-bleed where the rear wings meet the plastic sill covers. Honda stupidly fitted rubber stone-chip covers over the wheel arch lips and everything thrown up by the rear wheels gets trapped behind those rubber covers holding in years of dust, salt and moisture most of the time. I decided to pull off those rubber covers and, along with a lot of dirt, came most of the very flakey wheel arch lips and, when I cleaned the arches out as much as I could, there was hardly any solid metal left inside my rear inner-wings. It made a nice mess of my driveway as well. I think most modern Rovers and MG's also had this ridiculous rust-trap set-up. And yes, my Accord bodywork was done properly, but at huge cost. That car was not worth much so I sold it 6 months after that repair. Like Ian, I also wish I left that problem area alone. Out of sight, out of mind and all that.

Seeing that empty parking space made me think of all the cars that sat there. Kind of brought a tear to my eye.

OOOOPs.....such a beauty of the era, yet perhaps it may rust in peace. Would truly love to see this fixed. Alas, poor Rover, away you must go.. Good effort, it looks like it deserves to be sorted though.

A trip to Australia is a must!! a trip to Port Lincoln in South Australia is one to put on your list of places to go :)

Put a caravan in that unit and you can live there..🤗

Been there.. if its not going to be a restoration project..immediately make it an other persons problem..., thx for the vid Ian !!

Nice storage! Well done :D.

Well done for not using the word "fucked" at any point

My heart sunk for you when you peeled that door seal off, and as it got further, more and worse appeared. I totally shared your disappointment because I've been there. A life time (35 of my 53 years) of owning Italian stuff wasn't the cause of it however. My Fiat's, Alfas and Lancias have shown their rot like a badge of honour. It's been British stuff that's kept it so well hidden, and that my friend is even worse. Plastic and rubber trims coming off with lumps of rotten metal attached is an awful feeling. Glad you managed to ship it on, hope you didn't lose too much on it and hopefully it'll go on to be repaired and survive. Dealer plates, bought from SGL (a garage I knew), poverty spec and a bonny car to the eye. Surely that's enough reason to save her?

Thank you so much for awesome video as always :) Loving the CoalChamber sticker :) Cheers from Norway ,Stefan :)

Onwards and upwards. You did your best with that Rover. It’s the one bad apple syndrome . Glad your moving on. Girl friends and old cars tug at are heart strings (wish I still had my first car and my first girlfriend, both nackered now probably though)

My god that's bad o.o It makes me feel much better about the fairly mild (if unsightly) surface rust on my Ital.

Great to hear you won't be stopping the videos I love them and all the cars you like I have had escorts Capri cortina spitfire avenger 2 rovers open manta coupe fiesta I wish I had kept them they are going for thousands now ..good ones cheers jeff

Great unit! I've been trying to get one for years, but in the south of Glasgow you'd pay £500+ a month for a leaky shed without electricity and barely the space to open the car door.

Just think how much rubbish you can pile up inside the door of that new garage.

Watched 2nd half the rest show review last night, and was thinking when I saw the state of the rover that maybe next year it will be on a stand with large holes in it! Looks like a great workshop, would love something like that to store cars and tinker in!

I would be very tempted to take the roof off and make it a convertible :-) .

Is that the last you will see of the Rover now? Always amazing the way you flip cars over so quickly to the new and willing... I think for many there would have been an inquest and ponder first instead your "oh dear what's this - right your gone tomorrow" LOL

i realised a long time ago, cars at the bottom end of price are a money pit till the end, i bought a 12 year old mk2 fiesta and it was a rotbox, i welded sills, floorplan and wheel arch repairs, then the wheel bearing went, the head gasket, water pump, alternator, battery 2 leaking shocks, exaust over the next 2 years, fixed that and then the engine got low compression on one cylinder (piston issue)......gave up and bought a car in good condition for 3x the pricewhat i paid for the mk2, and i had THAT car for 20 years and still was in great condition, it had almost no issues in comparison, the 950cc used way more petrol than the 1.3i that replaced it too

Nowhere near as bad as the white Rover P6 Classic Britain was thinking of buying:-) . Great new workshop/storage which will serve you well on your return from your travels. I'm very envious of the space. Must get back to my welding practice - trickier than it looks so beware rust buckets !

Hi Ian, the Rovers roof didn't look too good,it was really crusty from the video,it was a nice car but it has gone to another 820 owner,the storage unit for the fleet is spacious and it's ideal for carrying out repairs.

Great to see you off loa... I mean found it a new home.

Ian, you'd be proud. I bought a very base model AU Falcon for $300. Very HubNut. Then I was given another one for parts. It turns out the parts car is better than the bought one and isn't the base model. However I have decided to get both running. Being Brisbane in Australia the rust is not an issue.

Oh no poor little rover 😢

That was probably the biggest killer for that car, killer rust. The one I owned was the SLI version, 1989 (F registration) the doors, sunroof were rotten. That needs a ton of work, only worth doing if you’re going to keep the car long term. You can see why a decent example would be worth decent money now. Very rare to find anything decent from that era.

Looks bad Ian. I’m with you and wouldn’t know how to even start thinking about tackling the rot. At least the birds are singing !!