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Hello again! My last thread has long since been archived but since I just picked up another project I figured I'd start up a new one. For those who don't know, my previous projects were a 1953 Chevy 3600 that has been family since it was new and a 1957 Divco 374 that was part of the family dairy fleet from 1957 - 1969.  After my thread went to archive heaven I also picked up a 1942 Ford GPW and a 1965 Mustang.   The GPW is a blast in the summer (especially with the windshield down) so it isn't going anywhere. The Mustang, however, is a different story. I had picked it up with the idea of using it for a three season driver. Something I could leave in a parking lot and not worry about. I mean, it has a 289 V8 and a really nice exhaust, how could it not be perfect? Well, it turns out I'm just not a Mustang guy. It is great to look at but it just didn't do anything well. If I wanted to keep it I would have had to dump a bunch of money into it to upgrade the brakes, gearing, etc and I just couldn't justify it. I would be surprised if I even drove it 100 miles this year. So I listed it for sale and started looking for its replacement. I knew I wanted a replacement 3 season car that covered the Mustangs limitations so I had some pretty rigid criteria: Heat Air conditioning Four doors Capable of easily cruising at 70 Unique Comfy seats Floaty ride / land yacht With that criteria there are plenty of American land barges available for reasonable money that fit the bill but they just didn't do it for me. They were a bit too common for my tastes. So with that criteria I stumbled upon what I think covers all that perfectly:  Behold my new 1972 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. Yes, I know this is a terrible idea. I did my usual thing first, I looked at a couple cars nearby that were cheaper. I even came really close to buying one of them. But luckily I got the better of myself and remembered that I don't have time for a multi year project anymore so I should just spend the extra money upfront and buy a better car. Maybe even one with little to no rust. I found this one listed for sale in Ohio. In any other year that would have been a perfect excuse for a long weekend road trip to look at it. With the whole pandemic thing I just couldn't risk the drive or staying in a hotel. Luckily RIP Paul Walker was willing to go take a look for me. He even gave me an hour long walkthrough on Zoom and sent a boatload of pictures. No way would I have bought it sight unseen had he not done that so I can't thank him enough. It was hard to not fall for the car when he sent pictures like this:         The story goes the seller bought the car back in '09 after it had been sitting for years. He pumped boatloads of money into the car and proceeded to drive it all of 300 miles in 11 years. He said he was afraid to drive it for some reason. In the end I picked it up for about what he paid for it so I'm pretty happy with the deal. It only has just over 22k original miles and is in great shape. The only rust on the car is some minor surface stuff on the rear lower quarters. Otherwise the car is freakishly solid and original. It still has its original paint, although it isn't perfect. It is failing a bit on the top edges of the doors. Luckily the doors are aluminum so I'm not too worried about it. I put 100 miles on the car before some issues cropped up that forced me to park it for the season. I have a bunch of work to do on it to make it a reliable (well, as reliable as a 48 year old Rolls Royce can be anyhow) driver. But this is long enough, so that'll be next time.
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Dec 24, 2020 03:13
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Oh my god. It seems like the perfect car for you.
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Dec 24, 2020 04:12
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God drat it RipPaulWalker, stop being an enabler! Just kidding. That's a beautiful car.
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Dec 24, 2020 08:33
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Mooecow, you sure know how to pick 'em. Looking forward to seeing what you do with that beauty!
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Dec 24, 2020 08:41
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That GPW tho.... I've always wanted one of these, but the later ones, I guess the korean war version? dont feel bad about the mustang, its a mustang.  Doesn't this era of rolls have a lot of GM stuff hidden inside? This thing looks to be in very nice shape. I think its kinda funny how a lot of old faces are reappearing here now.
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Dec 24, 2020 12:29
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Ground floor! So excited to see what magic you work this time.
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Dec 24, 2020 13:26
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Hopefully be another good project here!
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Dec 24, 2020 14:35
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This is the best thread.
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Dec 24, 2020 16:31
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Hell yeah. Hey I don't know if it would ever come up, but I live in walking distance from a vintage RR/Bentley parts dealer/service shop —they sell a few new Bentleys a year, still, but most of their work is on old cars— and if there's anything I can do to help you get parts shipped to/from them or whatever I'd be happy to.LobsterboyX posted:Doesn't this era of rolls have a lot of GM stuff hidden inside? This thing looks to be in very nice shape. Frigidaire-marked AC compressor (you can see it in the engine bay photo), a TH350 transmission, maybe some other stuff, too.
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Dec 24, 2020 18:43
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bennyfactor posted:Frigidaire-marked AC compressor (you can see it in the engine bay photo), a TH350 transmission, maybe some other stuff, too. TH400. And not just a normal off the line TH400. Different main housing, there's converter and valvebody differences. RR took the original 400, dismantled it, cleaned up all the GMness, put it back together, and well, it didn't loving work. They relied on GM to provide support. I used to be friends with retired Hydramatic engineer. All the body wiring in this puppy is run through conduit. I knew a guy about a decade ago that shelled out around 5 figures to get a section of the body harness replaced as it was intermittently shorting against the conduit. Involved stripping the interior out. Window lift motors were a constant hassle for him too. gently caress yes in on the ground floor! I love these old rollers.
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Dec 24, 2020 19:03
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Two questions: 1) are those binders on the back seat maintenence history? Shop manuals? 2) what the hell is 'I' on the gearshift? PRNDL I get...but...'I'? Edit: Google says 'intermediate', where it only stays in the first 3 gears. Captain McAllister fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Dec 24, 2020 |
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Dec 24, 2020 22:15
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I look forward to seeing what you do with this beast! I live about 10 miles from what was the Rolls Royce factory in Crewe (now Bentley). I am assuming that in the 70's they were built over here and shipped to you?
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Dec 24, 2020 23:42
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Captain McAllister posted:Edit: Google says 'intermediate', where it only stays in the first 3 gears. Well, first 2 in a th400. It's PRND21 on that trans when it's in a Chevy but the English gotta have letters there all proper like
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Dec 25, 2020 00:32
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Goddamn, that is a BEAUTIFUL car.
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Dec 25, 2020 13:16
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Wow this takes me back. I remember the Chevy 3600 from way back. It was what made me stay in AI.
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Dec 25, 2020 13:43
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Let me be the first to say this, LS swap.
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Dec 25, 2020 15:20
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Elephanthead posted:Let me be the first to say this, LS swap.
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Dec 25, 2020 15:47
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This is gonna be at least ten kinds of great.
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Dec 25, 2020 15:49
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I love these vicarious ownership threads. I’m excited to see [obv. depending on how deep your restoration goes] what the guts of these look like. Merry Christmas all.
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Dec 25, 2020 15:59
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Hahaha of course it's a Rolls. I'm super looking forward to see what you do with it.
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Dec 25, 2020 16:35
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Oh hell yeah I love those things. If you have any weird questions feel free to ask me. My best friends dad was the president of the Rolls Royce club of Australia for decades. PRO TIP: Dont pay Rolls Royce prices for a lot of mechanical bits, almost all of them are available much cheaper because there are other cars that use the same parts with extremely minor changes One example is the distributor cap (and probably distributor) the "Rolls Royce" part is literally 15 times the price of a near identical part (cap is a different colour so if you aren't doing concours it doesn't matter) e: cursedshitbox posted:TH400. And not just a normal off the line TH400. Different main housing, there's converter and valvebody differences. RR took the original 400, dismantled it, cleaned up all the GMness, put it back together, and well, it didn't loving work. They relied on GM to provide support. I used to be friends with retired Hydramatic engineer. Thats true however the parts do largely interchange, if you want an overdrive setup the 4l80 was available in some rollsbentleys of the early 90s. nearly forgot: if you have the means, an early Bentley Turbo R intake manifold has a 4 barrel carbie which is vastly superior to the shithouse ones fitted to Rolls Royces of that era big dong wanter fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Dec 25, 2020 |
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Dec 25, 2020 17:45
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Elephanthead posted:Let me be the first to say this, LS swap. After seeing Hoovies videos about his Bentlys and Rolls, I second this. Better to just swap a reliable drivetrain into it.
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Dec 25, 2020 19:31
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LobsterboyX posted:Doesn't this era of rolls have a lot of GM stuff hidden inside? This thing looks to be in very nice shape. So far I've found the following GM on it: Air pump system, power steering pump, A/C system, transmission. If only they had used a GM braking system. Captain McAllister posted:Two questions: Just poorly printed shop manuals. It's too bad too, they left some creases in the leather that I don't think are going to come out. Tomarse posted:I look forward to seeing what you do with this beast! Yup, built in Crewe.  MrOnBicycle posted:Wow this takes me back. I remember the Chevy 3600 from way back. It was what made me stay in AI. It's hard to believe I've had that truck over 10 years Elephanthead posted:Let me be the first to say this, LS swap. Haha. I was looking for one with a good body but a bad engine to do an engine swap. Even looked at a '72 LWB with a 350 swap already done. As much as I would have liked the added reliability it just doesn't look right when you pop the hood. To use the old cliche', the 6.75 Litre is "adequate". Plus it is a pretty basic setup, dual SU carbs so there isn't too much to go wrong (cue foreshadowing I'm sure...).  big dong wanter posted:Oh hell yeah I love those things. bennyfactor posted:Hell yeah. Hey I don't know if it would ever come up, but I live in walking distance from a vintage RR/Bentley parts dealer/service shop —they sell a few new Bentleys a year, still, but most of their work is on old cars— and if there's anything I can do to help you get parts shipped to/from them or whatever I'd be happy to. Thank you both for the offers. If I need some parts or advice I'll definitely post it here. Luckily there are some interchange guides out there and you better believe I'm going to research like crazy before willingly paying Rolls Royce pricing for parts. ______________ For those of you curious, here are some pictures of the GPW.          The car was dropped off Friday morning and that is where the fun began.   It just barely started coming out of the trailer but died right after. No amount of jumping would get it running so we had no choice but to push it in. As one would expect for a 5,000 lb car that didn't quite work. With two of us we could get it rolling but as soon as we hit the lip at the end of the driveway it was game over. No amount of a running start would get it. So we went to plan B:  This gave the GPW another chance to show up and save the Brits again  It's almost as if Rolls Royce expected their cars to break down, there are two great tow hooks right in front.On the bright side, it looked really nice in the garage.   It turns out the points were horribly pitted. With some filing I got the car to run poorly but not nearly good enough to drive. I was planning to install Pertronix anyway so this just moved that timeline up. With the Pertronix and some timing adjustments it ran great. While I was waiting for the Pertronix to arrive I worked on applying some Leatherique to the seats. I'm pretty sure the previous owner never applied any leather treatment to the seats because they were hard. I was really afraid to sit on them because I was convinced they would crack. After a week of constantly reapplying the Leatherique the seats are now much softer. Now the car was ready to drive. I was able to drive it for a weekend before the first issue cropped up. One of the rear CV boots tore and started leaking/flinging gear oil. I went to price out a replacement thinking how bad could it be? Well, turns out just the boot is north of $100. The other side boot is also brittle and needs replacing so hopefully I can find something more reasonable. In the meantime I needed to get the VIN verified so I rednecked something together with flextape and plastic to hold some fluid in so I could drive it a few more miles.  With the leaking boot and impending road salt I figured I might as well get started on tearing the car down for a winter of deferred and preventative maintenance. First step, strip the interior:      Alright, that is already a wall of text. We'll get caught up to present day next time. Mooecow fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Dec 26, 2020 |
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Dec 26, 2020 02:10
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That rolls looks awesome, though im sad we didn't get a GPW restoration thread. Ive always wanted a GPW.
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Dec 26, 2020 06:39
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Is that a fake shaft-style radio cover for a modern head unit? Pretty slick.
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Dec 26, 2020 06:55
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Whoa that’s super cool. Hope you can get it reliable, or at least entertaining.
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Dec 26, 2020 18:50
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Oh man, I would have loved a full on thread for the gwp project! Bookmarked this one as hard as I could though.
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Dec 27, 2020 04:13
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 This will be awesome. Though it appears some arse has already modernized the 70s audio.
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Dec 27, 2020 20:48
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Why are you tearing out the interior? I can't tell how that's attached, but you want to figure out some anti-theft for it sooner than later. On the older ones it was actually the radiator cap, so we had a dummy that we'd screw on whenever we left the car out in public and weren't near it. My dad has had 3 Rolls, a '34, a '23, and a few years ago he bought a '73 like yours, but since it wasn't like the older cars he hated it. It had too much 70's in it for him, and he immediately re-sold it. Still gorgeous though! Get ready for everyone you don't know well to make all kinds of assumptions and act weird around you. LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Dec 29, 2020 |
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Dec 29, 2020 07:48
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It was super fun to check this thing out, and it convinced my girlfriend that old cars could be cool!the spyder posted:God drat it RipPaulWalker, stop being an enabler! :waves: Spyder and I go waaaay back
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Dec 29, 2020 16:52
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LloydDobler posted:Get ready for everyone you don't know well to make all kinds of assumptions and act weird around you. That's typical with any luxury car, when I got my wife her first Lexus LS (that we paid 9k for) people were asking us if we won the lottery and/or when did we get all this money. People are dumb.
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Dec 29, 2020 18:33
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The first thing I think of when I see a clean old Lexus on the road is "either this person bought it new and still drives it, because they run forfuckingever, or they were insanely smart and bought it after it depreciated enough to be affordable yet still insanely reliable". FWIW, my dad - who pulls in about 200k a year working part time (he's semi-retired) - used to drive Lexus, Acura, Infinity, etc - even a few Thunderbirds (80s models), had a couple of Stations/Conquests, etc. He's always liked the nicer sport/luxury segment, then went "reliable boringness" (his Infiniti was a G35 coupe tho). Never got into the German stuff, he's been strictly Japanese variants aside from random Fords (before AND after the Fords, he was DSM - most of them turbo w/3 pedals - though one Ford was technically a Mazda [89 Ford Probe V6 auto]). His last car was an EX-L V6 Accord, his current one is a loaded Camry (but with the 4 cyl?). He bitches a little about the power off the line, but loves the mileage. 200k a year means many different things depending where you live - he's in my hometown, which is a relatively low income border town - he's very much in the 5% club there (200k in Silicon Valley wouldn't be poo poo, he might be able to afford a studio apartment if he kept up with his current retirement and savings contributions...). When I did the jaw drop upon seeing the Camry, he looked hurt - I told him I was impressed he'd picked up a Camry and congratulated him on his low lease payments. They're boring, but they're reliable as hell, they're nice cars, and since he usually does a 3 year lowish mileage lease, the residual is so high that the payments are just stupid low. I eventually pried out his lease payment.. it's ~$200/mo and includes all oil changes (it probably helps that he's friends with the owner of several dealers in town, so he immediately gets the lowest out the door price with 3 years of maintenance included). He couldn't tell you the difference between a screwdriver or a gallon of oil (seriously, my stepmom hides tools from him... I get a yearly "honey do" list when I visit), and went over 30k without an oil change on the Probe (it was smoking pretty bad and starting to tell knock knock jokes when he got rid of it <60k - also failed smog hilariously badly). He just used to like sporty, then sporty + luxury, now just "can I get a heat pack on my back on the way to the tennis club by flipping a switch, and while we're at it, can we fly past everyone doing 45 in a 60 without thinking about it?". randomidiot fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Dec 29, 2020 |
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Dec 29, 2020 18:42
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EXCUSE ME, you did a whole other project and didn't share it with us? With the pic of the GPW I was certain you just bought a nice finished example. The Divco contributed to my conviction that I could actually do bodywork and have a quality product. I have a nicer project now so I'm hoping to pick up tips on fine detail work, so this is perfect.
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Dec 30, 2020 02:52
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Welcome back! Glad to see you got the GPW, welcome to the Jeep Cult!
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Dec 30, 2020 17:43
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bennyfactor posted:Is that a fake shaft-style radio cover for a modern head unit? Pretty slick. STR posted:
I wish it was a cover. This is a case of me posting pictures out of order a bit. The original AM/FM radio didn't really work (even with the 4 foot aerial extended - seriously it looks ridiculous when extended) and since I wanted bluetooth I threw a cheap headunit in it. I couldn't justify the $300+ for a modern vintage looking one. Maybe down the road once this thing stops trying to bleed me dry. I will be keeping the 8 track player in the upper console though just for looks.  LloydDobler posted:Why are you tearing out the interior? The leather is pretty dry so I pulled it all so I can get the conditioner in every nook and cranny. Plus some of the HVAC is acting up so it is much easier to lay down and reach under the dash with the interior gutted. Some Silver Shadows had an alarm attached to the mascot. So when it was pulled on the horns would go off for 15 seconds. This car doesn't have that but I'm definetely going to look into adding it. Those assumptions have definitely already started. I have a feeling that it is going to become a reflex to explain that they aren't actually worth as much as people think they are. RIP Paul Walker posted:It was super fun to check this thing out, and it convinced my girlfriend that old cars could be cool! In that case I shall await your upcoming project thread One of the common issues with these cars is that the power door locks freeze up over time. No exception here, all four didn't work unless you helped them up/down. First step is to cheat and lift the car in the air a couple feet so you can sit on a rolling stool and work on removing the door panels.  Luckily the door panels came off with little effort. From there you can peel off the vapor barrier and have access to the door lock solenoids, window motors, speaker, etc.    The entire door skin and structure is made of aluminum so no rust to be found. Although there is a creative way to ensure the door skin doesn't rattle:  From there it is just three bolts, a couple linkages, and a few wires and the solenoid is free.  The only issue with the solenoid is that there is corrosion in the bore and the assembly doesn't move up and down freely. So it just needs to be cleaned & reassembled. Just a bit time consuming since all four needed to be done. Now all four doors have working locks.   This weekend I'll be working on the rear end. It turns out that the rear coils, which I'm pretty sure are the originals, are sagging really badly. This means that the rear load leveling system was always on, which isn't ideal. Of course this'll require removing the load leveling rams and depressuring the hydraulic system. Should be interesting.
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Dec 31, 2020 04:46
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I am enthralled with the idea of rebuildable automatic door locks. How quaint! I mean we’re maybe a decade away from BMW claiming the door must be replaced.
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Dec 31, 2020 05:00
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sincx fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Mar 23, 2021 |
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Jan 2, 2021 21:35
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sincx posted:YES ANOTHER MOOECOW PROJECT THREAD Nope, I should have created a backup of it but never did.  ___ Lets get to work on fixing the rear suspension. Can't have a Rolls Royce sagging like a shagged out 80's Caddy! In order to work on replacing the rear shocks & springs the rear axle shafts had to come out. Seeing as they had to come out to have their boots replaced anyway that was perfect. With how the rear diff is mounted to the crossmember the diff needs to be dropped out of the car to get the rear cover off. Since I'm pretty sure the gear oil in the diff was the original fluid I wanted to take a peek in the diff and see how everything looked.   Not surpisingly there was a nice layer of sludge at the bottom of the diff. Other than that the ring gear looked to be great shape.   Since I didn't feel like completely tearing down the diff to clean it even more I just tipped it on end for the weekend to let anything else in there run out.   Now to swap out the rear springs & shocks I had to reinstall the diff. It is the only proper jacking point on the rear of the car. Apparently the body is fairly flimsy so you can't just lift one side at a time on the sills. Since the rear has the load leveling suspension the first step is to depressurize the hydraulic system. Since the same hydraulic system works the brakes and load leveling you need to pump the brake pedal 100ish times. After this the brake pressure warning lights on the dash for both circuits should light up. After pumping the brake pedal until my leg was dead only one of the lights came on. The light turns on when the test button is pressed and I manually grounded the sensor to confirm the wiring was ok. So I guess I need to add rebuilding or replacing the hydraulic pressure sensor to the todo list. For sure that is critical to replace, when you lose hydraulic pressure you completely lose brakes. So in the trunk mounted on the top of the rear shock towers are the load leveling hydraulic rams:  With the right tools (and a bunch of luck) they aren't terrible to remove. Just undo the three bolts holding them down and lift the body to reveal the large nut:  With the nut revealed you take your massive wrench to grab that nut and unthread it:   From there it is pretty straightforward like a normal car. Disconnect the linkage to the load leveling control valve to control arm and jack the car scary high up in the air:  From the factory there are different amounts of shims installed on each side to ensure the car sits perfectly level. There was 3/4" on the drivers side but only 1/8" on the passenger.  The only rear shocks available were Bilsteins, pricey but at least now the car should handle like a Lotus   So now while the hydraulic system is depressurized it is time to flush the system and replace all the rubber lines. All dozen+ of them. The previous owner had the lines replaced but since the fluid is 10+ years old (the recommendation is flushing the fluid every three years) I think it'll just be best to replace it all and flush the system. I had a bit of time left Sunday afternoon so I popped the top on the fluid reservoir to see how it looked. Turns out, not ideal: 
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Jan 8, 2021 01:16
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sincx fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Mar 23, 2021 |
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Jan 8, 2021 07:14
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 13:04 |
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I like to drive a car
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Jan 8, 2021 07:36
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