A shed of a 1972 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow

[Efbe]

so may people replying on this thread who must must leave all their repairs to a garage.

a few thousand quid to fix brakes and suspension... seriously?

OP ignore this lot, you obviously have experience already, so have fun and work your way through the list of bits to do, Roadkill style

[k-ink]

On the one hand I want to applaud your bold new project. It could be something quite different and cool. But....

I am a bit concerned looking at the rust issues. I'd thoroughly check it out before you go buying parts. Maybe strip it down to a bare shell and try to find some shiny stuff. Hopefully what is left will be vaguely car shaped.

[J4CKO]

TooMany2cvs said:

J4CKO said:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221215547938

Or, much cheaper

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162105381961

£800, new-old-stock.

Or £165 starting price auction, eight days to go, used and scruffy - look at the bubbling at the back edge, and the mess around the screen pillar curve. I'd definitely be asking for better photos, inside and out, of that area...

Actually, I'm not sure the NOS one looks bad value in comparison.

Yeah, however, with care I am sure the original is salvageable,

I hadnt done one before and I had a go on the minor bubbling (turned out to be quite bad) on my 944













And some at the back










Its not super hard if you are reasonably handy, the 944 repairs passed muster with my local Porsche specialist, he asked where I had the bodywork done as it was a good job, had done it between visits and he had advised me to get it done, he was gobsmacked when I said I had tackled it, had some experience from our Fiat 500s's but he didnt know how long it had taken me seriously time consuming for a novice, not sure I would fancy doing a Roller, complex metalwork involved but that is how you learn.

[g3org3y]

Great project! Best of luck.

[rxe]

Efbe said:

so may people replying on this thread who must must leave all their repairs to a garage.

a few thousand quid to fix brakes and suspension... seriously?

OP ignore this lot, you obviously have experience already, so have fun and work your way through the list of bits to do, Roadkill style

The worry for me is not the mechanical, it is the rust. I'm used to rust, I drive Alfas, but this is proper scale rust. Unless OP is very handy at fabrication and welding, it is going be painful and expensive. With Alfas, I can look at a wing, think "too hard" and get one, in the right colour, off eBay for £30. OP does not have this luxury, for pretty much every part the sellers will be requiring his firstborn!

[Slow]

I think a few of you are misunderstanding this project. Its not/never going to be a show car, this is all I know so far.

Anything thats fked body wise will be fresh metal welded in, not bothered if its not 100% correct by using genuine parts/used parts.

Mechanically anything that breaks that costs alot will be converted to something from another car. This may cost as much but in future if its breaks it wont require selling a kidney.

[Pommygranite]

how much did you pay OP?

[Trabi601]

Efbe said:

so may people replying on this thread who must must leave all their repairs to a garage.

a few thousand quid to fix brakes and suspension... seriously?

OP ignore this lot, you obviously have experience already, so have fun and work your way through the list of bits to do, Roadkill style

I think you underestimate the complexity and price of parts to fix a Shadow's braking and suspension.

[OverSteery]

Trabi601 said:

I think you underestimate the complexity and price of parts to fix a Shadow's braking and suspension.

But ultimately brakes are disks, calipers, servo, master cylinder and some pipes, for the determined other cheap parts can be made to fit.

Is the rust that could be the killer . I had 70s alfas, a repair plate needs something to be welded to...

Good luck op, I applaud you and hope you prove all the doom mongers wrong

[TooMany2cvs]

OverSteery said:

Trabi601 said:

I think you underestimate the complexity and price of parts to fix a Shadow's braking and suspension.

But ultimately brakes are disks, calipers, servo, master cylinder and some pipes, for the determined other cheap parts can be made to fit.

Not quite. A Shadow's brakes are Citroen high-pressure brakes. But there's two complete sets.
http://www.rrsilvershadow.com/ETechn/Hydr/Compbrca...

Then there's the hydraulics used for the suspension - but only as self-levelling, on top of normal coil springs and dampers.

[rb5er]

I imagine this car will need lots of bits from different cars to be made to fit for it to be possible economically.

Maybe the m5 would have been more sensible.

[imagineifyeswill]

Im afraid anyone to thinks other cheap parts can be modified to fit a Rolls Royce is living on a different planet, RRs are vey complex cars and that particular example is well past any economical or worthwhile repair, Half a dozen small insignificant trim parts on Ebay would recover his money then dig a hole and bury the rest, the price off scrap is so low its hardly worth bothering to weih it in.

[Blackpuddin]

TooMany2cvs said:

Then there's the hydraulics used for the suspension - but only as self-levelling, on top of normal coil springs and dampers.

I'm guessing OP will be binning the self-levelling system. I like his approach.

[El Guapo]

Do yourself a huge favour - salvage any viable parts for resale then scrap the rest.

[OverSteery]

TooMany2cvs said:

OverSteery said:

Trabi601 said:

I think you underestimate the complexity and price of parts to fix a Shadow's braking and suspension.

But ultimately brakes are disks, calipers, servo, master cylinder and some pipes, for the determined other cheap parts can be made to fit.

Not quite. A Shadow's brakes are Citroen high-pressure brakes. But there's two complete sets.
http://www.rrsilvershadow.com/ETechn/Hydr/Compbrca...

Then there's the hydraulics used for the suspension - but only as self-levelling, on top of normal coil springs and dampers.

Indeed and my suggestion would be skip both existing brake systems and replace with a complete system made up from other parts, non trivial and time consuming, but possible.
Access to a proper engineering workshop will probably be needed
Kind of like building a kit car on a rr chassis. I wouldn't have chosen this car to start with, but....

Edited by OverSteery on Saturday 18th June 10:12

[austinsmirk]

Seemingly rust free rolls and bentleys are up for around 5 k all day long on car and classic. With history and test.

I fear you've bought a pile of rust with little to weld too. I hope it was a 50 quid punt and yr not into it for much. I'm sure it'll be good fun and to be fair I've never had or will own such a car. But I can't see this hitting the road soon.

[TooMany2cvs]

austinsmirk said:

Seemingly rust free rolls and bentleys are up for around 5 k all day long on car and classic. With history and test.

Indeed. And one with bodged-together mechanicals taken from random other big cars and medium-sized vans will never fetch that much.

austinsmirk said:

But I can't see this hitting the road soon.

I think your last word may not be required.

[Slow]

If your a member of the Rolls Royce forum please dont read any futher, you may have a heart attack at the state of the car and my plans for it.

So before work today ive had a "small" poke around with a large screwdriver.

Good and bad news really.

Lets start with the good - inner sills, inner arches and doors are not rotten. This makes repairs ALOT easier, expecially as its being repainted so dont need to match the old colour.

Bad news - lots of welding to be done, mainly the front + rear lower sections (valence?) and the outer sills. May end up using the suggestion of box tubing like the offroad boys do, having seen it done on defender im not against the idea.

Found some of the music that used to be listened to in this, 8 track is long before my time so when I first saw the catridges (assume this is what they are called) I was mildly baffled as some didnt have labels as to what they are. Can imagine driving along with Ride of the Valkyres on though if it works.















The floorpan seems solid enough but only stripping it and getting it on the ramp will reveal all. The sills though...







Rear end is filled with *free* speed holes, Rolls Royce were so generous when building this car.







Someone tried repair a corner.





You can see the doors havent rotted from the inside out which is nice. The rats nest of wiring however doesnt look as fun to sort out.





Interior pieces seem in 1 piece with the other bits laying around inside it so they can be flung onto ebay I guess. The wood however has all peeled so will be wrapped at a guess with some alluminium door cards made up.



Engine is uhh.... there? Dont even know how well/if it runs, was last driven 2-3 years ago when driven onto and off a trailer.


Will add more pictures when I get home from work. Upload speed is too slow to get them up just now.

[jhonn]

TooMany2cvs said:

I think your last word may not be required.

Hhmmm... I think that's a bit unfair and a tad negative; I suspect that austinsmirk is correct and it will be some time before this is road ready.

However Slow has not given any indication of how long this project is likely to take him - I suspect many months if not more than a year, maybe longer.
That's neither here nor there though, I'm in favour of remaining positive and encouraging and supporting him through the forum as much as possible.

I like the way that he's thinking of taking the project and I do know that with some ingenuity, lateral thinking and access to the right tools and skills he will be capable of creating something unique. I can't imagine that many of the bits that find their way on to the car will be Rolls Royce.

We might have to wait a long time, and we may not all agree with what he's doing - but hey, it's going to be interesting.

[mwstewart]

Good luck. Following with interest.