Can you "properly" shed an old Rolls Royce?

[Krhuangbin]

Hopefully not one to move to the RR forum, because my wonderings are a bit, shall we say, less than appropriate, to be included there

Essentially, I would absolutely LOVE, and am dreaming about, an absolute shed of an old Roller to smoke about in this year.

I have absolutely no desire for any kind of "presentability" if that's a word. In fact the shabbier the better. But i'd love a proper bottom of the market, scruffy, shabby, down on it's luck Royce for the day to day few miles around town type duties. We're talking a £3-6k Shadow or Spirit. A Royce and not a Bentley, although essentially the same cars I think from this period.

I'd like one that whilst cosmetically (endearingly so) atrocious (and would leave it that way), could be kept chugging along with the bare minimum of effort and expense.

I'm concerned that due to the specialism of these, some dirt cheap back street garage would be flummoxed by the most basic of tasks such as brakes, basic engine and suspension maintenance.

Am I dreaming or is it possible to run a snotter example of these for peanuts?

Edit to add, I'm more than capable of basic maintenance and servicing, enough to keep a normal shed on the road

Edited by Krhuangbin on Thursday 5th January 20:12

[sunnyb13]

probably could - although suspect parts would need to come directly from main dealer. cant see eurocarparts or similar stocking much

[Krhuangbin]

sunnyb13 said:

probably could - although suspect parts would need to come directly from main dealer. cant see eurocarparts or similar stocking much

Yes thats true - if one had a sound engine, brake discs/pads and unbroken suspension.. reckon it could last 2 or 3k city miles without too much trouble?

[Objective Alpha]

This video may be worth a watch:
Channel is Car Throttle and they bought this bentley for £5k and in this video take it for a small road trip into europe.
I know you were not looking for a Bentley however as they are so similar it may give you an idea for what to expect as owning.
im pretty sure they have done more than this one video on it so may be helpful:

Buying the car (watch from 13:50 where they get to purchasing it)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHes3ZuZPRA&t=...

Road trip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alrg3wmQkoo&ab...

Edited by Objective Alpha on Thursday 5th January 23:39

[J4CKO]

Hmm, old rollers seem to be better when used regularly but a ropey one can be a real nightmare, not much direct experience other than knowing a car dealer that ram one for a bit and that seems to be hard work. Also an old teacher of mine who lives near my parents always had Shadows and he managed.

They like to eject mineral oil from every orifice and rust.

Then there is the fuel economy, don’t expect anything more than mid teens, likely less and single figures isn’t unheard of !

[Jordie Barretts sock]

I don't doubt any back street garage will be able to look after the basics, drive train, suspension and brakes without difficulty. It's the specialist Rolls bits that will prove it's undoing. And the rust. All the rust. But again, a back street garage can weld...

[shiversaint]

I think you'd need to be good with your own spanners and can competently weld to make this work. The parts would be your undoing but to negate you'd absolutely have to be doing the work yourself. So many other luxobarges that are much more viable for this, like late 80s/early 90s big mercs etc.

Love the idea though and completely empathise with the "keep it tatty" idea.

[Pablo16v]

I think the answer to your question is to buy one and see

[ARHarh]

The art of "shedding" is to not repair what is not essential. I would imagine most of it will stay working just fine as it does on most cars. What the real problem will be is stuff like brake disk at £200 for the front and stuff like that.

https://www.flyingspares.com/ have a look for ideas on costs

[eldar]

ARHarh said:

The art of "shedding" is to not repair what is not essential. I would imagine most of it will stay working just fine as it does on most cars. What the real problem will be is stuff like brake disk at £200 for the front and stuff like that.

https://www.flyingspares.com/ have a look for ideas on costs

Prices don't look outrageous, compared to sheddy big mercs, bmw and lexus. As you say, a mix of bodging and if it aint broke, dont fix it.

[Piersman2]

Krhuangbin said:

sunnyb13 said:

probably could - although suspect parts would need to come directly from main dealer. cant see eurocarparts or similar stocking much

Yes thats true - if one had a sound engine, brake discs/pads and unbroken suspension.. reckon it could last 2 or 3k city miles without too much trouble?

There is at least 1 RR breaker , maybe more, than can source used parts for a fraction of the list price.

My father has run a series of old Rollers for decades, never pays a huge amount for them £5-10k. He's had 4 or 5, some bought with veiwings, a couple bought 'blind' but cheap from E-Bay!

Fair to say the ebay specials ended up being sold to the RR breakers in short order, I think 1 was delivered to my father, never got out of the drive, and was sold onto the breakers the following week.

His trick to runnning them cheap... he has them as a second 'toy' car, he has a local 'mechanic' that used to work on RR, and gets his parts from the breakers when needed. But mainly, he pays a couple of grand extra to get one in decent knick rather than the cheapest, the cheapest will be fecked.

ETA: His current one he bought about 3 years ago, from London, cost him £7.5k and I've not had him whining about anything broken on it or needing fixing since he bought it.

Edited by Piersman2 on Friday 6th January 10:31

[ChocolateFrog]

I think you could quite easily run one. Harry has and most of the cost he's spent has been largely discretionary, the bits he did himself were done with a screwdriver.

What would get me would be the sub 10mpg for no performance.

[ChocolateFrog]

Krhuangbin said:

sunnyb13 said:

probably could - although suspect parts would need to come directly from main dealer. cant see eurocarparts or similar stocking much

Yes thats true - if one had a sound engine, brake discs/pads and unbroken suspension.. reckon it could last 2 or 3k city miles without too much trouble?

Flying Spares stock loads of well, spare parts.

[Arnold Cunningham]

As the shed thread shows, there's a lot of different takes on shedding. The general consensus is that "peak shedding" is keeping it serviced and mechanically in good order, not worrying so much about the cosmetics, doing as much of the maintenance as possible yourself to manage costs and certainly avoiding main dealers. This is certainly where I find "good balance" on shed ownership.

I wouldn't "banger" an old roller - just drive it until it breaks, but I would happily shed one. Not worry about the mileage, service it and keep it mechanically decent. I'd expect (but not having owned one myself, I can't vouch for it), that you could shed one quite happily for a long time.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Something like this?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204202503157?mkcid=16&a...

[Krhuangbin]

Thanks all for the (dangerously?) positive thoughts on the idea ...

No concerns on fuel economy/performance as some mentioned, this would purely be an exercise in poncing around town at 20mph enjoying the sheer hilarity of owning a Roller for a while haha. Probably no long trips but that car throttle video is the kind of thing I’m thinking.

Leaning towards a Spirit - maybe a new readers cars thread on the horizon ...

[sixor8]

A pre-1982 Rolls would be exempt from MoT and £0 rated for VED. That would help offset the mpg. Personally though, I consider 'shed' monry as sub £2k (and PH Friday edition shed of the week is sub £1500). A complete basket case that doesn't even drive is what you'd get for shed money. Coincidentally, this went for £1500 plus fees today and hasn't moved for 17 years:

https://www.i-bidder.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/...

[defblade]

Friend of mine runs a garage specialising in RR/Bentley.

I asked him a very similar question a while ago; he knows I know one end of a spanner from the other but rather than general maintenance/running costs, the answer was:

Can you get one in your garage? Because if you can't put it away somewhere dry, it'll dissolve in front of your eyes.




(At the time, I couldn't. I might be able to now, but I'd have to re-home too much other stuff to bother as a Roller is considerably larger than my current (sensible) car. And it might still be a bit tight on the wing mirrors.)

[Chromegrill]

Reminds me of the taxi driver who had one as a daily shed (not his hire car). Said he felt a million dollars driving it but it was so well engineered nothing ever went wrong so only cost him the fuel.

Possibly proverbial, but nice story.

[Louis Balfour]

Chromegrill said:

. ....it was so well engineered nothing ever went wrong so only cost him the fuel.

.

A friend of mine is an ex Rolls Royce specialist. He would disagree.