A TCL First? '67 Rolls Royce project thread...

12 minute(s) of a 242 minute read

...actually i can tell you almost to the cent

but first, for a really well sorted "collectible" car the prices seem to be around $25-30k. thatd be something that just about has receipts since new, and maybe only a couple owners, or maybe some sort of celebrity ownership early on. which if you think about what youre getting really doesnt seem too bad, especially compared to similar vintage mercedes and things. prices for convertibles and 2dr cars are significantly higher.

the next level down seems to be where the prices go haywire as the spread between different examples is huge - i did some digging a little while back through the RROC classifieds and during the height of the market crash a few years ago reasonably clean, mechanically sound cars were going from $8-15k, which was quite a large spread. since then it seems the prices have gone up a few thousand. but these would be cars you could hop in and drive but were showing some cosmetic wear, or basically werent show worthy or collectible, and may not have had receipts for everything.

also, the shadow 2 - that has the rubber bumpers that this car wore at the start of the thread - are a lot more common, a lot more complex, and are generally a lot cheaper (from what ive seen). im also not as big of a fan of the looks...
ive had a hard time finding many other late 60s shadows to compare pricing to - they only made ~4000 or so before 1970 - but it seems a good sorted car with clean interior and good mechanicals and receipts should go for mid to high teens, but who knows. also the RHD examples are worth less than LHD ones in theory, but based on the completed ebay listings and the the RROC posts i havent really seen that much difference in the real world, but i havent been looking that long and as i said there arent that many "sold" examples to compare to.

having said all that, were into about the mid teens at this point. keeping in mind this is split between two people, and is money spent over the course of a year or so, isnt really that bad in my opinion... my hope at the end of all this is that we'll come near the price of a good runner, we will have sorted all the interior wear, and we will know that the mechanicals (especially the brakes and trans) are ready to go for another 30 years. we also bought a lot of things we didnt technically need to - like the bumpers, the new grill, etc - that drove the budget up a bit and didnt really add to the reliability or mechanical soundness of the car, but i wouldnt have felt as good driving without them
we also spent about $2000 more than expected on the transmission work, but these things happen... so without the extra money spent on chrome, and the extra spent on trans work, we could have been sitting around $10k all in. but going into this project i had said all along that i dont mind not making money on it, as it really has to be a labor of love given how much time most of the repairs take.


so, the inevitable question - would you do it again? - i would say yes, without hesitation. but, if i were spending a year hunting for the "right" car id make it a '68 or '69 (RHD or LHD, doesnt really matter, i actually think the RHD sort of adds to the unique feel of driving the car) so that i could get the picnic tables, the chrome bumpers, no emissions equipment, the simple old style dash with no center console, but have the more common 3spd transmission. i also probably wouldnt mind buying a car with shot brakes versus this one with a shot transmission, as you might be able to complete more of a test drive on a car with shot brakes. but, at the end of the day, im happy with our car, its low mileage, its hilariously 60s color scheme, its lack of any appreciable rust, and the fact that it is an early car with all of the attributes i mentioned above aside from the 3spd transmission.

1-15-2012

all the brake hardline tools are in, the new grill is in, and i have all the last little bits and pieces to finish off the brake work... but im out of town for the next week, and didnt really have time to get to the shop before i left early last week

so... soon!


therell definitely be lots of photos posted in a couple weeks when ive had a chance to get back to it and actually put some time in.
its hogging my lift and i need to get some new suspension under the land rover, so i need the lift back

1-31-2012

so we decided to push the rolls off the lift for a week or so while we put a new motor in my roommates mk1 jetta, and i get a chance to finally lift the land rover...


in the meantime i thought id update the thread with the rough parts price breakdown someone requested earlier.


heres some approximate numbers on the big stuff weve got so far (keeping in mind that these totals are split between two people, over about a year or so.. making it a bit easier on the wallet...):

$5000 - trans rebuild + trans parts + two spare transmissions + carb adjustment/tuneup and adjustment of trans linkages/clutches at trans shop after final install
$1900 - two chrome bumpers and associated brackets, plus one extra rear bumper (minus overriders)
$1000 - used grill and flying lady, this was a smoking deal compared to others i saw while shopping around, and a bit of an unplanned ebay purchase due to the low price...
$160 - intake hose brackets and new knockoff hose
$250 - fluids for first startup (lots of fluids! )
$800 - used exhaust + used/new hangers + seals + buddy's time to do the welding/fitment
$350 - new genuine plug wires
$100 - new coil, misc ignition parts
$200 - misc gaskets, motor mounts
$1700 - brake parts so far


that isnt counting the money spent on some of the brake tools and various other odds and ends... all in all, an expensive project, to be sure... but a learning experience and definitely interesting so far.

and for those of you playing the home game, significant $$ could have been saved buying a '67 with the proper '67 brightwork on it... or buying a couple year newer car with a cheaper to find/fix 3spd transmission, but at this point were saving a relatively low mile car that appears to be in pretty decent shape.

heres to hoping it treats us as well as weve been treating it so far

dont really have any of the RR at the moment...

heres a link to a few old disco ones to tide you over



http://www.flickr.com/photos/valveco...7627679472205/



we'll see if this thing being roadworthy lines up with any of the local shows... itd be fun to get it out there so some of you local guys can see it in person

3-8-2012

i havent forgotten about this project!

should be back to work on this thing within the next week or so... life, work trips, and other car projects have distracted me lately but i hope to have the other cars squared away by the end of this weekend and get back to finishing up the last few bits of rear brakes that need doing on this.. and getting the new grill mounted and sorted out.

stay tuned

3-20-2012

time for a picture dump!


start with the more boring stuff...

shot of one of the old brake hoses i cut in half. you can see it was starting to collapse, which i guess is the typical failure mode for these

and i finally tracked down one of these bastard early car exhaust hangers, in great shape no less... dont ask what it cost

 


the ladies... pretty sure the one on the left is a repop.

the lady in the new grill was stuck in there thanks to a stripped allen... that took two additional people and a drill press to take care of. doh!
the offending hole:

the base collection.. our original was in perfect shape, so we used that (on the left)

and out

time for the good stuff, refinishing and getting the polish on it!

heres a terrible shot of how it started out of the UPS box


the sheet metal bits had some surface rust so i knocked that down, primered and satin blacked it

the bottom bit looked like it originally had some clearcoat overspray on it so we had to knock that down with a scotchbrite pad. this lower bar is completely hidden by the bumper anyway, but just for completeness sake! (i didnt take pics but the sides and all the slats got polished as well)

almost done...

everything together

the car should look 110% better with the bumpers on and the new grill being crazy shiny...
and the polishing so far was one of the only projects that went exactly as planned, took exactly as long as expected, and actually made an immediately noticeable difference

i have to make a couple little angle brackets for the bottom edge of the grill, which is why the bumper isnt on yet, but ive got some more positive vibes now to tackle the last of the brake work so ill keep plugging away at that this week..