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

[ValveCoverGasket]

was far from a solo effort!

[BostonB6]

Lots & lots of work. Just out of curiosity, how much have you invested in this car so far? Ballpark # is OK.

[ValveCoverGasket]

heres a post from earlier in the thread (page 12 or something?) where i broke down how much we'd spent up to that point

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

totals have gone up a bit with the cooling system work, and the remainder of the brake stuff that wasnt covered at that point (i think the pumps hadnt been rebuilt) but theyre roughly accurate
weve got a 4 or 5 inch thick stack of receipts now though

[ValveCoverGasket]

as i promised a while while back... therell be pictures of the factory builds sheets. so theres finally a pic heavy update


heres what else has been new in the meantime. just waiting on the waterpump to come back and we're back on the road...


repainted top tank with a resoldered inner center baffle and new seals and whatnot...





i had a buddy help with some powdercoating on the fan and hub, so thats all looking great now... cant wait to get that on the motor



cant wait to get these on the motor as the top tank and fan blades were kind of an eye sore before.

and finally the refurb'd distributor



should actually have some ignition advance now!


and finally, onto some random shots from the factory records.











price sheet... looks like it was sold at a bit of a discount being a dealer demo



theres just pages and pages of stuff like this:

[330iZHP]

all the notations are cool to read - interesting that they incl notes about leaks and trim problems - but I guess these were never meant to be seen by the buyer originally

[ValveCoverGasket]

it'd be interesting to know how long the production process was back then... What with how many corrections they needed to make hah

[Arsigi]

i had a buddy help with some powdercoating on the fan and hub, so thats all looking great now... cant wait to get that on the motor

I'm probably just being too OCD, but the blade placement on that fan is driving me nuts. Seems like it would be significantly off-balance.

[Arsigi]

i had a buddy help with some powdercoating on the fan and hub, so thats all looking great now... cant wait to get that on the motor

I'm probably just being too OCD, but the blade placement on that fan is driving me nuts. Seems like it would be significantly off-balance.

[Roadkilled78]

I'm probably just being too OCD, but the blade placement on that fan is driving me nuts. Seems like it would be significantly off-balance.

Many radiator fans on older vehicles are like that. I believe it is to allow access to things at the front of the motor without removing the fan.

[ValveCoverGasket]

Many radiator fans on older vehicles are like that. I believe it is to allow access to things at the front of the motor without removing the fan.

talked to some folks at work about that - im told its to minimize the thumping noise you get while its running. as the fan diameter or flow increases, even blade placement would cause that thump-thump-thump you hear when prop airplanes are running.
this thing is still loud, but it doesnt have a resonance like an airplane does.

i think some newer larger higher flow fans do this as well

[eunos94]

all the notations are cool to read - interesting that they incl notes about leaks and trim problems - but I guess these were never meant to be seen by the buyer originally

This extensive note taking and dedication to perfection is what made a Rolls reliable and extremely expensive while other British marques were largely garbage (quality wise) but affordable.

My Mother's neighbor has a TR4 he bought new and it spent 6 months of it's first year being rebuilt by the dealership to achieve a state of drive-ability. He later reconstructed the entire car by disassembling it down to it's individual components and essentially doing a full modern day restoration while the car was only 5 years old.

Since then however it's been a wonderful car and required only maintenance to cover the additional 120,000 miles he's put on it.

[ValveCoverGasket]

i think i included it up there, but maybe not, anyway the amount of things needing "follow up work" was pretty amazing. the adjusting and readjusting of various trim bits, linkages, etc was definitely eye opening...
i can only imagine the army of people involved in hand assembling this thing in the 60s before robots and sub-assemblies really took hold... even today's RR is a hand assembled set of sub-assemblies. id imagine this car truly was hand built.

[Arsigi]

talked to some folks at work about that - im told its to minimize the thumping noise you get while its running. as the fan diameter or flow increases, even blade placement would cause that thump-thump-thump you hear when prop airplanes are running.
this thing is still loud, but it doesnt have a resonance like an airplane does.

i think some newer larger higher flow fans do this as well

Interesting... so they're deliberately introducing some variance into the flow with an asymmetric fan blade, to decrease resonance. I would imagine that the blade is actually weighted so that it is physically (if not visually) balanced.

[ValveCoverGasket]

sounded like that was basically the idea, to introduce some variation.

doesnt look/feel weighted, the actual blades themselves are aluminum, and the whole thing is really light with most of the weight in the center so i doubt its all that far out of balance.

[ValveCoverGasket]

just received word back that the new water pump is on its way home.

ive got a show to go to this weekend so itll probably be getting installed sometime next week - hopefully - before i go to another show next thursday night, then leave town for the rest of the month.

august got really busy...

[WRXGuy]

And then the water pump came in... and *then*...???

We demand Updates!!

[ValveCoverGasket]

and then i went on the road for a few weeks the night it actually came in hah
updates soon

[ValveCoverGasket]

had some time this weekend and got to work on the RR

waterpump is back on and resealed.



pump gets almost completely hidden once its all back together



was going to get further but i need a slightly longer belt. hoping to get that sorted out this week.


not even sure how the waterpump oring wasnt leaking before... incredibly crusty...




all new heater hoses done as well, snaking the lower heatercore hose into the center of the firewall was a bitch, along with having to remove it and trim it but the end fit was perfect.




more to come

[Air and water do mix]

More to come? When? This thing is moving too slowly now. I gotta crack the whip.

Yep, I can't believe that the water pump wasn't leaking either. Sure, most of that is buildup in situ, but it's cracked and the metal must've been corroded as well.

Keep pluggin' away, man!

[ValveCoverGasket]

the moving slowly the last couple months was beyond my control - parts being out all over the place and taking their time getting back here.
then of course i took off for work for a few weeks right when everything showed up again

end of this weekend im planning on running it and setting the ignition timing up again

[rammalammadingdong]

stunning attention to detail on your resto.
love this project

[ValveCoverGasket]

got everything back together...







some good news, and some bad news... good news is the cooling system appears to work great, keeping things under control, and the new cooling system parts look great (theyre black and kind of buried so theyre tough to catch nicely on camera).
the bad news, it still has that damn high idle hang
cant be the ignition now, so its gotta be something with the carbs.

probably going to involve a pro within the next week or so, so we can get it taken care of once and for all, as im out of ideas and well outside my comfort zone with any further troubleshooting.

we reset the ignition timing and got everything going tonight and it runs/idles great, revs up awesome and runs well right up until you go to let off the throttle, and if you've made it above ~1500rpm itll just stick there.

the adventure continues i guess

[Harv]

What's normal idle? 800-900?

[ValveCoverGasket]

manual says 500-550. buttery smooth low rpm

[geofftii2002]

manual says 500-550. buttery smooth low rpm

Hey, if you ever need thermostat housing gaskets and don't want to pay high prices from Albers, I can make you a few. It'll cost you postage plus whatever a box of Nature's Promise generic granola bars will set you back.

[QWKDTSN]

I love this project with all my heart, but the last update has made me wince a bit. With everything taken apart, why not clean up the pulleys and other bits you had off and have them powdercoated, or at least add a lick of paint? The new waterpump just highlights how badly the pulley needs it. I realize everyone has different goals for their projects.

[ValveCoverGasket]

luckily i just did ours when the motor was apart, but ill put some survival gear in the trunk with some granola bars and a pair of scissors!

[ValveCoverGasket]

I still love this project with all my heart, but the last update has made me wince a bit. With everything taken apart for so long, why not clean up all those pulleys and other bits you had off and have them powdercoated, or at least add a lick of paint? It kind of looks junky, and that's meant as constructive criticism. I realize everyone has different goals for their projects.

meh, i dunno, the fan hub and fan (the biggest eye sore previously) are cleaned up now. it looks 100x better than it did before we took it apart, and the easily removable pullies are hidden now with the belts on.

as we were putting it back together the vbelt pulley on the water pump could have probably used some paint, but once it was all back together its not visible enough its going to bother me, or really jump out at you when you look at the engine bay.

and it clarify, as some people may have missed it, it was apart for a long time due to other priorities and waiting on parts, not because i was fine combing the engine bay with a toothbrush and paint can

[ValveCoverGasket]

got a couple more ideas on the carb tuning to see whats causing our issue, and ill be stopping by the local british car guru's shop tomorrow afternoon for some more pointers (and to chat MGB GTs )
im hoping next week i can tinker on the RR some more and either fix the idle issue using his suggestions or exhaust all options up here and haul it down to his place for some tuning

[ROCK AND ROLL CHEVY]

Keep on rollin'. Only a true pimp rolls in a Rolls.

[WRXGuy]

Love seeing the GM A-6 compressor -- with it, the RR was the first British car with the ability to flash-freeze its passengers!

[ROCK AND ROLL CHEVY]

It's really sad that you can no longer buy a car with air conditioning capable of inflicting frostbite and hypothermia on its passengers.

[ValveCoverGasket]

sorted the inconsistent idle issue out this weekend...finally!
turned out to be a slightly sloppy pinch connection on the passenger side throttle shaft, letting the throttle plate come to rest in a couple different positions when the linkage was "closed". something minor and stupid of course. the amount the throttle plate was allowed to wiggle with the pinch bolt was so minor... but it was enough to change the idle quite a bit.

anyway... in the battle to get everything adjusted we managed to break one of the semi-seized throttle linkage pieces going down to the transmission. car can move around and in/out of the shop, but its back to being parked until we can track down a couple of the linkage bits.

im looking on mcmaster to see if theyve got anything thatll allow us to modernize that portion of the linkage, but i havent had any luck yet....

[epbrown]

anyway... in the battle to get everything adjusted we managed to break one of the semi-seized throttle linkage pieces going down to the transmission. car can move around and in/out of the shop, but its back to being parked until we can track down a couple of the linkage bits.

Glad to see you're still coming along. I did a couple of test drives last week. As I've mentioned, I've been planning on a MPW coupe for a while; lately, I've been thinking I'd rather get another saloon and a roadster (I'm torn - TR6 or Merc SL, very different but appropriate companion cars). You probably saw my post on RROC, but one was a gorgeous blue/blue 73 Bentley T1 that has covered about 5000 miles in the past 15 years. While it's nice, I can name a dozen small niggling things I saw wrong with it without even driving it, and likely that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[MRVW00]

I love this thread.

That is all.