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

8 minute(s) of a 242 minute read

plans are afoot to maybe do up the under hood portions in POR15's chassis black (satin finish) while the woodwork is out. i think i can avoid spraying that way and still take care of the rust both visually and preventing it from spreading at all.... looking like thatll be the next round of projects....

10-10-2012

some more pics from my roommates film shots he scanned in
















really dug the depth of field and colors in his shots

this thing will be on hold for a few weeks while i catch up on other projects, but id like to have all the wood out of it before the first weekend in november

thats the plan!
i need to take out all the door tops, rear vanity mirrors, and wood trim around the front/rear windows (or attempt to, couple window trim bits look really tight with the glass still in...) and get them redone. the dash wood comes off of the dash frame as well (this doesnt look too terribly complex, but ill take pictures of course because it looks really scary all torn apart) and there is some dash topper wood that needs to come out as well, behind the dash padding at the base of the windsheild.

plan is to remove all of that (dash face included) and see how the patina on the dash face looks against the rest of the wood once its redone. its not really any more expense/hassle to redo the dash face, so we'll see when we get there... dash needs to come apart to fix a couple other annoying bits as well - ignition is kind of hard to turn and i want to see why the clock doesnt work.

otherwise on the interior im happy to report the seat leather is coming back to life really nicely after many coats of griots leather treatment... probably more to go there but its easy to apply another thin coat every time im working on stuff and let it soak in. drivers seat doesnt feel like its going to crack anymore!

also im working on finding some new/good condition used drivers side footwell carpet. that piece is getting to be in pretty sad shape.

so i guess no point in trying to hunt down a used one? is this like finding a working clock in a biturbo? hah

maybe ill set it to 5oclock and leave it there


the color is smoke green, not sure the interior color had a name. im a big fan of the green on green for that period correct look.
i agree the leather seats and dash panel have really good patina but the rest of the wood just looks bad. door tops have large sections of missing lacquer and whats there has turned dark and is cracking off in large sections, same with most of the window trim wood. just looks shoddy and neglected, a bit too far past the nice patina point, sadly. but it should be easy enough to redo as the actual wood pieces are in great shape just the lacquer is letting them down.

speaking of shakedowns, i may give the trans guys another call and talk about the range shift a bit more. feels a little harsher than id expect, although id imagine these transmissions didnt get the jerk-o-matic nickname for no reason...

they werent quartz originally? what did old timey cars use instead??

while were on the topic of fixing things, any ideas why the hub caps might be loose? i have one hub cap that for whatever reason regardless of the wheel i put it on always wobbles. the inner ring that clamps onto the wheel looks fine and seems to be circular enough but for the life of me that thing never fully clips onto the steel wheels

good god! yes!

10-11-2012

yeah theyre RHD beams, but the lights are hardly what id call bright... lights up the road well enough but i dont think itd be blinding anyone. and with how few lights are on the thing in general probably best to avoid driving it at night...
i agree the proper thing to do would be to convert them though

10-15-2012

thanks, its taken a lot of people's hard work to get it here!


just got a fan shroud for it today, so we'll get that updated to the 70+ spec. looking forward to getting that installed as the last piece of the cooling system.
looks like its some molded plastic, so hopefully theres a good way to clean that up, maybe some kind of flexible semi-gloss engine paint? (the stuff i put on the lower intake manifold and the carb inlets is holding up great, itd be awesome to have the shroud match the radiator and fan blades!)

also had a quick call to the trans shop today about the 2-3 gear shifts and it sounds like we can do some slight adjusting with the throttle valve linkage to the trans to try to change around the shift pressures but the 2-3 shift being on the harsh side wont be hurting anything - as id thought id read before that was an inherent trait of this trans. also browsed some antique cadillac forums and basically read the same thing. some adjustments will help make it sound smoother, less banging, etc but youll always get a bit of a jolt when it makes that shift. my main concern was about harming the transmission and he mentioned today that its alright for it to be on the harsher side, wont hurt anything in the trans if you can deal with the drivability, and itll keep the wear parts alive longer if its not slipping the shifts.

that shift being harsh is just kind of funny as its such a contrast to how smoothly it manages the 1-2 and 3-4 shifts (also of note in the factory manual in the 4spd trans section theres a troubleshooting table, but nowhere does it mention the harshness of the 2-3 shift ). oh well, quirks of old cars with old tech, i suppose theres a reason they went to the 3spd shortly after this car was sold.


busy with other projects for another week or two but will be back on the interior woodwork shortly

i think i put $60 at the begining of the weekend before we went out to take pictures, and that got us from around empty/reserve to just over 1/2 tank.

it has a 30 gallon tank so a full fillup would run around $130-140, and go to empty in around 300 miles at this rate. i think i remember reading some archived threads on RROC where guys were reporting 9-11mpg as normal. carbs are dialed in on this thing, so i cant imagine finding any more mpgs via a tuneup...

what were you seeing for mpg in yours?

those terrible rubber bumpers!

and i think you can see the self leveling suspension popping the rear end up when he opens the drivers door.

good indication of how soft the ride is though when hes flying down that dirt road