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A BIG Rolls Royce


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Many thanks for your generous praise guys.

How to do it??

Get under a few Italian exotics while you're restoring them and you get a REAL GOOD start on learning the process...

I think rust was invented in Italy and learned later by Japan and Detroit. :weep:

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Get under a few Italian exotics while you're restoring them and you get a REAL GOOD start on learning the process...

I think rust was invented in Italy :

Would you want to replicate this 'distressed' look! 😱?

image002.jpgLHD especially for Codger ;)

However I musn't perpetuate the rusty Alfa myth :) here's mine about 12 years ago (yes I do use it in the wet) and there's still very little ferrous oxide today :D.

image001.jpg

Edited by elderly
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..... No.....

Austin-Rover and Vauxhall in the UK invented rust.

Italy just copied them.

Roy.

Vauxhall perfected rust in the '50s, It's a delicate art learning how to polish it. There was less bodywork left each time I valeted it.

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More hours down the rabbit hole...

I won't bore you with the minutia of the job, but essentially, it is time to place the grille shell (containing the rad) in relation to the chassis and firewall.

To do that accurately with much trial fitting, I decided to make the job easier by doing more work (??).

As Pocher gives it to you, you must screw the grille into its crossmember from below. That means inverting the whole shebang numerous times and back. So I decided to make 2 'bolts' using 2mm rod, washers and nuts epoxied together, then epoxied to the steel shell. Now it plugs in from the top:

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Seen here with the inner part that holds the shutters facing out: [/url]">/309Medium_zps9d3f6fa3.jpg

Since I'm adding the shutter control rod which runs from the dash, through the firewall and to the control linkage on the rad, I needed to place it accurately. More research revealed that good old Pocher molded that representation on the wrong side of the rad!

Here (actually pic #41-we're over 300 now) was the previously finished rad when I was blissfully unaware of the bogus part:

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Presto! hours later, all ground off and a similar mounting flange created from .005 sheet and rivets:

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Here, my simplified version of the real rods and levers and flange operated by the rod from the firewall:

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The new assembly. Pretty pics later:

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Getting REALLY excited now.......

Pocher must have had Machiavelli engineer their kits. Their instructions only show you where things are supposed to go, and ignore that you must pre-fit them dozens of times to get them right. And none of them fit right when assembled without pre-fit.

I have figured a way to make the cowl unit easily removable for mock-up purposes. It will need to move forward or rearward a few mm's to get the coachwork perfect anyway-another mountain to climb. Be happy to share with any builders who like to see the detailed mods needed-it's not really hard. Just tedious on a fully finished cowl...

But here it is in place with the grille out front. The three rods are also in place and play nice together. The upper one will be trimmed a bit and screwed into the waiting clevis on the cowl lip. This one gives adjustment for the vertical plane of the grille-but it's near perfect now so I'm lucky. Below that is the thinner shutter control rod and below that is the starting carburetor control rod. It only needs trimming. The last two will be painted black and I'm debating black for the upper brace or possibly chrome. From the top it's all arrow-straight and I'm both relieved and ecstatic:

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Hi Codger,

This is pure genius, and I agree that the photo's could be mistaken for the real thing. I would love to know how many hours have been spent on the build when it is finished!! Then again, it might be better not to even think about it! Seriously though, this is a real museum quality build. It makes me want to put my Rolls away and forget about it.

Anyone interested in a 75% built Pocher Rolls Royce!!! (only kidding!)

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Roy, Kev and Larry; your kind words are most appreciated.

Larry-I'm NOT proud to tell you this but 845 hours up to yesterday. This means:

A. I'm incredibly anal to keep an (honest) record.

B. I'm incredibly slow. I have to make three parts to keep one proper one. As I cited earlier, Roy has ripped-out three masterpieces in the same time frame. He gets things right the first time-every time.

And I must chide you Larry-you must contribute updates on your Rolls because we can all be valuable resources to each other and all big-scale builders. You teased us with that magnificent upholstery, but you're 75% done and we've seen little of it.

C'mon, jump in and inspire us all!

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............. As I cited earlier, Roy has ripped-out three masterpieces in the same time frame. He gets things right the first time-every time.

.....If only you knew the truth.......

You ought to see my waste bin sometimes - and sitting on a top shelf in my garage is a seriously grim C Type body shell that wasn't used.

Roy.

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845 hours! Going by my roughly 10 hours absolute max a week that would be 1.5-2 years for me (longer in reality). Ill never ever build one of these :-( . I spent 3.5 hours just masking up my flanker today, with more to come. Pocher = dream i think so ill have to watch them being built instead.

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845 hours! Going by my roughly 10 hours absolute max a week that would be 1.5-2 years for me (longer in reality). Ill never ever build one of these :-( . I spent 3.5 hours just masking up my flanker today, with more to come. Pocher = dream i think so ill have to watch them being built instead.

Sorry to hear that man-did not wish to discourage anyone from these. I did figure minimum 1.5 the day I opened the box. And I'm doing ~35 to 45 per 7 day week.

Remember please that I'd love to see your Flanker so send a link when you can....

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LOL Colin! I've been accused of a lot o' things on this one but not that.

Perchance I OWNED that 'real thing...'

By tomorrow I'll have posted the latest craziness in minute, fiddly, probably invisible, detail. Roy is making a nice padded, sound proof room for me where I can only listen to his heavenly guitar music. And wear a very long- sleeved jacket that ties in the back.

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Fasten your seatbelts...

I'm going to break this into 3 posts of 5 pictures each. As always with Pocher:

A. Take nothing for grranted.

B. One step forward after 5 steps back.

To wit: Many steps ago I had mounted the grille / radiator unit and found it to be within tolerance of dead vertical. But that was with the engine out.

Now that the engine is a permanent resident, the unit had a forward tip at the top. Bad words ensued.

After much diagnosis, the culprit was found to be the fan and its shaft. I removed the fan and sanded its face. Was a bit better so going in the right direction:

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Further searching found the shaft protruded pushing the rad so that had to be ground in place - whirling Dremel in a fully finished area is a sweaty exercise.

Again thanking the Gods that I made the grille shell plug-in-able from the top, I still had lean at the top.

Culprit this time; the right angle corner of the steel shell (on the pass side) had a 'crimp' in it, raising it a mm. See shaded area. Dremel grinding wheel again but thankfully off the car. Finally got perfection on both sides vertical and equidistant to the corners of the cowl-flush and square. And this without the adjustable brace which will follow:

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Next order of business-the upper rad hose. I originally intended to stick a length of hose in place with two bands of BMF and move on. Sadly-I came across much better reference and as always I start sweating how I might 'fake' it a bit better than basic. Well here's a bunch more hours figuring it. I'll glady share what and how done if any of you not snoring yet. But then must kill you...

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Upper hose...

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And in place:

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Not forgotten is the lower hose, though seen much less often. BTW, I thrashed out a way I'd never seen before to make slightly better hose clamps-not as good as the PE pro guys do but adequate for hackers like me.

Easy; strip of lead foil (with one shiny ally side), maybe 1.5 mm wide. Take the edge of a file (3 corner here) and press it into the foil along its length on a surface like your cutting mat. Presto, little 'hashmarks' that are slots in the 1:1. Curl around correct sized hose and CA the 'crotch'. Leave a small tab. Then a common pin, 00-90 nut, a 3mm or so length of 1/16" ally tube you're now very good at cutting and CA the shebang to the round clamp.

To wit:

334Medium_zpsc1b4e0d8.jpg

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