Rolls Royce MPW project

Tallman

Tallman

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1,833
I thought I’d share a project I did a while ago. A lady friend of mine working in JHB told me her Turkish boss had many “old cars” and one of them was standing outside with the window open. I asked her to take a pic and to my surprise it was - what I thought at the time - a RR Corniche, so I got a bit excited. A visit was arranged and I found the car in terrible state under a shade port, more or less exposed. Fortunately the weather in JHB is dry, and even though there are frequent rain storms in summer, it dries out quickly, so it wasn’t a total disaster. The engine was in parts in a crate in a shipping container on the property and the boot was full of parts (also the pistons, which were unfortunately a bit rusted). After doing some research I figured out it was a pre-Corniche 1970 Mulliner Park Ward Drop Head Coupe with the 6.2L Engine - V8 of course with ”Enough” power as they then advertised, so definitely worth saving. Being a petrolhead and having grown up drooling over 60’s/70’s British cars like Jag/Healey/RR (and who remembers the Panther P6?), my emotions got the better of me and I decided to put in an offer. I ended up shelling out R25K “to get rid of it for him” and he took my offer - at the time about £2.5k. I had just moved to the Cape so I had the car and parts transported to Stellenbosch and stored the car under a cover pending a restoration.

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GeoffCapes

GeoffCapes

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14,000
My mate bought a Corniche years ago (we were 19 at the time) he was in the motor trade at the time and bought it for next to nothing (about 6 grand if I remember) and although a grand old thing, it wallowed like a tug boat in a Force 10 gale, drank like a joint Oliver Reed and George Best stag do, and broke down so much we were on first name terms with the AA man!

Lovely car. Great for rocking up to nightclubs in! Although not so good going home in as it used to have trouble starting when it had been left for 4-5 hours! :D
 
M

MAF260

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7,662
I am deeply envious and simultaneously keen to watch the story of this unfold. I have a 'thing' for Corniches of this era from having a Dinky version as a small child. It's something I will attempt to own at some point.
 
Oneball

Oneball

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11,106
The 6.2 is supposed to be better than the 6.7 according to Harry Metcalf.

PS full on pink Charlie Hungerford trousers will be required.
 
philw696

philw696

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25,372
Absolutely agree with the others pure class there looking forward to seeing it progress.
 
Tallman

Tallman

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1,833
The story I got from the previous owner was that the car was going to be restored after hours by a mechanic at a dealer, but he got fired and that scuttled the project and with nowhere else to go it got forgotten. Whilst I remember there being something like 700 RR’s in JHB in the mid 80’s, you don’t see a lot of them now and to get one fixed by a competent mechanic is a mission. I eventually found someone in Cape Town who had worked at a dealer previously and now had his own workshop. He had someone in Durban who could rebuild the engine, so the engine was shipped there. We had to fit new pistons and rings but for the rest nearly everything was useable/fixable. By the looks of the sill plate the car was originally supplied in the UK by HR Owen. I must say that the car was a mess, but the sight of the shiny RR grille kept me going.

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GeoffCapes

GeoffCapes

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14,000
I remember seeing a programme (probably on the discovery channel) about how RR grills were all hand made and took hours to put together.
Not sure if the still are, but they're a work of art.
 
Tallman

Tallman

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1,833
Given the bad state of the car, a complete nuts and bolt restoration was required. Bare metal respray, new upholstery/carpets, new hood, re-chrome the chrome parts, renovate the wood, new tyres, check the gearbox and a full rebuild for the engine. Luckily I was new to this and I didn’t exactly have a budget set up, so I didn’t know what I was in for, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have attempted this!

I didn’t particularly like the white colour, nor the blue interior so a colour change was going to part of the project.

The first phase is the bad one, it just looks worse and worse as you dismantle the car and strip the paint. Some welding was required but in general the chassis and body were solid. The problem is that it is a very complicated car with lots of electrics and also hydraulics. It had the Citroen style hydraulic suspension at the rear and independent brake circuits which was new.

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Tallman

Tallman

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Messages
1,833
After the painful phase it was time to choose a new colour. After a lot of toing and froing and looking at many many RR pictures I settled on Silver Sand (light bronze/gold) with Magnolia upholstery, black carpets and a black hood. The engine required new pistons and rings as they had rusted too much plus a couple other items that were broken, all new hoses and belts etc. The cost of the engine rebuild ended up being about 40% of the total cost of the restoration.

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