Matt, why not?
This is a great tech thread.
Let us know when to come down for a retro 90s F List Tech Day! On Oct 31, 2022, at 13:01, Matt Boyd <ferrari308driver [at] gmail.com> wrote:
I'm sure the Ferrari-list doesn't want a bunch more chatter on pre-war Rolls-Royce topics, but I'll say one more thing in case anyone's interested in playing cars sometime.
I'm taking about 3 weeks off in December (government employee use-or-lose leave) and one thing I *might* do is work on the Rolls. Its present main issue preventing me from driving it is that it will not go into reverse. Before anyone speculates about linkage adjustments or gearshift lever adjustments, here's one tidbit. If I put the car in reverse and let out the clutch, the driveshaft spins but the car doesn't move. It does fine forward. My mechanic suggests pinion bearing, but whatever it is, to me it seems to be in the differential, which I'm guessing means jacking up the big fat black ass of the limousine and pulling the rear axle out.
I'm not sure I want to get into that and might defer to someday getting it to the mechanic, but I keep thinking about it.
Anyone want to play cars in Virginia in December?
-Matt '85 euro 308 '39 P-III etc
I would LOVE to see that car back on the road, and be the reliable driver that it once was.
As you'll recall, when you first got it, my initial reaction was "why a car like THAT??" But then I saw it and you taught me more about its "features" (V-12, dual spark, manual linkage from steering wheel to spark advance, no oil dipstick, etc etc etc....),
and I understood.
If you want a hand working on it, keep in touch. Maybe we can trade "helps" (I have a couple of winter projects which will probably require more smarts than I possess....).
gp
I actually don't remember! When I was "young" in the hobby (I started with a 1988 RR Silver Spur), many of the old-timers made fun of me and told me to get a more simple and older RR to take the complexity out of the equation. And then I rode
in a friend's Phantom-III and knew that THIS was the vintage Rolls-Royce I wanted! It was from the 1930s and had the look of a big 1930s car, it had a massive V12 with tremendous torque, so basically I could drive a vintage Rolls-Royce with power to keep up
with modern traffic with no apologies. Eventually I bought a Phantom-III and the old-timers who told me to get a simpler older RR exclaimed "Not a Phantom-III!" because these are not simple cars. But that friend who let me ride in her Phantom-III back in the
beginning -- her name was Mermie Karger, happened to be next door neighbors with Dick Frawley and his wife Judith Skillings (Judith wrote some neat novels based on a woman being the wife of someone who owned a vintage car restoration shop, and the descriptions
of the shop mirrored Frawley's shop, so it was fun to read those). Anyhow, that's the long story for how I probably got the "in" to be able to help out on the work on my car.
You're making me want to get my car back on the road. I'll never do this again, but here's a blog I had on my cross country drive in that car:
-matt
'85 308
'39 P-III
'85 XJ6
'57 Bel Air
etc
"He and the other mechanic marveled and asked me how I'd convinced Frawley (Dick Frawley)
to allow me to work in the shop with him."
So that begs the question - how DID you convince him??
I remember this happening, but don't recall all of the backstory. Too bad you couldn't have continued working there - you could have become the next "Dick Frawley"....
gp
From: Matt Boyd < ferrari308driver [at] gmail.com>
The other guys who worked in the shop were real craftsmen. One (Stan
Scantlin) used to work for the Bureau of Engraving and did the wood
restoration on my car as well as reengraving the dials and switches. He and
the other mechanic marveled and asked me how I'd convinced Frawley (Dick
Frawley) to allow me to work in the shop with him. It was really fun. I'd
either stay at a cheap hotel or even camp, and then drive over to the shop.
We'd all sit around the first 30 minutes drinking coffee and reading the
paper, work until lunch, all sit in the lunch room together and read the
paper and trade stories, then work through the afternoon. I wished I could
just keep working there, even if not on my car. It was really a fun time
working with the best in the business. :-)
-Matt
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