| Author | Message | ||
     Randy Roberson Prolific User Username: wascator Post Number: 267 Registered: 5-2009 |
Does anyone know of a photograph of a rear subframe off the Car, which clearly shows the hydraulic tubing as it is attached? It would really assist in tracing out the lines I will have to replace: some of the tubing passes along the top of the subframe, where it is practically invisible. I am going to get a mirror on a stick and try to see it. The service and parts manuals provided by this Club have been invaluable; my Car does not quite match the schematics, though: both the leveling ram bleeders are plumbed to a single 4-way brass block approximately in the centerline of the Car. The lines come in either side, and opposite each line is its bleed screw. The schematic shows the bleed screws located on brass blocks at the rear and inboard of the end of each rocker box. | ||
| Kelly Opfar Experienced User Username: kelly_opfar Post Number: 25 Registered: 7-2004 |
Here is one pic. This is as big an image as I can post here. I have lots of larger images I can send you.  | ||
| Randy Roberson Prolific User Username: wascator Post Number: 268 Registered: 5-2009 |
That is perfect! Anything which shows the routing of the tubing will certainly help. I am beginning to wonder if I will have to drop the subframe to replace a tube. I suppose I can use a connector to replace the end if I have to. Thanks! | ||
| Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.82 |
Randy I have a book ISBN O 900549 99 8 First published 1985 Graham Robson and Motor Racing Publications Ltd On page 26 is a RR photo of a rear axle assembly on a jig with brake lines. Also this book has many photos of assemblies that are new. The photos are very high quality RR archive photos and RR own the copyrights. So you will have to acquire the book yourself. The rolls royce and Bentley volume 3 graham Robson. 144 pages of fact filled RR porn. Spoiler alert. The butler did it. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Randy Roberson Prolific User Username: wascator Post Number: 274 Registered: 5-2009 |
Thanks to Bob! I got a copy of the book by Graham Robson at a very reasonable price on ebay; and thanks to Kelly Opfar for the excellent and very helpful photos he provided. They also reveal his excellent restoration work on his Car and I enjoyed them very much. | ||
| Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.76 |
Excellent. What do you think of the book? (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Randy Roberson Prolific User Username: wascator Post Number: 276 Registered: 5-2009 |
Book is very nice; I have owned Volume II for years now and always meant to get Volume III. Thanks! I love factory photos of the assembly process and other behind the scenes stuff. | ||
| Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.82 |
It would be nice if the parts were my car being built new in the factory. Notice how the factory and staff look just ordinary. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Jan Forrest Grand Master Username: got_one Post Number: 592 Registered: 1-2008 |
Ordinary? Do you mean men & women in brown overalls wearing flat caps and a fag dangling from the corner of their mouths? Haven't you seen the You Tube videos of the new Phantom being lovingly assembled by white coated British trained craftsmen and women? The attention to detail is as high, if not higher, than it ever was. eg. Only 2 men are trained, and therefore permitted, to weld the alloy roof onto the fixed head Phantom. There's a single man who adds all the coachlines by brush in the time-honoured hand/eye manner. Each front grill still takes around 3 days to make by one man (excluding electro-plating) operating by eye and experience only. In that time Ford, etc can make several hundred complete cars. | ||
| Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.86 |
I like the guys with flat caps they are my sort of engineering. It takes 1 man 3 days to make a rad shell. Which is a shame because the others only take a day. I personally think that it would have been better to design a shell that could be pressed in one go. The notion that because something is handmade therefore better and worth more is not logical. I think Americans see this point more than Europeans. A Bentley was cheaper only because the shell was far cheaper to make. (Message approved by david_gore) | ||
| Brian Vogel Grand Master Username: guyslp Post Number: 946 Registered: 6-2009 |
Bob_uk wrote, in part, "The notion that because something is handmade therefore better and worth more is not logical." Thank God someone has come out and said it. This may, and only may, be true of an art object but is generally not true of manufactured items. The best machine manufacturing achieves tolerances far more precise than any human being could ever hope to achieve. There are plenty of instances where machine assembly results in much higher quality in terms of durability, but inferior fit and finish. That's where human hand finishing afterward can achieve the necessary attention to detail that's desired. I was in the business of selling art and fine craft for a number of years, ending in 2013, and my partner is a studio potter. The sorts of items that artists and fine craftspeople make are wonderful, and most often one-offs or things that can't be made or won't be made for mass consumption. A radiator shell being made by hand in this day and age is just the sort of preciousness that you made reference to in another post. There's not an ounce of necessity in it and it creates a situation where unnecessary inconsistency is inherent to the process. Brian | ||
| Bob uk Unregistered guest Posted From: 94.197.122.93 |
I think that RR in the beginning designed a easy to make shape that was tasteful for the time. RR were more interested in function over form and probably chose one from a selection drawn by Claude Johnson ( the fifth Beatle.) Henry and Charles would have spent five minutes picking one out. And then went back to the broken crankshaft problems they had at the time. They didn't set out to creat a luxury car business. Like most fledgling business in a new technology no one plans much ahead because no one knows. They didn't know that the shape is awkward for body designers of the 60s And beyond. The Bentleye shape is adaptable. I don't care if a nice piece of mahogany furniture is made by cnc machinery because it will be cheaper and more precise and the varnish will be harder. However handmade stuff is often simply made like RR trim. Which lends itself to easy repair. Switches that come apart is another. My rear parcel shelf took one hour and £10. (Message approved by david_gore) |
