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Kay C. Wiese
Yet to post message
Username: wiese

Post Number: 1
Registered: 9-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 03:06 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Dear fellow enthusiasts:

First of all I wanted to thank everybody for the great knowledge shared in this forum, the RR club of Australia site and the Tee-One topics. I have learned a lot from the posts and there is of course still lots more to learn.

I reside in Canada, but found this forum to be so active and informative that I have joined it.

About two weeks ago I have become the proud owner of a 1979 Silver Shadow II. The VIN is SRX 37090. While purchased in Canada, and the only history I have on the car is from Canada I believe it was delivered to a market other than Canada. It has the brushes to clean the head lights and it also has VIN decals from Germany (that say "Silver Shedow", the way you would spell it in German, very funny).

The speedometer is in km, and the current reading says 110,000. Given that the interior shows little wear this is likely the original mileage. The car is Oxford blue with a light cream interior. It came with the original owners's manual kit, the full set of factory shop service manuals and the lambswool mats. It looks very original to me and unmolested.

Pictures to follow in the next post and also a bit of a report on condition, what I have repaired so far and what's still to be done.

Regards,
Kay
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Kay C. Wiese
New User
Username: wiese

Post Number: 2
Registered: 9-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 03:33 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

When I found the car it was in the possession of an automotive shop owner who had owned it for 3 years. He had not used it much during that time, but luckily he started it twice everyday to move it out of his shop for the business day and then back into the shop at night.

An initial inspection including on a hoist revealed that the car had very good tires (about 90%), brakes at about 70% with good discs and recently changed soft brake/hydraulic hoses. It also came with very recent Bilsteins all around. The complete exhaust system front to back was brand new and also it had a new air intake box as the old one was leaking into the interior.

The engine started easily and ran well with no smoke from the exhaust pipe. Both transmission and rear differential were leaking and the radiator was also leaking. All fluids were clean and it had a recent tune-up (plugs, wires, cap, rotor).

The interior showed relatively little wear (only the door caps are peeling and need re-lacquering), but it was very dirty. The paint is not in great shape, for now I will do a cut polish and wax, but likely it will need a repaint to look excellent again.

So far I have done:
- starter rebuild (it was shorting to ground)
- replace fluid in rear differential
- replace transmission fluid, filter and pan gasket
- attach a loose chrome trim piece on one door
- remove large decals from front doors
- get radiator repaired and flush cooling system

There are other smaller items that need attending such as
- dash lights don't work
- AC does not work
- I plan to clean all electrical connectors, sockets, etc. as preventative maintenance
- install 3-point seat belts in rear (currently only has 2-point belts)
- re-lacquer the door caps
- do a full car detailing as it is quite dirty

Other than that I think she will be a very presentable driver.

Pictures to follow soon, once I figure out how to resize them.
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Kay C. Wiese
New User
Username: wiese

Post Number: 3
Registered: 9-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 03:51 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Here are some pictures as promised:

A sorry sight. Yes, that is bird poo!
Pic 1: A sorry sight!

Interior, a bit dirty, but not bad:
Pic 2: Interior
Pic 3: Interior #2
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Kay C. Wiese
New User
Username: wiese

Post Number: 4
Registered: 9-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 03:55 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Here are some pictures after the initial cleaning. The car was towed due to a failed starter. Grille, Spirit of Ecstasy, RR hub caps, and all chrome trim is present.

Pic 4 - Rear - Clean

Pic 5: Side - Clean

Pic 6: Front - Clean

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Geoff Wootton
Grand Master
Username: dounraey

Post Number: 970
Registered: 5-2012
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 04:41 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Hello Kay

Welcome to the forum. Your car looks very similar to my series one. Blue over cream interior and also imported from Germany (SRX18501). A pic can be found here http://au.rrforums.net/forum/messages/17001/16560.html

A good contact for you will be Jim Walters who is just a few hours drive from Vancouver. He is an expert on these cars. Check out http://www.bristolmotors.com/.

Best Regards

Geoff
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Benoit Leus
Prolific User
Username: benoitleus

Post Number: 215
Registered: 6-2009
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 05:07 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Hello Kay,

welcome. It's good to see another owner/enthusiast with a hands-on approach. I have found this forum and its members extremely helpfull over my last 6 years of ownership and I'm sure you will too.

I love the colour scheme on your car. It must be one of my favourites.

Benoit
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Robert Noel Reddington
Grand Master
Username: bob_uk

Post Number: 539
Registered: 5-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 06:19 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

A nice straight car.

What is the sticker on the door. It can't be magnetic because the door is aluminium.

The kph speedo is a mystery SRX is a north American car.

To clean the leather is cheap and simple. Use hand soap and tepid water and nailbrush and tooth brush. Water doesn't damage leather. Just dry off with towel.
Once clean apply clear shoe polish.

Leather is dried animal skin. Like your own skin it responds well to human skin care products.

The leather used is very good quality and quite resilient even tough. So throwing the shopping on the back seat isnt going to hurt it.

The wood work.

Best way is to remove the door capping or waist rail. Easy job remove door card or big trim panel. Then unscrew 4 screws and the lock plunger and it falls off.

Refer to Shadow 1 manual on the main site. Down load the lot on to memory stick. The Shadow 1 door trims and door switches are not the same but the build method is.

Use paint and lacquer chemical stripper. The stripper takes time. Do not scrap the lacquer off. Once stripped wash in soapy water. Allow to dry then wipe with white spirit. Water lifts the grain. White spirit doesn't lift the grain.

Then lightly very very lightly rub in the grain direction. The banding is at 90 degrees angle to the main direction of grain. So rub the banding across grain. Which is why very lightly. Plus the risk of rubbing through the the veneer. The rubbing down should only take 2 mins anymore and maybe you are over doing it. The 240 grit paper must tight against the rubbing block.
Clean with white spirit. Then using an aerosol of car body paint clear coat spray the wood. Spray the back as well 2 coats only. Apply 2 coats and allow to throughly dry. Using a paint brush paint the ends of the door capping with paint to match usually brown. The paint used and clear coat must be compatible with each other.

Once dry. Then spray 2 more coats of clear. Dry rub down with 400 grit wet using soapy water as lubricant. Repeat until the clear coat is nice and thick. Then polish with T cut or Brasso metal polish. Once fitted to car. Wax the wood with normal car polish of your choice.

These cars need patience to work on. Never rush. The jobs finished when the jobs finished is my motto.

My car is a 1974 Shadow 1 in black. SRH 17768. S for saloon R for Rolls-Royce and for home market and quaintly called colonies.
I have owned this car since 1989 and its been a good old bus which has even been used to take rubbish to the dump.
I run on lpg only not petrol. Lpg is 65p a litre in the UK petrol is 110p a litre.

At the moment the car is hors de combat having a 100k miles service. This service is the big expensive one. So diy. This service will probably be the last major work the car gets.

Good luck with this car. And anything you need help with just ask. We know more about old Shadows than RR or Bentley do.

Hunt House is the home of old RRs in the UK. They have the build sheets for your car. The address is in the main site.
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Brian Vogel
Grand Master
Username: guyslp

Post Number: 1685
Registered: 6-2009
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 06:37 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Kay,

Welcome. Your car does look to be European spec just because of the headlamp wipers coupled with front and rear fog lamps. None of these things were customary on cars destined for the North American market.

Does your car have an air dam under the front bumper? It doesn't appear to have one and my 1978 UK Spec SS II didn't arrive in my hands with one.

Brian
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Geoff Wootton
Grand Master
Username: dounraey

Post Number: 971
Registered: 5-2012
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 06:53 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

SRX denotes export other than North America. The North American models had the third letter A - L for years 1972 - 80 respectively. This confirms Kay's car was privately imported from Germany, as was my car. My car also has the German VIN decals and kph speedometer.

Geoff
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Robert Noel Reddington
Grand Master
Username: bob_uk

Post Number: 540
Registered: 5-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 07:17 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Sorry got me numbers mixed up. Whats the difference between private and official import.

A conversion to miles is straightforward. Flying Spares will know how and have the bits.
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Kay C. Wiese
New User
Username: wiese

Post Number: 5
Registered: 9-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 07:48 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Thank you all for the nice comments, the welcome and for the advice.

Geoff: Coincidentally, I vacation with my family in Parksville, B.C., every summer and stumbled upon Bristolmotors, a great shop for sure!

Robert: Thanks for sharing your knowledge on the leather and doing the door caps, very useful! The large decals were just stick on. Came off with a heat gun.

Brian: I don't have an air dam up front and was wondering about that myself. I will have to check more closely whether it's been removed or if there never was one.

The speedo in km/h won't be a problem in Canada, as they have gone to metric in 1977.
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Kay C. Wiese
New User
Username: wiese

Post Number: 6
Registered: 9-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 07:51 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Just found out that my radiator was beyond repair and the radiator shop built me a custom made new core. This way the look is all original, but the cooling will be better.
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Geoff Wootton
Grand Master
Username: dounraey

Post Number: 972
Registered: 5-2012
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 08:30 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Bob_uk - By private I meant where a car is exported to another country by the owner, rather than a car that is made by RR for a specific export market.

Kay - Another interesting site, in case you have not seen it, is Marinus Rijkers'.

http://www.rrsilvershadow.com/EIndex.htm

Here is the link to the chassis numbers we were discussing above.

http://www.rrsilvershadow.com/EMod/Chnr1.htm

Geoff
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Robert Noel Reddington
Grand Master
Username: bob_uk

Post Number: 541
Registered: 5-2015
Posted on Thursday, 01 October, 2015 - 09:23 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

So Canada uses kph. Learn something new every day.

Clear coat used on plastic bumpers is flexible and may be better on tree wood.

I should imagine that all cars for European markets would be pretty much the same with 2 notable exceptions the UK RHD and the Swedish no lady version.

One always must remember that a man made the car and therefore a man can fix it. The Shadow 1 is all mechanical with apart from diodes no electronics except the low water amp.. The Shadow 2 has some electronics mainly the climate control and ignition stuff. The Shadow 2 electronics are quite reliable and in the advent of a problem they are not to bad to fix and not necessarily very expensive. Some of the transistors and things are mere pennies.

Don't worry about mileage. Rather wear the car out than let it wear out through non use. A good one will do 250k miles. Even then throw a few new expensive bits in the engine and do it all again.

If you study how the car is built you will find that when you get down to component level that the bits are simple but nicely made. But there is a lot of them. Everything is screwed together with nuts and bolts which means it comes apart easily bearing in mind dexterity and Rolls Royce mechanics are double jointed.

There are maybe 3 jobs that the diyer may shy away from. These are aircon recharging rear wheel brgs and accumulators. These 3 operations require specialist equipment. However all 3 have been successfully done by amateurs. A fourth one can be the rear rams due to bad design.

The bad design is that the ram is bolted on top of the turret rather than under neath. This means should the ram thread be seized then its hammer time and the best of luck.
However should these operations ever be required ready built assembleys are available and once fitted they should last another 40 years.

The best Shadow 2 was the last one made.
The best Shadow 1 is also the last one made.

Incidently the air dam is a bit of a gimmick in that I am unsure of what is does. It gets damaged it promotes rust around the mountings. But thats me who doesn't like spot lamps mirrors or antennas. Clutter.
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h_kelly
Prolific User
Username: h_kelly

Post Number: 224
Registered: 3-2012
Posted on Friday, 01 September, 2017 - 08:40 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Hi all, just purchased a 1979 SS2 today. I have owned a Shadow 1 for approximately 7 years. I'm a little nervous as the engine bay looks a little more complicated, I may need to ask you guys for advice along the way.
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richard george yeaman
Grand Master
Username: richyrich

Post Number: 808
Registered: 4-2012
Posted on Friday, 01 September, 2017 - 09:20 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Hubert good luck with your new purchase, Put up some photos.

Richard.
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Geoff Wootton
Grand Master
Username: dounraey

Post Number: 1765
Registered: 5-2012
Posted on Friday, 01 September, 2017 - 09:44 am:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Congratulations Hubert.

Have you kept your Shadow 1?

Any pics would be interesting.

Geoff

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