Fantastic part of the world. Used to live in Marin County (just over the GG bridge) so would often drive down to Carmel and surrounds. Highway 1 down the coast is fantastic around you, and was made for our '59 Merc. 190SL (which we took over to SF from Switzerland). BTW, the video was taken in Gran Canaria - on a plantation we rented. Thanks for your support.
Well, I agree with most of what you wrote. Mine is an absolutely superb 1978 Silver Shadow 2 however with a bit of a sketchy maintenance history. The car was repatriated from Florida to France 15 years ago. I bought it 7 years ago. It all went well for let say 6-7 years when suddenly (even though the car was regularly maintained) things started to fall apart. The engine started to develop a valve train clicking noise almost like that of a diesel engine. Braking became smooshy and the engine started to die when going up on a climbing road. Scary really. Then the radiator started to leak. All taht in a couple of months. Needless to say that in between I had fallen in love with the car and was not ready to part with it. Here I am now, having spent and still spending unreasonable amounts to keep it alive. The exhaust needs replacing but worse, when having 4 hydraulic tappets replaced, one of the cams on the central camshaft appeared to be quite badly dented...
The deal with older cars in general is how much you are ready to spend to maintain them. Most of these RRs were not properly maintained after a few years of service. Specialists are rare and command high priced service. This probably explains the low price, a bit like with some low end Ferraris. Pretending bad things will not catch you up one day is preposterous. At some point things will start to go awry, there is no escape for that. But then love is stronger, my RR has been in the shop for 4 months now, it should be ready in two weeks. We will see.
Well I hope it gives you some pleasure for all that investment. Agree with all you say - many neglected examples because the SY cars were so expensive to maintain properly :-(. One of the problems, as explained to me by a specialist, is that because they're so strong, people ignore maintenance and let them get in very poor shape. If you do as your doing, and then just do regular servicing, many people report the cars are quite trouble free. You're just clearing up someone else's neglect (but it will be great). The kicker is, the costs now often exceed the perceived value (what you can get another basket case for).
That post was interesting and entertaining.
Thank you :-)
I am also a Man from Del Monte: Del Monte Forest, in Monterey County!
I’m glad I reread the post here because the delightful video was absent from the e-mailed version.
Fantastic part of the world. Used to live in Marin County (just over the GG bridge) so would often drive down to Carmel and surrounds. Highway 1 down the coast is fantastic around you, and was made for our '59 Merc. 190SL (which we took over to SF from Switzerland). BTW, the video was taken in Gran Canaria - on a plantation we rented. Thanks for your support.
Well, I agree with most of what you wrote. Mine is an absolutely superb 1978 Silver Shadow 2 however with a bit of a sketchy maintenance history. The car was repatriated from Florida to France 15 years ago. I bought it 7 years ago. It all went well for let say 6-7 years when suddenly (even though the car was regularly maintained) things started to fall apart. The engine started to develop a valve train clicking noise almost like that of a diesel engine. Braking became smooshy and the engine started to die when going up on a climbing road. Scary really. Then the radiator started to leak. All taht in a couple of months. Needless to say that in between I had fallen in love with the car and was not ready to part with it. Here I am now, having spent and still spending unreasonable amounts to keep it alive. The exhaust needs replacing but worse, when having 4 hydraulic tappets replaced, one of the cams on the central camshaft appeared to be quite badly dented...
The deal with older cars in general is how much you are ready to spend to maintain them. Most of these RRs were not properly maintained after a few years of service. Specialists are rare and command high priced service. This probably explains the low price, a bit like with some low end Ferraris. Pretending bad things will not catch you up one day is preposterous. At some point things will start to go awry, there is no escape for that. But then love is stronger, my RR has been in the shop for 4 months now, it should be ready in two weeks. We will see.
Well I hope it gives you some pleasure for all that investment. Agree with all you say - many neglected examples because the SY cars were so expensive to maintain properly :-(. One of the problems, as explained to me by a specialist, is that because they're so strong, people ignore maintenance and let them get in very poor shape. If you do as your doing, and then just do regular servicing, many people report the cars are quite trouble free. You're just clearing up someone else's neglect (but it will be great). The kicker is, the costs now often exceed the perceived value (what you can get another basket case for).