Me and my Shadow

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History
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Joined: Tue May 05, 2015 8:03 pm

Me and my Shadow

#1 Post by History » Mon Jun 08, 2015 9:20 pm

Just cruising down the avenue.
Hardly original for a Shadow posting every body uses that song for Shadows.

I brought the car in May 1989. 1974 SRH 17768. Reg no BRV ***.
At the time I was on the spanners fixing cars in my own little one man and a dog workshop.

I brought and sold the odd car. The profit I used to buy the next one. This led to The Shadow. The Shadow actually cost if I work from the first car which was £1500.
I added £500 to the pot and the car cost £2000 plus a XJ12.

How I checked the car.
First I just walked around it and decided that It looked good. So I put £10 of petrol in it and drove it for 75 miles around Hampshire. The car drove as it should. Except the spongy brake pedal.

So two days later I go back with jack and axle stands.

I found that in the service history that Jack Barclay in London recommended new brake hoses which had never actually been done.

Shadows are known for having hoses that collapse internally and block. The pressure goes through all right but gets trapped and the brakes drag.

In this case only two hoses were blocked. The ones for the rear caliper manual master cylinder system. This gives the driver feel. The owner had a local garage bleed the rear brakes. But with dodgy hoses they couldn't. This allowed loads of air in so one half of the rear brakes wasnt working. If it had then the rear brakes will drag.

So I took £500 off and gave him an XJ12 plus £2000.

The 2 hoses were £12 and also fitted a Bedford CF van.
Bleeding this circuit can differcult. But I was lucky and bleeding took 3 mins.

Eventually I changed all 14 hoses. Most of which were the same as the CF van ones.

I then used the car as a daily driver and by 1993 miles were 75k.

The paint was getting tatty so I had it refinished as original peacock blue mettalic. It looked lovely. I then relacqued the wood and repaint the leather. The carpets wedgewood blue I re dyed with dylon. A cold water dye.

About 2000 the piant was again tatty and varoius touch ups were obvious
So I painted the car Taxi or carriage trade Black Gloss. Ad soon as I did this I knew the colour worked. To get the peacock blue right meant bare metal.

In 2005 I took the car for MOT. The guy front ended the car. The insurers repaired the car and resprayed in 2pk.
Also because RR approved guy had the car for 6 weeks. The gave me £600. I also had a Merc 207D van. The damage was light but still cost £6500 plus shrapnel.
I gave them the car with 1/4 tank of lpg and when I got it back it was full plus they changed the gearbox filter and oil. Because on test the guy thought that the shift was slightly bumpy. He filled it up with lpg because his test is 50 miles.

I went to see a guy about a music festival and met this goth band. They said that if Dracula had a car this is what it should look like.

Originally the car had fog lights. I removed them which decluttered the front end look. No stickers on glass neither.

Ownership has been easy. The car has never given trouble and drive at 60-75 mph for miles with no worries.

I said easy not cheap. Parts are expensive. There are some bits from other cars that fit like brake pads. But not many. However all the parts are available.

Fortunately I possess a high level of craft skills, technical and product knowledge. Plus I have equipment such as lathes and access to other machine tools and City &Guilds in machining.

It surprising what can be made. In 50 years I have never brought an exhaust system for one of my own cars. I make one instead.

In 1998 the rear exhaust from the first box which is Stainless was about finished. So I brought 60mm by 2mm round mild steel pipe and 16swg for silencer casing and stainless steel wire wool. 8 hours of filing and bending and welding and turning end plates on my lathe. Total cost £30.

The system is still fine and holding up well. The front section is 41 years old.

Service history.

This car had full history not all of it by RR approved. Because I am not going to use an approved dealer and I am diying. The sevice history wasn't that important.

I service the car in extended periods. Plugs one day and oil and filter maybe a month later. Then a while later check out ignition.

Brake pipe work. The original was steel over the years I have made replacements in kunifer. Some pipes at the front are still ok. But every brake pipe at the rear had to be replaced. All easy and straight forward.

Tyres.
I have Bridgestones at the moment 95 quid each. These last about 15k miles. The tyres wear evenly.


Note on the internet are vendors that sell exhaust stuff and bends y pipes and much more is available in both Stianless and mild steel. So if you have a car with and expensive exhaust system then its actually straight forward to make your own. Cars that are say less than 100 bhp per liter have a wide design toletance in the exhaust department. I have found that providing the pipes arent too small and the silencer used aren't too restrictive then about the only difference between your version and the original will be the noise It makes. My Shadow is about 35 to 40 bhp per litre.

I once removed the cross pipe from a Kawasaki GPz 500s.
120 bhp per litre. It made no difference whats so ever, apart from a slightly different sound.

Two strokes. Exhaust design is very complicated and important so no diy.

Chassis no. SRH 17768. S means saloon 4 door. R means Rolls Royce. ( B for Bentley) and H means home market UK spec. First shadow 1001. A mate has 17766. Its indentical to mine even peacock blue.

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