HISTORY OF 1927 ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM 1 37 K.R. ENGINE NO. W145. By Arthur Galway First purchased by the Earl of Dysart, Ham House, Richmond, Surrey on the 6th June, 1929. The body, an "Enchandaulet" was built by Hooper and Co. Cost of the Vehicle was 1850 Pounds. The car was subsequently sold to a London Businessman and spent the war years under a building in London to protect it from the bombing raids. It arrived in Cape Town after the war years, looking much neglected. Dr. Schoeman Smith acquired the car and subsequently Peter Houston in the Midlands took it over. Peter did extensive work on recreating the body, into the original Barker Barrel Body, before he traded the unfinished car with Peter Redman. Peter partially stripped the engine and gearbox, ostensibly to have every little (and big) part cadmium plated. He then commenced some interior work, and then tragically passed away. I became aware of the car, and met Linda Redman with whom I negotiated a deal.
I collected the car and put it on a Roll Bed truck together with the "Parts" (2 trailer loads) and a full bakkie and headed home with my "Prize". Bernice, my long suffering wife, had one look and said "Oh No, not again! It took Neville, my friend and I almost a year to identify the cadmium plated bits and nuts and bolts working from the parts catalogue and numbers on each part, to identify the very many wired looking bits and label them. I studied the Crooke s PI and photographed the working parts from top to bottom (literally) and then set about putting it together manufacturing bits that were missing. I planned on 1 year to do this work but it took 2 years to get the car running. The original bonnet was poor, and I re-manufactured it, together with the running boards, the stainless treads and hardwood inserts, spare wheel supports. We had the car completely rewired.
The Rolls-Royce Tourer had a carrier fitted at the rear for luggage, which was strapped on by "James" on their annual visit to France, Italy and the Med. An alternative was all manner of trunks, some leather bound, strapped on I designed and made a fair size trunk, using marine ply and clad in 1mm aluminium sheet riveted together with the same size and pattern as Rolls-Royce original rivets. The boot lid has 2 flush mounted locks, the floor has a false bottom, under which, the Jack, Wheel spanner and tools are kept. The rear passenger compartment has Cherry wood, cabinets containing 6 Chrystal Rolls-Royce champagne glasses and 2 de canters; I also used Cherry wood for the dashboard and all the door sills. Finally the car was together and my very good friend Byron Bishop, said, I don't paint old cars, but this one I will! He and his team spent weeks on preparing the car for finishing. As an example it took 1 man a week to prepare each wheel (x6) and this after shot blasting. The body has 5 coats of paint plus a clear coat. We now needed a hood for the car. By dint of good luck and another good friend Nigel Atherstone owned a Bentley also with a Barker Barrel Body, and his had its original hood.
Bernice and I took a stack of Drawing Paper down and carefully traced all the arms of the hood, which I transferred onto 6 mm. Marine Ply. I cut each arm out on a band saw, drilled the relevant 6mm pivot holes, then laid the parts on a 4m long table and get the whole lot to fold and unfold. Phase 2, Springrite guillotined 6mm Spring Steel plate into suitable widths (which promptly curled up) from guillotining. After flattening those on my anvil, I used the templates and cut the relevant shapes, after which grinding and polishing and then chrome plating, and assembling them with C.S.K. S.S. bolts 24 arms in all. Noel Jennings (now deceased) loaned me his "bending machine" for the Oak bows; 40mm x 10mm strips of Oak, steamed individually and then bent to a template, afterwards 3 were laminated and glued together to form 1 bow (4 bows in all). These were varnished and then screwed onto the Stainless steel arms (Whew)! Bernice imported the covering material. Jay also upholstered the car using 12 hides, which he and I carefully selected. The car was finally complete, and is now running well after a major Engine overhaul and has been rallied in Port Elizabeth (where we won best car) at the Milligan, we did this Rally on 3 occasions.
14 February 2013