Pocher Rolls Royce Phantom 1:8

[paddy]

I have decided to start a thread for this but it may be premature. No worries i can dig it out of the archives when i want to update it.

I should have called this thread "We're going to need a bigger Boat Bench " but "Pocher" makes it easier to find.
I picked this up today about 40 miles up the road. It was on E-bay as collection only so i was lucky it was so close...I think i was lucky in that i paid £135.00 ( about$160 ) an unstarted one would be $1000 +

The guy listed it as 50% complete so i guess most people passed it by however i looked closer and what he meant was 50% completed ..50% complete implied half was missing, thats why i think i got it at a good price.
Anyway this is it

Its been very crudely assembled, no paint at all and no cleaning up of parts

Whats there needs a lot of sorting

But its 90% screwed together so just needs stripping down and starting again

I have a very nice ultra sonic cleaner which i think will be great for this.
first thing is to catalogue the loose parts and strip and bag the assembled parts.
I'm actually feeling quite enthusiastic at this point however its going to be a massive job because they are hundreds of parts, non are marked as they would have been supplied in marked bags so now its going to be a load of patience and time..
The model i think is supposed to be "The Star of India"

1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II “Star of India”: Worthy of a Maharaji - Vintage Car Collector

Named after a 563-carat star-shaped sapphire, this incredible and one-of-a-kind saffron-painted Rolls-Royce was built by Thrupp & Maberly for the Maharaja of Rajkot. This car was a symbol of wealth and strength, and its color symbolized courage according to Indian tradition. Source: Flickr As a...

library.vintagecarcollector.com

Unfortunately i cant live with the colour so its going to be something else

 

[moon puppy]

Looks like a great barn find.

 

[paddy]

Only real damage i can find is this

I had no idea how over engineered these things are ? I mean all the brakes should work when the brake pedel is pushed and i also found a battery. No idea that thats supposed to do ?

a few other pictures as i start to strip this.
I have to say its all so complicated that its going to be a real mission to reassemble. and it was only about 1/3 built

Obviously i will take hundreds of pictures and i have the instructions but as i said...... its going to very hard to identify the parts for example so small metal links ar 1mm longer than others , " spare wheels are not built and they have several different length of spokes.

On a brighter note i love this colour with black wheel arches.

 

[paddy]

O()h and the reason it needs to be completely stripped ? well its all self coloured plastic ( no paint) and getting the chassis rails out and painted means a full strip.

 

[moon puppy]

Did that oil pan have a gasket?

 

[Sharkmouth]

This one will keep you busy for a long, long time! Like the Vietnamese streetwalker in Full Metal Jacket!

 

[Paulw]

I agree with Bob. The crank looks as if has be running and you can even see the oil pick up holes in the bottom of the con rods. in some of your pics I could hardly tell that it wasn't a full sized car until the battery. This looks like a full series of Paddy and his Rolls.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Paddy, I think the battery is for the lights. It is supposed to have headlights that work as well. That dark maroon and black car is basically the Pocher Rolls Royce kit that I have. It is black and blue. Yeah the kits are complex, but are made in rather basic ways. I think a lot of the linkage parts could stand to be redone. So, get yourself a bunch of small bags or containers and get ready for a long job.

 

[paddy]

Yea its a bit of an enigma . on one hand it a lot of detail, on the other it has a whole load of linkages and stuff that are there to make things like the brakes work and bear no relation to anything on the real car...very odd Even more odd is people mount these things on mirrors so you can see all these strange linkages. on the underside-

 

[paddy]

One of the first things i wanted to do while i work out a plan of attach is see if the chrome is salvagable because if not i need to get it sent off .
A rolls is only a Rolls because of its badge and grill. A rolls without these two essentials......is a Bentley.

The radiator surround was looking very tarnished and worst of all its badge had been soldered on crooked with some splatter.

I had my doubts this was chrome however a magnet and a scratch about on the inside confirmed it was definitely not polished stainless.

I managed to unsolder the badge and clean the area up and put the lot, slats and all in the ultrasonic for 10 mins then polished with spoo tamiya finishing paste, painted the badge and fixed it back with super glue.

anyway back to stripping.......

 

[moon puppy]

That's a hell of a clean up job!

 

[Impisi]

WOW, don't know what to say else, just WOW

 

[paddy]

So it is now completely stripped.....well not quite, its a series of sub sections, front axle and suspension, engine, gearbox, rear suspension and axle and everything else..
I decided to work on each sub assemble separately and i will strip them at the same time as rebuild so i have hope of remembering how it all goes back together.
The important thing as i have the chassis rails separated now so can do the repair

I cleand up the surfaces of the crack then super glued it back together. Because this is a suspension point i have reinforced it on the back/inside where it wont be seen

this is the engine stripoped, just one part broke which is an achievement. It mostly screwed together but some parts are glued however because of the age the glue has ceased to be glue and has started to go powdery so can be separated.

Just to give an idea of scale here, this is my recent Tamiya Big scale 1/12 Ferrari......tamiya need to re think "big scale "

alongside a Pocher rolls chassis rail....

As i mentioned, this is not just a pull it apart and stick it back together build. Nothing is painted, all the linkages are bent and of course the chassis is in need of repair not mention a lot of it was never assembled in the first place..

 

[moon puppy]

Paddy you look like you're having fun! Nice fix on the frame.

 

[paddy]

I'm in my ellement Bob
My life has been motorcycle restoration for the last 30 years either as a business or hobby. My spare time has been models...so a model restoration is bliss
I got some new fluid today for the ultrasonic l cleaner that i use for carb cleaning. It works brilliantly on plastic. The Pocher engine has been assembled with grease as most of it turns but the grease had gone to toffee over the 35 years its been in a box. Because its never been painted i had to get the engine parts spit clean again for the paint to stick ..Enter the ultra sonic

Here are the engine parts now cleaned , rinsed and dried and they look like new

Its not a world away from what i do anyway....

Its just 8 times smaller..lol

 

[moon puppy]

Wow Paddy, those carbs look new. How much of that is restored parts vers replacement?

 

[paddy]

The only new parts on the outside are the screws as its cheaper to replace with new than to get the old ones re plated. Also the same with the hose clips, otherwise its all original.
Obviously i replace any internals that wear.t

 

[Rhino]

Wow! Dam. Wow and Dam!! Mongo IMPRESSED!

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Excellent Paddy!

On the re-assembly, take your time and check EVERYTHING!!!! The parts fit can be a real bear on these. Definitely check out the Motorcars website I made in the earlier post. They also have a crap ton of reference photos in addition to AM parts etc.

 

[paddy]

Any good Doctor, Mechanic will tell you about the importance of carbs.

Well its no different for a Rolls Royce.


Bare plastic

White primer shows all the faults

A coat of silver with different parts with a different shade of under coat to create contrast. Hole drilled out for screws...

And with most of the fixings replaced with miniature brass screws

Also not mesh added to the air intake.