rolls royce phantom ii 1932 drop head ... - scalemotorcars

Rolls Royce Phantom II 1932 Drop Head Sedanca Coupé 1:8 Scale Pocher K72

April 1, 2003 Perfect. This shot shows the perfect spacing and alignment among the three layers of spokes. Interestingly, the tyre size on the Phantom II decreased over time. First introduced with 21 inchers, the rubber shrank to 20 inches in 1930 and 19 inches in 1933.


April 4, 2003 875 individual pieces make up the five wheels shown here. For 15 hours, over five consecutive nights, each spoke was set and sealed in place. Now complete, the wheels will be primed and painted with two coats of body color before having the tires mounted. Bottom Layer Spoke Middle Layer Spoke Top Layer Spoke


April 5, 2003 While the paint on the wheel rims dries, the wheel hubs are being prepared for installation. The left-most hub appears as it came out of the box. The middle hub has had the “RR” logo painted while the hub on the right shows the outer band completed. Testors Dark Red enamel applied to a brush, which was then dipped in tap water, was used to “run” the pigment through the engravings on the hubs.

It should be pointed out that the hubs supplied with K72 are not historically accurate. As shown in the picture to the left, the prototype Phantom II would have sported chrome hubs with the “Rolls-Royce” name stamped top and bottom between two red bands. Why Pocher did not manufacture a more accurate wheel hub is unknown. Like the front grill badge, the red highlights became black with the introduction of the 1932 Phantoms – again for aesthetic and not memorial purposes. As most Phantoms disc wheel covers, this slight historical inaccuracy can be covered if necessary.


April 5, 2003 All five tires are complete. The air valve stems have been painted flat black to match the prototype (they were originally brass). These particular tires are 19 inch units as per the markings on the sidewall. The Phantom II didn’t wear 19 inch rubber until 1933. Pocher manufactured K72 as a 1932 (which would have had 20” tires) and I’m building it as a 1931. In terms of accuracy, these tires are off by one inch (1/8” scale).


April 10, 2003 With the wheels and brake drums complete, the chassis is now able to rest on it’s own four “feet” The top pictures shows the incredible size of the chassis while the bottom two shots show up-close detail of the front and rear brake drums. While the front drums were standard size relative to other classics of the era, the rear drums were immense – designed to hold two brake shoes each for the hand and foot brakes. The foot brakes at all four corners were internal expanding with the traditional Rolls Royce servo. As the size and mass of the car grew, it became ever more challenging for the hand brake to hold the car on steep inclines. The side-by-side, double shoe configuration replaced the older concentric rear brakes which sported an inner handbrake drum and an outer footbrake drum. That the hand brake operated a second set of rear shoes inside a single drum was one of the many features that differentiated the PII from its predecessor.


April 11, 2003 While installing the lines running out of the bottom of the Autovac unit, the firewall cracked. Fortunately, it broke into only three pieces and did not splinter at the edges. The firewall will be re-assembled using epoxy resin. After curing, everything will be repainted. This should add approximately two days to the build.


April 14, 2003

After repairing the firewall damage from April 11th, the lines were run. It took ten hours over two nights to complete all the custom fabrications shown here. The top two pictures show the progress after night #1 while the bottom shots show the final result. All of the lines were made out of 3/64 and 1/16 gauge brass rod. Once fabricated, and prior to installation, the rods were sprayed with Flat Aluminum and Gloss Aluminum paint.

Once the firewall has been mounted on the chassis, along with the radiator, the final electrical wiring to the relay and fuse box will be installed. Also, a braided line will run from the Autovac to the opposite side of the firewall. Finally, the four lines running out of the Autovac, as well as the line running off the firewall (next to the steering column harness) will be run into the engine bay and connected to appropriate points on the block.


April 21, 2003 The fuel lines have been run from the gas tank at the rear, up the chassis, to the front of the vehicle. One of the two lines will run to the engine block while the other will connect to the Autovac (once it is installed with the firewall). The kit instructions call for a strand of copper wire to serve as the fuel lines. This recommendation provided neither authenticity nor visual appeal. For the sake of both, custom lines (white arrows) were fabricated out of brass rod and brass tube. These lines run parallel and above the brake lines past the second and third cross members. Two 75 degree bends in the lines (red arrow), just past the cross-member, re-route the lines so that they may be tucked inside the left frame rail.


April 23, 2003

In order to make sure that the firewall is located properly, the coachwork and top of the bonnet have been “temporarily” assembled. Using strategically-placed dabs of liquid cement, the modeler’s equivalent of spot welding, and barely inserted machine screws, the body panels hold together just enough to test fit the carriage work over the chassis. With all this work completed, the firewall may now be installed. Before disassembling the body, each panel will be checked for fit and alignment. Weeks of prepping and sanding will then precede the two-week priming and cure process. After the primer has cured and been wet-sanded, the three-week paint process will begin. Bottom line, if I’m lucky, there are a mere eight weeks to go before the coachwork is complete.


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April 25, 2003 / May 15, 2003 With the addition of some final lines, the engine bock is about complete. Once the radiator returns from Florida (where it’s being chromed) the control rods for the radiator shutters will be installed. The pictures at top show the intake side of the engine before and after the installation of the steering column. The picture at the bottom shows the worm gear installed inside the steering box. The black rod coming out of the box has a counter gear attached to it and placed underneath the worm gear. Once the steering rod is installed, the turning of the steering wheel will cause the worm gear to rotate which will force the front wheels to turn as they will be connected, via the steering rod, to the box. A new steering control rod will have to be fabricated as the one supplied by Pocher with K72 bears absolutely no resemblance to the actual unit.


April 25, 2003 The shot on the left is the model. The picture on the right is of a 1932 Phantom II Park Ward Bodied Continental. These prototype shots are absolutely mandatory when building a Pocher. While some “creative license” has been used in the construction of my K72, a significant attempt has been made to adhere to the visual standards of the original.


April 25, 2003 On the left, the exhaust manifold and generator of my Phantom II. On the right, the same view of the actual engine. One major difference between the model and the prototype is the heat shield surrounding the firewall-mounted Autovac on the prototype. It should also be noted that the shaft between the generator and magneto on the model have been painted using Flat Aluminum paint. Fabricated out of brass rod, the color change was effected for purposes of historical accuracy.


April 25, 2003 Here is a good shot of the model’s firewall (left) and that of the prototype (right). Both shots are dominated by the huge Autovac unit in the top, right-hand corner. This unit consists of two internal chambers, one within the other, inside the main chamber. The outer chamber was connected to the carburetor float chamber while the inner tank is connected to the fuel tank at the rear of the chassis. A knob on the dash board allowed the driver to control a float on the outer chamber and, thus, the overall suction of the vacuum unit. Unlike many classics of the day, the Rolls Royce employed this highly advanced Autovac system to ensure smooth starts and operation of the engine. As if this twin-chamber contraption was not advanced enough, it bears noting that some of the finest cars of the era were still relying on internal engine pressure to draw fuel to the carburetor. Also visible in these shots is the temperature coil (left of Autovac) that comes through the firewall and runs into the engine block itself. This is a graceful coil that really serves to dress up the firewall on the Phantom II. Like all other lines, this piece was not supplied by Pocher. For the model (left) It was fabricated by winding solid brass rod around the shaft of a screwdriver. (Brass rod sprayed with Aluminum paint has been used instead of aluminum rod as the latter is too soft for these sorts of custom designs. Brass rod can be adjusted without loosing shape. This was especially important when creating the temperature coil as the spacing between each coil had to be created by pulling the unit apart after the wrap was taken off of the screwdriver.)


April 25, 2003 Here is the self-cleaning oil filter and level indicator on the model. All of the lines have been custom fabricated out of brass painted with gloss and flat Aluminum paint from Model Masters and Tamiya. As far as the level indicator is concerned, Phantom II’s of the early 30’s sported gauges that had both black and red pointers. While black is more common, Testors Dark Red provided some visual excitement to the engine bay (same for the brass fittings on the filter itself). All oil delivered by the pump, with the exception of that supplied to the ignition control relay, passes through this three-chamber filtration unit. This cleaning unit relied on gravity and three stacks of metal discs to separate contaminants from the lubricant itself before it flowed to the engine and throughout the chassis.


April 25, 2003 K-72’s water pump and distributor cap are shown on the left while the same units on the prototype are displayed at right. The Phantom II featured a centrifugal circulating water pump with double glands designed to facilitate smooth operation and reduce wear and tear and the potential for leakage. The bolt on top of the grease reservoir was used to keep the pump’s bearings adequately lubricated. According to the Rolls Royce Phantom II Owner’s Handbook, this screw-down bolt was to be tightened a few turns every 2000 miles or four weeks.


April 25, 2003 / May 15, 2003 The picture on the left is of the model’s firewall prior to design, fabrication and installation of the cold starter and front radiator shutter control rods. The picture on the right shows these control rods. As a 1931 model, the driver would manually adjust the aperture of the radiator shutters and the fuel flow to the starter via a knob on the bottom of the dash. With the introduction of the 1932 Phantom II, a thermostatic unit made this an automatic function of the car itself. This model is being built as a 1931 model so that the beauty and intricacy of these rods can be displayed.


April 25, 2003 Here’s a good shot of the magneto and starter relay box on the exhaust side of the PII engine. The brass oil can just below the magneto is a perfect 1:8 scale reproduction created by Model Motorcars based on photos I took of a rare original unit. Before completion of the model, a retaining arm will be designed and mounted to the base of the block to hold the oil can in place. This shot also displays the one-off heat shield between the exhaust manifold and wiring loom. A rounded leather punch was used to create the rivet heads on the shield.


April 25, 2003 More shots comparing the model’s engine and firewall to that of the prototype. The large unit just below the magneto on the prototype with the black retaining strap (right photo) is the Dunlop #10 jack that was used to raise the car when a tire change was required. Like the oil can and wheel spanner, the jack was carried in the engine compartment of the Phantom II. Under the heading of “you spent how long doing what?” it took nearly two hours one night to get the wires coming out of the loom on the back of the magneto to appear like those on the prototype. The spacing and alignment had to be “just so.” I don’t know if the final result (which is as close to perfect as I could get) is a testimony to my model building skills or the degree to which I’ve become insanely obsessed with even the smallest of details on these models. Such is the emotional state of the Pocher builder.


April 23, 2003 Detail shots of the generator on K-72 (left) and the a Phantom II prototype (right). The Phantom II generator was driven by the engine at the rate of [Engine Speed x 1.5]. The generator could be run at full speed/output or at a reduced output. Full output was called for when the driving, head and auxiliary exterior lights were illuminated. If these lights were not required, reduced output could be brought about by a small resistance in the field winding. This reduced output option was provided in order to prevent unnecessary and deleterious charging of the Phantom’s battery. While every attempt has been made to present the model in a manner as visually accurate as possible, it should be noted that the three electrical wires connected to the generator were actually Red/Black (Negative Lead), Black (Positive Lead) and White/Black (Field Lead). Bare Metal Foil (Chrome) and Tamiya Black Chrome Paint have been used to highlight the retaining straps on the model’s generator.


May 15, 2003 Two good shots of the cold starter and radiator shutter control rods and the connection throw rods that connect them on the firewall. These rods, simple in appearance as they may be, represent just over 20 hours of work.

rolls royce phantom ii 1932 drop head ... - scalemotorcars

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