1958 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud Derelict - Jay Leno's Garage

[Music] because good yeah that's hilarious welcome to the episode of Jay Leno's Garage we're gonna have some fun today this is a 1958 rolls-royce Silver Cloud but it's not an ordinary rolls-royce it is a derelict rolls-royce now if you don't know what that means you'll find out in just a minute because it's built by icon it is not exactly what it seems and that's kind of the fun thing about these derelict automobiles let's bring in Jonathan ward do you see president of icon the president sounds like quite lofty yeah it does well there you go idiot in charge so tell people what we have here alright so icon is all about revisiting classic trans in a modern context and what derelict Tsar about hiding all the work that we do so find a vehicle with killer patina and sense of history laser scan it geek out on it and modify the hell out of it put it back together like to look like we did nothing right so this was originally a six cylinder Silver Cloud one okay and it now has what now it's rocking an ls7 okay and where lead 5e big Brembos Art Morrison sport ifs four-link rear coil overs and blah blah blah okay alright so what you've done is essentially lifted the body off and put a brand new modern electronics the Prince of Darkness mr. Lucas right has been completely eradicated well the tires are a giveaway as the wheels are that makes you sense something is suspicious but other than that I mean I used to when I worked at the Rolls dealer when I was a kid we used to get these old girls in all the time and they were fun you know they were kind of cool but I imagine this is a whole different beast isn't it completely different but the Grace and the lines and the scale of these just I don't know anyone who can't appreciate it right the lines and the details well this looks like a rolls-royce you know obviously we have a lot of fancy cars here at the garage and the garage is not in the fanciest part of town and whatever I would drive the McLaren or you know these really expensive cars all neighborhood people wave the kids say hi a buddy of mine come over if one of these you paid $15,000 for he couldn't get it running right so we tuned it up let's go for a ride around the block and people give me the finger cuz I'm in a Rolls Royce cuz I look like I was there to collect the rent and you know it just looked like a kinda rolls you know you know the besides some Grey Poupon jokes and all the other stuff it people just get mad you know that's kind of a funny thing you know my experience though in this one is that the funk and patina and the affections of it make people smile and it's like a lot more approachable because you you avoid all that social stigma but right now this is a right-hand drive model yep okay so did you import it was it always a right-hand drive mom it was always a righty but it was in the u.s. since-- knew it actually was owned by a now-defunct cosmetics company and it was there you know pick up their executives and I'm impressed was tribute errs car and then when that guy were tired it was given to him as a gift and then he never drove it and it's sat rotting in the driveway okay so when we bought it it had this an original paint but the inside man the mold we literally had a hire a hazmat team really know like full bodysuits to come deal with it and strip it out because it had some highly suspect mold situation growing in it is there any original pieces besides bodywork steering gear anything original four rolls on it about this part of the chassis so we actually built this for a great client who's in Australia okay so that complicated my world because we had to build in compliance with Australian laws which are even crazier than ours so we had to work with an engineering consultant what we're the law it's a gift to keep a certain percentage of the original chassis the the brakes that you run have to come with certification documents and well I get that part but you'd think if you had a more modern chassis that was very good yeah it's lawyers I'm trying to talk reasonable words J yeah no better well let's open the hood and see what we have on it oh yeah good fun I'm gonna monkey with it a little bit more too we want to dress the engine bay to hide the LS better right and as funny I reached out to the client said alright I know we've like blown a lot of your money but if it was my car he was like four things I would do yeah it's not real improv I always I prefer seeing some sort of fin devel cover exactly that's room but at the same time it depends on how the clients gonna use it if I leave this ls7 as factory delivered get it serviced anywhere everyone's immediately familiar with it you know if it's not going to show us where the hoods up that's not affect right and what kind of horsepower was it making about five and a half ok versus probably what five and a half but five yeah yeah but back in the day it would have been was probably 200 horsepower with the six yeah on paper yeah yeah could actually feel it right okay and then the the brakes really were interesting on the stock but now we're hydro boosted icon Brembos all the way around six piston fried 4-piston rear okay optic stainless exhaust and blah blah blah yeah I mean not a sexy engine compartment as we remember what the original focus was right heads down you just rolling it and it's reliable and fast as hell and easy to service right but now he's engaging my geekness and we're gonna see and see custom valve covers that hide the coils and have the vintage roll script right that wheels are missing a pinstripe in my odd brain so we're gonna do that yeah the shifters are just generic II and did you make these wheels or what now we work with our buddies at circle racing on those and then we see and see the custom roll center caps and what size tire is it these are I'm not that smart so very good years well they're 1880 the big old Brembos okay they're 295 50 okay cuz I always remember a lot more tire yeah less wheel you know for definite for better that's a challenge for us with the daleks we all right always the biggest challenge yeah keep the continuity but yeah big breaks okay alright well let's see we said the engine compartment there and you got your windshield washer fluid yeah we kept that original it's too cool not as that's all original across the flying lady yes of course and then on the inside though in contrast to the exterior we geeked out and fully restored it albeit as usual I took some liberties some of the leather geeks we have the leathers made for us okay and I just didn't have the ID of the heart to do the mo tone rugs I just don't get it yeah the - a party right right yeah yeah and then we extensive we did all the hard wood and the inlay and all that and then we modified the heck out of the - okay you'll probably know being the geek that you and I are but most people had never noticed it but extensively modified for in - a/c and defrost and cruise control and blah blah blah and the gauges are no longer stock they're just the facha of stock right then all video electronics hi okay I know did this year have the round balls for the air condition of the circular originally no this one had no easier register I don't think in 58 try to member of rolls-royce head air condition I'm not expert enough to say I remember this one who did it yeah I mean that was the one place where America really beat rolls-royce you know in 1949 IRAs contend the Cadillac was the best car in the world had air conditioning it had electric windows or power windows it had automatic transmission I had a v8 power rolls-royce's six-cylinder with a stick look it happens again and again the most stayed traditional companies are that's normal sense right right yeah don't evolve until forced yeah very nice all right nice I like the leather even that leather looks like it could be thought of original yeah that was the idea and it's organic enough that it is gonna scratch an age and catch up with the exterior and we kind of purposely did that as well steering column was a challenge no that's nothing stock anymore what was the challenge on the steering column because it seems like the v8 is actually smaller than the six no Laura no is more of a cosmetic a design challenge yeah on the inside you know we needed to change and improve the ergonomics from stock you know we're rack and pinion and all that now so we go to bargains and joints and collapsible but that's actually from the hot rod world and then we just monkied with it a little bit and machined the coupling to keep the old-school I liked those school buses so how did this work did the guy from Australia did he come here did he call you I want to find an old rolls or you found it and then you sold the idea to him how does that work it works all those different ways but in this case justin reached out to us and said you guys are nuts I love your derelict I want to do one my brothers like all up in the classic rolls-royce clubs and I want to screw with them right so I want to do a cloud it's gotta be right-hand drive it's gotta be beat so we searched down the car for it that's right you have to be you can't even bring a left-hand drive into Austria well I guess you can have is 25 years yeah but even then they make it super difficult yeah yeah yeah okay well this will certainly get you kicked out of the rolls-royce exactly if you show exactly get out get out with your head yeah yeah yeah it's like go to a Vincent meeting with a chopper you know yeah yeah I mean so really nothing was done to the body at all even at no attempts to repair the rest yeah on the bottom side there was some concerning rust frankly I have a love-hate thing with British cars I generally love the aesthetic but I find the execution kind of sucks in my opinion so the way the body's built you know in two layers is just crazy it's all hand fettled there that's no excuse for not having drain plugs and about two layers right high needles right so we did more rust repair on the bottom side than we thought we were going to do but we're very careful not to do the exterior okay so hard to hide all the work that all right maybe you should put this up on the lift and show people yeah let's do that let's take a next door we'll put it up on the lift and then we'll take it for a ride excellent well we got it up on our sterile kony lift so you can see what the chassis looks like this is where obviously all the money goes so you know certainly not on the body another paint okay so let's start from the back what do we got here we got our Brembo brakes yep and what 18 inch wheels that's yeah eight teams and then even further back this takes a lot of time but really helps us to like refine and evolve the road noise I'm gonna tech the body so this is all heat cured polyuria okay then we made our own tank so we could do a proper in tank pump and baffles and all that okay and this is we added a couple body mounts yeah do that yeah well it's a nice piece here look at this this is a lot more rigid certainly than the original everyone's yeah yeah sometimes we use that for routing exhaust but on this one we have room out port yeah so we did the TIG mandrel stainless and what do we have here this is what emergency brake yeah it's this new products called East stops a lot of times we struggle with like the the math from the fulcrum of like an original lever tomorrow brakes and the parking brake is never quite right right so this now is electric fed worm drive and it pulls the heck out of that and it's just been perfect but we still hook it up to the original like under - stop with a micro switch cuz there that's right originally did they have a park position I don't think they do they didn't so you have to pull the emergency yeah but has it but the transmission also is yeah and now we have a proper Park but a proper partner pretty easy traction bars there yeah and it gives us a lot of control and durability yeah and then the chassis is all military spec one router coated and etched and I'm a big fan of these hydraboost systems more and more okay for the brakes here yeah so instead of using vacuum right we're actually pulling energy from the power steering pump okay it was originally used like an 18 wheelers and big trucks yeah then now Talon and a couple other firms have really refined so you get the proper brake pedal and throw you through the windshield yeah very nice okay I mean we just know seepage no oil anywhere yeah cuz there's no paper cork British gaskets anymore crying right right really helps out well I mean this is a 60 year old car I mean it's pretty amazing and this is that whole new front end up here yeah yeah so we've laced it in but from about where your head is forward is on new 240 watt mandrel bent now what do we have is your brake line right yep well that looks dangerously close to you know I'd have to see your writers yeah I'll be do a spring retainer to hold that up yeah that looks like you come along and he grabbed my good fun and you pull a brake line out of there so we still have the car because we're doing shakedown so that a good point of something that we've already got on the other thing got the same thing on the other side hey at least I'm symmetrical right now why a plastic brake line versus a it's plastic shrouded stainless oh okay okay so it's kind of double trouble and then we plumb the whole system in stainless okay nicely done and of course custom so you don't use you just use route the rolls grill was no rolls radiator and correct yeah we can't design our own radiator to be compliant and that was a fairly small radiator right but I guess these are just so efficient they are and that's the guize griffin and they have a really good dense core that really helps us get away with less real estate but keeping the capacity right and what steering rack is this well this is the Flaming River rack and pinion and it's the 20 to 1 ratio okay all right cool we're starting to use this BMW racks yeah sixteen point eight or something and they're really well done just don't know nice big breaks I love break so that for us it's just been killer yeah yeah very good well we so it looks like I'll need go on the outside underneath let's see what she doesn't know let's flog her good yeah that's hilarious that is hilarious you know the things they used to hate about these is how Bodi they were yeah but with this chassis it's it's really handles right well and you've got this panoramic view and yeah I love the greenhouse yeah big greenhouse and yeah I had one of these stock when I was a teenager yeah I was one of my dream cars I was like 17 I think yeah I only kept it for like 30 days because I love the look but you had to be a martyr to it beyond yeah oh look yeah yeah man just I never had the patience for that I'm surprised you did the - I would have thought that you would have kept it I was too screwed up yeah yeah yeah and then we have the right guy to do it up and do it right because my dear a concept yeah yeah don't they do wonderful work brilliant work and then like patting the a/c adding different panels that didn't exist that was another thing if we went ahead and decided to do the wood it gave us way more design freedom [Music] so Jay if you were ever to build a derelict car yeah what would you build I'm not sure what I would build hmm what would I build you know this is pretty good actually I mean I always like this body style but you know they were just not very good to run on the street it's slow and cumbersome and you know if the exit ramp says 30 you're doing 31 come on you know that gets super squirrely to her I mean I like the fact you've kept the original instruments yeah they're all original looking into it because to me that's a half the fun of the old car you know a lot of times guys show up with stuff and I can't tell us like mail order gauges and yeah that's all but you know steering is very nice it's so unlike any rolls I feel like doing these would be a TV show in the 60 film Burke's law where he was like a really wealthy socialite that became a cop and he drove around on a rolls-royce to catch criminals and this would be perfect for them well it's funny because this is what a rolls-royce looks like the people this is the shape they know even though this car hasn't been produced in 60 odd years it's instantly recognizable wears a modern when you go on oh is that uh is that the role oh you know yeah these are just iconic and the purist that's totally iving hey get a little rubber on a roll how's that little chair up on second gear there very good or was that third gear that's third yeah that was there did I get downright squirrely from first to second yeah third it does a little hop handles hilarious bro yeah I mean you can you can hit it pretty hard through turns that it really close I know it does it doesn't it I'm just expected to hit my head on the glass and it clean it over I know it's it's it's that's very funny you know this might be my favorite derelict that you've done actually I'd say mine too but I'm kind of guilty of saying that every time I finish one is my favorite and that I'm yearning to do the next yeah yeah I know the only thing that drives me nuts with my one-offs like this right they're all prototypes in essence right there are many hours in engineering in a video but at the end there's always something that I want to do it again and redo but but I never want to repeat the same card twice but if somebody showed up with one of these with the second one be cheaper to do now that yeah yeah certainly there's a lot learn in the yeah but again I try and avoid that like there's so many cars I want to kick out and do and we do so few than as a brand like I want each one to say something different okay those brakes from Brembo kick in very nice did you ever think of putting the full wheel cover we did but since it's a you know well you got a cap and then you had a beauty rear ironically and then math didn't work out going to an eighteen because when I put the big wheels on my 55 euro we spun our own hubcap yeah so made it look like so it look fairly stock I rendered it and it just looked weird yeah I do in the body colour wheel it seemed at least in the rendering better and hiding the sale of the wheel also been curious to try those the new wheel company that does like a nineteen or whatever but two inches of it is a simulated white wall so it looks like a steel wheel plus white wall I'm try those yet not Lamar no no no now Lamar I love Lamar's yeah yeah [Music] why this this is so unlike any rolls-royce you've ever driven you know you're something I had the set in a couple episodes let's take this up in the freeway and see how our cruise is that this is my favorite icon car so far the 53 Buick was great I loved the wagon but for some reason you know it's got everything you want the rolls are a big comfortable but not slow and ponderous I mean it really handles it really stops oh it's a lot of fun come on let's give it a shot let's see what she does aerodynamically this thing must be a brick just hit the one thing I still have to figure out the ashtrays in the rear seat yeah not cope with the torque of the ls like being a full-throttle the ashtrays just go flying they're beautiful they're like I don't know if they're bakelite or what they are but we're gonna try some magnets epoxy down the backside yeah yeah the glovebox I just gave up and keep it locked this is my favorite icon car this thing just makes me laugh you know having driven these back in the day and when I was a kid they're just so I mean they're fun to sit in and luxurious but it just so Bodi you go like this and the house that handles and is is fast it's really funny it makes me smile every time I put my foot in it and the nice thing about Jonathan's work is you places all these rubber seals here so the car is really quiet it's not whistling and you know you can run 80 90 miles an hour this a it's got it's got so much power that it's that it's really really a lot of fun just got us a nice work very cool very cool this is until he comes up in the next icon car see you guys next week [Music]

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 1,159,690

Rating: 4.804234 out of 5

Keywords: jay, leno, derelict, jonathan, ward, icon, rolls, royce, Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, compares cars, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder, Camaro Z28, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, car collection, cnbc, episode, motorcycle, ford, corvette, tour, dodge, lexus

Id: WH4aMZapC6Q

Length: 22min 55sec (1375 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 23 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/nicknack171]

All the people in the comments "I would have put X engine in it instead, why did they do an LS???" makes me so upset. I get it, the LS thing overdone. But good luck trying to A. Get a new rolls royce crate motor B. Crack the ECU to get fucking can bus to work with anything else and C. Get that somehow certified for Australian passenger car laws. Jesus the ignorance.

[u/[deleted]]

I enjoy the hell out of listening to John Ward. If you really like what this guy's builds you should find the episodes of The Smoking Tire podcast that feature him. He talks about the kind of stuff that makes him tick and where he pulls some of his influence from. Plus he seems to have a great personality and has fun doing these types of shows.

[u/Lord_Dreadlow]

TIL about Derelict cars. Pretty cool stuff.

*What car would you like Derelict to build for you, if you could afford it?

[u/CareToRemember]

Derelicte

[u/lazy_panda42]

"On a long enough timeline..."

[u/Troggie42]

I could listen to Jonathan Ward talk about shit for hours. Love him on the TST podcast, here, I think he did a Hooniverse one or two, he's so full of interesting knowledge and stories, really neat and inspiring dude.

[u/OverseasDom]

Hey! I just saw this car at the Design Institute show in Pasadena this weekend