Rolls Royce for Sale

We have several titles for this section. We just can't decide so here they all are.

Cars for Sale (boring)

Fine and not quite so fine Vintage Automobiles for sale (more interesting but not quite there)

Pre- owned cars for sale (typical euphemism and as interesting as a used oil filter)

Cars in a Coma for sale ( hmmmmm)

SLC's (Sporting and Luxury Cars) seeking FLO's (Fun Loving Owners)

As we like lots of words, below is another contender for best title:

Four wheeled automotive works of art that are available for a change of stewardship in various conditions ranging from distressed (ready for a whole lotta love) to very spiffy.

Please ask for price quotes. As time allows we will improve these cars and rebuild something or other thus the price of a car depends on the condition of the car at the moment. Email us for details. All the photos are thumbnail photos. We usually have lots more photos for interested buyers.

All offers will be considered. Of course, low ball or silly offers will receive the degree of consideration they deserve and no we don't want your next door neighbor or ex wife or husband in trade unless they can wash cars, mow grass or paint the shop buildings at the same time. This could be your lucky day!

Cars with pizzazz that need the daring, foolhardy and lots of pizza

We also have some previously running cars for sale. These cars are warranted forever to have previously been able to run and drive although we make no such claim they will do so now without advance planning, fortitude and a sense of mechanical adventure by a potential buyer. We have previously drivable fine cars in varying challenging conditions that will provide many hours of non-motoring pleasure. Imagine if you will the opportunity to completely disassemble an old Jaguar for fun and profit if so inclined. These cars are true British automotive art with natural patina that like un-refinished or unrestored early antique furniture will always provide ever increasing value to the eye of the beholder. Sold as is how is with as much joy as we can manage. Cars such as Jaguar XJ-S Coupes, MG Midgets, MGB, Jaguar XJ6's, a Jaguar MK II and a very rare 1975 Jaguar XJ12C Coupe.

Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars for sale

1971 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow for sale

Long Wheel Base model. Left Hand Drive. The engine runs ok and the car drives but has been driven little in the last three years. Brown dried leather, nice chrome bumpers and grill $8500. Very solid car. We believe this car lived in California for most of it's life as there is no rust to speak of.

1974 Silver Shadow- Silver blue with blue leather. Nice looking car. Pictures will be posted when we get time.

1960 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud- white with scarlet leather. RHD

We removed and rebuilt the engine, transmission and water pump. The engine block achieves very good oil pressure and runs smoothly cool. We rebuilt the cylinder heads with improved valve seals and the automatic transmission was also rebuilt with new clutches, bands seals piston rings, power sleeve etc. The starter was replaced with a new unit. All belts and hoses were replaced as were the engine mounts. We rebuilt the brake master cylinders and wheel cylinders and replaced the brake hoses, rebuilt the fluid reservoirs and replaced the feeder lines. We fitted electronic ignition with new ignition wires cap and rotor and serviced the distributor. The carburetors were rebuilt. The rear shocks were rebuilt and new front springs were fitted along with new sway bar links. The car body was stripped of all glass and chrome and repainted with the entire interior being removed as well.

Inside we fitted a new light grey wool headliner with new windshield seals and body rubbers and replaced other rubber as well. We replaced the power assist steering box mounts, rebuilt the power steering pump, rebuilt the power steering ram, rebuilt the carburetors, replaced the radiator hoses, fan belts, ignition wires, cap, rotor and wires. We rebuilt the entire brake system and rebuilt the three heater control servo motors. Some of the door chrome and other chrome parts were replated. We rebuilt the four power window assemblies and replaced the window tracks and door seals. The car already had in dash a/c fitted but we are updating it with a new style compressor with an alternator so the car will have plenty of electric power and will actually work. The car is white with scarlet leather and has it's original RR headlamps with the little RR logo badges inside the glass, a nice detail. We replaced the throttle bushings and handbrake mounts. The original Lucas working horns were removed and repainted. If your search is for a bargain basement car that needs a lot of work, this car is not it as the car has been extensively mechanically rebuilt. The exhaust system is in good condition. If you desire a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud that is in very good condition and can actually be driven and that also looks very clean and crisp, this car is a worthy contender. A lot of things we rebuilt were working fine but refreshing them is always a good idea on a vintage car and we know what and how to do such work. We are not selling this car as being "restored" although many would consider it to be such. The car is priceless as we have not set a price on it yet and the price will represent several years of renovation and a great many new parts fitted so the car will drive along very well.

A Bentley tale of woe.

A fellow dropped by one day and asked for advice about buying a used Rolls Royce. We told him to buy the best car that he could afford and stay away from “on line auction bargains”. He had around $25K to spend. Instead of following our advice, he did the exact opposite and bought four dilapidated late 1980's Rolls Royce and Bentley cars for around $5000.00 each. One of them, a 1988 Bentley Mulsanne, was purchased in Florida. The story we were told was gradually revealed over time by the car and the owner and the short version was that the car had been left on a beach until the tide came in and water got in the car chassis . The engine had salt water in the cylinders and in the exhaust system. The car was towed to a local Florida shop. They flushed the motor and got the water out of the engine by stupidly loosening the cylinder head bolts until the water ran out and supposedly made it run. The engine also had a resulting coolant leak from one of the head gaskets. The new owner described himself as a "master mechanic" and bought the car with full knowledge of the salty encounter and the head gasket problem. He then had the car shipped to Houston. On the way the car was vandalized and parts were stolen from the engine compartment such as the emission air pump, various hoses and valves and cooling system parts. Crude attempts were made to steal other parts resulting in damaged and bent parts. The car was then transported to us to repair the head gaskets. As we examined the car while doing the head work, we found that the car was extensively rusted and the rear springs were in danger of breaking loose as the retainers were very corroded. The front shocks were worn so badly that they had worn egg shaped holes in the upper spring plates. The body panels were growing rust and all the under chassis parts were badly rusted. The metal fuel lines were so rusted they leaked fuel under pressure. The fuel filter was corroded and seized solid to the metal fuel lines. We discovered that at some point in the past, the catalytic converter had gotten so hot, it had melted the insulation off wires in a wiring bundle that was located inside the car.

The story goes on and on so the lesson to be learned is what?

1. Don't buy a car that a rising tide found its way into.

2. Don't buy bargain cars unless they are extensively and expertly checked out unless you plan to invest a great deal of money into the car with unknown results. There are good deals around but paying $5000.00 for a car that would normally will sell for many times that amount if in good condition is highly risky.

3. Never loosen cylinder head bolts to release tidal waters.

4. Anything and everything on any car can break or fail at any moment no matter how old the car is.

Austin Healey 3000- BJ8

Due to the backlog of client work we have, this car is not yet quite completed and we are withdrawing it from sale until we do have it completed and have assigned a price.

1967 Austin Healey 3000 with four speed with electric overdrive transmission. This is the last year for this model. Ice blue paintwork with a mostly original blue cockpit. The car is a real beauty. We rebuilt the entire brake system just like we do for our clients with new brake servo, calipersd rebuilt with stainless pistons, new wheel cylinders and so forth. The car has new Vredestein tires with zero miles. We installed new carpets and new seat foams were fitted to the original seat upholstery. We rebuilt the original carburetors. The original Healey bumpers were high quality re-chromed and lots more renovation was done. The original engine runs great so we repainted it the original color to spiff it up. A fine car that has not been loaded with cheaply made junk reproduction parts like so many of these cars have these days. The frame is solid and the car has been in Texas at least 20 years, perhaps much longer. POA

Jaguar

We have three Jaguar E-Types for sale at this time. A 1962 3.8 litre roadster, a 1971 4.2 litre 6 cylinder roadster and a 1974 V12 roadster. We also have a 1961 Jaguar Mark II automatic and a 1975 Jaguar XJ12C.

MG's, a Morgan and other cars that start with "M"

1948 Morgan for sale. A two seater roadster, this car is one of 249 of this series that Morgan built from 1946-1950. We offer this Series One four wheeler Morgan Flat Rad model with original engine featuring two spare wheels mounted in the boot. British Racing Green with rich chocolate leather and matching Wilton wool carpets bound in chocolate leather. The cockpit is comfortable and beautiful. The English upholsterer was a real master of the craft. Check out the leatherwork work that went into the carpet heel pad. The car has a nicely made black canvas top, tonneau cover and and side curtains. This model sports its original 40hp Standard engine. The ivory face gauges are correct and were restored in England,. The dials gleam like jewels in the chocolate leather dash and the wiring has all been correctly replaced. This Morgan was extensively restored in England and it appears the body was removed from the frame for the work. We are re-commissioning the car from long term storage. Soon, this venerable Morgan will be ready to drive down the road on it's brand new tires. As you can see, the car body was disassembled for the paintwork. This car has had the same owner since about 1978 when it was brought to the USA. The owner toured the Morgan factory at Malvern Link, bought a new exhaust from them and had tea with Peter Morgan some time ago. A Peter Morgan inscribed workshop book goes with the car. We had a new radiator made and also had the grill shell replated as the grill shell also serves as the top radiator tanks outer wall. We have one of what we believe to be an original tire from 1948 and it's mounted on one of the two spare wheels on the boot. It's a piece of tyre history.

This photo shows the Morgan front brake rebuild about finished. We rebuilt the entire brake system, including making new brake pipes. The fuel tank, carburetor and temperature gauge were rebuilt. This Morgan still has it's original Lucas headlamps, glass tail lamps and wing lamps. We obtained a very rare WIPAC center driving lamp for the car. Most if not all Morgan cars of this vintage have lost their original steering wheel as the plastic deteriorated over the years and the wheel would crack apart. The Standard Special engine is original. This Morgan still had it's original wheel, well aged and cracked so we decided to rebuild it to better retain the character of the time. The car is a work of art, more than well on the way to completion. We are completing the rewiring and fitting the lamps now.

"We can't take anything with us when we leave this world but cars sure are a lot of fun while hanging around here.."

attributed to S. MacClymondsvitz XXXXI while talking with a funeral director.

Rules of the game.

If an enthusiast has a serious interest in a car we have available, please call or Email for detailed information. We are not a car museum although we may look like one at times as we are fortunate to have a continuous back log of interesting and complex work booked into the shop for owners eager to have their cars returned as soon as possible. Selling cars is not our main line of business. Repairing and restoring cars is where our main interests stay focused.

After all, it's far safer to buy a car from a knowledgeable business like ours with a long and impeccable reputation than from the great unknown auction world where what you see in a photo is what you may or may well not get. Thus we appreciate serious queries about cars we offer for sale. If a car is not of a color of one's liking or perhaps the year model is not the one sought or the car is not desired for any reason discernable by photograph or description, why waste time on it? We all save time for better pursuits and life is too short to waste. We are happy to e-mail photos to allow inspection of photographic condition and are able to give detailed descriptions of known condition or history. All questions can be answered readily by phone or Email. If a car maintains interest, we can set up an appointment for personal inspection. If you are a car broker looking for a quick buck, don't call us. Thanks a lot, we really appreciate it.

We have more detailed photos of these cars and can Email them to interested buyers.

The Biggest Loser or how not to buy a car

For those of you that enjoy reading our meandering narratives and a little bit of pontificating about cars and money, read on.

Yes, the world is once again in a man made economic crisis and once again the cars we offer for sale are ever more desirable as they are genuine machines of great beauty that also provide great and lasting pleasures. These cars symbolize both a continuing series of technological innovations and un art de vivre.

Certain cars are genuine fun machines and are a lot more enjoyable than watching stock prices go down unless you are into that sort of thing and this is ok! Car values are determined by traditional market supply and demand not by the futures market, derivatives, hedge funds or complicated financial schemes so designed that few can understand them. There is nothing difficult about understanding why a certain car gives you a thrill whenever you see or drive it. Desirable cars seldom or never drop in value overnight like stocks can and do. The value of a car does not depend on the futures market. So, buy a car from us and enhance your net worth!

"Ultra automotive sophistication can rob the joys of simple and primitive pleasures that can be most enjoyable ." says Scotty while rebuilding a V12 Jaguar engine.

Great styling is something many late model cars lack as a beautiful shape does not necessarily have a good drag co-efficient. Women were not designed in a wind tunnel either yet they manage to look great in spite of not being designed by a CAD/CAM program and a wind tunnel.

All modern cars are designed with careful attention to drag co-efficient using wind tunnels and CAD/CAM design. This is a good thing as modern cars are aerodynamically efficient yet as a result most modern cars look much alike. Some people look at a car like a lawnmower and could care less what they drive as long as it is cheap to run. This is not a bad thing at all but these people would be bored reading this website. Boring cars get you around but so does a well designed wheel barrow. If you swap the badges from a 2011 Mercedes Benz and a 2011 Lexus or a BMW and a Toyota would anyone really notice?

Would anyone mistake this Mercedes Benz for a Toyota?

Don't Ask Don't Tell

It's always wise to ask a lot of questions about purchasing a car or anything expensive. Few sellers are going to tell you anything unfavorable about their wares unless you ask them direct questions and this is the way of the world.

Here are photos of a 1961 Austin Healey Sprite that was purchased from a shop that amazingly enough specializes in restoring Sprites. The car looked great on the outside but what was underneath...

In this photo you can see several fingers poking through the floor. This was not a factory option. Soon after the car was purchased, the car owner asked us to replace the entire interior and after we removed the carpets, we found a hand sawed piece of plywood covering the entire drivers side floor and non standard rust hole.

In the above three photos, you can see a front suspension that has not been worked on by a professional in decades. It is always the mechanicals that are frequently ignored and such cars are sold as "restored". So, the lesson here is always to have a look at what you are purchasing as for some sellers, they know that many buyers are unknowledgeable about cars and base buying decisions on superficial appearances. So they polish the apple and leave the rotten core for someone else to bite into. Rotten apples should not sell for as much as a nice ripe apple but they do all to often.

Beats a heart that does not soar when driving a vintage Jaguar E-Type, a classic Rolls-Royce, an always beautiful Austin Healey, a mysterious Bristol, a cool MGA, a handsome Bentley or a ferocious Mercedes Benz 300 SEL we wistfully enquire?

If not then it's a cold heart and needs some warming up. A good way to do that is to own a car such as those that we offer even though we do not have many left to sell! Exhilarating experiences other than brute speed have been designed out of many late model cars despite their hugely powerful gas sucking engines. Thanks to a catalyzing book written by Ralph Nader in the 1960's called "Unsafe at any Speed", modern cars are safer than vintage cars and for most drivers today this is a very good thing as essentially most people worldwide drive with the attitude that anyone in front of them is a really lousy driver and those behind are no longer of concern.

Perhaps this is so because people were designed to walk and run, not drive. Sports cars were designed to be driven by those that absolutely love driving cars. There is more to a car than brute horsepower and modern cars are better than vintage cars in many ways yet are also worse in many ways. For example, the engines in vintage cars were designed to be admired and heard. Many engines, like 1950-1968 Jaguar motors, were beautiful Machine Age designs with highly polished aluminum heads and cam covers adorned with chromed acorn nuts and two or three carburetors quite unlike most modern cars that feature boring looking engines buried beneath plastic covers so the engine looks like a big ugly plastic battery. Many car manufacturer designers were and are not the brightest of lights.

Many modern cars are stuffed with electronics to help enable manufacturers float a high sales price. Some cars today apparently accelerate without warning due to over complicated and very expensive electronics that few manufacturers much less mechanics completely understand. Modern cars are filled with expensive electronic modules that control just about everything as the makers surely must think that people are too stupid to pull a knob and need more buttons to push and once the car gets on in years the cost of some of these components are absurdly expensive yet the managements of many car manufacturing companies keep making modern cars ever more complex with many layers of highly technological parts that will never be affordably fixable when the cars have depreciated. Thus most cars of today are not built to last very long.

On the other hand.

The fine cars we deal with were made using the eyes and hands of artistic human beings. Jaguar Cars founder and designer, Lord Lyons, had his cars designed using full size clay mockups. He had his engineers build these mockups in his home driveway so he could look at them out the windows and think about the designs while he had his morning tea and crumpets. When he looked out the window and the car was beautiful from every angle, that was the design. Thus the cars we like to own have humanistic charms and flaws that make them ever more endearing to the soul. We honor the spirit of great automotive design with our restoration work. For what is the meaning of this moment without considering and savoring the beauty of that which once was?" says Scotty while considering and savoring the beauty of that which once was every day of the week.

Have a look at some cars we have available and keep in mind that we offer a full and comprehensive pre-purchase inspection service if your car quest is not to be found on our steadily shrinking list of automotive offerings. Many cars have been sold so the list is growing ever smaller.

"One thing that never gets boring unless you are a boring person is the thrill of driving a great car." Says a great boring person.

Buying cars using on line auctions:

Caveat Emptor!

Regularly we have cars brought to us which have been acquired almost sight unseen (other than by little digital photos like what are on our website) via popular on line auctions. Many claims are made on the internet claiming this and that and little truth may be there. We know this to be true because many owners ship these cars to us for extensive work. They tell us the sales description and we see the reality is not so.

Pants on Fire

Be especially cautious of sellers proclaiming their car to be:

1. "perfect" (No machine built by humans is perfect. The adjective "perfect" should not be used to describe a car.)

2. "The best there is." (The best what there is? How could this seller honestly state that their car is best there is without seeing the rest of the "best there is" cars in this series and knowing what to look for?)

3. "1982 Rolls-Royce, brand new" (How can anything much less a car that was built in 1982 be brand new?)

4. "totally restored" These cars are usually offered with no detailed documentation of any restoration work that was supposedly undertaken. Generally the price is a fraction of the parts cost required for a proper job much less the labor involved in restoring a car. Lots of times the car is being sold by a junk yard claiming to be a "specialist". The phrase "frame off restoration" may be claimed but such cars are usually offered without supporting photos, invoices or anything other than words. Anyone offering a car that had a frame off restoration should absolutely have lots of visual proof.

5. "recent major restoration does not come any better" ( see #4)

6. "a great investment" (for who?)

7. "The car is a 10 out of 10." Anyone claiming this is highly likely not to have a clue about cars as very very few cars in the world can honestly be ranked as such and these cars are rarely offered via on-line auctions.

8. The following advertisement was copy and pasted word for word from an actual advertisent to sell a 1960 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.

"Hard to find original unmolesder car. This vehicle appears to have never been smoked in. The wonderful condition of this vehicle leads us to believe it has been garage kept. Bid with confidence this vehicle is being offered with a Limited Warranty. All vehicles are sold as-is and without warranty. Seller makes no representations or statements as to the fitness for purpose or condition either implied or expressed."

Hmmm, "appears" and "leads us to believe" sure leaves a lot of wiggle room. There is a limited warranty of some sort offered but the car is being sold as -is without warranty. Hmmmmm. In the 1960's and before, a great many more people smoked in cars than today so the odds of any car having never been smoked in is possible but the odds are against it. Very confusing eh?

Here are photos of a 1958 Silver Cloud with a rotten under chassis or frame. The car was purchased on a well known on-line auction from a Florida car dealer-junkyard for around $32,000. If you look carefully, you can see that at some point in the past, someone welded some thin metal on top of rotten heavily rusted metal. This sort of thing does nothing but mask the rust problem. This metal is also rusting away and this entire frame area is rotten. The front fenders depend on these parts for support and these fenders were moving up and down with the bumps on the road. The car was advertised by the Florida car dealer/junkyard as being "totally restored". The buyer did not have the car examined prior to buying it. He did travel to Florida to look at the car but could not drive it because the steering wheel had been removed for "polishing". He bought the car anyway and his troubles began.

When this car was delivered to the buyer in Kentucky, it had no brakes at all, barely ran and they almost wrecked it taking the car off the delivery truck. The paint work was very old and appeared to have been sprayed by a painter on LSD in a dust storm. The chrome or what was left of it had been sanded, the shine was gone and all the trim was in dreadful condition. The new owner could not find anyone local to repair the brakes so he shipped the car to us. We examined the poor car and found the brake cylinders to be rusted solid thus the car had no working rear brakes. The front brakes were in just about as bad condition. Of course for $32K, the car had never been restored, had not been rebuilt nor had it any decent care in several decades as far as we could tell and we can tell a great deal. Look again at the photos of intense rust in the frame areas. We call this totally restored rust.

Once we heard the too familiar and sad story on the car, we suggested to the owner that he return the car to the seller and get his money back as $32,000 was way too much to spend on a rusted out junk heap that was a poor parts car at best. Well, the seller refused to give the money back yet also claimed he could rebuild all the brakes on the car in two hours. As the brake pipes were rusty and all the cylinders were bad with no telling what else, we told the owner to take up this offer as at this point as he had nothing left to lose except perhaps his life due to brake failure. So he had the car shipped back to Florida. All these shipping costs were paid by the new owner. It was a bad deal for everyone but the seller I suppose. For the seller, it was a "good investment".

On line car purchasing is a buying method fraught with peril as most any car can be tarted up to look good in a series of digital photos. What you see may not be at all what you can get and many people sell cars via on line auctions because they do not want to sell these cars in their local areas because they don't want to be sued or assassinated. This is so because the cars may be in a pitiful rusted condition. Photos can show what the photographer wants to show or what they don't want to show. Ever heard of Photo Shop? This is not to say that ALL cars bought via on line auctions are Trojan horses waiting to pounce on your wallet but some certainly are. Avoid purchasing any car that is advertised as "totally restored" or " buy from the best" as 99.9% of the time this is not true. We strongly suggest that any major automobile purchase should be inspected by a knowledgeable person before purchase. In other words, don't be stupid. ( How dare he say that!) Instead, be smart!

If you had a moment of adrenalin fueled rashness and bought a car that was advertised as "totally restored" for an all too cheap price and it turned out to be the rusty heap of junk that it should have been advertised as being, now you have to deal with the consequences of making a rash decision. We all do such things but why not be sensible?

A before purchase examination by a pro is simply sensible. Otherwise such purchases can be like playing craps with someone else's loaded dice. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose depending how the people holding the dice feel about it. We prefer our clients to purchase good cars so we do offer a most comprehensive inspection program for automobile purchases and many shops around the country do this service as well. NEVER go by an inspection the seller or a friend of the seller provides as there is a genuine conflict of interest. If a professional inspection is not possible, be sure to ask LOTS of questions keeping in mind that words and phrases like "restored", "rebuilt", "everything is new" or "perfect", have vastly different meanings to people. If you have to have a perfect vintage car, you will never be happy as nothing made by humans is perfect especially a vintage anything.

Magic Paint is a wonderful thing.

There are folks that actually profess to believe that painting something with a spray can is restoring or rebuilding it. These are not people that you want to buy a car from. Some car sellers claim their car has been "totally restored" for much less than what the parts to do so would cost! Don't buy a car from these people either.

Of course a buyer may choose to be like the Captain of the Titanic was. .

"Hey Captain, this weather bulletin says there are lots of icebergs out there!" Says the soon to be drowned Marconi radio operator.

" The sea looks good to me so full speed ahead while I take a nap. Don't bother me unless you hit something really big", says the smiling but soon to be embarrassed and drowned Captain.

So, buy a great car that makes you happy but have it checked out first.

We have a new page for the sale of rare and unusual automotive related objects and for antiques we have collected over the last 30+ years. Check out this section!