Forum Replies Created
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I have no idea, Christian. However, AMOC have lots of tools that members can use on loan and I am pretty sure that the list includes this device.
Any chance of an up-date on this, gentlemen?
Super stuff. Hang on to that paperwork! Try never to use the standard jack in anger – it’s really not up to it (though keep it safe for show, of course). The spare carpet may be a real boon. Great colour, btw!
Best,
Tim,
Great stuff! Plenty of scope. 😎
Hi Christian,
There is no workshop manual for the DB Rapide, so far as I am aware. All there is available are the owners manual and various sales brochures etc. (the most comprehensive of which, for what it is worth, is the original model launch portfolio).
As you know, Aston Services Dorset has some spare parts and a few of the owners of the surviving cars have various odds and ends. Fuel tanks will need to be re-fabricated in most cases when the cars are restored. Headlining, carpets, upholstery and other interior parts ditto.
Best,
Tim
Well done Christian!!!
Please contact me again off line.
Regards,
Tim
Good man – go for it!
Hi Christian,
Did you buy the Rapide?
Regards,
Tim
Hi Christian,
I may be able to help you in more ways than one re your questions. You are very welcome to email me on timbly10@live.com.
Regards,
Tim
Stephen,
Thank you, once again. I will write that letter!
Kind regards,
Tim
Stephen,
Thank you very much for help. The car concerned is the one I refer to under the “parts wanted” section of this forum. As you will see, it is a Gurney Nutting body project. I am making some progress in the quest to build the car back up but wondered about things like sourcing the right instruments etc.. Involvement in other project has shown me just how long it can take to collect all that will be needed and so I want to start my search soon.
Kind regards,
Tim
It made ?196. Was that about the right price, do we think?
Hi Mark,
Super to hear that you are moving forward with this one at last. Any chance of posting some photographs of her, please?
On the wiring diagram front, I will have a little rummage about in my collection of ‘stuff’ and see if I have anything that might help. I will also ask a good friend of mine, who has a Rapide, whether he has one.
So far as I am aware, no handbook for the Rapide was ever made available – too few, perhaps, at 55 vehicles.
All the best,
Tim
It’s two Saloons knitted together (it appears a 2-door with a 4-door). In any event, it looks ‘wrong’. Consider (for instance) the top of the windscreen, the rear cabin area, the shape of the rear three quarters, the shape of the rump and the boot lid. So much is wrong. He went to all the trouble to try and recreate a Convertible – yet failed to remove the Series II 4-door Saloon trim from the front wings or manufacture the correct (or any) frames for the roll-down door windows or quarter lights.
But I bet I know what happened (just my supposition, of course). Having bought the hulk of a Saloon for what was probably peanuts I reckon he began to appreciate that the (formidable) expense of the project before him would not be justified by the (then) market value of the finished restoration. So, he decided to destroy two cars of modest (then current) value to create a so-called “Drophead Coupe” of supposed higher value. Either that or he was stupid enough from the off to think that it would be an easy job to ‘covert’ a saloon into a Convertible.
In fact, what he has banged together wouldn’t be given house room by any pukka enthusiast of the marque, obviously. I only hope that his misleading advertisement does not trap an unwary buyer unversed in all things Lagonda.
All of these lovely cars were made in tiny numbers, too few of which have survived – the guy needs stringing up, in my book.
Thanks for your comments, help and good wishes for the project, David, Peter and Colin.
I now know a little more about the history of the body etc., as Arnold Davey, Tom Clarke and Jack Triplet conducted some research for a previous owner a few years back, the fruits of which are now in my hands.
The body number is 1740 (there is a blue chinographed ’40’ on the scuttle ash framing) and it was built on chassis 12150/G10. The original car appeared in black paint and was upholstered in grey leather (the interior is now red but there is a scrap of the original leather still fastened to the rear foot well).
Although the body was a ‘one off’, in Lagonda terms, GN built two pretty similar bodies for a Royce and a Bentley. I attach some pictures of my body and of the Royce (in India). The Bentley is depicted in the Johnnie Green book (and is still in the US, I think). The rear wing treatment on my car is more ‘modern’, as it were, in terms of overall shape and the addition of spats. Also both Royce and Bentley have the spare wheel aligned more closely to vertical than on the Lagonda, and both have twin upper and lower boot lids, whereas the Lagonda has a more raked set up and a single hatch door! I know which set up I prefer. 🙂 My body also has a sun roof, which I think will look particularly attractive with this 2 door pillarless configuration.
The car was displayed on the GN stand in 1936 and purchased ‘off it’ (as it were) by an American, who shipped it to the US in ’37. There seem to have been two principal (only?) owners over the ensuing years, before it was reimported back into the UK in ’89.
By then, it seems that the car was in a sorry state. The new owner took off the GN body and had Rod Jolly make a Rapide replica body for it. The GN body was then sold on and subsequently owned by two consecutive chaps, the latter being an LC member who has sold it to me.
In passing, does anyone know whether Messrs. Clarke and Triplet ever wrote their proposed work on the history of Gurney Nutting? Also, does anyone know how I can get hold of a copy of the 1936 Show catalogue?
I am starting to chase leads kindly provided by you gentlemen and by others. All I can do is try and emulate your heroic efforts, Peter – that is, unless I can find a very bad car ripe for improvement by the addition of a wonderful and unique original body.
Tim