Forum Replies Created
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Hi,
Don?t be so sure 🙂
A Le Mans Rep is not a cheap job to do to a good level of craftsmanship and if starting with a 40+ K donor you would surely lose money if doing it for profit! However isn’t a running and driving LeMans rep better than a rotting saloon in a lockup? Personally I think so but I do really like Lagonda saloons, especially the 4.5 and V12s, We have Five in the workshop at the moment for various work etc All being preserved as working and driving saloons. Have no fear, Saloons are on the up!
However not as far “up” as this vendor imagines!Best regards,
JulianMorning Bill,
Difficult question. You seem to have checked all the usual suspects but there is one more. The later LG45s had a funny spring damper in the front engine mounts, if this is not wound up tight it can cause what you describe.
However if your vibes are from about 2400 to 2600 revs I would suspect engine harmonics and a possibility of worn main bearings although the LG45 does not suffer anything like as much as the earlier Invictas and M45s.
If not the front mounts then perhaps give me a phone and we can talk through the symptoms better and try to solve this.Best regards,
JulianLot of money for a restoration project!
Julian
Hi Chris,
I have seen the 16/80 with 19s and it looked better than 18s so maybe a compremise.
I think though it would work well and look good on 21s as long as you have the power to pull them like Collin says.Single carb.
We did fit a single 2″ carb to one of our 2.4 litre “2 litre” conversions and it worked just as well as twin 1 1/2 carbs, lost about 5 hp at the top end but was absolutely perfect all the way up to 4000 revs and 110 bhp so i can see no reason not to use a single carb as long as the manifold is well made and designed.Go for it!
Best regards,
Julian😆 😆 My pleasure Barry!
J
Cheers Stuart,
Will also keep a lookout for anything usefull as we usually do.
Maybe have a line on a useable LG45 crankcase and sump that has just been offered to me, not seen it yet so don’t hold your breath!Regards,
JulianGreat book thanks Lars!!
We have already donated it to one of our customers!
Best regards and thanks again,
JulianHi Barry,
Yes they are pressed together but the fit should actually be 0.001″ “loose” so they just push together with your fingers. The spring holds them together when you lift up a sticky pushrod.
Quite often they are stuck though so you need to either tap them lightly to get them together, or tap them apart.
Do not under any cicumstances “bang” them together in the engine or the end of the follower will swell and it will sieze in it’s guide.Hope this helps,
julianHi,
we can supply every single part from a single nut to a complete new engine.
Just ask!
not cheap for a complete engine though!
And to be honest most second hand that you could possibly pick up would not be worth much as most parts would be pretty poor.
We just had exactly that given to us. Re-phrase that. “Driven to us” Please rebuild for rallying, it was supposedly bought as an LG engine recently rebuilt.
Well it was an old marine engine and absolutely scrap as it turned out! We could use about a handfull of parts and the rest was a big paperweight.
Be extremely careful what you buy nowadays, Let’s face it, If someone has removed it WHY? you certainly don’t break or scrap a 4.5 Lagonda nowadays!Hope the info helps,
JulianMorning Laurence,
Agree with that 100%
And Yes, I think the affinity is with the clever designs and general good workmanship that went into both!Saloons are definately going up in value so there is hope!
Best regards,
JulianMorning Laurence,
Unfortunately you are quite wrong with the “team car” Riley theme. :{
There were many team car Rileys and Rileys were / are one of the most successful pre-war racing cars ever made! “Forgotten Champions” is a good read, and thus the “Industry” for making “reps” is rather rife and enough to make Lagondas look extremely rare! Especially the Germans who seem to love racing Riley specials.But great news on your RM restoration. Herman Arentsen another Lagonda owner also restored a very nice RM.
There are also people who restore Lagonda saloons, but the cost of restoring a Lagonda is massively different than a Riley. I know as I have restored both, and in fair numbers. Unfortunately there is a lot more to most Lagondas and the sheer size hurts hard when it comes to restoration costs on saloons. There are also a lot less parts available, and a great deal of difference between one restoration and another. I know of one “Restorer” doing a complete job on a V12 and thinking it can be done while the car is still rolling and without touching the woodwork! Well this one although a half price job, will cost the poor owner double in a few years when it needs doing again! These are the sort of traps people often get bitten buy when contemplating a big restoration on a large saloon that is not going to hold its value. People try to cut corners and then get bitten and then the negative vibes hit saloons as a “don’t touch” object. Sad but true.
We will fix it one day and Saloons are becoming more and more valuable so look after them if you have them, They are great cars, especially in the rain 😆 😆Julian
Don’t blame you Stewart. A short chassis saloon with cutaway running boards and spare in the boot would do me nicely although I think only one or two of them were made.
Failing that the Lancefield Coupe would do 😆 😆 😆
Would build one of our special engines for both and have a real wolf in sheeps clothing hotrod!
Now where is that Loto ticket 😉
Julian
Two very good answers and it is a hard decision at the end of the day.
In truth it boils down to this.
Not many people can afford to restore a saloon to real top quality. OK some try to do it on their own but when you see the process it either takes many many years, or turns out not as good as expected or both.
And when it comes to selling, if it’s not been done to a high professional level then it isn’t going to sell for anything other than peanuts in comparison to what effort it needed to restore. And even a top professional restoration on a saloon would struggle in today?s market to return half of the restoration cost.Restoring a car as Stephen has done has at least saved another car and kept it from the scrap man.
The bodywork can go on the shelf to wait until someone needs or wants it. We have several saloon parts awaiting the day they are needed, it costs us good money to buy and store them but one day someone will be happy we did. (Probably not us though ;o)And remember that not many of us can afford a real team car! or a real race car with history etc. etc. So why not restore/rebuild an old wreck to whatever you personally want? People did in period so why not now?
I recently attended a concourse event and was next to a very wealthy collector with an enormous collection of cars, when, while chatting on the subject to someone else, he stated out loud, “I HATE replicas” I bit my tongue very politely and did not ask him, why then does he allow one of his companies to sell “replicas” on a regular basis? Perhaps we should all think extremely carefully on the reality and possible or PROBABLE consequences of what we are saying.
I think it is more easy and more realistic with far less likelihood of being accused of being hypocritical to just say, Let us be careful to preserve what we can, while keeping our cars and passion alive. But first and foremost let us enjoy our cars as working objects and not either rotting wrecks or static museum objects.
Julian
As this subject has been brought up I feel I should make some comments.
Firstly, Laurence, Although I too hate to see a good saloon broken up to make a Le Mans rep etc. I feel it is massively unfair to just “Assume” that this was what happened to Leno’s car. Actually it was not! Joe Harding made this car initially for himself many years ago and made it from a complete wreck! Would you rather see it now totally decomposed and still in the field it was rescued from? or as a beautiful Lagonda being used and correctly maintained? I hope the latter.
I know you would rather see it with whatever body it left the factory with but that would be your choice if it were your restoration bill. A perfect world would be nice but it?s not a reality unfortunately.
I have been in the Lagonda business very actively now for over 25 years and in all that time the only useable or even economically restorable saloon that I have seen split is the 3 litre that was mentioned on this site a few months back in Holland. This I find a crying shame with only finance as a motive. However even then there may be other motives that we do not know about.
I cannot in my recollection think of one single Lagonda that has been “Vandalized” to turn it into a special or Le Mans etc. Sure there are many old miseries who “accuse” regardless of any facts (Laurence I am not referring to you here) and spread bad words etc but in truth it happens very rarely in my experience, and believe me as I have a very good private database of most Lagondas that move!Actually I find the most repulsing the fact that there have been people actually making complete NEW cars on NEW chassis with old registration papers and passing these off as original. Far more worrying than just restoring a car with a different style body than the one it left the factory with!
A very interesting subject but one we should all think very hard about before simplifying and judging too quickly. Accusations are easy, proof is another thing and rectifying a false accusation is generally like catching a basket of feathers in the wind!
Very best regards,
JulianWe hava a nice LG45 saloon for sale, but unfortunately our V12 Razor edge has sold. Shame as it would have been perfect for you by the sounds of it!
Regards,
Julian
http://www.LMBRacing.be