The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow perhaps exemplifies the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” like no other automobile. Hand-made with luxurious features at every turn, the Rolls-Royce is a car for those who want to treat themselves well and don’t care what it costs. This Silver Shadow II from 1977 has been garage-kept for the past 10 years and only started occasionally, so it will need some TLC to get back on the road. If you’re so inclined, the automobile is in Sterling Heights, Michigan, and is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $10,500. Thanks for the bodacious tip, Jim A!
Replacing the Silver Cloud, the Silver Shadow was more streamlined in size than its predecessor, but just as roomy and comfy. It was produced in two iterations from 1965 to 1980. It was the first car built by Rolls-Royce to use unitary body and chassis construction. The company sold more of the Silver Shadows than any other product they offered at just over 25,000 units. Of those, 8,400 would be the Silver Shadow II (1977-80), which only differed from the Shadow I by some mechanical adjustments. These later Shadows employed a 6.75-liter V8 engine that produced 189 hp and was paired with a General Motors-supplied TH-400 automatic transmission.
This R-R was owned by the seller’s dad but it’s been living in his/her garage for the past decade. Though the rich automobile has been started occasionally, it hasn’t seen much use in recent years. The carburetion needs work, the exhaust leaks, and there are no working brakes. The seller has no interest in keeping the automobile or fixing it up now that Dad has passed away, so it’s available for someone else to take on the challenge. The mileage is 72,000 which is not high for a car like a Rolls, but after it all, it is British-built.
The body may be fine though the paint on the roof is chipping off in places. If you wanted to ride around with a chauffeur behind the wheel, you’d probably want to repaint at least the top. The interior looks fine from what we can tell and you could easily get spoiled tooling around in this Rolls, even if it is 46 years old. If you work a deal to take the machine home, you’ll be its fourth owner.
LOOK! – a cheap Rolls……….well,maybe not.
Needs lots more work than the Bentley we saw earlier that’s 15 years newer for an additional $5900.
Is the hood emblem removable?
If not add that to your parts list-or not, depending where you live/drive.
Agreed and is older with emission issues those years.
BTW the 92’ Bentley TurboR the other day was $15,900.
It’s a good buy, I am considering it.
The 15 year newer Bentley will have a mineral oil suspension that will never ever be able to be fixed! Count on it! This one is old enough that it doesn’t have nearly as much nonsense.
Sadly no matter how great and hand crafted a Rolls is, its still will be destroyed by neglect. The interior looks nasty.. these are around in better shape for 15k – 20k.
Brake job alone is going to set ypu back about 5k to go through the system … brakes are aways a headache on these unless you understand the accumulators and pump driven circulation system ..then the fuel / delivery system will need addressed another 2k or so .. Fix the paint ..well there’s another few thousand there ..belts ,hoses ,..oddball sized tires after sitting ten years there’s another thousand or so . now your into the thing for nearly 20k … nope..unfortunately you can buy these like that for about 5k and that’s being generous.. you can get a driving example like this for less than the headache and time you will have in this one . Drop it 5k and then call me .
The Rolls Royce Owners Club is a good source for parts and support.
Ten-five.
No thanks, it would be a deal at less than half…maybe
BTW that’s NOT an offer!
Price was reduced to $7500!
the missing hood ornament will probably set you back $3000. after all, it is hand cast. to get this car up and running and sorted, my guess is a minimum of $30,000. is it worth it. (no!)
Yep, there is no mention of what happened to the hood ornament. Expensive to replace for sure.
I’ve read that the hood ornaments on these RR’s are often stolen. Unless you have a secure garage space with cameras, and a security guard, I would pass.
Matthew, why not get a new hood ornament 3D printed and have it chromed, wouldn’t cost anywhere near 3 grand.
Good idea-as long as the new owner doesn’t live in CA. Legislators are in the the process of making chrome plating illegal.
Brad,
As someone who ran a Rolls-Royce repair and restoration shop and has personally owned over 30 Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, I can speak with some authority on the subject.
To reproduce a “Flying Lady” [aka the “Spirit of Ecstacy”] first requires an original statue/ornament to scan or manually take measurements of. It’s highly unlikely you can find the digitized details to 3-D an example, as the Factory is VERY protective of the statue. and if they find you have created a copy, they have the capability of burying you in legal costs.
A 3-D version will not be in a metal that can be polished and plated, you will need to have the 3-D copy polished and then coated in ceramic so it can then be melted out, leaving a casting mold, ready for casting a new metal version. The only “reasonably priced” metal to use is Stainless Steel. Other types of metal [pot metal, zamak, aluminum, brass, bronze, ect] will be either too weak or bend easily. I know from experience that non-stainless steel versions are really easy to break off in an act of vandalism.
It is better to simply buy a good used one from a Rolls-Royce parts supplier, there are several who likely have one or more of the correct versions.
The Bentley was a better deal.
Unless these cars have had regular maintenance, recommissioning costs could be huge. There’s reason they’re “cheap”.
Set it on a Alston Chassis and twin turbo LS/Six speed it. Elegant sleeper. 👍
Are you for real?
Just take it to the nearest Rolls Royce dealer and have them go over it.
Different beastie these days; the current iteration is owned – I think – by VW.
VW owns Bentley, and the old Rolls Royce factory in Crewe where Bentleys are made. BMW owns the rights to the Rolls Royce name, radiator, and Spirit of Ecstasy mascot, and make their Rolls Royces in a new factory in Goodwood with body pressings, mechanical parts and engines supplied from BMW in Germany. The two marques are entirely separate companies today, but back then, they were one company after Rolls Royce bought Bentley in 1933.
I have done some work though the years on a customers Bentley T1 to add to a previus response. If the brakes are gone it becomes a big ticket item fast. The most complicated brake system ever.( and that includes an SM ) there are 13 flex lines in the system ( normal car has 3-4 ) just the parts to do the brakes and suspension was over $4k and a lot-lot of labor. $$$
There’s no such thing as a cheap Rolls Royce!
A friend who owns a 1970s RR once told me that there’s nothing more expensive than a cheap RR. This was his advice when I asked him for his opinion on a similar car for sale
A lot of good comments and advice, but one thing is missing. This vehicle is in Sterling Heights, MI. That tells you one thing…..there is nothing left on the bottom side. That is the rust capital of the U.S., and a Rolls is notorious for rust. The advice of setting it on an Alston chassis may not be as funny as it seems.
The missing ‘Spirit of Ecstacy’ hood ornament is a deal breaker. ;-)
BMW owns RR, VW owns Bentley
I ran a 70 Shadow for two years and 6,000 miles. It cost me £2,000 on the road, and then another £7,000 in things that fell off or broke including twice losing half the brakes… it stops well with half the brakes btw as you still have braking to all four wheels…
Everything was hard to get at, and rusted, the body was disintegrating, and when the paint starts to shell off you either ignore it or that’s another huge moneypit.
And the parts cost… urrgh.. a thermostat is over £100.
It died in 2016 having been sold to a chap who started an overambitious resto then ran out of steam.
But when it was running it was lovely… the wood the leather… like wafting around in a library.
Glad to have had the experience, some memories to treasure.
Wouldn’t have another though.
I had an acquaintance with one of these. He use to tell me, “you know what you need to own one of these”? Lots of money and a good psychiatrist. He had both. To be honestly fair, aside from the fancy interior appointments, my 78 Lincoln drove and rode nicer and so did my 76 Eldo. Amazingly his Rolls was mostly GM. The steering was Saginaw, ac Frigidaire. I was cured from wanting one after that. He also had a 62…. now that would be hands down worth the headaches and expenses.
As I mentioned in a comment above, I ran a Rolls-Royce repair shop. There are 2 warning lights on the dash, marked Brake 1 and Brake 2. If both of these red warning lights are lit and remain on after the car has been idling for a few minutes, then it’s a good chance the entire brake system will need major repairs, and as someone said above, those repairs START at $5k, and can quickly climb to TWICE that price, especially if the hydraulic pumps need rebuilding, as the top of the engine has to come off. In addition, the low $5k price probably includes non-R-R factory parts like brake pads that physically fit but cannot take the weight of this 3 ton car.
And no one has mentioned you WILL need expensive brake tools to correctly perform the repairs. These cars don’t just have 2 brake systems, they have 3 systems; 2 high pressure systems that operate at 2,500 PSI, and one low pressure system that has 2 roles: to provide brake pedal “feel” and a manual emergency hydaulic brake system. To bleed just the manual brake master cylinder requires special equipment. Plus if you don’t understand what it takes just to bleed the Master Cylinder, it can drive you crazy trying to get fluid to flow.
The factory manual has a fold out brake system diagram, much like a wiring diagram. Yeah, it’s that complicated. It’s 6 calipers each have 2 pistons, one for each high pressure system.
Now because of the expense of re-painting the roof, a new owner might decide to install a vinyl top, so keep in mind that instead of the typical rain drip rails, the car has 2 recessed grooves to direct the rain back down the rear areas. Trying to use the typical vinyl material means pressing down and stretching the vinyl top material into these 2 grooves. The vinyl top material will need to be heated up close to melting to get it to stretch. And while it might look good for a few months, in stretching it you have damaged the material, and it will quickly start lifting and/or cracking.
Rolls-Royce has it’s own type of vinyl top material, known as “Everflex”, that WILL stretch to fill the grooves. Of course the cost of this R-R vinyl top kit is far more expensive. Plus, because this car didn’t have a vinyl top when new, you will need the 2 special stainles steel trim pieces where the vinyl top ends at the bottom of the sail panel. These are almost impossible to get used, and last time I checked new ones cost about $600 each. Trying to create these trim pieces using the typical flexible aluminum strips doesn’t work well because of the sharp corner that is not square.
This car has 2 things going for it; it’s been garaged all it’s life, and it has a decent level of mileage. Always beware of a Rolls-Royce or Bentley that has very low mileage, they tend to have more problems due to neglect. One of these cars with 75,000 miles and a full service history [FSH] is a better choice than a beautiful one with no FSH and 5,000 miles.
I have a close friend who has a beautiful 1989 Rolls-Royce Flying Spur with the twin turbo engine. His car has been well cared for since new, and while it has almost 250,000 miles showing, it looks brand new because it’s had excellent care.
Sheesh, and I thought German cars were complex!
Incredibly, even on this Rolls, there is no passenger door exterior mirror!! – could it be missing? – or maybe optional in ’77?!
I never trust that mirror when driving, tho it does come in handy when parallel parking to avoid scuffing the tires against the curb.
Odd place to put the gas filler – in the sail panel – rear passenger might smell gas for a while when/after fueling up if window is open? lol
Could one get antilock brakes in ’77 on a Rolls? Or driver’s air bag like on a handful of GM cars? Maybe not.