1981 Vauxhall Royale 2.8 auto (prices going up?)

[foxy99]

I've had this car for 4 months now and luv it. It cost £800 and the MoT runs out in 2 days time and I've been putting long hours in to fix a few things to get it ready. Did a 10 hour shift at garage today, getting home at half 1 in morning, so can't be bothered writing much so will just stick some pics up for the time being


































I had no plans to do anything other than drive this car but, if I get an MoT, I think I will have to deal with the rust on the doors and sills and give it a localised re-spray.

Would also love to try the 3.0 version to see if there is much difference and, lastly, would love to find a silver one to steal the exclusive red interior out of it and put it in my black one ;D

[tomti]

That's awesome. I got a lot of love for old vauxhalls. Keep up the good work fella

[Neil]

Cool! The number plate looks familiar... ex. staff car on PC? probably not!

[chip83]

good work there fella ;D

[stealthstylz]

Looks great, welding looks good too. I reckon it'd be a good idea to make it mint, they're pretty rare and at some point they'll go up in value. I've got a Carlton GSi 12v engine for sale if you're interested.

Matt

[rld14]

I like that. A lot.

Nice to see yet another rare Vauxhall being saved! Thanks for posting the car.

[foxy99]

Hi guys. Thanks for the comments and yes it is the ex-staff car from Practical Classics lol. The seller gave me a pile of history with it including copies of articles from PC featuring it.

Interestingly the guy from PC had another Royale saloon before it which was also black with the ginger interior but it was the 3.0i version. I've been told my car is the only black one left in the world so I guess that other one has been scrapped.

[c19bby]

some nice work going on there. great welding

[foxy99]

Thanks for the offer of the engine but I only really do 'standard'. I've never understood how ppl can swap engines and still get the drivetrain/ancilliaries to marry up. its a black art to me.

I strive for perfect bodywork tho and this was a bit of a rush job as I had to have the car mobile to get home in it each day.

This is the kind of result I'm happy with (my 1974 Daimler Double-Six)

[foxy99]

Well. Its MoT day tomorrow and the last week or so has been spent doing 'seat of the pants' repairs on the rear suspension arms and taking the exhaust system off for repairs and re-sealing the joints as, altho it looks pretty new, all the joints had leaks in them which was strange.

I also did some repairs to the rear seat belt lower mounting points on the inner front wheelarches, altho no seat belts have ever been fitted.

I'm really glad I caught this as I had no idea there was rot there, as it was hidden by mud and underseal, but there was water getting in under the back seat and the interior of the car is the most perfect thing about it. Its stunning.

The ends of the rear sills have had some filler and welding on them at some time and this is a job you really need to do properly if it is to be a success but I had to resort to a quick plate on each side and some filler. Not even had time to paint the repairs

Anyway...if the car passes its MoT (I'm quietly confident it will) I will give it a good polish then address the cosmetic issues. The job I'm really dying to do is get the front wings of for repairs as the last owner had to put tape over one of them as the rust is bad. I know i could fix it in a week or so and they would look mint.

Here's some pics of the sill end/wings and some randoms to show how solid the underbody is.



















Hopefully when I'm posting tomorrow I'll have 12 months MoT and a new tax disc to look forward to

[b7]

Got a soft spot for these. I had an 83 A Opel Senator 3.0i CD (this shape) in about 90-91. It was rotting then! Good to see one saved

[foxy99]

About th same time 1990-1992 my girlfriend's Dad had one exact same as that and I remember being amazed at the blue velour interior any time I sat in the back while she sat up front with him (he didn't really like me as I had a curse word job and could offer his daughter no future lol)

[stealthstylz]

I think the GSi 12v engine should be the same as the 3 litre Royale/Monza engine, they're both the CIH jobbers.

Matt

[breng]

I really have a soft spot for these - I briefly owned one from July 89 to july 1990.

Paid £500 for it, it had major welding on the n/s suspension turret (watch these areas - they are inherently weak and rot badly)for an mot, we realised the other side was going when the o/s front wing began to rust along the top edge - the front of the car was collapsing inwards. The front tyre also scrubbed because the strut had moved so much. £100 worth of welding sorted the problem. It was written off when a transit ran into the back of it. By this point it needed so much work I was going to scrap it anyway.

The carb was another problem - single figure mpg and lots of black smoke from the exhaust. I got a hometune mechanic out to it who did'nt have a clue what to do with it - the solex 4a1 is quite a complicated piece of kit.

Good luck with the car, good to see at least one saloon still survives.

[coggers]

Rare ! Good save .


Saw this one at Cholmondley about three years ago ..

[foxy99]

In reverse order...

Goggers..... I've seen that car before on Flickr but never the interior. I want it!! As far as I know only silver cars had the red interior so the owner must've had that resprayed. Don't know about the two tone scheme and whitewalls tho

Brent..... My car has had the front strut areas repaired already. Its looks like a decent job but you can often find horrors under new plates if the old metal wasn't cut out before the repairs. I think I'll just not look My mpg is not great but its definitely more than single figures. The car has had a new Solex some time ago. I have the receipt for the work done.

Matt..... If you replace an engine with something more modern do you not need to adapt all the electrics etc also. The 3.0 was electronic ignition I believe.

Lastly. I've heard there are less then 50 Royales left. How do ppl get these stats?

[foxy99]

Well. I've got an MoT ;D

The guy put 5 advisories on it: each shocker showing signs of reduced damping and slight corrosion on rear discs.

He spotted straight away that I haven't finishe the sill end repair but I suppose this isn't really dangerous.

He also said 'why can't you just get something normal' when he first saw it and at the time I couldn't really justify having it but now that its legal and I'm back on Readers Rides it makes sense to me.

Slight downside is that he got the carpets dirty with his oily boots!! It should wash out tho and its a small price to pay for 12 months MoT

[MK2VR6]

Congrats on the MOT! As for the MOT man, I hope he offset the MOT cost against the fee for professional cleaning of your immaculate carpets!
Edit, meant to say, I've got a soft spot for old Vauxhalls, and yours is a beauty. Look after her!

[breng]

Great news - at least you are legal, you can get on with the rest of the jobs while smoking around in the car.

My car was metallic aquamarine blue, with dark blue velour.

Gorgeous.

[bstardchild]

Mar 30, 2011 18:44:38 GMT foxy99 said:

Well. I've got an MoT ;D

Excellent news

Mar 30, 2011 18:44:38 GMT foxy99 said:

The guy put 5 advisories on it: each shocker showing signs of reduced damping and slight corrosion on rear discs.

Shocks are often on ebay as NOS and very cheap when they come up (I paid less than £60 for all four when I picked up a set for the other Monza project I have)

Rear discs going rusty are often down to sticky/partially seized rear calipers - you can still get seal kits for them so relatively cheap to get them working properly again - if the fronts lock up way before the rears then almost certainly the problem

Mar 30, 2011 18:44:38 GMT foxy99 said:

He also said 'why can't you just get something normal' when he first saw it and at the time I couldn't really justify having it but now that its legal and I'm back on Readers Rides it makes sense to me.

Your repair to the trailing arms turned out very well with some paint/underseal