James May, he of Top Gear fame, said that there was simply no way you could look bad in a ‘Shad’. It’s true, the old Rollers are now in that special time in the life of every classic car where most of the ones that were going to die are gone already and the survivors are in it for the long-run and being cared and pampered by their owners. But on the evidence you see above, there still seem to be enough of them for one or two…interesting projects.
The listing for our featured car encourages us to call Bob with any questions that we may have. I only have one question: Why? Why did the man who built this do it? Because presumably he would’ve had to be going down the street, just going about his business. And then he saw one of the 16,717 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow I’s built on the street and thought “hmm……”
Well, whomever he was we have to give him credit, he did an excellent job turning the Silver Shadow into his vision. I can’t even imagine the amount of changes and custom fabrication that would go into making a conversion like this. But the quality of the end result speaks for itself. This was more than a hack-and-slash job, everything fits like if it had been built to fit from the factory. The panel gaps are nice and tight and the interior looks well cared for. As does the strip of chrome that runs the length of the car If I were to nitpick I’d say that the grille and the bumpers should’ve stayed unpainted. But who am I to question the builder’s vision?
Moving out attention to the business(coupe)end. Any possibility of it being a flower car in a past life gets thrown out of the door when you see the fine leather on the sides and the velour(?) lining the bottom of the trunk. Mechanically it seems to be identical to any normal Shad, that means the warhorse 6.75-liter engine under the hood producing “Adequate” (190-210 or thereabouts) horsepower and sending it through that other warhorse, the Turbo-Hydramatic TH300.
The listing this time is amazing. Especially for a place that seems to have more than a couple of rollers on the lot “IF YOU ARE IN THE MARKET FOR NEW AND UNIQUE TOY, THIS IS THE ONE TO OWN.RECENTLY DONE FULL SERVICE, FULL BRAKES AND HYDRAULICS,TIRES,A/C,WOOD RE FINISHED,CARPETING ETC.” Is pretty much the gist of it. Not the long, detailed listing explaining the conversion process that I’d like if I were spending serious money on something like this. It also mishandles it as a pickup truck which is understandable, as the sort of intern that writes that sort of listing has probably never seen a business coupe.
Oh, that brings us nicely to that thing everybody hates discussing in public: the price. Now, something like this has a very limited market. Like any modified car, you’ll never make back the money you invested in the modifications and you’ll probably end up decreasing the value in comparison to the untouched examples. Nonetheless, if you want to own the car that the plutocrats use to haul samples around you’ll have to shell out $39,950. Or about what a brand new Chrysler 300C Platinum will cost you if you went to a dealership. If you’d prefer something that is guaranteed to be unique however, the listing is here. I’m not sure who’d get something like this, but I’m sure whomever does will really want it and cherish it.
Wow, that certainly is an answer to a question nobody asked. Painting it taxicab yellow doesn’t help either. I can’t stand it when people write descriptions in ALL CAPS, stop yelling.
I think I’ll pass on this one.
Uh Nelson, the orig.poster is likely quoting a
sign he read, not yelling.
As for this ride, I can see an absent-minded handyman
at the end of a busy day chucking a loaded toolbox
into what he thinks is the bed of a pickup truck! LMAO!
Yeah, I know it’s the ebay ad yelling in all caps.
Wow, Nelson, You wrote exactly what I would have. When I was looking at the photos, I imagined that this would be a bad enough end for a Checker, But a Rolls……(chocking on vomit….)
..i guess it’s called the big yella ‘Root’ (Roller Ute) ..im
Just the ticket for the high end snow ski magnate or enterprising Uber driver at Aspen, Colorado?
I was thinking maybe Al Czervik’s business ride.
There ya’ go! 😉
Well I think I like that shade of Yellow despite it seeming to be Flat Yellow lacking in depth, but I am by no means a paint expert. The prominent tail pipe is amusing and the Transporter Plate is intriguing since I was expecting a Dealer Plate. At least it is a 1972 so I would not have to worry about This Rolls Royce not passing DEQ.
Hopefully there is enough room to fit into the passenger compartment, do not want to be wedged between the steering wheel and seat that is for sure. So that is Leather on the sides of the trunk? Mighty impressive I say and I thought it was plastic at first.
While that is the largest trunk lid I have ever seen I rather have a Rolls Royce Flower Car and just imagine if you opened that trunk lid in a parking garage what with the lack of vertical clearance. Sure is a lot of eye candy in the background and impressive that none seem to have any Florida patina.
I once spotted a Silver Shadow Station Wagon. Perhaps this creation is from the same person..
That is so close to a dream car of mine, if I had the money…
Paint it blue, create a tailgate, and call it Miss Agnes.
Nice to know I wasn’t the only person thinking of that . . . .
About three decades too young to be Miss Agnes…
So halfway through the ute conversion he put a boot lid on it, fail.
Yellow on red has to be the worst color combination in the world, may as well be displayed at McDonalds
It wouldn’t be hard to turn this thing into a DHL delivery vehicle.
+1
In a sterner time the factory would have discreetly purchased this and discreetly burned it.
Quite a lot of older 20s and 30s Rolls Royces got the ute treatment they make a good strong ute, never heard of anything from the factory other than buy offers for some real oldies still in use
Rolls-Royce made a factory truck of one of the rarest Rollers ever built, the Phantom IV. Only 18 were made, all sold exclusively to royalty. The no 2 car was probably a prototype made into a hack pickup truck for internal use at the factory. From wikipedia:
“Experimental truck used for the factory. In 1952 was fitted with the B81 engine and automatic gear box. Dismantled in 1963.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Phantom_IV
Rolls-Royces were also converted into armoured fighting cars in WWI
Well why not – they made over 40, 000 so they are not rare. I know an owner who has done a van conversion too. The really interesting pick-ups are those created in period as factory or coachbuilder mules.
It would look 50X better as a truck conversion
Right. With 1976 Dodge W200 underpinnings, for example.
My inner hillbilly approves!
LOL (as the “kids” would say), I guess on the hillbilly note,….OK!
That’s awfull, but those Dodge innards will pertymuch git ‘er dun….
That somehow manages to simultaneously be completely wrong and perfectly right .
Banana slug.
Grotesque.
It looks like it belongs in The Beatles “Yellow Submarine” movie.
+1.
The Florida plates say it all.
Doesn’t appear to have any weatherstripping to keep that beautifully finished trunk interior dry.
Eclectic is the word !! Really my kind of ‘late in life’ mind melding ! Unpaint the bumpers & grille, and do something about that sewer pipe sticking out from under the rear bumper –I’ll take two, thank you…w/o the grey poupon ! This is just the car to show up at the Assembly of God on Sunday morning !! (Keeps ’em guessing !)
I’m sorry but that is ugly and the tailpipe is the icing on the cake.
Honestly, the Shadow always looked like a Peugeot 403 with a grill kit to me. Not a great follow-on to the Silver Cloud, which was my childhood image of what a Rolls should look like.
+1! I like these, But let’s face it, the prior B.O.F. Rolls is THE Rolls! Still these are better than the currrent “pimped out Chrysler 300” ones, the Mopar effort (to me) is classier looking!
Kill. It. With. Fire.
Now.
considering I’ve seen fairly decent stock ones going for half that money how many ways can I say no!
as far as origin goes, I remember seeing a 442 that was made into an el camino style truck.
the backstory was it had been bought as an insurance write off when a tree fell on the back of it and the bodyshop guy figured it was easier to redo that way than fix it back to stock. maybe something similar with this?
GAHHHH ! my eyes ! .
I like the overall concept but that color , god help us .
-Nate
A great color for an ex taxicab driver who hit the big time. Otherwise………
It all goes back to that old saying “Money can’t buy taste! “
Well, there was this, but it wasn’t a business coupe.
Goldfinger’s Rolls was also yellow.
This is the car for rhe person who always wanted a Chevy SSR but felt that choice was not uniqe enough.
The photos posted by Ron and Tonyola show a proper shade of yellow, not that hideous shade of the conversion. Red interior with yellow ?
Dealers used to do that as a sort of “loss leader” to get the bargain hunters to the showroom then upsell them on another, better optioned, more expensive and color matched car on the lot.
Looks like an extended deck GM N Body.
The monochromatic look played itself out years ago.
It could have been worse: flat black and all.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
It’s proof H.L. Mencken was right when he said, with gentle paraphrased “No one ever went broke underestimating the taste (or intelligence) of the American public”.
Pointless!
The seats look like they wee reupholstered in vinyl…the armrests are the original hides, and see how dry and faded they look against the new seat covers.
Wasted opportunity. It would have been kick-ss as a pickup. All the space is there.
I’d buy this if it was about $35,000 cheaper.
And then have it repainted.
yeaaah ..an 871-style blower intake sticking up through the hood..lake pipes..and two broad HG Monaro-style racing stripes..and a big tall Super Bee-style rear spoiler..cool ! ! ..and a quad of 5 spoke black 20″ alloys just to finish it off?? ..it would be the absolute ultimate in Irish traveller-style trailer-trash taste ..waytergo !! :))
I don’t think that many on here know what a business coupe is either, suffice to say I prefer the 1950 Studebaker version.
When I saw this, my first response was, “Why?” After thinking on it for a while, I have to applaud the creativity of it. It’s skillfully done. Besides, if it’s good enough for Travis McGee…Just someone, please do something about the color.
What an odd creation. I do wonder why this was seen as preferable to a ute conversion with a removable hard tonneau cover? Looks quite well-finished though.
And that really is about the worst possible color. Canary yellow? Sure. Lemon yellow? Maybe. Taxicab yellow? Nope.
Well, I actually kind of like it! With three provisos: needs to be a different colour, tailpipe needs to change, and I’d lose the bootlid to make it an open-tray ute. But the shape and workmanship look good and it rates highly on my scale of quirkdom. Price is too steep for what it is, but I mostly approve.