Personal expertise in any field does not develop overnight. Authoritative command of the idiosyncratic characteristics of the Rolls-Royce chassis is a blessing bestowed on just a few in our midst. By and large, membership of such a select club of experts is denied the vast, vast majority of enthusiasts and it is said that such membership is waning on account of failing health and the inevitable consequence of the ageing process. Sadly, the youth in our society appears unable or unwilling  to take possession of the niche opportunities our elders leave behind.

Knowledge, practical skills, problem solving and tenacity are, collectively, virtues  difficult to measure in economic terms. Specialised knowledge and very long-term experience in the field of the Rolls-Royce small horsepower chassis is the domain of a limited number of restoration and maintenance companies and a small band of private individuals who are willing to travel to the homes of fellow enthusiasts.

John Eastwood with GMD59, his second 20/25, at the age of 26

John Eastwood is arguably the fellow member with the most experience in chassis problem solving and maintenance for the small horsepower cars. However, John would be the first to correct me on this matter in that he has a clear understanding of a very wide range of Rolls-Royces and Bentleys from Silver Ghosts , through the Phantoms and as late as the Cloud 3s and Bentley S3s. He is well into his seventies, but you would not know it. His enviable experience goes back 48 years, commencing at the age of 26 with a 1934, 20/25 H.J. Mulliner sedanca de ville, in the event, on account of what was overall a car with not inconsiderable problems, an unwise choice for a man of his age and it was off his hands within two months. The second car, illustrated here, was much better; a 1934 20/25, James Young saloon, GMD59. In total, John has owned 21 proper motor cars. His 1927, 20 hp faux-cabriolet limousine by Thrupp and Mabberly, which he has lovingly cared for in recent years, is a regular award winner at national and local level and I would say with a high degree of confidence that it is one of the best maintained 20s in the world.

The 21 cars  include four 20hps, ten 20/25s, a Silver Dawn, two Clouds, two R Types including a Continental, an S1 and an S3. His 22nd car, in his ownership some years ago, a Shadow, lasted just one week and does not feature in his photographic archive. When pressed, he admits that his favourite cars have been his Cloud 1 and his 1927 Thrupp & Maberly 20hp Faux-Cabriolet. What is more, John can boast (not that John is a boaster) a parallel expertise with his other love, that of the MGB of which he owns two.

A 2007 image of John Eastwood, now aged 74 and working on GAK5, my 1924 Barker limousine.

How did he acquire the knowledge and the motivation to become a master of maintenance and buy his first by the age of 26? His grandfather purchased, brand new, GFT 44, a chauffeur driven, 1931, 20/25.  It was a fastidiously maintained Cockshoot limousine and in March 1981, John describes very ably its early history in The Bulletin, number 125. On his grandfather’s death in 1938, grandmother assumed responsibility for it and during the war it was kept in a local garage showroom in Windermere. During this time, grandmother died, but the car remained ‘on show’ until 1945 when John’s father was fortunate to take possession of it. Father and son (John was now 12 years old) travelled from Bedford to collect it and it was this initial experience that gave John the motivation to own one himself one day. Sadly, father failed to look after it in the manner to which it had been accustomed. John saw the car deteriorate over a period of years (never washed or maintained and suffered severe rot on account of long-term exposure to the elements) and in consequence he felt an even stronger urge to own one himself, but to cherish and nurture it to a standard of which his grandparents would have been proud. When John’s father disposed of the 20/25 in 1959, it realised just £150 in part-exchange for a new Riley 1500 and John was the recipient of a just a spanner from it! Within months, however, he had acquired his first, very own, Rolls-Royce, the 1934 20/25 H.J.Mulliner sedanca de ville. It would appear that, unless I am mistaken, GFT 44 was scrapped many years ago.

John is one of the most positive, supportive men I know. His tenacious attitude towards chassis defects and general maintenance and what appears to me to be a sixth sense when it comes to diagnosing a problem, places him in a very special category rarely occupied by the professionals. I would place Dennis Foster of Derby, a former floor manager at Ristes Motors, in a similar category. I have had supposed ‘spot on’ diagnoses by the full-time, so-called wizards and subsequent ill-directed repairs at high cost to me and this has left not just the bitter taste but  a declining level of confidence in their abilities. John Eastwood’s attributes extend beyond his personal understanding of the way in which the pre-1965 Rolls-Royce engineering designs work and his mechanical skills. Whereas some mechanics hate to see their clients watching them at work on their chassis and engine (in one experience,  I suspect this was to ensure that I never learned to conduct the repairs myself !), John has always been eager to pass on the techniques to me. In this respect he is as much a teacher as a mechanic and for this he commands my admiration. If he has a problem with an aspect of repair, a rarity I have to say, or the sourcing of spare parts, he knows a man who can offer accurate advice.

Generally speaking, he will be the first person to acknowledge that at his age life is indisputably finite and there is a need for his skills to be instilled in others far younger than him. Furthermore, having completed a task and following a test run he is not happy with the outcome, this will be stated emphatically and he will want to make further repairs or adjustments. This is in contrast with a former repair/maintenance man whose favourite statement when a job was allegedly completed was, “Let it settle down”, my interpretation of which was that with use it will either correct itself or get better. My observation on such matters is that it can be to the contrary and might only get worse.

Following an initial inspection and a duo-effort to replace or correct the offending components, John’s teaching method for an identical but later operation is not just one of demonstration and the transfer of responsibility to the student client, but one of an introductory question and answer period to clarify and emphasise the order of operation, all aspects of caution and safety and the dire consequences should the precautions and preparation be ignored or forgotten. As a former professional in higher education, this is exemplary teaching which leaves the student in little doubt about potential good and bad outcome.

A typical example of John’s advice and teaching occurred recently on one of his visits. I have three small horsepower cars. All three have had the dirty habit of generating skid marks of grease from the water pump gland on to the engine block, crankcase and the inside of the bonnet. Whereas others have advised the use of a very stiff, almost sticky toffee-like, dark brown grease of a special blend and turning the feeding screw cap, now filled with the stuff, on the pump drive shaft once a week, John has been insistent that this does not solve the problem at all and only serves to force the grease into the cooling system to be deposited at the top of the radiator core and is a relatively expensive way of wax-oiling the car’s engine bay. For John, the water pump has to come off, the old grease-penetrated gland rope or packing removed and replaced in the correct manner followed by filling the grease reservoir cap with much less viscous grease and thereafter only giving the screw cap a small turn once a year. We have done it on all three cars, I now know how to execute the operation and the skid marks are a thing of the past.

When John has paid me a visit and we have tackled a problem which might have taken several hours to solve, I rest that night with an enormous degree of satisfaction and a feeling that another job is now out of the way for perhaps decades to come. It is a wonderful feeling to know that the task has been overcome, that I know a great deal more about the engineering of the Rolls-Royce chassis and that I now have some ability to tackle such problem myself.

Remember that John’s priority is that he teaches you to do the job rather than him do it alone without any input from you. Naturally, John cannot afford to perform his duties for nothing, but let him talk to you about that. For the delight of a much improved car and the personal, technical and skills benefit that fellow enthusiasts will acquire, the cost of getting him to your home is a relatively insignificant matter and having become  beneficiaries of his expertise, we are all potential teachers to others in the years to come.

John Eastwood resides in Staffordshire, between Burton-on-Trent and Lichfield. His telephone number is 01283 790442.