This car has been in the same family for the past 20 years - it is totally original but desperately in need to some TLC: the paintwork has faded after years of being in the sun, there are small rust cabs on the front wings and the rear wheel arches, but compared with most Rolls Royces of its age, it is in very good condition. This is because over the years the car hasn’t been used much and has spent a long time sitting in a garage.

First we start, like all resprays / restorations, by cleaning the car and taking pictures of the condition, we then mark out any damage, scratches, dents, rust, etc we can find as some can be difficult to see once preparation has started, once marked and labelled we can start stripping the car.

The car is broken down into bite size chunks, this way it is easier to manage each section being striped, all parts are labelled, wrapped and put into storage so they don’t get broken, lost or even stolen, as I’m sure you can imagine parts for these cars are very expensive and hard to locate.

Years ago, the majority of Rolls Royce cars were built and finished by hand, therefore many parts like bonnets and grilles, etc were finished individually to match a car, so if you replaced the bonnet with one from another vehicle chances are it wouldn’t fit.

Once stripped we begin rubbing down the damaged areas back to bare metal. We do this so that we can repair the metal properly and feather out the old paint around the repaired areas. The damage is then repaired by either panel beating, dent removal or a plastic filler, while any corroded metal showing signs of rust is cut it away and replaced with new replacement panels. Luckily, only one rear arch needs replacing: all other panels are in better condition and can be repaired via small metal sections instead of complete panels.

Sometimes it can be very hard to know how the repairs are progressing as some dents or marks you cannot see or feel - it’s only when fresh new paint is applied that these problems are highlighted, so once we are happy with the repairs the rest of the panels are scotched with an abraisive pad and masked ready for primer.

As you can see the car has now been primed, once hardened the primer will be dry and wet flatted. More details and pictures to follow….

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