Rolls Royce & Bentley

Sport and Classic Car Company is located in Houston, Texas. We are members of the USA branch of the Rolls Royce Owners Club and if you own a RR or Bentley, you might well consider joining the RROC as well. Since 1976, our firm has offered spare parts, services, repairs and restoration for Rolls Royce and Bentley cars built since 1955.

While we supply lots of parts and services for post 1955 Rolls Royce and Bentley cars, we also offer certain parts and rebuilding services for pre 1955 models when possible. In other words, if we can, we will.  However we mostly deal with Rolls Royce parts and Bentley parts for cars built since 1955 such as the James Young 2 door saloon, Silver Dawn, Silver Cloud, R-Type, Phantom, Corniche Convertible and Fixed head Coupe as well as Silver Shadow, Silver Wraith, Silver Spur, Silver Dawn, Silver Spirit, Silver Seraph, Bentley S1, S2, S3, Bentley T, Bentley Continental, Mulsanne, Bentley 8, Arnage, Azure and Brookland models. 

We offer discontinued new old stock parts for Rolls Royce and Bentley cars. When the last of these parts are gone, they are just that. Right now we are able to offer:

1. Silver Cloud brake drums

2. New Carburetors for certain Silver Shadow II and late Corniche. Contact us with your VIN for applications. 

3. The last of new steering wheels for Silver Cloud II and III as well as all Shadows. 

4. New Owners handbooks, workshop manuals and electrical books in English, Spanish, French, German Italian, Arabic and Japanese. We can still supply quite a few of these books back into the early fifties on up. Some of them are quite rare.   

5. New old stock fenders, doors, roofs and many body panels for Silver Clouds, Corniches, Spurs, Shadows, Chinese Eye Bentley's, and certain Phantoms. Why spend a lot of money and effort trying to fix a 30-50 year old rusted out fender when we can supply a new one while they last? 

Contact us ( e-mail ) with your VIN, year and model. Scotty recently returned from a buying trip to the Bentley parts warehouse in Crewe, inspecting thousands of parts that were heretofore unavailable and we can now supply MANY more parts than ever before. 

For parts inquiries, please send us an e-mail along with the cars VIN (vehicle identification number) or chassis number with parts or service inquires. (The VIN helps us do the homework to provide an accurate quote.) Call 281.448.4739 and ask for Scotty.  We cannot fix ALL the Rolls Royce and Bentley cars out there and enjoy working with shops and owners worldwide that also enjoy working on these cars to keep them going as they were intended. We encourage brave shops in areas without a dedicated Rolls Royce and Bentley shop to not turn down an opportunity to service or repair a Rolls Royce or Bentley because they don't think parts are available or lack basic knowledge about these cars. We can usually help get the job at hand done. 

Please have a look at our  Cars for Sale  section for Rolls Royce and Bentley cars we have available. 

Read on and you will find lots of photos and commentary about Bentley and Rolls Royce automobiles. We keep as many rebuilt power steering racks and water pumps on the shelf as we can.   Rolls Royce and Bentley owners or their shops are welcome to ship us their power steering racks, power steering pumps, Bentley turbochargers, brake calipers, brake pumps, brake valves, brake accumulators, steel brake lines (RR uses a flare that takes special tools to make), water pumps, air pumps, carburetors, and ignition distributors and are welcome to ship larger assembles such as engines, radiators, transmissions and differentials or for that matter, entire cars to us for rebuilding or services. 

For example, say a decision has been reached to rebuild the front suspension or hydraulic systems for example. As we have enjoyed working on so many of these cars for such a long time, once we know your intentions, we can make up comprehensive "parts kits" that will have the parts most commonly required so you don't have to diddle around and the work can be accomplished as quickly as your enthusiasm will allow. However, as all cars have parts that wear differently, we also supply parts less commonly used. Basically, we can supply the same parts for your job just as we do for our mechanics. 

On fuel injected Rolls Royce and Bentley cars built since 1981, the fuel distributors  are getting on in years and cause various running problems as they get clogged as a result of years of fuel and additives running through them. While these fuel distributors are no longer available from RR dealers, we have them. 

Here is a photo of one of our rebuilt units we have in stock, ready to go. We supply new fuel injectors and the special seals as well as all manner of new fuel injection parts.  

Continental Expectations

These are worn front brake rotors on a '05 Bentley Continental GT.

  These 20.5 kg. rotors are the largest used by any manufacturer on a production car. This GT already has about 64K miles on it. The angry owner told us that for the money he paid for the car from the local Bentley dealer, the brakes should last forever. Forever is a very long time and reality has a way of interfering with such expectations. All brake parts wear out no matter how expensive the car may be. 

As you can observe from the deep groove on the outer edge of the brake rotor, the rear rotors have been considerably reduced in thickness. This sort of wear is about right for a fast city car with 64K miles.  The brake pads are worn down to very little as well. Owners of these cars should be aware that the rear brake pads cannot be changed on these cars without the Bentley dealer computer to reset the electric handbrake. We do not have one of these computers as our work is on more vintage models. This is a very annoying trend by some manufacturers to force owners to take their cars to a dealer for even the most basic work. Texas is the nations second largest state yet we have but two Bentley dealers. It's about 800 miles from El Paso to Houston. 

What also happens with Bentley GT cars that have not received scheduled services as seen in this photo, is that electrolysis corrodes the steel center wheel hub where it contacts the mag wheel. This car was probably driven on the beach somewhere and not properly cleaned.  It's a good idea to remove the wheels once a year, polish off the corrosion and apply a bit of anti seize compound. Otherwise, if the car suffers a tire puncture and the owner wants to change the tire, the wheel will most likely not be able to be dismounted on the side of the road. If you are a Bentley GT or Flying Spur owner, you might want to have this procedure done. 

 It's a dirty world out there. 

If your Silver Spur or similar vintage Bentley has an air filter that looks like this dirt packed filter,  your car has been neglected far too long. A dirty air filter impedes the air flow into the engine resulting in poor performance and mileage. Look at how deeply the dirt has penetrated the filter media. 

  A new air filter looks like this.  Replacing these filters is the same sort of service situation as your home a/c systems air filter. A heavily encrusted dirty air filter is not doing much other than serving as a air dam. Treat your car to a new air filter if its dirty and check your home filter for your lungs. Sure, we have air filters to fit every Rolls Royce and Bentley built since 1960. Previous to 1960, RR used an oil bath air filter design and these are to be cleaned and serviced.  

Wiring looms and harness's 

We can supply new wiring looms for certain Rolls Royce cars built front 1955-1990's. For many years these wiring looms have been unavailable and many still are.  The wiring in a car runs to every electrical device and component. Thus the wiring goes under the hood where they are subjected to heat, oil fumes and water damage. On many cars, the main wiring section runs underneath the car where its exposed to, well,, everything the bottom of a car runs over. Many people, mechanics included, do not understand how electricity works or how relays work yet they will cut and splice wires, or cut them and twist them together creating an electrical nightmare. I have seen countless hot wires run to ground with the result being a burned up wiring system. It's a shocking experience to the pocketbook. 

 Wiring looms are made to be installed by professionals with knowledge of automotive wiring but a well skilled individual can install them. Vintage cars would tend pack all the wiring into one big harness. Modern cars split the harness into many sections so a repair can be done without buying the entire loom. This said, many of the smaller sections become unavailable rather swiftly after cars leave the factories. If you need a wiring loom for an engine compartment or whatever, contact us with VIN and production date if you have it. 

Here is a photo of one of a pair of 1968 Silver Shadow rear brake calipers that were shipped in from Mexico City for restoration. Houston is close to Mexico and we have a long history and shared border. The Spaniards stole Mexico and much of South Americas from the native Americans and  Texicans stole Texas from Mexico and formed a new nation in 1832 while Scotty's  Braveheart ancestors were still in Scotland perfecting Glenlivet single malt scotch when they weren't battling the Brits. These days all is forgiven and we provide parts for Rolls Royce and Bentley owners from Spain, Mexico or England when they visit Houston. Check out this web site for a brief Texican history. http://www.texfiles.com/ERAmar02/sanjacinto.htm   

Back to the brake caliper. The bleeders and steel lines of this caliper had been replaced with parts from other cars and the calipers were a mess. We rebuilt the calipers with new stainless steel pistons, made new pipes, repaired the damaged threads, reworked the handbrake mechanisms as parts had been lost over the cars life and replaced the pads.  The calipers will work like new. 

If a Rolls Royce or Bentley should, perish the thought, "fail to proceed" or "proceed without grace", we can most likely help. We work for Rolls Royce enthusiasts as well as owners that may travel a lot or live extraordinarily complicated lives. Our shop often unties knots on cars that may have experienced improper service or repairs that ended up costing an owner aggravation and ill-spent funds for an automotive experience that did little good for the car. We can and do sort out uncomfortable and unfinished automotive situations for owners worldwide. Give us a call, tell us the story and let's work together to get the project completed in a proper manner so the car can be enjoyed as it was intended to be however our workshop shop is always well booked with a solid backlog of interesting work ahead of us so please contact us beforehand. 

Sure, we provide new engine rebuilding parts to replace parts such as this Silver Spur piston that did not survive an "unfortunate circumstance".  

We also supply suspension and steering parts, electrical parts, body parts and A/C parts such as this accumulator/dryer for a late model Spirit. 

We supply parts to rebuild Rolls Royce and Bentley carburetors. RR never supplied carburetor rebuild kits and many of the parts used fit no other carburetor.  RR supplied parts for the carburetors by the individual piece. We do make up carburetor "kits" by essentially placing all the usual parts we think ought to be replaced into the kit. We also supply the gas floats and many other parts for the carburetors and fuel related systems that are not normally included in conventional carburetor kits. For carburetors like those used on 1950's Silver Dawns and prewar cars,  parts from RR are no longer supplied. We rebuild these carburetors and make whatever parts are required. 

  This Silver Cloud is about to receive it's freshly rebuilt V8 engine. 

We rebuild lever dampers (shock absorbers in USA speak) as used on all pre-1965 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, Silver Cloud and Bentley R-Types and Mark Six models. We supply new tube style shocks for newer models such as Silver Shadow, Corniche, Spur, Spirit and Bentley Turbo R, Brooklands and Bentley Eight and rebuild all manner of hydraulic parts. Late model dampers cannot be rebuilt. 

Rolls Royce and Bentley brake and suspension hydraulic fluid:

There is a lot of incorrect information about the proper fluid to be used in Rolls Royce and Bentley cars so lets clear this matter up. Long ago, Rolls Royce contracted with Castrol to make a special brake fluid for their cars known as RR-363. The RR363 Castrol fluid is NOT the same as Castrol LMA fluid used with pre 1988 Jaguar and all  most other British cars. All DOT 3 fluids are not compatible. If someone tells you this, they are providing incorrect information. 

Here is a photo of a typical bottle of RR-363 brake and hydraulic fluid. This fluid used to come in metal cans. RR-363 is appropriate for all Rolls Royce and Bentley cars up to mid 1979. 1979 was a transition year and some Corniche cars used the next generation Silver Spur brake and suspension systems utilizing green Castrol Mineral Oil while Silver Shadows built in 1979 used RR-363.  The brake fluid reservoir on 1966-1980 cars using RR-363 is rectangular and made of metal. Cars that use green mineral fluid were built from 1979 onwards and use plastic reservoirs that are round. 

A typical container of green Castrol mineral oil looks like this.  It's VERY important not to mix these fluids as a contaminated system will require a complete rebuild of the entire brake and hydraulic system for a substantial cost.  If someone tries to sell you a $5 bottle of generic brake fluid and says all DOT 3 fluid is the same, run!   If an owner or shop is unsure, call us. 

  As you can see, an almost empty gallon of generic brake fluid was found in the trunk of this Silver Shadow and this means the entire brake system is contaminated with the wrong brake fluid. Rolls Royce Silver Shadows take a special brake fluid and the introduction of conventional brake fluid is a major and expensive error. The brake fluid reservoir has a warning label that states in plain language that nothing else other than RR363 is to be used. Unfortunately, some people ignore this warning and to save a very little bit of money will use other fluids and ruin the brake system. This fluid also powers the suspension so use of the wrong fluid is bad in every way. To rectify this situation and deliver a brake system that works very well as they were designed to do, we rebuild, clean and or replace the entire brake and hydraulic system. 

This photo shows what came out of a pair of 1980 Silver Wraith brake accumulators we were rebuilding for an owner in Michigan.  This pan of nasty contaminated sludge is a long term result of moisture reacting with brake fluid causing a chemical reaction that end up locking up the accumulator valves. This sorry situation is a result of poor maintenance. We recommend that all cars have the brake fluid changed every two years unless you line in Arizona or an area with little humidity. If your fluid has never been changed or you have no knowledge of when the hydraulic fluid was changed, have it done now with the proper fluid. Yes, we have plenty of both fluids in stock at all times. 

This photo is a Silver Shadow brake caliper innards. The brake caliper pistons were seized solid into the body of the caliper and after we removed the rusted pistons, the inside of the caliper was found to be full of contamination debris, rust and sludge accumulated from 35 years of service and mixed up brake fluids. Brake calipers in this condition are not doing much work and this is not good!

Here is a photo of some front brake cylinders from a 1964 Silver Cloud III. The car had recently had a botched brake repair that resulted in the car having only about 25% of it's stopping power. It took both feet to stop the car...slowly. . We found the master cylinders had been rebuilt incorrectly, the rear brake cylinders were rusted solid, the brake shoes on all four wheels were glazed and fluid soaked, the front cylinders as represented by the example in the photo were rusted internally and the mechanical brake linkage was bent and well out of adjustment. The steel brake lines were well rusted and fragile. This beautiful Silver Cloud with rare factory division was a car wreck waiting to happen. 

The brake cylinder on the right in the above photo had recently been "rebuilt". Look carefully and you will notice the brownish stain inside the bore. This staining is rust damage (creating small  pits that work like sandpaper) from many years of old brake fluid and water sitting in the cylinders and it acts like sandpaper on the rubber seals. The rest of the internals in the cylinders were rusted and weak. Rebuilding such a cylinder was a waste of the owners time and money. The cylinder on the left has been machined with a new stainless steel sleeve allowing the cylinder to have a perfect bore that allows the rubber parts to seal properly. Replacing the rubber parts simply got the car moving a few more miles as they began leaking brake fluid all over the brake shoes in short order. We see this sort of 'repair" all too frequently. Is the object of the work to simply make the car stop a little for a short time for the least possible expenditure or do a proper brake job that will make the car stop as well as it ever did for a long time? We prefer the later choice and believe most owners want their cars to stop well. 

We have found that most Silver Cloud series cars that just arrive here have poor or little to no effective brake response. In many situations, the owners think the brakes are supposed to be vague as the brakes  have " always" been that way. However, this assertion is not accurate. Lots of Silver Clouds and R-Types or MK 6's are driving around with only the rear mechanical brakes working as the hydraulics have failed so long ago no one remembers what the car drove like when the brakes were working well. As a matter of fact, 1940's-1960's Rolls Royce and Bentley cars have the inherent capability of having very good brakes when compared to other cars of the period. We know this to be true because we make them that way for owners on a very regular basis. I find it very interesting that some owners think that in the olde days, Rolls Royce would purposely design a car with bad brakes.

 It's not good enough to install new rubber seals into the old brake cylinders and pronounce the system rebuilt if you want to stay alive and not crash the car. This sort of repair is for low end used car lots. Rolls Royce Silver Cloud series cars require a lot of adjustments to the mechanical linkages and to other brake related components to make them stop as designed. We have rebuilt many of these cars over the decades and have amassed a great deal of experience with these brake systems and as a result,  owners can enjoy their cars with considerably more pleasure and confidence as the cars simply perform as intended.

Suspension dampers are also known as shocks.

  Bentley Turbo R's and Rolls Royce Silver Spurs and Spirits are heavy cars and the dampers feel the weight after 20,000 miles or so. The rear dampers exhibit this tiredness by leaking. If you examine the rear dampers, if they are leaking, you will notice the suspension mineral oil will have leaked down the shaft and is soaking into the lower rubber bushings. Suspension fluid circulates through the dampers when the engine is running thus the rear dampers are a part of the hydraulic and suspension systems.  If leakage is apparent, its time for new dampers. 

This suspension design incorporates  "gas springs" as well. This part is a charged high pressure vessel or ball that also needs replacement from time to time. When the gas springs are depleted, the rear end of the car will tend to hop or bounce around in a un Bentley or Rolls Royce like manner. Of course we supply all these parts and can insure you receive the correct parts with your VIN as there are many variations. 

  Here is a photo of a typical left  rear damper (shock absorber) on a Silver Cloud series.  It's cocooned in a thick layer of road dirt mixed with hardened shock oil that slowly leaked out for decades until nothing was left in the unit. Dampers that look like this are happy to be there but are doing nothing and the car will ride like a rolly polly lump instead of a nicely designed luxury car. By now if a damper that looks like this one is no longer leaking, there may well be no fluid left to leak!  

Here is a photo of the right rear damper  after we rebuilt it and replaced the bushings. You can see an anti-rust solution we use on the bolts that help prevent them from seizing in the future. You can also see the rotten rear spring leathers that we will be replacing. These leathers keep the grease that services the spring from washing away. Behind the unit you can see part of the new stainless exhaust. We are sorting out a variety of mechanical deficiencies and as the car has a division window befitting a limo, we are resurrecting the ancient a/c system that had been worked on by Frankenstein's cousin long ago.  

Here is a photo of the old a/c system with pipes running all over the engine compartment in a Rube Goldberg installation. 

  I'll post a photo of our installation when it's completed. We are fitting a new period style under dash A/C unit for the front and are updating the boot mounted unit so the owner can select which a/c systems to engage. The power windows in the rear cabin were totally worn out with the wiring frayed and exposed.

  In this photo you can see some red tape stuck on the wiring. It's hard to photograph the miserable condition with broken bushings and power window parts stripped. What a mess! We made a new wiring harness for both doors and are rebuilding the entire window mechanisms so they will operate smoothly and not burn up the wiring. We are fitting a new stainless steel exhaust system to replace the hodge podge exhaust that had been spliced together on the decades. There were big pipes going into small pipes all over thus producing unwanted restrictions.  We are updating the ignition with a Pertronix electronic ignition so the car will be more reliable and run better. This is a wide and large scale renovation that will make the car dependable and drive much better than it has in many years. 

Here is a photo of all the cockpit wood that was in the car on our floor being inventoried before the wood shop restored it. There is a forest of trees and herd of cows used in a Phantom. 

Contact us with your chassis number for e-mail  parts   parts parts quotes. 

Rolls Royce and Bentley automatic transmission rebuilding is yet another specialty here. We seem to specialize in specialties don't we?

  This photo is a freshly opened late 1950's Rolls Royce Silver Cloud transmission that had been hibernating a long time. There is typical rust inside that has resulted from poor service and moisture laden storage. When we rebuild a Silver Cloud or Bentley S series automatic transmission, we do rather intensive rebuilds.  Contrary to some miss-information floating about, these transmissions are not the common Turbo 400 units that were fitted to many American cars as well as later Silver Shadow and newer Rolls Royce and Bentley models.

We carefully and exhaustively examine each part and check for excessive wear as these transmissions are 40-50 years old or more and may have been "overhauled" several times before. We replace many bushings, springs, piston rings, clutches, plates, bearings and bands and do whatever it takes to make these venerable transmissions a lot better than what we found so they will last far into the future. Vintage automatics are tricky and take vintage special tools to deal with some of the component rebuilding. Our rebuilds may well cost more than some may charge to do because we usually replace a lot of parts rather than just call them good in the hopes they will last another mile or two.  All of our work is performed to a very high standard and are not compromised to achieve a low initial price point. Our rationale is that by replacing parts that get weak or worn with age (40-50 years in many cases) rather than trying to save the owner an inconsequential amount of money as related to the scale of the this sort of work, we are actually bettering the odds of the transmission lasting a long time and shifting properly as designed. This philosophy has proven to work well to save an owner the aggravation of premature failure. Contact us beforehand on shipping engine and transmissions for advice on how to best ship them to our service department.

  This photo shows the inside of a cleaned and painted Silver Cloud or Bentley S transmission case about to receive the rebuilt servos and drums, valve body and other parts.

This photo shows the rebuilt drums fitted into the casing ,

  In this next photo the rebuilt valve body and filter screen are fitted.  

  Here is the completed transmission just before being mated to the original 6 cylinder engine ,also just rebuilt.

  Here, a restored RR transmission is mounted onto a restored rolling chassis.

In this photo we are fitting a freshly rebuilt transmission into a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III with division. 

Some owners complain about a "wallowy" steering on these cars and yes, this condition can be substantially rectified. All bearings, seals and bushings are replaced on our power steering unit rebuilds and the improvement in steering is dramatic. 

 Here is a photo of a power steering sector box assembly as used on Silver Cloud 2 and 3 and Bentley S2 and S3 cars. This photo was taken after a complete rebuild was performed on the unit and it's ready to be shipped. We stock most of the parts for these rebuilds as we do so many of them. Few Silver Cloud series cars have had their steering sector boxes rebuilt and this is evident when they are driven as the steering has a lot of side to side play, they leak a lot and the car steers like an very old truck. This is not how these cars were intended to handle and a vintage car that drives well is a joy to experience.

Working with enthusiasts or car repair shops is a part of what we are about. On many occasions an owner or shop may ship engines, transmissions or other assemblies to us for rebuilding that require special tools or knowledge. We are happy to help keep these cars going as they were intended any way we can. Everyone cannot be or have local access to an intense specialty shop such as ours so we are "worldwide" by virtue of shipment.

 Here is a 1961 Bentley Continental Convertible and this link will take you to a webpage that describes a series of restoration work we did on the car. 

http://www.bentleyclassic.com/62bentley.htm 

We have extensive experience with great cars  such as this 1964 Silver Cloud. This neglected car had quite a few shops work on it the last few years and little of this work did much for the car as the car has collapsing front road springs, a poorly installed A/C system, rotten suspension bushings, massive power steering leaks, poor brakes, a truly miserable electronic ignition installation, sloppy workmanship, lots of missing parts just left off and many other ailments that make this particular car a rather unpleasant experience to drive. It's truly sad to see a great car in such a bad mechanical state. The car looks good in photos though. We find all too many cars that have suffered from unqualified although perhaps well meaning attention as Rolls Royce has many ways of building cars which are quite different than other car manufacturers and Rolls Royce probably assumed that owners would have qualified people work on the car. 

Here are photos of a Silver Cloud engine and transmission that was shipped to us in a zillion pieces from San Francisco. Someone had lots of fun disassembling it and tossing all the bolts and fasteners into the oil pan which was full of greasy goo. 

In this photo we are inventorying the parts and hoping all is there. The water pump was shattered into pieces and  yes, this is a real mess but we are going to resurrect this engine from doom and build it into a fine engine again with new pistons and are going to rebuild the transmission as well.  The owner decided to ship the car for the engine and transmission fitting and once we inspected the car, he decided to have us re-wire the entire car and sort out the brakes. The car had some sort of $10K brake job just before it was shipped to us. In this photo you can see the sorry state of the brake reservoirs. No fluid showing and rusty reservoirs on a Silver Cloud new brake job. What can one say? Perhaps the work order did not include restoring the reservoirs or adding brake fluid or maybe the shop thought the car had air brakes!

 We understand the intention of the designers philosophy and do our best to maintain these cars in the manner they were designed although we also undertake certain modifications that allow the cars to be driven on a regular basis in Houston, a sultry environment (some people call it a swamp). Some good modifications for modern day living in an increasing warmer world are custom air conditioning installations, discrete electronic ignitions and carefully considered and installed audiophile sound system installations. 

With the extreme heat and humidity of Houston as a climate test environment, we design and install custom air conditioning systems that are attractive and which work well for cars without A/C. Merely installing an A/C system into a car is usually not sufficient as an important part of the work involved is in making sure the new system will not cause the engine to overheat. Otherwise, what is the use of newly installed air conditioning? 

 Here is a photo of a boot (trunk) mounted  a/c system we are installing in a 1963 Bentley S3. The system incorporated a new state of the art high efficiency radiator core, our rebuilt water pump, engine block cleaning, new radiator hoses and fan belts, new electric auxiliary cooling fan, new state of the art a/c compressor and custom a/c hoses with a complete blower system mounted in the trunk where it runs quietly and effectively without ruining the nice wood dash appointments with ugly vents. The vents used on the ugly installations feature cheapo black plastic with silver painted trims, think of bad 1973 styling. As the a/c installation require more power to operate them, we fit a 75 amp alternator in place of the original generator. This unit delivers all the power the car needs to operate the power windows, a/c, stereo, electronic ignitions and other accessories. A "cool" thing about this particular installation is that it can be reversed back to the generator for a new owner that might prefer originality over reliability although insufficient power is sure annoying when the battery is dead after a long run with the A/C on.

We also restore and upgrade the original under-wing A/C units or in the boot systems with new evaporators, condensers, compressors and hosing that vastly improve the reliability and efficiency of the system. Old a/c systems leaked refrigerant from the usage of the old style clamps. The new hoses we make are triple crimped and we have zero leakage problems. Life is better when you are not leaking something.

We rebuild or service entire brake systems, hydraulic systems, steering and suspension systems, electrical systems, fuel systems or just about anything else on any Rolls Royce or Bentley built from 1946 to the 1990's. We supply remanufactured hydraulic components and perform many "bench work" jobs.  We also undertake pre-WW2 cars on certain systems requiring renovation.

This is a 1955 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud we are performing a complete ground up, frame off the chassis restoration. These photos were taken as the car was being disassembled. The engine was totally rebuilt with new pistons, bearings, valves, guides, rebuilt oil pump and flywheel etc. The brakes, suspension and steering were totally rebuilt. 

  In this photo, the frame has been sandblasted and is being scrubbed with a prep solution before painting with a high grade black epoxy primer.

  In this photo, the frame has been painted with epoxy primer.

  All mechanicals have been stripped, rebuilt and properly painted.

  All new correct wiring looms will be installed. A new custom air conditioning system will be installed in conjunction with state of the art insulation for the cockpit. The extensive wood trim will be restored and refinished. All new leather trim will be fitted in the cockpit with fresh Wilton wool carpets bound with leather.  Photos will follow this work as the job moves along.

This 1965 Bentley S3 is having a new Pertronix Electronic Ignition fitted.

This electronic ignition installation will greatly enhance reliability and enable the venerable V8 to run even smoother than before. The car will start faster, idle better and run through the power curve smoothly.. One of the nice aspects of the installation is that this ignition system fits entirely inside the distributor cap so it cannot be seen.  

Enhanced yet hidden enhancements are a nice addition to any car that is intended to be driven.  Check out our Pertronix page for how the ignitions work. We offer these ignitions for many Rolls Royce R-Type, Silver Cloud, and Bentley S cars from about 1947 up. We also supply all the ignition parts and a 40 or 45,000 volt coil in black. This system is quite inexpensive as well.

This photo shows a 1955 Rolls Royce engine we were rebuilding. 

This engine is now installed onto the restored rolling chassis.      

Here is a photo showing the difference between a typical original circa mid fifties Rolls Royce six cylinder exhaust manifold on the left and a new manifold on the right.  Yes, we supply many new RR manifolds such as used on the SC1 and S1 cars. The original manifold ion the left is cracked and is breaking apart. Trying to hang a new exhaust system onto an age weakened cracked manifold is a recipe for a major exhaust leak as the old metal won't take a strong weld and disintegrates. So would you if you had hot exhaust gases running though you for 50 years! We fit stainless steel or mild steel exhausts made especially for these cars.

In this photo, we have a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud body mounted on our car body rotisserie and are finishing disassembling some bits before sandblasting rusty areas. This chassis had extensive rust in the sills and elsewhere. 

This photo shows the under chassis after the frame has been removed and before the chassis rebuild commenced.    

 This next photo shows the right rear fender.  Notice the very thick body filler under the paint where we ground through to determine the condition. 

This photo  shows the rust damaged area now cut away.

In this photo  we are fitting a new inner panel in the right rear fender.

    These two photos show the new outer fender repair section being welded into place. 

This scary photo  shows an area on the left front fender where a bodged repair involved layering  plastic body filler on top of deep rust. Rust never sleeps and eventually this area rotted though. It was an ugly situation that required replacing the rotten fender with a new old stock fender. Yes, we can still supply new fenders for certain Silver Clouds subject to change when the lest one is gone. 

In this next photo, we are scrubbing the frame with an anti rust product before it's painted with a catalyzed primer. 

Here are a few photos of a 1962 Phantom V during a complete re-wire.   

Phantoms are a coach built car that was hand custom wired when built.  We are doing the same thing, using correct cloth covered wire to replace the ancient wiring. While there, we are sorting out many problems under the dash so when completed the car will enjoy considerably better reliability. This car features a divider window between the front and rear cabins. The old Piper motor was too tired to lift the heavy glass all the way as the windings had fired a little so we are rebuilding the motor with a rewound field coil. In this photo, we are removing the coil.

  We fitted an electronic ignition and an alternator as well as the cars has a dual a/c system we custom made for it and lots of accessories that now all work. New speakers and stereo completed the job. 

Please E-mail us with the VIN (vehicle identification number) for parts requests! 

This photo shows the main fuse box on a scarce Long wheel base Silver Shadow. As you can see, Frankenstein's cousin was working on it and this situation is all too typical of the sort of wiring "work" we are engaged to repair. Look closely and you can see that foil was wrapped around some of the fuses and a switch with unknown purpose was connected leaving bare hot wires dangling. Soon this car would have been up in smoke. We will remove all the funky wiring and make sure all the circuits are in good order. We supply new fuse panels for these cars when needed. In the trunk of this car, we discovered a very bad clue.

  In this photo are original carburetors on the bench ready for rebuilding.

This photo shows the carburetors ready to refit.

 Here is a photo of the dash on this Shadow with the wood and fascia removed for restoration. We removed the gauges, disassembled and cleaned them so they will sparkle at night, replaced all the dash bulbs and cleaned and serviced the wiring while installing a new stereo of the owners choosing. The original Quad 8-track had been replaced years ago and several generations of stereos, phones and other accessories had been installed. We removed all the added on wiring +and rewired the speakers. The original radio between the seats was missing so we had a wooden door made for the "hole" with a nice wood knob so the owner had a useful place to place things. We lined the inside of this new cubby area with felt. 

These photos are of a 1987 Silver Spur as we received it. We received the car  from another shop that endeavored to replace a leaking heater core. They dug into the dash, blindfolded we think. 

The other shop removed a lot of components, tossed them into the back seat and it was a dirty deed done cheap. When smoke began appearing from the wiring that was frying from the manner of disassembly 

They were doing this work with the battery connected and decided the job was over their heads. They asked us if we would take over the job and did we mind if they did not re-assemble it? We do take on such jobs because who else is going to do them? We sorted out the damage to the electrical systems, replaced the heater core and carefully reassembled the dash appointments and inner structure.   

This brass gear drives the mechanical brake servo on a Silver Cloud and Bentley S series and R-Type automatics. As you can see this gear is broken in pieces.  The owner told us a story about when he picked his car up from a shop somewhere in Texas. He drove the car with the shop owner to check out his new brake job and along the way they both heard a big banging noise from under the car. The shop owner exclaimed, "I wonder what that noise was." The brake pedal about went to the floor and the car owner decided to get the car out of there.

  This photo shows the master cylinders this shop had "rebuilt'. It has a machined brass part that was stuffed into it with JB Weld to hold it in. The cylinders leaked like a sieve and had limited operation of the mechanical brakes and that was it.  Once we replaced the ruined cylinders with a set of our re-manufactured cylinders, we still had no brakes. Hmmm. We looked at the servo and observed that it was not working at all and the actuating linkage was well bent. A few more hmmms later we removed the servo and found the drive gear had stripped it's teeth. This is quite unusual so we suspect the previous shop had been into the servo and had misaligned the gears. The fix is we are removing the tail of the transmission to clean out all the gear teeth and metal bits and will replace the gear and then move on with the rest of the brakes.   

Here is a starter we recently rebuilt for a 1935 RR 20/25.  It was not painted as we wanted it to look like the rest of then engine bay parts which were pretty much original. 

Here is a photo of a Silver Shadow LWB boot that we just restored.  The car had become.... a pimp car. The new owner is having us return the car to its former days of grace. The trunk floor had a big hole chopped into it for some sort of huge amplifier and was shall we say, unpresentable.  We made a metal section to reproduce the hacked out section and welded it into place to make the hole go away. We made new under felting for the carpets and fitted the owners choice of a nice blue bound in blue leather, Wilton wool carpeting as per original specification. This boot is very nice now and could be used as a spare bedroom.  We are unpimping the car. 

Here is a photo of the brake brake caliper on a 1979 Corniche two door saloon. The 1979 Corniche cars were the first models to go to the new mineral oil brake system like used on the Silver Spur series. We are rebuilding the entire hydraulic system on the car for it's new owner. Although the cars brakes worked fine, the new owner wants to drive the car a long time without brake problems we we are rebuilding the calipers, replacing the hoses and will fit a Harvey Bailey suspension enhancement kit as well. 

We supply new floors for Shadows with rusty floors so you can fix them right. 

Insurance agents and salvage car rebuilders: We are not a junkyard and do not have piles of used late model Rolls Royce and Bentley crash parts. These cars are expensive and are rarely totaled unless they are burned up. We do provide new crash related parts to repair cars that have had an unfortunate experience. 

  This sad 1965 Bentley S3 came in from a large chain store transmission shop. They rebuilt the transmission and sent the car to us for engine tuning. We received the car,  tried to drive it into the work shop and discovered that it had no forward speeds and very poor brakes. It did have reverse though! 

This photo shows the spark plug cables laying on the exhaust manifolds and other electrical sins all over. Someone had replaced the spark plugs with plugs that were the wrong heat range. These plugs would have burned holes in the pistons. There are tool marks from locking pliers on the soft brass fuel nuts and a choke cable was fitted as the automatic choke has been defeated. 

This Bentley S3 had a huge exhaust leak, we had a look under the car and discovered the original S3 exhaust had been replaced with some sort of aftermarket mufflers. In this photo, you can see that one of these mufflers had exploded probably from carburetor flooding. The excess fuel runs down into the exhaust and can make quite a bang. 

Here are photos of a 1955 Silver Cloud that has reached about the 98% completion stage. The last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time involved as the details get smaller and smaller so here is a descriptive about an almost completed total restoration of a 1955 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud that included a considerable amount of custom work requested by the cars owner. The owner choose a non original paint color as well as a non original interior color and wanted air conditioning installed with a host of other non original updates to make the car more to his taste.  This chapter should provide a glimpse into the scale of work involved in restoring a large complex car that was a very early model with many condition and parts challenges. 

    A Brief Synopsis of the Restoration of a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud

Before we began this restoration, we had a meeting with the new owner of this car. He had recently purchased the car and had no emotional attachment to it. After an initial inspection, we advised him to buy a Convertible Silver Cloud that was ready to go instead of restoring this car as it's condition was not good. The owner told us that although he had the means to purchase a convertible Silver Cloud, he wanted to go through the restoration process and experience having a car done to his taste. The owner was adamant that he wanted all rust removed. This last request turned out to be quite a challenge to accomplish but accomplish it we did as well as could be done. With the owner well and truly warned yet still willing, we began. All the photos shown here were sent to the owner as the work progressed so he could follow along in a timely manner and could see the bad news as discoveries were made and later the good news as we made progress with the challenges at hand. 

  Here are photos of the frame as first inspected. Notice the large rusted out area on the left frame rail. 

This photo shows the inner rocker with rusted out holes. 

In April of 2003, we received this Silver Cloud for restoration. We began the restoration in May of 2003 and performed an initial compression test on the engine and found the compression to be very low and uneven. The owner had previously stated to us the brakes were not working at all. This car was some 50 years old and past persons unknown had replaced the interior in an unusual manner not to the currant owners liking. The interior trim woodwork was not in good condition and had been brush finished during a previous restoration attempt. A very large Webasto sunroof  had been installed in a poor manner. The chrome trim brightwork had been polished with abrasives and steel wool until not much brightness was left. The grill was a mess with dents and heavy scratches. A very poor redo of the interior had been done in cheap leather and junk carpet.  The interior wood was damaged from someone sanding right through the veneers and had been crudely brush finished. The paint work was a faded and chaulky white. The trunk was trashed and the had obviously not been maintained in many decades. 

    We steam cleaned and pressure washed the engine, engine bay and under chassis as well as possible. We removed and disassembled the engine. The cooling galleys were found to be well occluded with rust chucks and sediment.  We hand chipped these chunks out to improve the cooling flow as much as possible. The cylinder head was damaged beyond repair from 50 years of electrolysis that corroded away considerable metal. The radiator was rotten. The engine block was cleaned and rebored to fit larger size new pistons. The crankshaft was machined and the engine was balanced. We located a good used cylinder head as new heads are unavailable. This cylinder head, also 50 or so years old, was extensively machined and fitted with new valves and guides. New cam bearings were fitted to the block and the bearings were bored to pin fit the camshaft. The camshaft was rebuilt as it had severe wear to the lobes. New cam followers were fitted to the block as was a new rocker shaft to the rocker assembly.  New connecting rod nuts and bolts were fitted. The oil pump was not available as a new assembly but we were able to obtain new gears to rebuild it.  The new gears did not mesh properly so we hand fitted /shaped them to fit better. New bushings were installed in the oil pump and machined to fit. All engine bearings were replaced and the crankshaft was Plasti-gauged during the fitting work. Once the engine was completed, we repainted the various parts that were painted and cleaned the rest. New motor mounts were fitted. We rebuilt the crankshaft balancer with replacement style discs from RR that replaced the original unavailable cloth.  The flywheel had extensive damage to the gear teeth, the gear teeth were machined into the flywheel and we were able to obtain a new old stock  SC1 flywheel. This model RR used five variations of flywheels from 1955-1959 and the exact flywheel for the engine was no longer available. We machined the new old stock replacement flywheel we were able to obtain to enable it to be fitted properly and also re-clocked the flywheel to ensure the timing marks were accurate. We disassembled the distributor, rebuilt the mechanical advance and fitted a special electronic ignition and coil. We made a new set of ignition cables.

  We removed the entire cockpit trim, upholstery and any removable parts.  There are three firewalls on this model and we removed the two removable walls. We disassembled the body shell, removed all exterior trim and ultimately removed the body from the frame. We removed all mechanical parts from the frame such as the transmission and differential as well as all brake parts, pipes, wiring, suspensions and steering components. 

Above are photos of the suspensions and some chassis and frame photos. 

This photo is not great but shows one of the main frame mounts with rotten metal that came from the actual chassis that was so rusted, the mounting was no longer actually connected. 

These photos show extensive rust damage in and underneath one of the front fenders and in other areas.  

   In this photo, under the thick bondo, you can see an old body repair that was made by brazing a steel section onto the fender to repair an old rust situation. 

In these photos, we are cutting away rusted areas and are welding in new specially made steel sections to remove all rust and make the body solid again. The rust was so extensive, we decided to replace the entire rear fender sections. Once we removed the outer skin, we discovered extensive rust in the inner superstructure. We cut away all the rusted areas and welded in new sections. As you can observe, this sort of work is very time consuming and required considerable care to ensure all the body sections were properly fitted. 

In these photos we have removed the rusted out rocker panels. 

  In this photo, we are welding in the new rocker panels. Much reshaping was done on these rockers as the very early Silver Cloud are different than a bit later Cloud of the same year. We made other sections on site to remove all rusted metal. We sandblasted the entire frame. Sections of the frame were found to have extensive rust damage from the topside down. We cut away and welded in new repair sections and  structural parts. We had the body shell sandblasted to remove every vestige of rust that was possible. 

    We acid washed the frame then primed the frame several times with rust preventative primers and catalyzed primers followed by painting the top coats then  treated the interior of the frame with several anti rust solutions and preservatives by rotating the frame on our rotisserie.   After individual restoration of parts to be re fitted or acquisition of new parts, we reinstalled all parts back to the frame. New steel brake lines were hand made and shaped to fit to the frame and components with all new original clips.

  We disassembled and rebuilt the automatic transmission with all sleeve bearings and case bearings, bands, clutches, gaskets, seals and piston rings. We replaced whatever parts were worn past tolerance or damaged. The transmission had been rebuilt before; perhaps several times but still had extensive wear.  We disassembled and cleaned the Torus. The transmission case was beadblasted and repainted as original. We adjusted the bands and shift points after the car was made to drive in our parking lot.

In this photo we are about to mate the finished transmission to the finished engine. 

  We restored the jack and tire pump. The original Rolls Royce flashlight (torch) fitted to the boot was missing. We eventually located a good used torch and restored it to work.

  We rebuilt the front suspension, steering and brake systems. All parts were cleaned, blasted and painted if originally done so. One of the front dampers was internally damaged and not rebuild able so we supplied a used spare unit to rebuild, as new dampers are unavailable.  All worn parts were replaced or rebuilt and new front road springs were fitted with new spring cups and rubber rebounds.  The manual steering box was disassembled, cleaned and resealed. The original Bijou chassis lubrication pump was damaged as someone had cut off the lower part of the foot pedal with a hacksaw. We located a used replacement foot pedal as no new parts were available, repaired some of the damaged lubrication lines and made all suspension lubrication lines carry fluid. Each steering assembly or part was disassembled, cleaned and examined for wear and all worn parts were replaced. Continental Casing machine shop made and supplied some of the front suspension swivels from high quality alloy that were found to be worn out and unavailable from Rolls Royce. We rebuilt the front brake cylinders, master cylinder and rear wheel cylinders. We replaced the brake hoses and restored the fluid reservoir. The brake drums were found to have been well over cut and the brake shoes had little contact with the drums so we replaced all four drums with new drums. These drums are no longer available. We had the brake shoes relined. We replaced the brake servo drive gear as it was badly worn and rebuilt the mechanical brake servo. All seals and bushings were replaced. We restored the handbrake mechanisms and replaced the cable. We replaced the drive shaft bushings and obtained and fitted several missing driveshaft stabilizer parts.

  Rebuild water pump. The original pump had a case that had broken in the past and someone had tried to braze repair it around the bearing galley so a used replacement pump was found and rebuilt as new pumps are not available..

  The carburetors were found to have different mixture needles in them from past work and were in generally poor condition. We disassembled and rebuilt the twin carburetors, cleaned serviced and painted all linkage, serviced the automatic choke mechanisms, replaced the electrical solenoid and cleaned and adjusted the throttle. As certain linage pieces were missing and others had been made of rigged up pieces. Over time, we were able to supply original replacement linkage parts so the throttle action would be proper.  We installed an aftermarket modern fuel pump. The fuel tank was removed, cleaned, repainted and refitted with new mounting bushings. 

  The original radiator was rebuilt with a high efficiency core. All cooling hoses were replaced. The heater cores were disassembled and cleaned, as the cores were good. We replaced the dead blower motor with a new old stock original.  All of the heater actuator parts were seized and corroded from age. We were able to obtain parts to rebuild the actuator mechanisms and made others that were unavailable so the heater/defroster system would operate.

  The rebuilt engine and transmission were fitted to the frame with new rubber mountings.  We rebuilt the rear road springs, pressed out and replaced all bushings and mounts and installed the rebuilt shocks. 

  We fitted a new set of handmade leather leaf spring gaitors. Gaitor is not slang for alligator. A gaitor in this instance is a leather cover made to fit the leaf springs to hold layers of grease applied so the springs don't squeak.  Axle grease is hand slathered over the springs and the leather  gaitors are fitted and laced up like a high top tennis shoe to wrap the springs. Squeaky springs are simply not allowed on proper Rolls Royce cars. We had already replace all the rubber bushings on these springs. The differential was refitted and all available rubber parts were replaced.

    Body parts on this very early model was found to be structurally different than slightly later versions of the same model and all of the body parts we could supply required extensive modifications and re shaping to fit properly. 

  The body was found to have been repainted many times over the years and underneath the thick layers of paint there was considerable rust under many of layers of Bondo. We had the entire body shell stripped and sandblasted to bare metal. We cut away all the extensive rusted areas that were found after the sandblasting and replaced the metal with new sections that were specially made such as new rocker panels, rear fender sections and door tread under plates. We made other sections that were unavailable and weld fitted them as well. The left front fender was found to be composed of mostly rust under Bondo so we replaced the fender with a new old stock fender. This fender had been hanging on a rack in England the last 50 years and had small dings and surface rust that were repaired. We poured rust preventative into all areas we could access. 

After the body weld repairs were completed, we primed the body shell with catalyzed primers. Then we fitted the body shell back to the frame with new frame mountings except for two we could not obtain. We stripped the doors that we had previously removed of all mechanicals and trim and sent the rolling chassis with mounted body to the paint shop for body work and painting.

  Here are a few photos of the car before it was painted silver blue. The body has been refitted to the frame, the welding work has been completed. The new old stock left front fender has been mounted. Consider it an ugly ducking about to turn into a beautiful swan. 

  This car had a huge Webasto folding fabric sunroof fitted long ago. We had previously removed the entire assembly prior to sandblasting. The sunroof installation had been a crude installation and many thick layers of bondo well over an inch think had been applied around the opening to smooth out the roof curves. We removed all this filler. We modified the roof metal as much as we could to reduce the amount of required filler.  We undercoated the entire underbody after primer seal.

  In these photos taken in the spray booth, the clear top coats have not as yet been applied. After the car returned from the body shop, we began installing the new wiring looms and electrical parts. All wiring harnesses were modified if required to fit as no two RR cars have exactly the same wiring.  

  All electrical parts were cleaned, serviced or replaced. We rebuilt the starter. Other electrical parts were disassembled, cleaned, repaired and serviced as well as possible or were replaced if condition too bad to sort out. We restored and refitted the original Lucas horns. Some of the original electrical parts were no longer available new and we were able to supply and fit good used parts. 

  We fitted a pair of special vintage Lucas made for Rolls Royce motif headlamps and were able to supply new PF770 buckets to allow the lamps fitting. Halogen bulbs were fitted to the headlamps and all other bulbs and lenses were replaced including the dash bulbs.  The rear passenger vanity lamps were repaired to work again.  We were able to obtain a very rare pair of new old stock Lucas sidelamps for this restoration rather than use reproductions. The original windshield wiper motor was worn out and we were able to supply a new old stock wiper motor. The wiper wheel boxes exterior serrated ends were corroded away and we were able to supply obsolete new old stock wheel boxes so the wiper arms would stay attached. 

   This photo shows some of the new wiring going in to the partially assembled dash and some of the cockpit trim fitted. 

This car used up a fair bit of the remaining stocks of rare new original parts left on this planet such as these little snowpack grilles we were able to supply. Inside the grill, the black part is made of rubber. On most Silver Clouds, this rubber has rotted away over the decades and metal mesh has been substituted for the rubber. As these grills have been unavailable for a long time, owners do what they gotta do. 

The three new roof lamps required a custom made wiring harness to be designed and fitted so the back door courtesy switches operate the back roof lamps and the front door switches operate the front lamp. The original fuse box was not available new so we disassembled the box and hand cleaned each connection. We wound new fuses and serviced the box as well as possible. We modified the wiring to accept an alternator.

  A new stainless steel exhaust system was installed. The exhaust manifolds were corroded and cracked. We were able to obtain a new pair of exhaust manifolds to replace the old manifolds.  We replaced the exhaust hangers as well.

  We refitted the firewalls but also fitted state of the art insulation between them and fitted new insulation on the floors and exposed roof sections. 

   In the first photo, you can see the new insulation fitted to the exposed roof sections. In the right of the photo, you can see the edges of the headliner section of the Webasto Folding Roof. The second photo shows the roof of the new Everflex Blue Webasto Folding Roof now in place. Many special screws and fasteners were replaced and there were many hundreds of these. We spent considerable time matching the obsolete original screws and fasteners as closely as possible.  Each of the hundreds of individual screw holes on the car body was tapped as many were damaged from various screws and fasteners being driven into them over the years, others were rusty. The original cockpit roof lamps were missing as a result of the old sunroof installation. 

 We were able to obtain three special handmade roof lamps of the owner’s approval to fit to the cockpit. We made new wooden bases to affix the lamps to the roof and had a headliner specialist come over to install the headliner material that had to be specially fitted due to the non-original sunroof hole.  

   The wood tacking pieces for the headliner and inside trim were rotten, missing or damaged so we hand made and fitted all new wood pieces.

  The trunk locking mechanisms were missing parts. These parts were found to be fitted to very early Silver Clouds such as this one and were long unavailable. We handmade all the required parts and recreated the missing internal mechanisms so the trunk would close and snap shut. There were quite a few parts missing from the trunk and we were able to source and supply most of them. The original RR tool box was missing and we were able to supply a complete tool box after several years of searching for one good enough for this car.  Over the many years of this cars existence, parts were lost from previous paint jobs and interior replacements.  Other parts were lost or damaged from old repairs or from unknown causes. As we encountered these problems, we would source new parts if available or replace the missing parts with good used parts or make the parts or have them made. We replaced the individual window tracks as well.  These tracks are unavailable from Rolls Royce so we were able to supply an equivalent. The drivers window regulator had damaged gears and we were able to supply a new old stock regulator. The passenger front window was missing one of the internal steel window track brackets, long discontinued and we were eventually able to supply good used parts to replace it. The windscreen squirters had corroded away to a nub underneath the dash. New parts were no longer available so we made the required parts from brass so the supply tubes can be fitted.

The front doors on this model have opening vents. Here is a photo of some of the many parts as they were removed, that go into the vent mechanisms. Most of these parts are no longer available so we made them as required. 

  We designed and installed a custom a/c system that incorporated a new trunk mounted unit, with new hoses running front to back under the car much like the original units did. . We fitted a modern compressor and condenser. We custom made all the brackets and designed and fitted a belt tensioner device. We fitted an auxiliary cooling fan. We had a special pulley made for the crankshaft to drive the compressor. We rebuilt the original generator but later in the job we found that there was going to be more accessory equipment fitted to the car than the generator could supply so we custom made and fitted brackets to enable an alternator to be fitted.  The a/c system is holding a vacuum and is not charged. The a/c switch pod has to be made as well. The location and design of the operating switch base needs to be decided on by owner. We made a new closing panel for the a/c unit. Early 1955 Silver Clouds such as LSWA124 with the rare factory A/C had a cooling fan shroud hand that was hand soldered to the radiator structure.  LSWA124 never had this shroud as it was not fitted with factory A/C and we wanted such a shroud to help the cooling system load as we were fitting a modern A/C system.  After several years of searching, we were eventually able to obtain, restore and fit one of the correct original shrouds as a used part after receiving several wrong shrouds for cars built just few months later than LSWA124.  We designed and had built two special wooden a/c vent boxes and a special air return piece that were designed from inspiration from the original wood of the car. These vents were veneered with burled walnut and cross banded.

The Silver Clouds owner supplied a great deal of stereo and video equipment for a custom installation but after making a special hinged mounting board that fit into the trunk for two 300 watt and a 500 watt amplifiers with massive Monster speaker and power cables with associated wiring ,we found that most of the speakers and head units for the LCD screen and DVD player equipment would not physically fit without ruining the character of the new interior. The owner had requested a GPS unit be installed in place of the original tube radio but the LCD screen would have hit the instrument cluster and this installation was not possible. The owner requested that we cut holes into the floor under the seats so big woofers could be installed but this last audio request we denied. We were able to custom fit certain of the supplied speakers inside the front doors, above the front door pockets in a manner that cannot be easily seen as requested.

  We were able to supply new original hubcaps and had the repainted trim rings pin stripped to match the leather. All exterior trim with the exception of the grill were restored and replated to a very high standard. 

The trashed original grill was replaced with an extremely rare new old stock grill that we were able to obtain.  As all Rolls Royce Silver Cloud 1 body parts were essentially handmade some 50 years ago and are unique,  none interchange exactly. We ultimately found that the new grill assembly and right and left fender grill opening lips did not mate exactly.  We removed the front bumper and had a body man sort the fender fit so the grill would fit nicely.

  The interior was restored with cream leather with light blue Wilton carpet and light gray wool headliner.  We had a new pair of front seat lap belts made with a special order cream belt material to complement the seat leather and they are fitted.

Here is a list of the individual bright work pieces that were restored and replated on this Silver Cloud and the quantity of pieces would be about the same for any Silver Cloud series. 

4  outer door handle                     4  outer door handle button                         2 tail lamp base

1 boot handle                               1 LP lamp                                                   3 inner grab handle

4  inner window handle                 4  inner door handle                                     8  door handle base

2 strap handle-boot                      1 aerial base part                                          2 headlamp ring

2 headlamp spear                          2 sunvisor clip                                             1 glove box handle

1 glove box striker part                 2 fog lamp base                                           4 outer door handle trim

2 round trim buttons                     2 Webasto trim parts                                    2 w/s squirter

2 w/s squirter base                       2  retainers                                                   4  interior switch base

2 flathead machine screw               1  bonnet trim point                                     2  front side trim point

2 center side trim squares               2 rear side trim points                                 2 vent handle

4 interior light switch striker               2 large flathead pan machine screws          1 boot strip

1 aerial base                                      2 w/s clip (inside)                                      1 Webasto striker

2 squirter large base                          2 w/s nut   2  w/s washer                         2 headlamp screw                            

1  boot lamp cover                             2  ash tray rim                                        1  glove box lock back plate

2 hl bulb rim                                      1 glove box lock face                               2 door arm rest base                         

1 w/s molding                                   2 handle-ash tray                                      2 sunvisor base

2 sunvisor stick.                      Four grab handle clamshell parts                         2 sunvisor swivel parts

2 door lock escutcheons                     4  switch plate                                            12 door striker screw-flat

2  sunroof crosshead screw-long        4 short crosshead countersunk-short          11 flat countersunk screw

4  door striker slider                            1 mascot                          &nbs