Spirit of Ecstasy - 1922 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost

[Kickin Griffin]

Ladies and gentlemen! Pop the kettle on, make a brew - then sit back and enjoy the read. :thumb:

This is the Dundee Tag Team (Krankies) detail of the year so far, so without further ado - lets begin!


Pre-Detail Inspection

With a car like this, it would have been crazy to turn up blind... espeically given my inital info was that the car was a Silver Ghost, painted with silver paint!! Err... like hell it was!! Here's the pictures of the car that greeted us on arrival:













This car was certainly not painted silver, it was polished aluminium!! The question then arose - was it lacquered? The PTG read 0um on it,



hinting that it wasnt lacquered. But metal turns black when you polish it, and this car didn't... Confused, we looked into various types of aluminium (grades, alu is an compound, its not pure). But everything should have turned black on polishing. We later discovered though that it wa such a large layer of grime that prvented the black showing through, and it was indeed bare metal as the PTG suggested. This tallied with the history of the car we traced back through the years.

With this cleared up, we settled on our methods for the body. The hood was a different matter - mohair and very delicate! No aggressive cleaners here, so after much homework we came to our decision on the safest way to clean this...

After a wekk of research of methods and techniques, lots of discussion - we had a plan of action. It was time to begin!!


Washing

It soon became clear that this car hadn't been washed in a while, and was thick with grime... so we used P21S Total Autowash. Spray on, wipe with microfibre, and then rinsed off. Followed with some Last Touch to remove any rinsing marks, and then dried with a Meguiars Water Magnet... The car now clean, it was time to get down to serious business.

[Kickin Griffin]

Aluminium Body Panels

Giving my liking for polishing bodywork and working on paint, I took the job of polishing the aluminium panels. First up, a few before shots of the task in hand:







On the far away shots, the aluminium had a milky appearance from years of oxidisation - the car hadn't been thoroughly polishes in a couple of years. Close up though, and the size of the task in hand became much more apparent - check out the swilrs in the aluminium!!:





First of all, I decided to see what could be achieved by hand working on the panels. So, using a cotton polishing cloth dampened with a little Brilliant Aluminium & Stainless Steel Polish (#2) I applied it in circular motions over the test section with firm pressure for five passes. The removed in straight lines with a microfibre towel, with medium pressure to shift the black residue. The results of the first test:



Not good at all - oxidisation removed to an extent, but hollographic hazing instilled into the alu! Deary me, not good! Obviosuly I hadn't worked the product enough by hand, so I made a second attempt by hand, this time with firm pressure and for more (seven) passes, and removed in straight lines. The result...



No hologramming, so thats a good start! But, the Brinkmann is a cruel mistress, and although the oxidisation is gone, the swilrs were only very slightly reduced on bare metal:





This just wouldn't do! So out came the PC, Sonus SFX-3 6" pad (starting very gentle here, not wanting to risk inflicting any damage!). A little product applied to the pad (has consistency of water), and then spread out at speed 1 with a fast light pass. Then several slow passes at speed 3 with firm pressure. Really bleeding black now! Residue wiped off, first with one mf towel and then buffed to shine with a second. Out with the Brinkmann...



Much better! Isolated deeper scores (previous polishing attempts I'm told by the owner) remained though... one way of getting rid of them would have been 500grit wet and dry, and then polishing with Brilliant Metal Restorer and then the Polish, but the owner said they were more than pleased with the finish and weren't keen on sanding the car! :lol: :lol: So, I worked with Brilliant #2 on an SFX-3 pad. Completed the bonnet top:



Here's me working by PC on the car - now this is a big car, and I'm only 5'4" so step ladder was needed to reach places like middle of bulk head! :lol:

[Kickin Griffin]

And, as mentioned, when you polish bare metal, it bleeds black. This could be alarming I imagine if you're not expecting it!!



To follow the Brilliant #2, I used Brilliant #3 Premium Metal Polish to refine the finish and get a glassier look. The thoughts on topping to protect then came along! The polish offers a little protection, but we didn't want to leave the owner with having to repolish the car in a few weeks - and by hand which would risk inflicting holograms... so more protection was sought after. After much mind searching, I came down on Collinite 476S. Yes yes, I know - yellow carnauba wax, will dull the shine... but will it? I decided to try it, and very very thin layer (invisible on the panel), buff off gently and the shine didn't yellow to a noticeable amount. Durable carnuaba wax it is! :lol: (Note, in the old days, the method of protecting these cars was Simoniz Hard Wax, a yellow carnauba, which is why I chose the carnuaba route. )

Some pics of the car, finished panels, in the gloomy garage setting:









The halogen work lights revealed four streaks of scratches on the drivers door, where the owner had tried Silvo on the car... Several hits of Brilliant #2 later and they were gone!! Phew... (Alu shows up every imperfection, and when youre a detailer, this sees you constantly returning to areas, touching in, re-polishing, checking, re-polishing, checking... this is why I told the owner it wouldn't be done in a day! :lol: )

Sunnier weather on day 2 allowed the car to be rolled out of the gloomy garage setting for some better pics... and also a great opportunity to see the sunlight on the car, as this would highlight the finish I had got and show me how well I'd removed the swilrs. So, the polished side:

[Kickin Griffin]

A little bit of sunlight, and the finish was starting to come alive:









Further shots of the polished side:



The windows jigsaw had us all confused, then it fell down slightly mid shot... More details later, but the finish I was pretty proud of on the alu:



And, to show the difference being made, a half and half shot: left side polished, right side not touched:



And a before and after time. Rear wheel arch before:



and the wheel arch after polishing and waxing:



More before and after: bonnet panel swilrs before:



and after polishing (no wax applied at this stage, so no filling):



Pretty proud of my work on the aluminium body panels all round, took two and a half days to complete! Full pics at the end, but for now, some reflection shots taken throughout the process:













Throughout the process, the owner of the car got stuck in too, cutting in by hands the small areas the PC couldn't reach, and a sterling job he did too! :thumb:

[Kickin Griffin]

Chrome Panels & Parts

Bryan worked on the chrome (nickel german silver) areas in the car - radiator surround, lights, windshield surround and other areas... A before shot of the severity of the tarnishing to the chrome:



Bryan used Brilliant Chrome and Hot Area Polish, applied using a soft cottong cloth and buffed off the residue with a microfibre, all areas done by hand. These areas seemed to be respoding much better than the alu to being worked by hand.

Some general after shots of these areas:









Before and after shot - the rear light "cluster" on the passenger side:





And finally, a reflection shot:




The Hood

The hood on this, including the torneau covers are made from mohair and so are very delicate. As Bryan is taller than me, he did the hood!! :lol:

The first task though, was acutally putting the hood up! No, not like a modern sports car, there were no buttons to press here... the bulk of the hood went up pretty quickly and easily, but spot the problem...





No windows!! :lol: Putting the windows in was a jigsaw puzzle of clips and sections that took Bryan and the owner a good wee while to build up, but got there in the end...





The hood was cleaned using 303 Fabric Cleaner, sprayed on and agitated with a brush. The application was repeated several times in places, with many of the stains having "been there for many many years"!!! The 303 did a good job of removing the vast majority of the stains and brightening up both the hood and torneau cover though. The resiude was rinsed with a spray of water and the hood allowed to dry overnight. The hoos was then sealed with 303 Fabric Protectant, just sprayed on liberally and allowed to dry. The afters:

[Kickin Griffin]

Engine

I fell in love with this engoine the moment the bonnet was lifted... I mean, just look at it! No cheap plastic covers, not thousands of trailing cables - just honest to god solid engineering, thats now 84 years old! So, given my liking for it, I was my job to work on the bay! :lol:

First off, the before shots:







First off, the whole bay was cleaned up with Meguiars Last Touch, sprayed on to an mf and wiped on, then dry mf to wipe dry. The bay looked pretty good at this stage, but that brass was just itching to be polished!! :lol: So, out with the Brilliant Chrome and Hot Area Polish - applied with soft cotton polishing cloth using firm pressure and buffed off with a microfibre cloth. This brought the brass up a treat, and they engine bay looked so much better... While working on the engien itself, Bryan cleaned up the inside of the bonner using Meguiars APC cut 10:1 to remove the oily grime and then cleaned with Last Touch.

The afters:



The single carburettor:





More afters:






The Interior

While I wokred on the bulk of the exterior, Bryan worked on the whole of the interior with the help of the owner. The interior was wearing a few years worth of grime, the carpet looking especially grimy! The before shots:













So Bryan set to work...



First off, the carpets front and rear were removed:





Bryan then first hoovered the carpets and then used the extractor to thoroughly clean them. The front carpet before:



and the front carpet just after, still looking damp but came up well once dried:



The chrome was then polished with Brilliant Chrome and Hot Area polish, and the aluminium with Brilliant #2. The glass was polished with Autoglym Glass polish. This wind deflector was stored in the car cupbaord, and was put up for cleaning as described above:



The carpets were then refitted, leather given a wipe with a damp cloth and will be conditioned as a demonstration of proper care techniques on Friday with the owner. We did not want to take any chemicals to the leather as it was original and 84 years old, so not colour fast. The owner had tried Cillit Bang on it... And bleached a section, so we decided to just give it a gentle wipe and will condition it to preserve the leather. In order to resotre the colour to the Cillit Banged area, it will need professionally dyed, so we though we would leave this well alone.

The afters:











Not part of the detail here, but though I'd show this for fun... lift up the floor and you get easy access to the gearbox!!!



This was the day when you were meant to work with your car rather than simply drive it. :thumb:


Wheels & Tyres

As they were aluminium, I did the wheels and tyres (including the two spares) as part of the aluminium body, same techniques as described above. Before shor of the wheels, and of the swilrs in the alu:





Tyres were trated with AG Tyre Dressing. The afters, full wheel and close up:






Et Voila!!!

And there we have it... completed! So, the car was given a final dust down using Meguiars Last Touch. Then, our continued reseacr hrevealed a nice easy method of protecting the car for the owner, that the owner could easily update regularly, and going ontop of a durable wax protection the alu would have plenty protection - 303 Aerospace Protectant. Demonstrated to owner, spray on and wipe with damp towel and then buff with dry towel. Who car protected in ten minutes and this is a big car!! :lol:

So now, the final completed shots of the car: Spirit of Ecstasy (solid silver) cleaned and fitted, and here we go:



















And the products used:





And, just to show the size of this car, we parked Bryan's Signum (a big car itself) along side:



And finally, to round our story off... the beautiful Spirit of Ecstasy.

[hoghead00]

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm speechless.... Wow!

[Mike Phillips]

Bravo!

Your approach to this detailing project is commendable and inspiring and your results are impeccable! You and your teammate have demonstrated that detailing fine automobiles such as this is more than merely a mechanical process but an art form that requires skill, knowledge, persistence and even more important the human elements of care and passion. To remove years of neglect and abuse and restore a true Mirror Shine to this Rolls Royce is a testimony to both of your abilities as true craftsmen at this trade.

We don't use the bow smilie very often on this forum, but in this case it is well deserved. Thank you for sharing your work with us!

[gb387]

Very nice! Thanks for posting... maybe I missed it but how long did this take you?

I can't imagine all that work that went into that, seems you detailed every part of the car.

[Blr123]

Thanks guys

And gb the detail was carried out over 4days working 9 to 5 and was an absolute pleasure to do as you can imagine and get paid for it aswell eh......it doesn't get much better

Bryan

[Snowman]

WOW!!!! My hat is off to you and it was fun going through all the shots that you posted and watching the transformation. I did have one quesiton and that is what does all the stuff mean that is on the steering wheel? It almost looks like a very early version of cruise control??

[Kickin Griffin]

Many thanks for the kind words guys. This car was a true pleasure to work on. It was 4 days of absolute detailing pleasure.

[Kickin Griffin]

Originally posted by Snowman
WOW!!!! My hat is off to you and it was fun going through all the shots that you posted and watching the transformation. I did have one quesiton and that is what does all the stuff mean that is on the steering wheel? It almost looks like a very early version of cruise control??

The top leaver controls the richness of the fuel mixture - like a kind of manual choke. The right hand lever controls the ignition timing - late or early... These are adjusted when starting, something that is quite a knack on this car! The left hand one is a governor control, in a way very similar to an early cruise control, it maintains a roughly constant engine speed, set by the lever.

Oh, and changing gear in this car - no syncromesh gears, its got a crash 'box, so its double de-clutch!

[Michael Stoops]

To take such a piece of automotive history, an automobile that any collector would be proud to have in his collection even before you touched it, and then put in that level of dedication, passion and, yes, love, is truly inspiring.

I read every word, studied every image. I actually want to detail a car right now!!!

Thank you so much for sharing this, for taking the time to document the process so completely.

[sneek]

WOW!!