# When Mr Bilt & Mr Hamber met Mr Rolls & Mr Royce...



## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

I finally got the chance to do an exterior protection detail to my father-in-laws Rolls Royce Silver Shadow I, using the Bilt Hamber Auto Balm I bought especially for it at Xmas.

I was out in the car at the weekend, after a brief wash, so knew the car was pretty clean before I started. Initially it looked pretty good, and had the remnants of some protection from before we purchased it a few months ago - very loose beading and some sheeting.










First step was to wash with BH Auto Wash and the 2BM. Very little dirt came off, so after drying with L-T, it was time for the Auto Balm. This car has quite a few swirls, but the previous owner attacked it with a rotary and has burnt through the paint to the primer in a few places, so even though the PTG shows significant paint levels, I am not going near it with abrasives until I know exactly what is going on with the paint - even the burn through areas show thickness >200, and I know these cars have MANY layers of paint, I cant tell yet exactly what thickness of top layer is left  My hope was the AB would hide as many swirs as possible for as long as possible, as well as being ideal for the chrome, stainless steel and wheels 










I had tried a few test panels on other cars and my scrap panels to work out application, as this product requires a little skill to use easily. I have found PhilH's advice of a damp MF is the easiest way to get it on very thin, and make it easy to buff off. So I started the acres of paintwork by hand, applying in 2'x2' sized areas and immediately buffing. Progress was surprisingly quick and the car was soon done.

If you were in any doubt about the cleaning ability of Auto Balm, this should give you an idea....:doublesho That is from CLEAN paintwork on a couple of panels with single stage paint.










Another odd thing about this car is that many of the panels below the coachline have obviously been repainted at some point, and appear to be a clearcoat, while ALL the panels above the coachline, including bonnet and boot lid, are clearly still single stage, as you can see from the state of the MF above. AB clearly has A LOT of cleaning ability and I have no doubt would be superb on oxidised finishes, as well (I hope) as a long lasting AIO type of product.

To illustrate what I found the filling abilities of AB to be....

Before










After 1 layer of Auto Balm










After a 2nd layer










Pretty impressive stuff IMHO :thumb: - _this is on a clearcoat panel BTW_

I was going to apply a 2nd layer of AB to the entire car but after hitting one of the SS panels and the cloth turning black again, I came to the conclusion that if the 2nd application was pulling this much off the paint then it must surely be pulling itself off as well - although there was a clear improvement in swirl hiding after the 2nd layer  I did the clearcoat panels a 2nd time but left the SS. Maybe Al can fill me in on whether this will layer over itself or simply clean itself off?

Application was easy on the paint and strangely you could see where you had been. It darkened the paint slightly and at first I thought I had missed buffing off a bit, but it became clear that even on this dark grey paint you could tell exactly where the product had been applied? The chrome came up superbly with water spots removed, but it seemed to set even faster n metal so needed a very quick buff off to avoid becoming a PITA - not easy on fidddly chrome radiator bars :lol:

Finished pics...of course the sun was long gone sadly 

The finish was really good. Reflections were clear and deep, and there were several comments about it adding depth to an already good finish. It left a quite slick feel but overall a very glossy and glass like appearance which really lifted the finish of the car.














































my favourite





































And I had to find out more about the beading and sheeting so here is the beading after a spray with a simple hand sprayer...










and the sheeting across the bootlid, so bear in mind this is a fairly flat'ish panel...



So, very tired with all that metal and chrome, but also pretty impressed with Auto Balm. While it doesnt have the bling or quite the finish of a real show wax, it certainly makes a superb AIO type product and should provide real and lasting protection as well as a pretty impressive look :thumb:


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## paddy328 (Mar 4, 2007)

Nice work mate. It looks like an old school rockstars car. Get some pics up of the inside.


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## d6dph (Mar 6, 2007)

What a beautiful car, The AB has awesome swirl masking properties by the looks of it.

Top work sir.


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

paddy328 said:


> Nice work mate. It looks like an old school rockstars car. Get some pics up of the inside.


I meant to but completely forgot - it has deep, deep, deep pile carpets and loads of wood, all in MINT condition. I was out in it at the weekend and it just wafts along - 6750cc of pure luxury motoring that hardly shows it's >30 years old :thumb:


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## Guest (Jan 29, 2008)

Nice

Am trying to get hold of BiltHamber via email and PM but no joy, after looking at these pics really want to try some of the products out.


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## MAJOR (Jan 19, 2008)

Thats such a good finish.:thumb: 

The autobalm seems like a brilliant product.

How long will that last on the car for?


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

MAJOR said:


> How long will that last on the car for?


thats the million $ question but by all accounts it is a very long lasting LSP, so as this car is fairly low mileage and always garaged, I am hoping a twice yearly application will suffice....either that or I perfect a machine application :lol:


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

An absolute stunner,

Impressive results from the BH.:thumb:


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## Deanoecosse (Mar 15, 2007)

I'd heard impressive things about the Auto Balm and its filling capabilities but that's the 1st pictures I've seen and it does look impressive. As a quick fix to mask the swirls instead of machining them out it looks like it leaves SRP for dead.


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Very impressive and lovely finish!


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## Wheelie_Clean (Jun 16, 2007)

Is this a product you 'work' on the paint as with SRP or more of a wipe on wipe off kind of thing?


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

Wheelie_Clean said:


> Is this a product you 'work' on the paint as with SRP or more of a wipe on wipe off kind of thing?


I'm not sure really....

Initially I worked it in a bit using circular movements with the MF and medium pressure. Its hard to describe as I used a damp MF so it is more of a working in than when you apply a wax with a foam pad etc - nearest thing is like a cream shoe polish and I applied it just like i would if i was polishing my shoes :lol: I think it is more like using a paint cleaner really. When I did the 2nd layer for the swirl hiding I used very light pressure and just lightly wiped it over. It seems to go on much more easily on the 2nd layer.

HTH....


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## BIG BAVARIAN (May 7, 2006)

thats the mintest series one ive ever seen,all the lower sills and doglegs rot like mad on them,so nowadays there all full of filler (remember the one clarkson drove into the swimming pool ,how rotten that was) a real credit to it's owner,you certainly did it justice there


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## Wheelie_Clean (Jun 16, 2007)

Thanks Pikle. I was wondering about trying some on the silly soft clear coat on the limo's at work. I machined two of them last year and finished with three coats of Vic's Collectors, they looked stunning. Trouble is with washing/drying 2/3 times a day they get marked again even using L/T and miracle towels. The clear is just so soft. The swirl filling would be good as long as it doesn't leave it's own marks on application.


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

BIG BAVARIAN said:


> thats the mintest series one ive ever seen,all the lower sills and doglegs rot like mad on them,so nowadays there all full of filler (remember the one clarkson drove into the swimming pool ,how rotten that was) a real credit to it's owner,you certainly did it justice there


it has had a lot of love spent on it  Lower panels are solid and a recent big spend sorted all the niggling little bits - 100% reliable and a great quality car. Easily one of the best around by any measure and the owner knows his RR's & Bentleys, trust me! 



Wheelie_Clean said:


> Thanks Pikle. I was wondering about trying some on the silly soft clear coat on the limo's at work. I machined two of them last year and finished with three coats of Vic's Collectors, they looked stunning. Trouble is with washing/drying 2/3 times a day they get marked again even using L/T and miracle towels. The clear is just so soft. The swirl filling would be good as long as it doesn't leave it's own marks on application.


I didnt see any marks, but use a plush soft MF and go light and you should be fine. I found the best swirl filling when i wiped rather than worked it....


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Excellent results there - lovely car too. Very interested to see the excellent filling abilities of the BH, a rival definitely for SRP there... Time to get my tin of it out for testing


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## Epoch (Jul 30, 2006)

Great write up on a real classic, i had been waiting for this since you posted about it.

The BH AB looks very good, i will be applying it to a soon to be red again Astra over lots of Megs #7 purley to test the longevity but looks like it might come in handy for a couple of other jobs i have promised to do seeing that.

Nice one


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Very nice swirl filling there and a great finish :thumb:


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## PugIain (Jun 28, 2006)

nice ,looks a good old motor.


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## V8burble (Jul 3, 2007)

nice to see this old RR again. A surprising amount of pick up on the MF for sure. A great bit of swirl filling on a car that obviously has seen some restoration/attention :thumb:


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

Epoch said:


> Great write up on a real classic, i had been waiting for this since you posted about it.
> 
> The BH AB looks very good, i will be applying it to a soon to be red again Astra over lots of Megs #7 purley to test the longevity but looks like it might come in handy for a couple of other jobs i have promised to do seeing that.
> 
> Nice one


Thanks Jon - not sure i would bother with some #7 based on what I saw the cleaning ability to be! I am 99% sure it will simply strip it off.


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## mac2 (Feb 20, 2007)

Beautiful results, the swirl filling abitities look great.

I know there's no exterior plastic on the Rolls, but has anyone found a problem with BH AB staining trim like SRP, which I hate using for this very reason.


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## PhillipM (Jun 7, 2007)

Nice work 

Autobalm has been fine on all the trim I've used it on so long as it is thoroughly buffed off, it'll last ages if so.

I have tried various methods of layering Autobalm and come the the conclusion that it doesn't really, you might get an area you missed to start with, especially in the case of scratches and swirls, so it's worth a second coat, but otherwise it does seem to pull too much of the the previous layer back off in application. 
I've took to modifying half of my autobalm to take some of the solvents out so I can layer it over the first coat, which helps with the beading and depth a little. I found no durability problems with layering Vics Concours over it though....

If you think that filling ability is good wait until you try it on a car with scratched/keyed panel....


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## Leopold (Jun 27, 2007)

Very nice, thats what you call a proper Rolls-Royce...:thumb:


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## bilt-hamber kid (Dec 4, 2007)

Pikle,

Thats one beautiful car. 

Glad it worked well for you.


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## 1996a6v6 (Feb 8, 2008)

Wow, very very impressive


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## Eurogloss (Jan 22, 2008)

Impressive Finish Damon !:thumb:

Regards Mario


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