1980 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II

An icon of motoring heritage — the 1980 Silver Shadow II, imported from the UK, running its original 6.75-litre V8 with hand-finished timber and leather throughout. Assembled slowly and deliberately, by hand, the way Rolls-Royce built every car of this era.

Correcting 45-year-old paint

Vintage paint doesn't behave like modern paint. It can be thinner in places, harder in others, softer elsewhere — there's no uniform baseline to work from, which means a cautious, measured approach rather than a standard correction routine.

A different climate history

A car that spent decades in the UK's damp conditions has a different paint history to one that's lived under Australian UV and heat. Both take their toll, just differently — and that history shapes how the paint responds to correction.

Work performed — three-stage correction

• Cutting stage to remove deep defects, oxidation and wear
• Polishing stage to refine the finish and bring back clarity
• Final refining stage to eliminate haze and maximise depth and gloss

The goal with a car like this was never to make it look brand new — it's to honour what it actually is. Proper restoration work respects the story a car carries rather than erasing it.