conservation rather than restoration

[JonE]

I had sight of this in the flesh. It is being stripped apart (with the exception of the Rexine) but EVERYTHING is staying and being cleaned and stabilised and re-assembled; nothing replaced - even the slightly broken windscreen glass with fillets of strengthening metal salvaged from an embossed Spanish storage tin. Repairs are SPAB-style, so that they can be seen against the original (i.e. a small piece of chassis welding beautifully/visibly scarfed in to the plane of the rail) ; the remains of the gum coloured screen rubber is being retained and epoxied where necessary. Topical woodwork treatment or wood replacement if necessary. A decision over whether to stay with the period Spanish oil gauge, add the original oil button as well, or return to just to the button. Really important conservation decisions resulting in a car with a darn sight more warmth than all the freshly-painted fare... this has to be the future for those few cars left we can save.
No black chassis paint; no black wheels; no blacked suspension - all cleaned down and then treated with Owatrol oil (I've just bought some) so there is a lovely sealed and treated patina of raw metal, rust and remaining paint. A real labour of love.
Incidentally, Rexine is available again, but only for the Bentley boys - it's apparently £1000 a metre and 12 metres minimum order.
Which of course is fine on a £2.5million car but an RF owner might blanche, or opt for just continuing to drive on dry days.... http://www.vintagebentleys.com/services/...-magazine/