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

[Bigpikle]

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.... 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 - 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

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

	AIO All In One Product

[Emerald Detailing]

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

[d6dph]

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

Top work sir.

[Bigpikle]

Originally Posted by paddy328

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

[matt1263]

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.

[MAJOR]

Thats such a good finish.

The autobalm seems like a brilliant product.

How long will that last on the car for?

[Bigpikle]

Originally Posted by MAJOR

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

[Gleammachine]

An absolute stunner,

Impressive results from the BH.

[Deanoecosse]

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.

	SRP Autoglym Super Resin Polish

[ahaydock]

Very impressive and lovely finish!