Vehicle Description
This is an incredibly well restored Rolls-Royce Corniche Fixed Head
Coupe ("FHC") finished in Chalice silver, black leather interior
with contrasting St James red Wilton wool carpets and accents. The
body waist-rails are accented with a single deep red hand-painted
fine-line delightfully finishing off this refined elegance. In any
setting the car takes on a very formal appearance. But once you
open the doors, the rich interior combination makes her striking in
a very regal manner. She is simply stunning. This Corniche was
originally built on May 29, 1975 and purchased in California by the
very same family who commissioned us to restore the car 2 years
ago. It makes for a wonderful story. The car was owned from new for
12 years before being sold. A very typical and quite normal story
of Rolls-Royce ownership from the 70s. However, 32 years later on,
one of the family members found the very same car sitting in a
rather sad state, in storage and unused for some 10 years. She had
been repainted black, and only a very average job at that,
inoperable and in need of great love. The family rescued the car by
purchasing her once again with the view of having her restored and
to relive the memories of all those years ago. This was our charter
that took two years to complete. When Park-Ward received the car,
it was straight and dent free. The "new" paint was blistered and
faded. The interior was dirty and dusty but complete. The engine
did not run. It was an all-together example but this did not matter
as our job was to "redo everything" and make her look new again.
She did receive the full treatment which included a bare metal
repaint, all new interior to include leather, carpets (in the boot
as well), new headliner, wood refinished and making sure everything
worked both mechanically and operationally throughout. The paint
job is stunning. The car was stripped of all its fittings to
include all windows (including side and door window frames) out and
then paint-stripped to bare metal. This revealed a rather straight
motor car with only some minor rust in water ingress areas such as
the rear glass channel, right side headlamp brow and the door
steps. These were all cut out and steel welded in. The car was
meticulously repainted using modern 2-stage paint technology in her
original Chalice silver and the existing (and factory fitted)
Everflex top replaced with a new one. Some of you with a keen eye
will see the car has 1979-1980 door mirrors fitted (ala Silver
Shadow II style but also Corniche). These were actually fitted in
her original ownership to overcome the lack of dual mirrors and so
the owners requested these remain. They look very "at-home" and
quite acceptable. Upon reassembly we fitted all new body gaskets,
clips, window seals and felts, boot seal, and edge finishers. All
the bright work was removed and machined polished and then hand
polished upon finally reassembly. This includes the grille,
headlight brows, bumpers, side mouldings, rocker mouldings, door
handles, hub caps, inner sill mouldings and door entry scuff plates
including the fitment of new rubber treads. Some items, like the
door handles and C pillar demarcation mouldings for the Everflex
top were rechromed. The finish is as good as you would hope for. To
complete the "new-look", new tail lamp lenses, front turn signal
lenses and headlights were fitted! The final touch being the
pin-striping down the side of the car applied by the original
hand-painted technique using only the finest squirrel hair brushes
and performed by an artisan with the steadiest of hands. The fine
line was done in deep red just as she sported when new. The
interior was almost all replaced. All new leather seating in black
with dark red piping, as per original specification. The leather
door panels were retained with cocktail requisites fitted to each
door. Specification correct light grey broad cloth wool was used
for the headliner and all new Wilton wool carpets with leather
