bobo said:
Speaking of wood.. if the wood is in good shape, how best to maintain it?
The lacquer on my wood trim and dash is still glossy, smooth, with no peeling... I'd like to keep it that way
Hi folks. While I am now in the process of finding and purchasing my first Bentley, I do feel I can add something regarding wood- car and interior. Our British cars certainly had plenty of wood in them, and I have quite a collection of wood furniture that has had to travel all over the world for multiple generations. ( It sure shows it too.) I also have several wood instruments.
The nature of wood doesn't change whether it is in a car, or a house. It's just that in a car, it is exposed to more physical stresses, both from the motion of the car, and the weather.
Probably the single element most likely to impact your wood is the relative humidity. Even if you garage a car, and the humidity goes from the moist gulf air of Florida to the drier realms in Canada, the wood will contract and warp as it dries out. This in turn can crack a lacquer because like enamels, it is not very flexible. To put that into perspective one of my Cuban mahogany tables, that came back from Havanna with my mother as a girl, now has 1/4 inch gaps at some of the joins. This is the extreme, because this table, for some unknown reason, was stuck onto the back porch. Covered, yes, but there it sat for 50 years, until I decided I needed it for more than a drinks table. The pieces that remained inside suffered far less, because we do live in a fairly humid environment in the Mid-Atlantic.
If you have your car from a place that is very humid, you would best to try and garage it witha humidifier to slow the process down. Things will adjust, but they have to do so slowly. I keep a humidifier for me, but also in a room with my instruments to control the total humidity.
Honest, I would think that Bentley would be using a poly of some sort over the last few decades, which is more tolerant, rather than a lacquer, but you would have to ask the people here that worked at Crewe.
The second most damaging part to your wood is obviously going to be the sun. That is easily helped with by using a windscreen shade for when you leave the car parked and to try and not park it in the sun whenever possible.
From a cleaning perspective, the real risk is that over time, the surface will get scratched or that chemicals of some sort will damage the surface of the finish. As it gets scratched, dirt gets into the scratches. Proided there is no real grime from something spilled, or super greasy fingers, using first a tack cloth to remove dust and then your breath with a soft buffing cloth will do the trick. should youg et something more than that, a damp cloth with just a tiny bit of glycerin soap, and then a wipe with a damp cloth, before soft buff cloth should be plenty.
Should you hae acar old enough for a real wood finish, a tack cloth with a hint of linseed oil, and then a buffing cloth will do fine. Glycerin soap for real grime to start. You want the natural patina of the wood to come through, and that is small amounts of oil and time itself.
To a large extent leather is the same. Glycerin soap with a bit of lexol will go a long way. on my horse tack I use just glycerin soap except when the leather is very new. That's because new leather is a bit drier. It is the natural oils from the horse that make the leather dark and supple, and as long as you remove the sweat salts with glycerin soap, it takes care of itself. I am afraid the object in a Bentley is not to have your bottom dripping with perspiration so we can't count on natural oil. Thus, a bit of lexol. You will find that if this cleaning goes on routinely like once every few weeks, the leather will become very soft and pliable.
IN either case, if your car has a leak, and water stands, you will destroy adhesives and get rot so that should be a no brainer.
That's worked well for me over the years, hope it gives some insight.
Cheers.