July 2012

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Wood (video)

by Rau July 30, 2012

When buying a used car, even a Bentley or Rolls-Royce, there are things most buyers know to look for. Maybe they’ll kick the tires, maybe they’ll check the fluids, and maybe they’ll check the upholstery for damage, but few know what to look for when looking at used wood trim. Hopefully this video series can give you a little bit of advice on what to keep an eye out for when shopping for your next used Bentley or Rolls-Royce automobile…

RANGE ROVER WEEK

by Rau July 23, 2012

All of Range Rover Week is found within this one post…

Rolls-Royce Corniche with Picnic Tables (video)

by Rau July 16, 2012

There are a lot of makeover shows on TV these days. There are shows about home makeovers, personal makeovers, bar makeovers, and car makeovers, like one of the show we were a part of “Pimp My Ride”. These shows all show the after, or the “reveal” at the end. Why? It’s not as much of a surprise if everyone knows the surprise is coming at the end of the show. We’ve recently refinished a set of wood from a Rolls-Royce Corniche, and here’s the beautiful after…

RAU Customer Cleans up at the 2012 RROC National Meet

by Rau July 8, 2012

On Sunday, June 24th 2012, we received an email from a recent customer telling us that his 1988 Bentley Continental, the very 1988 Bentley Continental we restored the wood on, won not only one but TWO awards at the 2012 Rolls-Royce Owners Club National Meet in Louisville, Kentucky…

Rolls-Royce 1972 Silver Shadow gets Personalized (video)

by Rau July 8, 2012

Based on our extreme before and after photos, some may think William Rau Automotive Woodwork only does makeovers on wood that’s badly damaged, but this is not true. We often work on wood that looks almost as good as it did when it was brand new. Some owners grow tired of their wood, some want something new, or on the rare occasion, they have another car and they want the woods to match. The wood from this Silver Shadow (later named the Silver Wraith) with the long wheelbase was in good condition but the owner wanted a personalized interior with more visually interesting wood treatment…

BMW 650i 2012 interior wood makeover (video)

by Rau July 5, 2012

On this blog and on our YouTube channel we often highlight work done for Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. Sometimes we show wood for Range Rovers or Mercedes-Benz we have worked on. On the rare occasion, we’ll show work we’ve done for a Packard. BMW lovers may feel left out, but hopefully not for long. Many of our customers come to us with older cars; 10, 20, 30, and even 100 years old; but often our customers come to us with new cars like this 2012 BMW 650i…