1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Convertible

The Silver Cloud was introduced in 1955 and was, with its later iterations the Cloud II and III, to prove the core of Rolls-Royce production until the arrival of the monocoque Silver Shadow in 1966. Construction of all Cloud models was body-on-frame, which allowed a number of creative coach-builders to work their magic, but over the course of its eleven years of production the vast majority were built with the standard Pressed Steel shell.The Silver Cloud III was the final version and deliveries to customers commenced in mid 1963.External dimensions were slightly altered with a one and a half inch reduction in grille height and by necessity, a slightly more sloping bonnet, but the most distinctive difference was the grouping of the headlights in a four headlamp unit which was sufficiently attractive to be carried over to the new Shadow. The car's weight was reduced by over 100kg, and performance was improved by fitting 2inch SU carburettors and increasing the compression ratio to 9:1.One of the respected coach-builders who created something different on the Cloud III chassis was H.J.Mulliner (later Mulliner Park Ward), who offered a supremely elegant two door Drophead Coupe. These cars are now very sought after and few and far between.

What we have here today is a wonderful Roll-Royce Cloud III.

Our vendor is Byrnes Motor Trust Restorations and their matriarch, James Byrnes is a well known figure in the classic car world in Australia, USA, the UK and Asia. The company already owns two original Cloud factory adaptations (now fully restored) and the purchase of these was to allow BMT to reverse engineer these elegant Rolls-Royce Convertibles, stripping them down completely and observing and recording every detail, and in addition BMT obtained copies of all the original build specifications and the relevant processes involved. The object of this whole operation was to enable the massively experienced team at BMT to build convertible Rolls-Royce Clouds from scratch in exactly the same way and with the same care that was used 50 years ago.Thereafter BMT invested heavily in developing tooling to press out new panels and arranged the fabrication of parts like the window frames in the original brass then plated them exactly in the same manner as it would have been carried out by Mulliner at the time.There are a number of cars going through this process now and they are all original cars, stripped of every last nut and bolt and reassembled from the ground up as a Convertible. The team at BMT believe that their cars are the equal in terms of quality to anything coming off the Mulliner production line in the 60s.

What we have here effectively, is a brand new Rolls-Royce delivered 50 years late. Fresh from a complete restoration during which every component was removed from the chassis and repaired, restored or replaced, the engine and suspension rebuilt with no expense spared and the car reassembled to a showroom standard.

The car is superbly finished in a deep Mason Black and is trimmed in superb red hide with red carpets, and an expanse of Burr Walnut covers the dashboard, door cappings and occasional tables. The hood is electrically operated and formed from lined mohair, and when it's fully open, the outline of the car is maintained by a cover that fits neatly over the top and is held in place by a number of fasteners. The engine bay and under bonnet panels are painted a gloss deep cream, and the view is of a gleaming amalgam of gloss black, chrome and polished steel.Naturally, there is a very large photographic record of all the work carried out.

There can be few more stylish ways to arrive anywhere than in an early Rolls-Royce convertible, and at this guide price, in this condition, this stunning Silver Cloud III makes a lot of sense.