1948 Bentley Mark VI

A brief perusal of the documents section will show you some photographs of this very car pictured with a wall of whisky barrels as a backdrop.

“What can be the meaning of this?”, we hear you ask, not unreasonably.

Well, pour yourself a drink, preferably an Islay single malt, settle into your favourite chair, and indulge us while we tell you the story.

It had been bought in the 1970s by a Scottish dentist for his son, and moved with them to Islay when the father set up practice there in the 1980s.

Eventually, when the father had passed on, the car went into long-term storage.

Nearly 20 years later, the dentist’s widow got in touch with the vendor as he was the chairman of the island’s motoring group and had, incidentally, served  for many years as a Rolls-Royce engineer.

The vendor bought the car in 2019, when he was shown it gathering dust in an old shed. It had lain dormant since 2007 and had just 45,000 miles on the clock.

In 2020, of course, the world stopped what it was doing while Covid got busy.

This gave the car’s new owner all the time he needed to thoroughly restore the car.

The following is his 2021 account of the project as published in Spirit & Speed, the magazine for Rolls-Royce and Bentley enthusiasts.

It begins from when he first tried to get the car running.

“My daughter and I spent a few days draining the oil and changing filters. We also drained the petrol as it was rancid, and then renewed the flexible fuel pipe on the side of the engine because it was perished.

Still, we had no fuel at the carburettors so we had to remove the fuel filter at the tank and also the fuel pumps and return them to the workshop for repair. Having replenished the tank with fresh fuel we now had petrol at the carburettors and, with a charged battery, on pressing the starter button she burst into life.

The brakes, including the handbrake, were non-existent so the car was towed to the workshop for the start of serious restoration. This included a total body-off to gain access to the chassis.

Surprisingly it was in very good condition apart from a small area at the tail which required plating and welding.

The chassis was then cleaned to bare metal and painted with POR-15 anti-rust, all the brakes were stripped, and any parts renewed as required. The master cylinder and servo unit needed total refurbishment. Then it was on to the suspension which needed to have the four dampers reconditioned and all the silentbloc bushes replaced, including those on the anti-roll bar.

The electrics were next on the list. The dynamo tested okay but the regulator was faulty and had to be replaced.

New wires were fitted where required but there is still feedback from the dynamo when I switch the ignition off - the engine keeps running. You can tell I am not an electrician.

The front wings were a bit corroded around the edges - any rot was cut out and replaced with fresh metal. This was done with the body suspended, so it gave us a great opportunity to replace any corrosion, mainly at the rear wheel arches, and again the metal was painted underneath with POR-15.

I forgot to mention the bracing required before lifting the body off the chassis to prevent any distortion.

The Bentley had to be trailered to a bodyshop on the mainland for preparation and respraying in Rolls-Royce Deep Blue - the original colour was registered as Dark Blue but the car had been resprayed by a previous owner.

Tackling the upholstery is a step too far for me, so I have placed it in the hands of a professional in Linwood near Paisley - highly recommended as he restored a Mark Vl for Sir Arnold Clark.

The Radiomobile radio has now been restored and is ready to refit along with two new speakers when the car returns.”

That was 2021, and everything not done at that time has now been done, including fitting a full-flow oil filter and new carburettors to cope with E10 fuel.

The car is not concours, nor was it ever intended to be. But it is an eminently useable classic – as evidenced by the fact that the vendor drove it on a 250-mile tour to Dunoon and back on one of the hottest days in July 2025. The car didn’t miss a beat..

The car seems to us, and everyone else who’s seen it, to have been the happy recipient of a high-quality restoration, and it is in very good overall condition.
 

There’s something very well balanced and proportionally correct about a Bentley Mk VI, and this one is absolutely no exception.

The bodywork is free of any dinks, dents, creases or other aberrations of consequence.

Originally ‘Dark Blue with a Single Ivory Line’, the car was resprayed by a previous owner before the vendor had it painted in the splendid shade of Rolls-Royce Deep Blue you see before you today.

It’s a colour that really pops and sings in the sunshine and you have to see it in the flesh to fully appreciate its vibrancy.

The finish in general has held on to plenty of lustre and shine, but there are a few cosmetic issues to contend with here and there.

First and foremost, there is some bubbling at both bases of the o/s/r wheel-arch and, to a lesser, extent, on their nearside counterparts.

There is a little nascent blistering and minor bubbling around the front wheel arches and some scuffs on the corner of the o/s/f wing.

There’s a variation in paint tone at the base of the n/s/r door, and both the top and bottom sections of the boot have some signs of previous touch-ups in evidence and a little cracked paint in a few places.

The wheels look good to us, as do the matching Goodride radial tyres.

The chrome-work throughout is very good, with only the door handles having a little light foxing to show for their years of dutiful service.

The lights, lenses, badging and other exterior fixtures and fittings are all perfectly decent from what we can see.  
 

The quality of the restoration is, if anything, even more apparent on the inside, where the vendor has succeeded in optimising the classy, timeless, gentleman’s club ambience and aesthetic of this grand and venerable Bentley.

The soft, supple, dark blue hide has yet to earn so much as a crease, let alone any patina, and we think the more muted tone perfectly offsets the brighter, bolder hue of the exterior blue.

The seats, front and back, are as comfortable and supportive as you would hope and wish.

The grey wool headlining is taut and free of any holes or tears, and the dark blue carpets and mats are entirely beyond reproach.

All four door cards are following the same script in terms of quality, condition and preservation.

For the most part, the wood trim is in good order throughout, save for a few scuffs atop the door cappings and some thin cracks to the wood between the dials on the dashboard.

The steering wheel and other controls look fine, and the dashboard’s gloriously analogue instruments, buttons, switches, levers and dials seem to be in good order and, as far as we’re aware, everything does what it’s supposed to do.

Beneath the dashboard you’ll find the car’s Radiomobile unit. It has retained the original fascia, but been given thoroughly modern internals, and is accompanied by a couple of hidden loudspeakers.

That work alone amounted to over £800.

The capacious, carpeted boot is excellent.
 

The engine and engine bay are notably clean and dry, and everything appears to be in its right and proper place.

The undersides of the car seem to us to possess plenty of structural integrity and we’ve seen nothing to make us frown, tut, shake our heads or make us question the car’s character or honesty.
 

The car comes with all sorts of period documents, including the original buff log book, from which we can ascertain that the car has spent virtually all of its adult life in Scotland.

We know it was sitting in a shed from 2007 until 2019, when the vendor breathed life back into it.

And there are copies of the car’s original history cards and build sheets outlining its original specification and factory options.

It also comes with some original manuals and service books, a workshop manual and some wiring diagrams, a copy of the edition of Spirit & Speed in which its restoration is documented, a recent HPI report and a V5C.
 

Right.

You’ll have finished your dram of Lagavulin or Laphroaig by now and be feeling cosily warm and mellow.

Good.

This will be the right time for you to imagine a future in which your weekend car of choice is this splendidly restored 1948 Bentley Mk VI.

Yes, there are a couple of minor cosmetic issues to attend to, but someone else has done all the difficult, expensive heavy lifting so that you don’t have to.

All you have to do is enjoy adding a few more highly enjoyable miles to the remarkably modest 51,365 currently showing on the odometer.

Oh, and did we mention the fabulous colour?

We are happy to offer this car for auction with an estimate in the range of £25,000 - £30,000.

Viewing is strongly encouraged, and this lot is located at Bonhams|Cars Online HQ. Viewings are STRICTLY BY APPOINTMENT and we are open weekdays between 10am - 12pm or 2pm - 4pm. To make a booking, please use the ‘Enquire About This Vehicle’ button on the listing. Feel free to ask any questions, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.