<s>28</s> Four Days Later: It takes 86 hours to paint the Bentley Mulsanne-We love Cars

<s>28</s> Four Days Later: It takes 86 hours to paint the Bentley Mulsanne: "

Filed under: Sedan, Etc., Europe, Bentley, Luxury

World's greatest paint? - click above for high-res image gallery

If we left the confines (and soft leather couch) of our west coast office (i.e. home) right now and drove at a reasonable pace, we could be in New York City within three days. We'd be exhausted, but we'd be there. And if the fine, love doing-stuff-by-hand folks in Crewe decided to start painting a new Bentley Mulsanne the day we decided to leave Los Angeles, they'd still be hard at work long after we're chowing down on arepas at this little Venezuelan joint in we know in the East Village.

It takes them four days - literally - to paint Bentley's new biggie ultra-lux sedan. Why four days? Here's a partial explanation, straight from the mouth of the directer of the Mulsanne's bespoke paint shop, Dave Walton:

'Different colours have markedly different characteristics and your perception of a colour's shade changes according to how deep the coat is. Then there's the fact that no two expert sprayers would apply that colour basecoat in exactly the same way. You learn to trust each craftsman's eyes and skills, not just the process. It takes many months of in-depth training for a quality control inspector to learn how to identify defects that an owner might never notice, yet each one will be rectified, even if this means sending it around the entire process again. We always operate way above customer expectations of quality.'

Sounds... exhausting. But you know what? If we were (able) to plop down $285,000 for a new Mulsanne, it had better damn well take four days to paint. At least! Press release packed with more luxurious, ridiculous and time consuming details after the jump.

Gallery: Frankfurt 2009: Bentley Mulsanne