Aston Martin DBSV8 1970

[Bitsilly]

Jeez, try typing that out on a phone with an arthritic thumb!
I have just ended up with the above, beautiful interior and colour but bought without viewing as it was to help out a friend in Australia who was in dire straits.
No history but has a V5.

Initial observations,
1) can’t find anyone who sells repair panels and body panels, because they don’t exist! And they never will! The car was never made in sufficient quantities so repairs involve an English wheel!
2) the engine hasn’t been running since 1991, so should obviously be rebuilt, prices start at £25k!!
3) aluminium body work corrodes!

So this is probably the last entry for this project unless l find my secret inheritance from king Midas!
Generally a restoration of one of these is about £100k and this one is rusty to boot.

Win some, lose some

[Polarsilver]

ASTON DBS.jpg

.. i had the same ASTON Issues they are a pile of corrosion.. solution was to chop it up & hang it on the wall
still have a pair of Aston Doors .. Foc if you want to collect.

[Bitsilly]

That doesn’t bode particularly well!!
Doors are ok, except for passenger one jammed and locked!
Top notch hand built cars these!

[Bitsilly]

I will always have the key ring!

[BAD942B]

Jeez, try typing that out on a phone with an arthritic thumb!
I have just ended up with the above, beautiful interior and colour but bought without viewing as it was to help out a friend in Australia who was in dire straits.
No history but has a V5.

Initial observations,
1) can’t find anyone who sells repair panels and body panels, because they don’t exist! And they never will! The car was never made in sufficient quantities so repairs involve an English wheel!
2) the engine hasn’t been running since 1991, so should obviously be rebuilt, prices start at £25k!!
3) aluminium body work corrodes!

So this is probably the last entry for this project unless l find my secret inheritance from king Midas!
Generally a restoration of one of these is about £100k and this one is rusty to boot.

Win some, lose some

What panels do you need, Rikki Cann does most of the chassis repair panels inc the door skins & front / rear alloy panels that you cut off when replacing the sills.

A fair few used VGC body panels exist, just got to find them ?
The engines are complicated to rebuild, depends whether its a six cyl or V8

100k wont go very far

[Bitsilly]

I didn’t know that!
I did suspect the £100k bit though.
Cheers

[peasantslife]

I am a supplier to the trade of certain items of bodywork in steel, ali and fibre, though much are 'exclusive'...Yes the body skin is wheeled, but the structure is far simpler and in the main single axis.
Being a DBS your car would have had Feature Line coachwork - at knee height runs from forward of frt wing wheelbox to rear bumper, lots of cars loose that detail with poor repairs over the years making odd bits become Barrel Sides. It's quite subtle...hence even many period repairers got it wrong.
For sure there is an AML tax to pay if using the 'names' but remember AML was a tiny business back then DBS/V8/AMV8's were only ever built in 1 or perhaps 2 per day numbers so many parts were sourced from others with far bigger tooling budgets.

There is a lot of -must leave it to the trade- in the aston world, but reality is that this age is quite diy'able.
I was apprenticed in Newport Pagnell in the second half of the '70's. ie (1975) Ltd, My latest venture with AML was to lead Powertrain and Chassis through DBX launch in St Athan. Always happy to help classic aston owners.

[Pandora]

My abiding memory of that age of Aston, and newer ones too, if I'm honest, was how often they would benefit from half an hour with a pot of copydex glue to stick wayward trim back in place. It was always dissapointing when one was deliverd to auction and you got in and just thought "Oh, it's a bit 'made by hand' rather than 'handcrafted' in here". Why folk sent their cars to sale like that always amazed me.....

Anyway, remember, it was made ny hand once (sorry, 'hadcrafted' once ) so you can do it again. And it's only metal, so the phrase 'it costs as much in hours to weld a Fiat as a Ferrari' is equally applicable to Austins and Astons.

Have fun!

Al

[Pandora]

ASTON DBS.jpg.

My entry to the caption competition:
I wanted it in the living room, but my wife said 'no' and I couldn't Persuader.

Al

[mk1]