Technician Jonn and paintshop manager Chris have been assessing our 1969 Aston Martin DB6. Here are their notes:
Nearside wiper blade split. Drivers door lock and boot lock stiff. Nearside front fog light cover missing. Coolant low and rusty brown colour. Offside front sidelight not working. Reverse lights not working. Drivers quarter light seal split. Drivers seat worn soft and frame loose. Exhaust has various signs of blowing. Both front brakes binding. Nail in offside rear tye. Front pads 20% worn, discs ok. Rear pads 10% worn, discs ok. Handbrake pads 80% worn. Nearside front lower ball joint rubber split. Oil drips from rear sump/rear main area. Spare tyre different size.
Rob has relocated for now from the main workshops to the fabrication shop as he gets stuck in to the fabrication of the boot-lid. He has cut off the lower half of existing boot lid, remove the lower section due to corrosion. He has then started work on fabricating new panels and welded the lower half back into position. The height has been adjusted so that the boot lid fits correctly. He has then gone on to strip the boot catch assembly and sandblast all of the parts but has decided to make a new one as this will be the best option.
The paint has been stripped off the boot lid skin. The left hand door hinge bushes brazed in and the door hung to check alignment. New boot lock mechanism made and fitted.
Our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 has taken a massive step forward over the past week as the Bridge Classic Cars restoration team have reunited the repaired body back onto the refurbished and refinished chassis of this classic Aston Martin.
Rob, one of our technicians, has been heading up this phase of the project – He, along with several members of the team, carefully reunited the body and the chassis inch by inch for the final time before it heads off to the body and paint team to begin its journey back into colour.
September 30, 2024 9:27 amPublished by Nick Skinner
Our technician Rob has been methodically working his way through stripping the dashboard of our 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4 Drophead Coupe. Each individual piece that is removed was carefully inspected and evaluated before being bagged and labeled. The dash itself, which is wooden, will be repaired and restored by a local specialist while the clocks and gauges will be sent away to be completely refurbished for this stunning piece of sports car history.
Along with working on the dashboard, Rob has also been working on stripping back some of the controls such as the throttle pedal assembly and handbrake, getting them to where they can be carefully sandblasted and then painted.
The front suspension crossmember of our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 has been stripped and overhauled. New bearings and seals were fitted to the main part, then the steering idler was stripped and new parts fitted. Now it has been masked up for a clear coat with the other aluminium parts, this will stop any future corrosion and protect the parts for the future.
Some parts of the suspension were also painted in black satin.
James has stripped the front suspension and hub parts of our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 ready for painting. Some of the bolts and pins were seized and had to be drilled out to release them. Once the parts are prepped and cleaned, new bushes and bearings can be fitted ready for reassembly.
Classic Car Technician Neil has been prepping the chassis of our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4. Alongside this, Clinton has been pulling dents out of the car and repairing them.
Once the chassis was fully prepped, Tony took it to be powder coated.
Our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 has arrived back at our Suffolk HQ following its appointment with the media blasters.
The body was carefully removed from the chassis of the 1950’s GT previously by our workshop technicians and carefully transported to a local blasting company to carefully remove the Claret paint as well as exposing any areas which will need attention by the team here at the Bridge Classic Cars restoration workshops.
The body arrived back at our workshops earlier this week and was taken straight into our in-house fabrication shop for our expert team of fabricators to work on getting this rare and unique GT car back into better than new shape.
The team have begun to get the body onto the framing jig to get it ready for the delicate and highly-skilled work of repairing the areas affected by 71 years of being used and stored.
The strip down of the axle and brakes from our 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4 Drophead Coupe has continued with Neil recently.
While he was doing this, Tony collected the chassis from the sandblasters. Progress continues to be made so it shouldn’t be too long before things start to come back together.
Over the last few days, the workshop team have been completing some final checks and road testing our 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4 in readiness for completion and hand back to the customer.
The lights have been checked and set, all levels checked and topped up, and road tested with small adjustments and checks each time. Technician James fixed a small fuel leak on one of the carburettors, checked all the bolts for tightness, and removed the speedo head for calibration to ensure its accuracy.
The bump stops for the bonnet have been renewed and the brakes re-adjusted after bedding them in.
Our 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4 has been getting a lot of attention lately. The stripped chassis has been sent off to the sandblasters.
Before it went, Rob stripped the last remaining parts off the shell and chassis and removed the bodyshell. He also separated the sill/bulkhead structure from the rear bodyshell. Rob went on to remove the steel inner structure from the outer ally rear body in preparation for blast cleaning.
Last week, James started to strip the running gear down of our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 for refurbishment. The axles have been broken down into component parts ready for blasting/cleaning and then painting, any worn or damaged parts have been located and will be replaced on re-assembly. The brake and clutch pedal unit has also been stripped and will be refurbished ready for when the chassis is back so the rebuild can start.
The last sections of our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 have been removed, the radiators and other engine ancillaries, the engine and gearbox removed, then the chassis and bulkhead were completely stripped of suspension, steering and brake components, along with wiring loom and pipes/fittings.
The chassis can now go off to be stripped and checked before painting and reassembly in the new year.
The floors and interior of our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 were completely stripped, along with the front end and bonnet. Then the body fixings were removed and the body was carefully taken off for blasting/paint removal.
After cleaning up the seat of our 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4 Drophead Coupe, Lydia has spent some time making the foams fit.
Unfortunately, the original foam has been lost or destroyed, meaning that it was necessary to make new ones. Having recently seen some original ones, Lydia knew the basic shape that they needed to be and also the way that they were chamfered underneath. This meant that replicating them was not too difficult but still required a few test fits and alterations.
Once she was happy with the seat base, Lydia moved onto the backs. She had one back foam slither that was badly perished, but it gave her a base to work from. She made the backrest foams out of 100mm foam laminated together, then shaped them with the foam saw. After this, she made the cardboard piece that sits on the top of the seats to cover the raw edges of leather.
The front doors and windows have now been stripped out ready for refurbishment, all parts will be cleaned, sorted, painted or replaced where necessary before refitting the newly painted doors and body, when they are ready.
The mechanical strip out of our 1953 Aston Martin DB2/4 has started at the rear of the car. The tailgate, lights, spare wheel carrier and fuel tank have all been removed. Classic car technician James actually found some of the original black paint on the car too!
The dashboard and clocks have also been stripped out ready for refurbishment. James made sure that the wiring was labelled for reference and pictures were taken to aid in reassembly later on.
Brian and Lydia have also been working on the interior of our rare Aston. They removed the old covers from the front seats before going on to remove the foam and runners as well. The seats from this vehicle were in fairly bad condition and did not want to come apart easily. Lydia ended up grinding away a lot of the screw heads to be able to remove the seat back from the base. She then cleaned up the interior dash cubby boxes and the door pockets too.
Brian removed the metal runners from the base of the seats, and the base foams. He then removed the carpet from the back of the squab seat, removed the old cover & foams, removed all side wood sections, removed frames, and cut out new side wood sections & new backboards.
Perhaps the most obvious change to our DB2/4 is that the body has now been removed. This is a big step in the strip down and the whole team is excited to see this beautiful car continue to make progress.
Brian has begun work on stripping down our 1955 Aston Martin Drophead Couple. He has removed the rear boot panels, the rear seat base and door panels. The cappings and door pockets have been taken out and the sill carpets. The carpets under the dash, the dash top panels and window surround panels are all now out.
The project will be a big part of our diary for 2024 but heading up to Christmas we have a few weeks to really get started on the strip down.
December 8, 2023 11:05 amPublished by Craig Ranson
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