Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 5:37 pm Post subject: Aston Martin DB 2/4 Mk III - work continues... |
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Had a busy few days getting the Aston ready for the Le Mans classic. Decided to fit overtaking mirrors – the type that clamp onto the window channel, all went well on the driver’s side but on the passenger side the clamp made the channel felt too tight on the glass causing it to pull out of the window lifter inside the door so, only one thing for it, I had to have the door panel off to fix it all! With the panel off I was able to lubricate the mechanism and spray silicon lube into the guides and runners, I carefully shaved the felt slightly and the glass glides up nicely now. I bonded the glass back into the lifter with some silicon sealant, which did the trick nicely, and it’s all back together now. Yesterday I also took both the seats out and stuffed some extra foam inside the squabs, just a short term fix to make them more comfortable for the 1,000 mile drive before I get them properly renovated over the winter. I’ve got most of my tools sorted out and ready but am wondering about getting a spare fan belt and an inner tube! Still more polishing to do but I’m having a break now watching the British Grand Prix. Cheers Rich…
Last edited by Rich5ltr on Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:43 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Rick Site Admin
Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22429 Location: UK
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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Sure, I didn't get round to taking any over the weekend, I spent most of my time dashing in from the rain to the extent that I wound up on Sunday working in my garage, not what you expect in early July!
Anyway here's some from a few months ago when I spent a day de-greasing the engine block and generally cleaning 50 years of grime off the engine bay, as you can see it's not spotless but certainly cleaner than when I started, wonderful stuff this Gunk!
The bucket is from where I was flushing the block and radiator, I thought I'd got plenty of silt out but my specialist/mechanic decided that after all my effort a reconditioned radiator would be the better route to go down. Ah well...
This was taken 3 months ago and since then the car has covered several hundred miles, the work list over the last 3 months has been extensive but well worth it and I feel totally confident that she will drive smoothly down to Le Mans this coming weekend for the Le Mans Classic. It included a fully rebuilt cylinder head with hardened valve seats allowing me to use unleaded fuel, this also resulted in bigger valves and a slightly higher compression ration which in turn allowed them to set a slightly more aggressive ignition timing and set more overlap on the cams. I also had new wheel bearings, and roller kingpin bearings plus the steering box slightly de-shimmed to take up some of the wear. Oh and a new clutch plus they re-surfaced the flywheel whilst the gearbox was out. New brake shoes lining fitted to the shoes and the inside of the aluminium brake drums skimmed. The list goes on but it driving like a dream now!!!
Now it's time to turn my attention to the interior and cosmetics hence this weekend working on the seats
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:37 pm Post subject: |
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11th / 14th July – Le Mans Classic 2008 – Well I’ve just got back from a great weekend in Sarthe with the Aston so I thought I’d post a brief report. I had a “brisk” drive down in convoy with a friend of mine in his TVR; At Portsmouth I explained to him that the comfortable cruising speed for my MK III is between 65-75 mph but needless to say just 10-15 minutes outside Caen on the open French roads he got carried away! Still the old lady kept up well at 85-90 with no problems, it’s just that the resonances are less at the slightly slower speed. It was a wonderful weekend of classic cars, great racing, good food and good company, staying at the wonderful Chateau de la Mote Henry! Ruby (as she is known) performed perfectly and it was only in the final 50 miles of the journey home did she decide that I’d had it too easy after all and as I pulled out of Fleet services on the M3 one of the headlamps didn’t come on! So I switched on my o/s fog lamp to compliment my operational n/s headlamp giving it that “battle-worn” Le Mans look when after 150 yards the headlamp came back on again, so no problems. Whilst away I decided I must have a “battle with the rattles” so I’ll spend a weekend under the car rocking it and bumping it to see which of the under panels are vibrating, or perhaps it’s the exhaust or both. Other than that I came back with a list of small jobs to do but overall really pleased. The total mileage on the journey was 665 miles, which is about 3 times it used to in a full year with the previous owner… Cheers Rich…
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Penman
Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4751 Location: Swindon, Wilts.
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Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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Hi
Old tricks.
If a bulb fails to come on, smack the lens with your flat hand; if you are moving at the time, particulary on a Mway or similar, try running on the rumble strip for a short while.
Many bulbs fail but still have a fair bit of element left, the vibration makes it shake about and if it touches the other terminal it re-fuses itself together, or it might be a loose bulb holder connection and again the vabration brings it back into contact. |
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Rick Site Admin
Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 22429 Location: UK
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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Quick update for you all... I spent a most enjoyable day at Four Ashes Aston Martin specialists in Stratford-upon-Avon yesterday, drinking their tea, chatting about 50’s Astons, listening to England finally win a test match and having them fit a Moto-lita wood rimmed steering wheel to my MK III. I was most impressed by the care and trouble they took to get it right! Four Ashes is one of these "stuck in a time warp" garages from the 60's and all the better for it in my opinion, I loved just wandering around the workshops chatting with the mechanics and the trickle of owners as they seemed to "drop by" on their way past. More like a clubhouse than a garage
Driving home I was struck by how much more enjoyable the car is to drive. The steering feels more direct, especially going around roundabouts, perhaps this is because the old wheel had so much spring in it – forwards, backwards, up-and-down and side-to-side! Certainly examining it I can see the spokes were falling apart from the black plastic rim! Anyway it’s a nice job all round and I’m very satisfied. See picture below…
Cheers Rich…
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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I've been away on holiday for 2 1/2 weeks and the first thing I did when I got back was go down to the garage to see the boys! Makes me laugh, I have to keep the TVR on a battery conditioner else it's falt after two weeks, the 50 year old Aston on the other hand wasn't on a charger yet started first turn! Lovely |
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JC T ONE
Joined: 30 Oct 2008 Posts: 1139 Location: Denmark
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Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 8:56 am Post subject: |
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Hi Rich 5 L, can you identify this quarter window? http://www.stochholm-borresen.dk/w-p.htm you can enlarge them by clicking on each.
I was told they might be of a Aston Martin DB 2/4 ? but I cant find a good picture of the handle anywhere on the web?
I have searched for more than 8 years, and contacted both Radford, and W&P.
The car they come from is OLDER than 1962/3, as they sit in Peter Sellers famues Wicker Work MINI, from the movie A SHOT IN THE DARK.
That little curvy handle must be known to someone? please see if you recognice it? I need new rubber seals badly, as mine are completely perished. Thanks from JC |
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:16 am Post subject: |
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JC T ONE wrote: | Hi Rich 5 L, can you identify this quarter window? |
Hi JC, sorry they are not the same as the ones on my DB2/4. On the Aston the lever/handle has a concave depression for the thumb which is cross-hatched. |
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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Well she's just been for her MOT and passed no problems, also nice to see that I did just under 2,000 in her last year, not bad considering she usually did about 150 miles a year with the previous owner. Now I can get my free tax disc and I'm all set for another year of classic Aston motoring... |
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:45 pm Post subject: Period radio in the Aston |
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It's been a while since I added anything to this thread so I thought I'd tell you about my latest project which was to install a period radio in the Aston. I located a suitable late 1950's HMV valve radio and had it converted to provide FM/AM radio with an input for an iPod (or similar), providing 4 x 45w per channel. This is one of the last valve radios made by HMV or S Smith and Sons (Radiomobile) as they were then known, in 1960 they introduced transistorised car radios so for my 1958 car this is ideal.
To finish the radio off I swapped the buttons for cream ones to pick up on the indicator and wiper stalk ends which are ivory on the Aston and also I found a little Nipper the Dog badge for the centre button which I love!
I quickly realised it wasn't going to be an easy job because older cars simply have no empty gaps or space under the dash to conceal the wires and speakers! Eventually I manged to find some extremely thin but powerful speakers on eBay and squeezed them up under the dashboard. At the rear I thought I would fit them in the side panels just ahead of the tailgate but again I hadn't bargained for how tightly it's built back there, behind the headlining is about an inch of space then the car bodywork so again I had to do some jiggery-pokery to locate the speakers inside the panels. I found some old chrome speaker grills that I think really look the part and finished them off with a couple of Aston Martin badges, I was even careful to get the cream and black ones which are correct for the car as the modern (and more easily obtainable) Aston wings are dark green and white.
One thing that bothers me is that I'm not happy with the aerial, I didn't want to drill the bodywork so I used one of those inconspicuous wire dipole aerials stuck up under the inside of the windscreen - yes, you can't see it but basically it's completely useless, so it's back to the drawing board with that. It's not a dead loss though because I will use my tiny iPod Shuffle for tunes. I threaded a fly lead into the glove cubby and it sits neatly under my duster and sunglasses case. Just been out for a test drive and the sound is excellent, "It's got a nice tone" as my dear Dad would have said, Matt Munro singing On Days Like These is just perfect... !
Here's what it looked like to start with
Work in progress - what have I let myself in for!!!
The finished job
Note the cream buttons
The old chrome grill look perfect
The Aston Martin badges sets them off but this shows how grubby the headlining is!
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Phil - Nottingham
Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Posts: 1252 Location: Nottingham
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:59 pm Post subject: |
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Very very neat it looks like a factory installation - a shame A-M did not make dasboard provision with that large parcel shelf as even some cheaper cars had this by then although some expensive ones as well did not _________________ Rover P2
Rover P4
Rover P5 & P5B
Land Rover S2 & S3
Morris Mini Traveller Mk2 |
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:10 pm Post subject: |
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Yes it's surprising isn't it. I had a 1955 MG ZA Magnette as my first car and that had a built in fitting for a radio yet this car which was what, five times the price, doesn't. |
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Rich5ltr
Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 678 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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Received my new luggage straps through the post this morning, very pleased with them. I know tan is traditional but I went for black because all the other leather in the car is black, I think they look the part and will stop stuff flying around the back! What do you reckon?
With the seats folded flat.
Seat back raised with my vintage tool bag!
Luggage area folded flat with a big old suitcase strapped in place
One from inside...
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