Restoring the good doctor's 52 Aston Martin DB-2

NASTYZEN · Feb 21, 2011

This restoration started in 97 and ended in 2001.This is, if I remember correctly Car chassis no.AM 17-150 had a single owner who was a doctor out in the eastern Ontario country.He had the car shipped from England new and had a 1964 license plate on it when found by Jack.This car was extensively campaigned in touring and rally events and it showed!Judging from the corrosion,it was winter driven.
Somehow the phone conversation about the restoration and what showed up at my door were not quite the same. :wtf:

I got suckered into bringing this mess back to life.I tell you this car was really foked up bad!
The first step was to make an evaluation of what was left and what had to be replaced.Then decide where to start!
:lol_hitti

The blue car is what this thing should look like.

DanCo · Feb 21, 2011

You've got a big job there? Just don't forget the machine guns and ejector seat. Please keep the pics coming.

TAftw · Feb 21, 2011

You probably should have titled this thread "Building an Aston Martin from scratch" :lol_hitti

:.

It looks awesome, keep the pics coming.

rsanter · Feb 21, 2011

DanCo said:
You've got a big job there? Just don't forget the machine guns and ejector seat. Please keep the pics coming.

that is not the 007 model
this one is earlier and rumered to have been used my special agent 001
the guns used were semi-auto

bob

NASTYZEN · Feb 22, 2011

Yes this is pre James Bond,no ejector seat that I could find.They were entirely hand built right down to the door handles and trim.
I tried to turn it away when I saw how badly messed up it was.I called Jack and asked him if he was kidding about the restore.It's really foked up I said!Go ahead and rebuild it he said.Oh man what a colossal amount of work it took to get it back to life.
Your right,I should of entitled this tread''Pandora's Aston Martin from hell''.
Anyway,it came less engine and gearbox so at least no worries about mechanical s.I stripped the chassis clean and brought it out to be sand blasted and set it up upside down on floor jacks to see what was still solid.Not much was still sound.The worst part was that all the tube sizes are not common and custom tubing had to be made out of sheet before I could even begin.

Lippyp · Feb 22, 2011

The factory still offers a full restoration service over here, if the guy that built bits of your car still works there (and many work from apprentice to retirement) they get to work on it, pretty damn cool, mind you, pretty damn expensive too!

NASTYZEN · Feb 23, 2011

Lippyp said:
The factory still offers a full restoration service over here, if the guy that built bits of your car still works there (and many work from apprentice to retirement) they get to work on it, pretty damn cool, mind you, pretty damn expensive too!

That's at pretty interesting service they have there.I can see why it doesn't come cheap,it's laboriously intensive to restore one of these.
I found the original workers initials from 4 different guys under the garnishing trim.Maybe 4 different work stations?Each car was a little different from the next and all the trim was custom fit to each one.
They only built 150 of this model.Because of the labor intensive way they were put together many were scrapped.They are a little hard to come bye nowadays.

NASTYZEN · Feb 25, 2011

So slowly I replaced every rusted area bit by bit,taking care to reproduce every bit just like it was at the factory.Once I had a nice solid chassis to work from I was ready to get to work on the suspension so the car could be moved more easily.

NASTYZEN · Feb 28, 2011

At this point it was time to strip the paint off of the body to see what lay underneath.7 layers of paint later...what I found was not good.
Back then they would use a steel tubular skeleton frame under the body and crimp the aluminum shell on top of it all.Perfect for electrolysis corrosion to happen.They also used wood in many places,witch was totally rotten at this point.
What a mess! :shocking:

This car was raced and it shows.

Blk63Vette · Feb 28, 2011

Wow

I think that car is in a state of shock.. :shocking:

joeswamp · Feb 28, 2011

Can't wait to see the next part of the story ... When does the huge bucket of Bondo show up?

Drdaves49 · Feb 28, 2011

Do you have your stump,shot bag, mallets, slappers ,etc? Looks like that would be a blast to work on. Bringing something back from the dead, as it were....my kinda projects. It's nice to see the care and research going into it. BTW,if you hadn't noticed I'm a Brit car nut. :beer:

Don't be suprised if one door and fender are a little different in size, rarely were they the same side to side. I'm sure you've all ready found that out tho.

Bondo.....surely you jest :lol_hitti

Dave

charger891 · Feb 28, 2011

Wow! what a mess!!

joeswamp · Feb 28, 2011

I've seen cars brought back from rougher shape than this (but not much worse than this) -- saw an old Packard limo from a field once that to my eyes was completely unsalvageable, but if you've got the skills of nastyzen just about anything is possible.

Remember that this is a seriously high dollar antique and not an 80's Camaro, the end result is so valuable that it actually makes financial sense to undertake the restoration.

Drdaves49 · Feb 28, 2011

joeswamp said:
I've seen cars brought back from rougher shape than this (but not much worse than this) -- saw an old Packard limo from a field once that to my eyes was completely unsalvageable, but if you've got the skills of nastyzen just about anything is possible.

Remember that this is a seriously high dollar antique and not an 80's Camaro, the end result is so valuable that it actually makes financial sense to undertake the restoration.

Absolutely correct., and I see a couple thousand hours.

Skyline · Feb 28, 2011

>Nastyzen

It's great to see your projects. You are a true craftsman.

When you question the guys who vintage race eary Ferraris and Birdcage Maseratis (worth milliions), on one hand, it seems crazy, but on the other, I really don't think accident damage can ever exceed ~$250k, no matter how bad it is. As long as there are guys like nastyzen around that is. These were hand made cars in the first place, and they can be hand made again. There's no such thing as totaled for a $3M irreplacable car. All that really counts is having a valid chassis plate; and to a lesser extent, a correct engine. Given the fact that the cars with serious race provenance often had multiple engines, it's not so much a "number matching" thing like if you were looking at a 60s musclecar. But I just wonder if this Aston is significant enough to be worth the effort? As long as someone loves it enough to want to pay...it really does not matter. All the better for the rest of us who get to see a piece of history roaring by on the vintage circuit, instead of rotting away in some field.

spongerich · Feb 28, 2011

Ah, that'll buff right out.

NASTYZEN · Mar 1, 2011

joeswamp said:
Can't wait to see the next part of the story ... When does the huge bucket of Bondo show up?

No bondo ever gets used here.

Drdaves49 said:
Do you have your stump,shot bag, mallets, slappers ,etc? Looks like that would be a blast to work on. Bringing something back from the dead, as it were....my kinda projects. It's nice to see the care and research going into it. BTW,if you hadn't noticed I'm a Brit car nut.

Don't be suprised if one door and fender are a little different in size, rarely were they the same side to side. I'm sure you've all ready found that out tho.

Bondo.....surely you jest

Dave

Thank's Dave.
I used every tool in the shop on this one!This would of been fun to do at retirement.I also had my second boy born at this point,was building the shop,the yard and tried to keep all the other customers happy.It was not really fun.NOTHING was semetrical,but anyway,I yet have to come across a British car that is.LOL

joeswamp said:
I've seen cars brought back from rougher shape than this (but not much worse than this) -- saw an old Packard limo from a field once that to my eyes was completely unsalvageable, but if you've got the skills of nastyzen just about anything is possible.

Remember that this is a seriously high dollar antique and not an 80's Camaro, the end result is so valuable that it actually makes financial sense to undertake the restoration.

Thank you Joe.I think I saw this car in Victory Lane magazine go for about $850,000 at auction.So yes it was worth it for Jack!

Drdaves49 said:
Absolutely correct., and I see a couple thousand hours.

Dave,it took 1875 hours to do this project.Your estimating skills are awsome!

Skyline said:
>Nastyzen

It's great to see your projects. You are a true craftsman.

When you question the guys who vintage race eary Ferraris and Birdcage Maseratis (worth milliions), on one hand, it seems crazy, but on the other, I really don't think accident damage can ever exceed ~$250k, no matter how bad it is. As long as there are guys like nastyzen around that is. These were hand made cars in the first place, and they can be hand made again. There's no such thing as totaled for a $3M irreplacable car. All that really counts is having a valid chassis plate; and to a lesser extent, a correct engine. Given the fact that the cars with serious race provenance often had multiple engines, it's not so much a "number matching" thing like if you were looking at a 60s musclecar. But I just wonder if this Aston is significant enough to be worth the effort? As long as someone loves it enough to want to pay...it really does not matter. All the better for the rest of us who get to see a piece of history roaring by on the vintage circuit, instead of rotting away in some field.

Thank you so much Skyline.What gives a Vintage race car it's real value is it's racing history.I.E.racing log book as proof.I have built entire cars around the chassis number tag before ,so you are correct in your statement.If you have the V.I.N. plate and a log book your good to go!Race cars consume engines,transmissions,diff's,etc.So matching numbers are almost irrelevant.
I have seen a guy cartwheel his 10 million dollar Ferrari GT250 at the end of the strait at Mosport.Afterward's in conversation with the guy he stated it was all relative to him and that he could never do more than a couple hundred thousand dollars damage at a time to his baby.Some people keep there cars as static art in a museum somewhere.Vintage racers race there art!

spongerich said:
Ah, that'll buff right out.

No!

charger891 said:
Wow! what a mess!!

Yes!

Blk63Vette said:
Wow

I think that car is in a state of shock..

I was the one in a state of shock!

MP&C · Mar 1, 2011

Nice to see the factory seams inside the roof skin to see how the puzzle went together. Any shots like that of inside the front fenders?

NASTYZEN · Mar 1, 2011

Well at this point I had to figure where to start again.The body is attached to the chassis using brackets.The brackets were still usable but the body was all knackered to hell.This is where I started,I had to first make new rockers and inner fenders.To do this I decided to first brace the inner body with tubing and then set it a couple feet off of the chassis so as to get access to everything.Then before going too far I had to pre fit the doors as this would guide the entire project before fitting anything else. :headscrat

joeswamp · Mar 1, 2011

Man I wish had the skills to do 10% of what you can do. This kind of skill is the automotive equivalent of being a virtuoso musician. Where were you trained? (If you don't mind me asking) -- people that can undertake this level of work are not exactly a dime a dozen.

PS I was of course just kidding about the big tub of Bondo ...

NASTYZEN · Mar 1, 2011

MP&C said:
Nice to see the factory seams inside the roof skin to see how the puzzle went together. Any shots like that of inside the front fenders?

Actually the factory seams in this case were irrelevant.I just fixed as I went,you will see why later.The bonnet was the last part restored in this project because I needed to position the other stuff first to determine where it would end up.The bonnet inner fenders were alu.and all messed up also.

So again to start putting it back together I had to start with the doors.I had a little help from a friend to strip them down.Only to find out the metal skeleton inside bottom half was duffed and of course the skins were to be replaced. :rant:

NASTYZEN · Mar 1, 2011

joeswamp said:
Man I wish had the skills to do 10% of what you can do. This kind of skill is the automotive equivalent of being a virtuoso musician. Where were you trained? (If you don't mind me asking) -- people that can undertake this level of work are not exactly a dime a dozen.

PS I was of course just kidding about the big tub of Bondo ...

Thank's Joe,I guess being born with the knack of building stuff is it for the most part and falling on the right mentors is the other.
I learned to weld in high school and never looked back I guess.After that it was the school of hard knocks.When I worked in other peoples shops I had the good fortune to have older skilled guys take me under there wing and teach me what they knew.I always respected and had a good attitude towards these guys and when you gobble it up,the mentors love showing usually.I mean gobble in an intellectual way of course. :lol_hitti

To make these inner fender I built a plywood fixture off of the original that you can see in picture no.114 and went to it.This wooden fixture is reversible so as to make the opposite side symmetrical.I used my English wheel and shot bag to recreate the suckers and tig welded the bits together.

NASTYZEN · Mar 1, 2011

More inner fenders and the home made English wheel I use.
:beer:

NASTYZEN · Mar 3, 2011

By this time I came across some production contracts and had rented a building down the road for lack of space in the home shop.I also was up to 5 employees. :wtf:

These were stressful and expensive times!

johno · Mar 3, 2011

Very nice, I am always envious of someone with body panel skills.

LARSOFVT · Mar 4, 2011

Is the car still in Ontario or PQ today?

In the Ian Fleming novels James Bond mostly drove a Bentley but I recall in the book "Moonraker" Bond drove a DB-3.

NASTYZEN · Mar 14, 2011

johno said:
Very nice, I am always envious of someone with body panel skills.

Thank you,it's a noisy messy affair.

LARSOFVT said:
Is the car still in Ontario or PQ today?

In the Ian Fleming novels James Bond mostly drove a Bentley but I recall in the book "Moonraker" Bond drove a DB-3.

This project went threw the door 10 years ago.It could be anywhere.
I've yet to see a three grilled DB-2 in a Bond movie.

Spent a little time scanning again.For all of you to enjoy.

NASTYZEN · Mar 15, 2011

So as to keep the electrolysis to a minimum I taped the metal to Alu.contact areas with the highest quality electrical tape I could find before crimping the new skins on the metal frames.
And now it was onto the passenger side.Again first thing is to fit the door before starting to replace all the surrounding areas.
Hours of pleasure!
:lol_hitti

MP&C · Mar 15, 2011

NASTYZEN said:
So as to keep the electrolysis to a minimum I taped the metal to Alu.contact areas with the highest quality electrical tape I could find before crimping the new skins on the metal frames.

How are the AL skins held in place, just the crimp? I remember the Triumph Saloon I worked on had brad nails going into wood to attach the body skins, just curious how it's done here with the two different metals.

NASTYZEN · Mar 15, 2011

The only place that uses copper nails is the strike plate latch area witch also has some garnishing's nailed to it and the top of the doors has some bits under the window,but someone else did that part.There's also some wood on top of the frame under the floorboards.The rest is just simply crimped on.

NASTYZEN · Mar 16, 2011

Some more.

NASTYZEN · Mar 17, 2011

And now for the back end of the car.Tack welded the boot to the body so as to keep everything together during repairs.

NASTYZEN · Mar 17, 2011

More back end.You can see the factory seams from the inside shots.

LARSOFVT · Mar 17, 2011

NASTYZEN said:
This project went threw the door 10 years ago.It could be anywhere.
I've yet to see a three grilled DB-2 in a Bond movie..

As far as Bond movies go, a few Astons appeared over the years but nothing older than a DB-5.

NASTYZEN · Mar 18, 2011

Now that all the main body work was done it was now time to fit it to the chassis or what I call dry fit, before priming.At this point it was also time to fit the suspension bits.

NASTYZEN · Mar 18, 2011

Forgot to include a pic of the boot with the license plate before so here it is.
So now onto the hood or bonnet I think is what the English call it.Again had to strip it of paint to see what lay underneath.Also had some sort of hellish black coating all over the inside. OMFG! :shocking:

Same story as the rest of the car.Needed much TLC!

johno · Mar 18, 2011

NASTYZEN said:
Now that all the main body work was done it was now time to fit it to the chassis or what I call dry fit, before priming.At this point it was also time to fit the suspension bits.

What's the coating on the chassis?

NASTYZEN · Mar 18, 2011

Zinc cromate primer.I bought a case of rattle cans.It's used on aluminium for priming it.Mainly used in aviation.It only has so long of a shelf life and I had so much, I used as much as possible on this project.It was overkill.

johno · Mar 18, 2011

NASTYZEN said:
Zinc cromate primer.I bought a case of rattle cans.It's used on aluminium for priming it.Mainly used in aviation.It only has so long of a shelf life and I had so much, I used as much as possible on this project.It was overkill.

I thought it looked familiar.

Restoring the good doctor's 52 Aston Martin DB-2

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