00:00It is a very, very beautiful Aston Martin, probably one of the best DB Mk3s in the world.
00:16My name's Nigel Woodward, I'm Managing Director here at Classic Motor Cars and I'm sitting
00:20in front of this Aston Martin DB Mk3.
00:23This car is a fantastic car.
00:26It was bought at auction in 2015 for way over its estimate at the time which was £30,000-40,000
00:32and actually it sold for a little over £100,000.
00:35The car was in barn find condition, it was clearly in need of a total restoration.
00:39That comes as no surprise to us, we've restored a lot of cars over the years, 4,500 hours
00:45of work have gone into it.
00:47We have a very fixed process for restoring cars, there's the sort of historical research
00:51part right at the beginning of the process.
00:53Then we strip the car down to its component form, every last nut, bolt and washer, the
00:58body and the chassis are separated, they're cleansed of old paint work and corrosion and
01:02we work out how we would best go ahead with the restoration.
01:07It was in such poor condition that we've had to effectively make a new body for the car.
01:13The body was the hardest part of the car to restore because of the nature of the clamshell
01:18bonnet.
01:19They're a coach built car, hand made from aluminium and we've had to replicate much
01:23of that original coach work.
01:25It's the last of an era, it's the last of a coach built separate chassis Aston Martin.
01:31Aston Martin built 551 of these cars in the late 1950s, it has a WO Bentley designed engine,
01:37it's a wonderful thing to drive.
01:38Here we are in the cockpit, it feels like I'm sitting back in the late 1950s.
01:43The car's equipped with an umbrella handbrake as they're known, so a bit of a throwback
01:47there to the pre-war years.
01:49We've included a radio in the restoration, the car was actually supplied with a HMV radio
01:53when it was new which would have been quite an unusual, luxurious addition to the car
01:57in its day.
01:58This is a slightly later radio that we've put some modern internals into.
02:02Let's have a look under the bonnet of this Aston Martin at the heart of the car.
02:06To get there we need to open this rather substantial bonnet catch.
02:11This has had a complete engine rebuild, smooth running, sweet idle, gives good performance.
02:18It had a cast iron cylinder head originally, they were prone to cracking, this car's got
02:22a replacement.
02:23There's a number of things which are really satisfying points in the restoration of the
02:27car.
02:28I think the first time the engine starts.
02:36We do about 400, 500 miles of testing in a car that we fully restore.
02:40It's definitely one of the perks of the job, having the privilege of driving these lovely
02:45cars.
02:47Here's a nice tight roundabout, power out of there, oh what a lovely thing.
03:00I think we can call the engine response musty, falls away lovely.
03:05Its value today, I would put it something in excess of £400,000, it absolutely feels
03:10like a £400,000 car.
03:12This car is recently completed, I'm looking forward to handing it over to the customer.
03:16He's going to end up with a very, very beautiful Aston Martin and probably one of the best
03:22DB Mark 3's in the world.
Comments