OK, I was envious: 2008 Aston Martin Vantage V-8

[richy]

I've been lucky or perhaps spoiled by some of the amazing cars I've been fortunate enough to work on. Not many however would I actually want in my garage. Until now. Until this car. I was called by the gentleman who was a referral for the guy whose car is on my business card. I told him I was booked into August and he replied that he had hoped that he could have the car done very soon. (That's not going to happen I thought). So I made the mistake of asking him what kind of car it was...he had me at "hello", LOL. I've been waiting to do an Aston as they are my favourite car. So, I agreed to work on it during the week after getting home from work each day. It was going to be a wheels-off, Finest job so I knew I had my hands full for the time available to me. It ended up being a mistake as I had to work on it on the Wednesday night until 1:30 am and then only got 1.5 hours of sleep before work the next day. It wasn't seeming like such a brilliant idea then!

Here it is as it arrived to me. Swirls in every panel. I was about to find out how hard the paint on these things is too. Oh, and by the way, for a James Bond car, he had the perfect plate and allowed me to keep it visible in my online posts:











It was hard to capture the swirls in the late day sun:

















I was looking forward to getting my hands on these gorgeous red calipers!





First up was the wheels. I don't think the barrels had ever been cleaned since 2008. I was trying different things in my arsenal to get them clean:




I used Tarminator on the barrels and the brush was just disgusting. It seemed like I removing a lot of crud. Maybe I was, but wait till you see what they looked like when I removed them AFTER cleaning them while on the wheel!

The faces were shot with Zep Citrus and Megs HW with a brush. The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the wells with LATA. The barrels were followed up with Zep Citrus after the Tarminator.

The car was washed with Megs HW and then a decontamination wash consisting of IronX paste. It was clayed with a clay towel afterward and blown off by my Master Blaster. Here's what the paint looked like under my lights:







I still didn't think it was going to be too bad. Live and learn.


First up however was pulling one wheel at a time and then intensively cleaning it (the awful barrels) and the caliper and the well. I was going to be coating the plastic wells with DLux for him, so they too needed to be really clean. Here's what a barrel looked like after me cleaning it while on the car. I hate to think what it would have looked like had I not used Tarminator on it earlier!





Seriously, you would never know the barrel was silver! I spent 2 hours per wheel to clean again, and coat with Finest the face, barrel and caliper as well as coat the well. My usual time is 1-1.5 hours. Everything on this car was going to take longer than it should and this was just the beginning. Here is is after being cleaned:





And now after being coated:






Here is what the coated well finished out like:








I really fell in love with the gorgeous red calipers. Finest made them look dripping wet too:





Here we are with the wheel back on and the tire shot with Opti Bond. Looking much better now I think.








Now it was time to play with the paint. It became immediately apparent just how hard it was when the 3401 + HD black wool + M100 wasn't really doing much. I ended up mixing M100 and M101 again for more bite. That did it, but sometimes it needed several passes. It was really slowing me down, but I wasn't settling for less than the results I wanted. My friend Art came over one night and snapped off a shot of me in action:





That stage was followed by a white CarPro Gloss pad with Essence. The flake was now exploding off the surface. After polishing, the car was coated with 2 coats of Finest and the trim was done with DLux. Here are some inside shots:














The lines on this car are stunning!





Metallic zoom from inside:

















Wear it proudly baby!!!





Outside metallic close up:





Wheels looking fabulous outside:























I went a bit pic crazy and I skipped quite a few but thanks for enduring. Comments as always are welcomed.

[usmcpab]

I always love the before and afters on wheels, especially since I hate doing wheels. This turned out really great though. I bet the customer was ecstatic. How was that next day after 1.5 hours of sleep?

[dewoof01]

Nice job, love Aston Martin cars they have a style no other brand has.

[Aaryn NZ]

Wow Richy!

Awesome post first of all! Very enjoyable. Ha, I didn't even know this was metallic paint, I could've sworn it was just a solid white. Unusual colour too, must say, I have never seen a white one down here & in my opinion - YUMMY! I have however had the pleasure of polishing a couple of Astons before & both silver & black had extremely hard paint.

Anyhow, beautiful work as usual Richy, all the loving attention you put in is clearly visible!

Aaryn NZ.

[richy]

I always love the before and afters on wheels, especially since I hate doing wheels. This turned out really great though. I bet the customer was ecstatic. How was that next day after 1.5 hours of sleep?

Oh, boy, it was rough, but I was able to crash for an hour on my lunch hour which made a big difference. Yes, he was very happy and says he has several friends with Astons...so who knows where this will lead?

Nice job, love Aston Martin cars they have a style no other brand has.

Yes, I totally agree. Fusion, you should be very jealous, LOL.

Wow Richy!

Awesome post first of all! Very enjoyable. Ha, I didn't even know this was metallic paint, I could've sworn it was just a solid white. Unusual colour too, must say, I have never seen a white one down here & in my opinion - YUMMY! I have however had the pleasure of polishing a couple of Astons before & both silver & black had extremely hard paint.

Anyhow, beautiful work as usual Richy, all the loving attention you put in is clearly visible!

Aaryn NZ.

Thanks so much Aaryn! I'd own a white one in a second if I could afford it.

[FrankS]

Outstanding work as usual Richy, thanks for sharing.

[fly07sti]

Oh ya, That's my grown up car! Very classy yet very tough. Nothing like working on a car that you like to make it fun. Whatcha smokin there buddy?

[Sizzle Chest]

Very nice! Great write-up and pics!

[SirTanon]

Literally my favorite car - My "if I ever win the lottery" car. You did amazing work on it. You're a lucky man.

[richy]

Outstanding work as usual Richy, thanks for sharing.

Thanks very much Frank!

Oh ya, That's my grown up car! Very classy yet very tough. Nothing like working on a car that you like to make it fun. Whatcha smokin there buddy?

Thanks so much Don! I think it might have been one of these:
Our Famous Torpedo Maduro 93 Rated

Very nice! Great write-up and pics!

Literally my favorite car - My "if I ever win the lottery" car. You did amazing work on it. You're a lucky man.

Thank you very much! That's funny because that's exactly what I said. It'll never happen for me as I don't buy lottery tickets.