1993 Aston Martin V8 Vantage gets Enhanced
This detail is an excellent example of my Enhancement Detail, where a huge improvement is made to the vehicle’s condition and appearance, without stretching to a Correction Detail.
This incarnation of the Vantage was produced in small numbers, just 239 in total between 1993 and 1998. 199 of them were like this, known as the V550, it boasts a twin supercharged 5.4 litre V8 producing a simple epic 550bhp and matching 550 lb/ft of torque! The last 40 made were V600’s, adding a further 50bhp to the engine’s output. The noise from the fairly small looking twin exhaust pipes is staggering, a rich, booming burble so distinctive to high performance V8 engines. Back in the day, it was the fastest road car Aston Martin had ever produced, they claimed 176mph top speed, but independent tests at the time achieved in excess of 200mph, still a real Supercar benchmark today.
Sitting in the car it’s obviously no stripped out track warrior. The interior is extremely plush and comfortable, expensive hide and walnut covering everywhere you look, perfect stitching wherever panels meet. This particular car is even rarer for it’s automatic gearbox, not that it blunts the performance!
Outside the car, two things are immediately striking. Firstly are the unusual headlights, each containing three separate lenses. A really anorak point of note is that these are square, which points to originality. Later cars had round lenses, and availability of the original square units is basically zero, so if any early car has receives any damage, it would have to be rebuilt using round lights. The other thing you can’t help but notice are the positively massive brakes! The front discs are 362mm in diameter, the largest ever fitted to a road car when this was new, and gripped by chunky looking 4 piston Brembo calipers. Good job too, this car weighs 1990kg so takes some stopping when it’s on a charge!
Finally, the price. Brand new in 1993, this car cost an eye watering £190,667 so it remained the choice of he well heeled connossieur. There is no doubt that modern Aston Martin’s are some of the most beautiful cars ever made, but for me, you just can’t beat the presence and atmosphere created by this muscle bound monster.
On with the detail. As mentioned, it was booked for a one day Enhancement to get it clean and try and restore some life back to the very flat looking paintwork. this car spent some time abroad in a very hot and humid climate, and I think that is quite telling in the paintwork.
As always, I started by giving the car a good pre-soak, followed by a careful wash using lambswool mitts. Whilst kept under cover, it does live in London and gets heavily contaminated in the urban environment. After washing, the contaminants on the paint were dealt with using a clay bar, the paint changing from exceptionally rough to silky smooth as the dirt was pulled from it’s pores.
Once dry, I used a halogen lamp to inspect the paintwork and found the reason for the dull appearance, it was in terrible condition!
With a limited amount of time available in the one day, and a lot of paintwork to cover, I carefully chose a polish that would allow me to make a significant improvement to the paint’s appearance, without having to follow up with further time consuming passes to refine any polishing marks. I taped up section of the bonnet to make an assesment, and the difference can clearly be seen below.
While the deeper scratches still remain, you can clearly see the massive difference made – the paint once again looks properly green, the colour deep and rich with a good gloss compared to the wing and unpolished bonnet section. Happy with this, I continued around the car in the same way.
Taken without a direct light source, below you can see the huge enhancement in the paint’s appearance.
The driver’s door looked terrible in the light, replicating what it would look like outside on a sunny day. Once polished, whilst not perfectly defect free, the paint now reflects the light cleanly and the beautiful colour is clearly visible.
To reach my deadline I had to really push hard. Once the polishing was finished, I went back around the car applying Swissvax Cleaner Fluid to each panel to prepare it for wax, and once completed the wax chosen was Best of Show, known for the fabulous wet look it imparts.
Wheels were treated with Autobahn wheel wax, tyres with Pneu. The stainless steel exhaust pipes were polished, and the glass cleaned. Inside, the carpets were vacuumed and the acres of leather cleaned then conditioned.
Now finished, I actually ended up with a few minutes spare whilst I waited for the owner’s assistant to meet me and inspect the car.
I’m glad to say the owner’s assistant (and subsequently the owner) were delighted with the result, a full correction detail is likely to be booked in later in the year.
Testimonials
“I would definitely recommend anyone to use Shine On regardless of marque, Paul is a genuinely nice bloke who has the rare attributes of actually loving his job and doing it to the best of his ability (bordering on OCD). I personally plan to use this service at least every 8months to keep the cars looking at their best.
And to top it all off…..even my wife commented on how and I quote ‘amazing’ it looked, that testimony alone is worth its weight in gold!
Andy (M3 and Battle Bus!)”
