Click the above to jump to relevant section

NB Click on images to enlarge.

This page may be slow to load due to the number of images.

As already mentioned, Aston Martin car represent quite a large percentage of our workload, the following text and pictures show a good range of road and competition cars that have passed through our workshop over the last decade or so.

The famous Le Mans winner and second placed car after sympathetic body restorations, every effort was made to keep as much of the original lightweight bodywork as possible, and any new panels that were made, were of the same gauge materials, and fitted in the exact same way.

DBR1 rear end body frame, clearly showing just how lightweight this lightweight racing car was.

After receiving nose job !

Competition cars are by no means our only achievements, indeed, the road cars are the core of this business, and over the years, literally hundreds of these cars have passed through our workshop, some for accident repairs, but mostly for full body and chassis restorations, for which we have become world famous. Aston Martin owners on five continents have bought their cherished car to us for what we honestly believe, is the finest quality body rebuild possible.

A quartet of convertible Aston Martin's,  all having undergone complete chassis and body restorations.

When we undertake this type of restorations, the car is first of all, totally stripped to a bare shell, then the body is completely removed from the chassis frame, this then allows us to sandblast the chassis, to reveal its true condition.

On completion of the chassis rebuild, the whole assembly is then lightly, re-sandblasted, then powder coated, usually in satin black finish, this, we feel, is the most effective method of protecting the steel chassis from any future corrosion.

All the previously removed body panels are the stripped of all their paint, a local company carries out this operation, using tanks filled with an alkaline based chemical, this method not only removed paint, but also any body fillers, etc. that old car bodies tend to accumulate over the years.

Once the body panels are cleaned, they are then assessed to determine their condition.; replacement panels are then fabricated and fitted as necessary.
 

All body panels are fabricated in our own workshop, using our own body bucks and patterns, and tailored made to suit each individual car.

DB5 Shooting Brake

A Radford bodied DB5 estate, or shooting brake, as they were then called, this car was in very poor condition when we received it, and as a result, had a full chassis and body rebuild.

This car was then painted and refitted by a local Aston Martin specialist, to the very highest standard.

We have since restored another of these rare cars that was of a similar condition as the above car, along with a DB6 version.

At Bodylines we have been fortunate enough, to have had five out of the original nineteen DB4GT Zagato's through our workshop, these car are extremely rare and very desirable, and are one of my personal favorites.

All of the Zagato's received sympathetic body and chassis work, some requiring more work than others, but, as with all rare and historic cars, every effort was made to keep as much originality as possible, and the fitting of new panels, was undertaken, only as a last resort.

All new Zagato panels are made, where possible, using the original panels from that particular car as a pattern, this, we find, is the best way to achieve that original appearance, as no two Zagato's have exactly the same body shapes. Where this is not possible, we have to research original photographs and copy the body contours from them, as best as we can, as in the above right picture, where a new pair of rear wings were fitted, and the front arches were altered back to their original specification.

As mentioned earlier, road cars make up the majority of our workload, with DB4, DB5, DB6 and V8 being the most commonly seen Aston's in our workshop, literally hundreds of these models have passed through our hands over the years, thus, we have developed and extremely efficient system for the restoration or repair of these models.

The finished product.

Restored by GTC Engineering

A DB4 shortened to GT specification and fitted with GT front end.

Aston Martin cars date back a lot further than many people imagine, we have worked on many pre-war cars, the oldest being a 1924 1.5 litre, and then through to the 1930's, on cars such as competition Ulster's, various 2 litre Speed models, and Le Mans models. Many of these pre-war car bodies have been restored for Ecurie Bertelli, the world's foremost authority and restorer of these rare vintage Aston's.

The above pictures show various stages of the rebuild of a 1938 type 'C' Aston Martin speed model. This rare car which had lost its original body many years ago, involved many hours of research to obtain the necessary information to recreate it accurately.

The body frame was built, using information from an old page sized drawing, which was enlarged, using a giant Xerox copier, to its full size, almost fifteen feet long ! We then had very brief access to another of these rare cars, and we crawled all over it to obtain as much information as possible about the body shell, taking hundreds of photographs as well.

After over a thousand hours of labour, the final result was as satisfying to us, as it was to the customer, and equally pleasing, the regular appearance of the finished car at various race meetings, allows us to see the finished article doing exactly what it was originally built for.

The ex-Prince Bira Aston Martin Ulster, pictured above, was the subject of a sympathetic restoration, where every attempt was made to keep as much of the original body as possible, even though this can sometimes actually take longer than fabricating new panels. The whole body tub was removed from the wooden frame, and along with all the other body panels, they were sent to the dippers, to remove years of paint and grime. After the wooden frame was repaired, all the body panels were assessed, then repaired and refitted as necessary, the result, was a very famous racing car, still with a very high proportion of originality, but able to withstand the wear and tear of modern day classic car racing.

After leaving our workshop, the car was painted in its original racing colours, and then onto Ecurie Bertelli, where Andy Bell and his team finished the rebuild, ensuring that every detail was to the original specification.

We have found that over the last six years or so, that an ever increasing number of later models are appearing in our workshop, either for restoration, or accident repair, and we envisage that these cars will figure quite a lot in our future workload, and hence we are in the process of tooling up for these cars to an even greater extent, to enable us to offer a comprehensive repair facility.

Only seven of the above Lagonda's were ever completed by the factory, two of which, have been in our workshop during the last two years, the car above, however, was actually number eight! The chassis was built at the factory, along with the front end panel assembly, and two rear door frames, but the car was never finished, and the chassis was eventually sold off. Recently, the chassis and all the remaining original parts were reunited, and with the full blessing of the Aston Martin factory, the present owner commissioned us to finish the building of the body.

The chassis, still in its original red oxide finish, was sandblasted and then powder coated to give it ultimate protection against the elements, the original front end panel was then cleaned and fitted, we then strayed from the original body specification and built an Oscar India style rear end and bonnet, this being the preference of the owner. After this, both doors were skinned and new brass window frames were fabricated, this now left the distinctive front grille assembly, after taking patterns from another Lagonda, the grille was then fabricated and fitted, exactly the same as they were 25 years ago.

CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO PORTFOLIO