Her Majesty's DBS Progress: August 2020 Update
Gebruder Gumbold
San FranciscoPosts: 549MI6 Agent
Dear AJB Friends,
Work has been slow, but progressing in the right direction.
With any restoration of this nature, especially on a hand built car, there will be times when you must go backwards in order to go forwards, and every job takes over twice as long as you thought it would take, and costs 3 times as much! Such is the path that I am on, and I wouldn't have it any other way. If it were easy, then it would not be a satisfying project...
Yours truly having just a spiffing time with a die grinder, inside the wheel well. Charming place to visit!
The Bond car featured this lovely spark plug holder. After years of searching, I was lucky enough to find one that matches the factory one, and some NOS Champion N9Y spark plugs. Always thought the spare plugs on the firewall was a lovely idea, hearkens back to an earlier time.
This is where the money goes- the fit of the grille, and the indicator lamps. The angle of the lamps, the gap around the grille, the gap around the lamp housings- all must be consistent and flow. I have about 30 hours into that area, and it will pay off in her smile...
Made my own wiring harness, converting the car to negative earth, and fusing all circuits separately, whilst saving those fiddly Lucas switches by uitlising modern relays to carry the load, and those switches will now only ground, or earth, the relays. Originally, they ran some heavy current through the power window switches, and failure was high. My rebuilt switches ought to outlast me now! All cunningly hidden under a fold of carpet.
Some lovely interior pieces re-covered after modifications had to be made. Good thing I ordered extra leather a few years ago- from the same dye lot. Important thing to remember if you ever take on a project such as this.
That is Connolly leather- smells the part!
Drawing board to cardboard to aluminum! Stone guards had to be fabricated to fit the bespoke sharksnose.
My metal guru made these lovely air ducts, all in aluminum. Note the screen to keep out naughty critters.
The DBS never had these, and I have taken apart one car that had a little family using the heater box as a condominium!
Remember the "Going Backwards" bit? Here we have a broken seat rail. Take apart the seat, machine up a special nutsert, weld it in, paint, reassemble. The owner of Grace Slick's old DBS is a woodworker, and he made me a lovely wooden seat covering to match my original one, which was disintegrating. I love a car that has wooden bits, so romantic.
Here's why projects like this take forever: I discovered that the S1 DBS cars had these little boot spring covers made of aluminum, and my later ones were plastic. So, I borrowed a set off old Grace's car, and made some. 15 hours later, I am off to the upholsterer's, then back to collect them, then over to drop off the original set, after test fitting. Will it ever end?
Even the oval head SS screw with 2,9MM cup is correct.
And now for the Main Event: after over 10 years of searching, I finally was able to purchase this extremely rare set of Cibie 3670021 Dip (Low) Beam 5 3/4" H1 lamps, with the correct yellow bulb covers. The DBS chassis #5234, registered GKX8G was ordered from the factory with "French Lighting" by Eon for OHMSS. If you watch the Blue Ray version closely, you can just see those yellow lamps, especially in the beach scenes. That car has the "GB" plate on the left rear valance panel, clearly visible in most of the Portugal scenes.
The other car, chassis #5109, Registered FBH 207G, had the clear Lucas Halogen lamps, for left hand traffic.
(This is the car used for the final scene)
My restoration is to the Portugal spec, wit the AR-7 and French Lighting, so it was a huge win for the project to find these treasured headlamps. They are absolutely correct, even the down to the date codes.
That is the good news. The bad news is that, even though they are NOS (New Old Stock), and have no pitting, there is still corrosion from over 50 years of storage, so it is off to the rebuilder in hopes that they don't crack the glass during removal. Or that UPS doesn't lose them, or that Customs won't beak them during inspection...
Please keep your fingers crossed for an uneventful refurbishment of those precious lamps.
That is all for now...back to work, you've no idea how it's piling up!
Cheers, Tom
Work has been slow, but progressing in the right direction.
With any restoration of this nature, especially on a hand built car, there will be times when you must go backwards in order to go forwards, and every job takes over twice as long as you thought it would take, and costs 3 times as much! Such is the path that I am on, and I wouldn't have it any other way. If it were easy, then it would not be a satisfying project...
Yours truly having just a spiffing time with a die grinder, inside the wheel well. Charming place to visit!
The Bond car featured this lovely spark plug holder. After years of searching, I was lucky enough to find one that matches the factory one, and some NOS Champion N9Y spark plugs. Always thought the spare plugs on the firewall was a lovely idea, hearkens back to an earlier time.
This is where the money goes- the fit of the grille, and the indicator lamps. The angle of the lamps, the gap around the grille, the gap around the lamp housings- all must be consistent and flow. I have about 30 hours into that area, and it will pay off in her smile...
Made my own wiring harness, converting the car to negative earth, and fusing all circuits separately, whilst saving those fiddly Lucas switches by uitlising modern relays to carry the load, and those switches will now only ground, or earth, the relays. Originally, they ran some heavy current through the power window switches, and failure was high. My rebuilt switches ought to outlast me now! All cunningly hidden under a fold of carpet.
Some lovely interior pieces re-covered after modifications had to be made. Good thing I ordered extra leather a few years ago- from the same dye lot. Important thing to remember if you ever take on a project such as this.
That is Connolly leather- smells the part!
Drawing board to cardboard to aluminum! Stone guards had to be fabricated to fit the bespoke sharksnose.
My metal guru made these lovely air ducts, all in aluminum. Note the screen to keep out naughty critters.
The DBS never had these, and I have taken apart one car that had a little family using the heater box as a condominium!
Remember the "Going Backwards" bit? Here we have a broken seat rail. Take apart the seat, machine up a special nutsert, weld it in, paint, reassemble. The owner of Grace Slick's old DBS is a woodworker, and he made me a lovely wooden seat covering to match my original one, which was disintegrating. I love a car that has wooden bits, so romantic.
Here's why projects like this take forever: I discovered that the S1 DBS cars had these little boot spring covers made of aluminum, and my later ones were plastic. So, I borrowed a set off old Grace's car, and made some. 15 hours later, I am off to the upholsterer's, then back to collect them, then over to drop off the original set, after test fitting. Will it ever end?
Even the oval head SS screw with 2,9MM cup is correct.
And now for the Main Event: after over 10 years of searching, I finally was able to purchase this extremely rare set of Cibie 3670021 Dip (Low) Beam 5 3/4" H1 lamps, with the correct yellow bulb covers. The DBS chassis #5234, registered GKX8G was ordered from the factory with "French Lighting" by Eon for OHMSS. If you watch the Blue Ray version closely, you can just see those yellow lamps, especially in the beach scenes. That car has the "GB" plate on the left rear valance panel, clearly visible in most of the Portugal scenes.
The other car, chassis #5109, Registered FBH 207G, had the clear Lucas Halogen lamps, for left hand traffic.
(This is the car used for the final scene)
My restoration is to the Portugal spec, wit the AR-7 and French Lighting, so it was a huge win for the project to find these treasured headlamps. They are absolutely correct, even the down to the date codes.
That is the good news. The bad news is that, even though they are NOS (New Old Stock), and have no pitting, there is still corrosion from over 50 years of storage, so it is off to the rebuilder in hopes that they don't crack the glass during removal. Or that UPS doesn't lose them, or that Customs won't beak them during inspection...
Please keep your fingers crossed for an uneventful refurbishment of those precious lamps.
That is all for now...back to work, you've no idea how it's piling up!
Cheers, Tom
Comments
Had a hell of a scare today: my engine and carburettors, distributor, and all gaskets and spares are at Q's Workshop in, of all places, Boulder Creek, Ca, which is burning wit the fires here!
Fortunately, the home and shop are OK, however, Ken and his family have been evacuated and are living in a hotel in Santa Cruz. There are 6 Astons stored there, only 1 was able to get out. The cheap, leftist government there replaced the water mains some years ago with PLASTIC pipes, which , you guessed it, melted right away, and more houses burned. Unbelievable! The poor residents will have to wait and extra 2 weeks before water is restored, which means that the Sherriffs will not let them inhabit their own homes with no water. A complete red tape nightmare.
Bottom line is that I am thanking the Aston and Bond gods for saving Ken's shop and my engine.
Best wishes to all of our Bond brothers, wherever you may be.
A close call Tom. Very sad to hear of the plight of local residents and businesses. It just seems a case of luck as to if and how badly one is affected by these, ever more frequent disasters. (We all remember the fate of PB's Vanquish..
It gets better. Turns out that a local councilwoman, you can imagine the type, diverted funds meant for the water main upgrade to open a yoga studio, which failed, and also burned down.
You cannot make this up!
Of note also is that the SF Auto Show will most likely be either postponed or cancelled, as the mayor of that towne is also left leaning, and I hear tell that the Moscone Centre had become a homeless shelter.
The largest exhibitor, the SF Art Academy, has both auto museums boarded up with steel plates, and their staff had been let go, as enrollment in the AA had dropped off considerably. The docents are gone, and it is doubtful whether they will be bringing any of their cars to events until after the rioters and vandals have been crushed. I had a very sad conversation with one of their managers of the museum.
I just cannot imagine a Thanksgiving without the SF Auto Show.
Suppose I will have to spend it with my cousin Mildred and her 14 cats. Oh dear.