That old car smell is back! 1970 Aston DBSV8

Got the brake and clutch master cylinders installed.

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Starting to put the fuel tank etc bank in. Got the fuel tank in and went to reinstall the fuel tank sending unit and realized it was rusted into one position. Maybe I could fix it but as Aston Engineering has them I just ordered a new one and installed it. Aston Engineering in the UK is a great resource for parts. Highly recommend them. Here are some pictures.

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Removed the fuel injectors and sent them out to be tested and cleaned.

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Hello, very nice looking DBSV8, where did you find it? I too have one, 1971in San Francisco, where are you?

 

Hello, very nice looking DBSV8, where did you find it? I too have one, 1971,in San Francisco, where are you?

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Beautiful DBS you have there! Thanks for posting.

I bought mine at the Bonhams Greenwich Auction. Bonhams is selling off a huge collection of cars from the middle east that were on static display and not started for a decade or so. From what I can tell, there are a lot of different marques in the collection but an excessive number of Astons. There were probably at least 10 Astons in the auction where I bought mine and they are selling off some of these cars in every in person auction and some on Bonhams' online auction site The Market. The Greenwich sale had two DBS, my V8 and an inline 6 DBS. I don't know how many cars were in the collection but I'm guessing at least 500 as Bonhams has been selling them off over several years and they are still going.

I'm in Maryland. I think the big challenge in getting my car running is going to be to get the mechanical injector pump working. Everything else is going slowly, but fairly smoothly.

Thanks for the encouragement.

 

You are not too far away from Steel Wings, maybe they can help you. Yes, I do know about Bonhams and their middle east connection. I've been to 2 of their auctions in Monterey the past 2 years and have seen a few DBS, along with other classics. Most need help but yours looks pretty nice. My DBS V8 was one of the 32 sold new in the USA, in NYC. I have some photos of it in the early 1990's at a dock in Europe when it was sold to a German. It has Maryland plates in one of the photos and it was originally brown. It left the USA with a 440 Chrysler engine and after I purchased it from the consigning dealer in the Netherlands in 2015 I had an LS3/4L65e drive train installed, and some other upgrades. It was painted British racing green in Germany and I have photos of it in the body shop during the restoration. I belong to a loose group of DBS owners, both here and abroad, that are in an email group called DBS Chums. Most everyone in the group is in the middle of restoring their DBS so much info,
questions and knowledge is being discussed. The person that is overseeing the emails is Andrew Day in the UK. He and Tom Mulhall, who lives near me, started this group a few years ago. If you'd like to join this email group here is Andrew's email and tell him Philip from San Francisco sent you.
Andrew Day [email protected].
Cheers
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Philip,

Great information. Thank you very much. I will join the email group now.

 

Great thread. I would love to add a DBS or early V8 to the garage. One day, one day
Back in the mid 80's I walked past one nearly everyday, and every time I just had to stop and stare for a few seconds.
Thanks for the updates

 

Finally got the rear calipers installed. Waiting on new brake and clutch reservoirs before refilling the system.

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One other piece of the brake system needs rebuilding, the proportioning valve. It's in the line for the brakes going to the rear. They get gummed up pretty badly and are always neglected. I remember your car from when Dan Hussey had it in Henderson, Nevada. I have a manual 1973 AMV8 with the Bosch mechanical fuel injection engine, the model after the DBSV8.

 

Great point. I will look into that. Thanks for posting. Yes, the car was in Nevada. Do you remember what color the car was then? I believe it was repainted around 2008 or 2010 in England.

Thanks.

 

It was originally Platinum (White) when it left the factory. When Dan had it it was a pinky/red colour.

 

Thanks. The records I have show the original color as platinum as well.

I'm still working on getting the car running. Just got the dash back from the upholstery shop and new brake reservoirs from Aston Engineering. I am going to look for the proportioning valve before filling the brake system with new fluid. Thanks again.

 

May be easier to rebuild the proportioning valve than source one. There have been a few different styles over the years. Also make sure to change all the rubber brake hoses, they collapse from with and cause the brakes to bind.

 

Thanks very much for your help. I already replaced the rubber brake hoses, there are only 3. I found the proportioning valve, but haven't removed it yet. Sending it out to be rebuilt is probably the way to go. Thanks again.

 

Dash top is back and in.

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Change all the brake bleed screws over to speedbleeders, makes it much easier to bleed the brakes. To get all the air out of the system front and back have to be bled at the same time, the master feeds to separate front and rear brake circuits. Also make sure the brake boosters are working properly, they often start to leak internally and the brakes get really heavy as there is no vacuum assistance.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login Sent the proportioning valve out to be rebuilt and installed new brake reservoirs. Going to get some speedbleeders as well.

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One last thing to check, make sure the one-way vacuum valves are working correctly. Also ensure the vacuum lines to the hvac controls are connected and not leaking. If any of the above are faulty you'll find the brakes really heavy as there is little if any vacuum assistance occurring.

Roo
www.v8vantage.com

 

Thanks again. Still waiting on getting the proportioning valve back from the rebuilder and trying to determine the correct threads for the speed bleeders. Once I get the proportioning valve installed, should be able to take a shot at bleeding the brakes and then its on to the fuel system and cooling system.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login Couldn’t get the bolts off to remove the fan and clutch. Very difficult to access and too tight to remove with an open end wrench. I tried different things and nothing worked and this was preventing me from removing the water pump so I could send it out to be rebuilt. Finally, used an air hammer. The nuts didn’t survive, but it worked.

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They don’t make them like this anymore. BMW water pumps I have replaced have always been plastic. This one weighs a ton. No plastic.

 

That must take some serious courage - what happens if the studs break?! Does the whole engine have to come out to drill them out and replace? Looks like they survived?

 

The studs were part of the water pump, not the engine although, the studs you see sticking out of the engine are just threaded in so you could probably unscrew them and replace them. I tried hitting the nuts with a hand chisel first, but I wasn't making any progress. Also, the air hammer worked better with a lower air pressure, which also made it less likely to damage anything else.

 

But yes, you are right, I was worried about it. I spent months trying to find a wrench that might work and trying other things, but nothing worked and it was starting to slow progress on the car. It really wasn't bad at all, should have used the air hammer months ago.