For those of you who may have not seen some of the other projects/mods on my Aston on 6speed, here are the links to the threads where I posted about them in case you find them interesting. I have done several other mods, these are just the ones that I documented:

Porterfield Brake Pads
Back in the '90s I helped a company called Porterfield Brakes to develop the pad application for the Lotus Esprit. So I went back to them to help develop a solution for the Vantage/DB9 as well.

Ipod/USB/Bluetooth Integration
I didn't want to spend the ~$2,000US that Aston wanted for their iPod Integration kit, so I worked with a company called Dension to adapt one of their interfaces to the Vantage/DB9.

Piano Black Waterfall Facia
I decided to convert my metal finish waterfall facia to the Piano Black seen on many newer cars.

Custom Concealed Valentine 1 Radar Locator Install
I wanted to mount my Valentine 1 in a way where it would not be obvious from inside or outside the car, so I made a custom Alcantara-covered fiberglass maplight housing to conceal the unit and then mounted a remote display in the ashtray.

Blue Alcantara Interior Trim
The Obsidian Black and Phantom Grey interior in my car was a bit drab so I decided to spruce it up. Others had hired professional upholsterers to add some red trim, so I chose to go with blue Alcantara and, of course, learn to do it myself.

Alcantara Steering Wheel
I had a spare steering wheel lying around after buying an extra one on eBay in order to add cruise control functionality to my car. So, time for another project and what better than an Alcantara wheel in blue to match my previous project? I also added a DBS Shifter during this time too. It shows in the pictures, but I didn't document it.

Some of my photography for the Aston Martin Book
Thanks to some of my connections, I got to spend a day learning automotive photography from the great Tim Wallace. Tim is the official photographer for Aston Martin, Bentley and many other great marques. Here I show some of the pictures I created for an Aston Martin book I did called "L'Art de la Vitesse" using the skills I learned from Tim.

Other Links about my Car Photography
My Buddy, Scott Kelby, introduced me to Tim Wallace (mentioned above). Scott is the best selling author of technology books on Amazon and runs a media empire that includes online training and a bi-annual event called Photoshop World which educates tens of thousands of people each year on different types of photography and the tools of the trade. Scott wanted to take pictures of my car and he documented the results on his daily blog.

Carbon Fiber Mirror Covers
Why buy Carbon Fiber Mirror Covers when you can spend hundreds of dollars teaching yourself how to do it yourself?

Ghost Stripe
I put a blue brushed metal stripe on my car using car wrap vinyl. The result was a little "bold", so after a few weeks, I re-did it using matte gray aluminum film instead for a more subtle look. Pictures of both are here.

Whole Car Wrap
I saw a post by one of the sponsors called Impressive Wraps where they had wrapped an entire Vantage S in matte blue. It was gorgeous. Being the (sick) way I am, I decided, "Hey, I can do that!". Little did I know it would take me a month and a half!

Car Wrap Lessons
I decided to document some life lessons for those contemplating a car wrap on their own.


Other member's projects
I decided to create this section to add links to projects from other forum members who have come up with neat and unique mods to their cars.

DB9 Halo Lights
Member "dallasbaker" posted a very well documented procedure for adding halo lights to his DB9 and the results are impressive.

Hopefully these links will inspire a few more of you to take on a few projects as well. If you do, please document them and I will add their links to this thread.

 

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks you, good idea!

 

Great projects!

 

What a helpful guide. Thank you for putting this together for us!!

 

Great car. If it's not a secret ... What wrap did you use (make and color name)?

 

^^^^ No secret. Scotchprint 1080 Matte Metallic Blue

 

Karl,

This is excellent!

Thanks for sharing all the projects over the past couple of years. I've learned a lot just from reading your posts.

 

Karl,

Thanks for sharing . . . very valuable information. I'm considering getting a car wrapped. Does wrapping affect the paint underneath the car? Could it be used as a method for "preserving" a car's original paint?

 

As long as the paint is original and in good condition it will actually help to preserve it and will cause no damage. Keep in mind that if the paint has any blemishes they will show through the vinyl. If the car has been repainted, you run the risk that the paint might come off when you peel off the vinyl because there might not be good enough adhesion with the surface underneath. The product is similar to be clear bras people put on cars except that the material is much much thinner so it won't really protect it from stone chips. Also, it is applied dry whereas the clear bras are usually applied wet.

 

Thanks Karl . . . my car is black and a pain to keep clean. The paint is in fantastic shape and I was thinking wrapping the car might be a way to preserve the original paint while getting a more detailing-friendly color.

I also have to say that the color you did yours in is really spectacular (not to mention, the attention to detail). Now I just need to find a skilled shop in the NE to do the job!

 

Nice work! Thanks!

 

Awesome!!

 

KarlFranz!
Hi from Tokyo.

Big fan…thanks for the great info! I jumped into the Dension upgrade thanks to you. Your detailed walkthrough helped my non-english speaking installers complete the process.

Two questions:

1) Do you think 6" speakers will fit into the front door, with a little of cutting/and or creation of a new bracket? I'm missing a lot of mid/lows…and the 4" Focals aren't cutting it for me for modern music.

2) Would you be willing to create a pair of carbon mirrors? I saw you might have one or two pairs lying around!

Best,
Jeff

 

^^^^ thanks. Glad that my project posts are of service to others.

1) I don't think the door cards would allow a 6" speaker would fit without some serious cutting with I would advise against doing. Then again, I'm a fan of the Premium Audio, so what would I know.

2) I don't have any extra sets and it is way too time-consuming to do unless you're in the business of selling carbon parts which I have no interest in doing. Sorry.

Cheers.