Looks like there will be quite a few of us with the v12v s grills

 

Yup, installed last night!!












Interestingly, I had some installation issues with this in that the lower prongs did not meet up with the mounting holes. They lined up, but there was about a half inch gap. I needed longer bolts and spacer washers to get a "clean" mount. Other than that, I am happy with my grill.

Funny, but I'm still not sure whether I like this as opposed to my all black, 6 slat grill. I guess I'll hold on to my 6-slat grill just in case I want to go back to the original look.

 

Did you buy the grille from Aston or aftermarket? The installation parts should include 2 black 12mm spacer washers that are supposed to go under the prongs.

 

Also, when are we going to see pictures of your entire car?

 

Eureka! I got mine from vcollection. Other than that, the part fits perfectly. So there's nothing wrong with it.

Do you know the part numbers for the spacers? I would love to maintain authenticity? (edit: The part No. is AD43-5435-AA; available from Astonbits or Scuderia)

I did upload pictures of the car, but prior to the mods going in. Will it be okay to provide pictures of the entire car once I complete all the mods over the winter, or would you appreciate pics as I go?

 

Karlfranz, just curious but did you use the left and right brackets to mount your grill?

 

When the shop installed my grill (I was going to DIY but last min change of plans), the mechanic told me none of the spacers and screws for mounting weren't the right ones (length, fitment etc) and he had to use his own.

 

I ordered the genuine grille from my dealership and I asked them to make sure all the mounting hardware was included in my order. I used the spacers under the prongs with the longer bolts as well as the left and right brackets. I'm not sure why you would ask if I used the brackets. I can't imagine installing it without using them as there wouldn't be enough support.

The brackets and hardware were aluminum silver in color so I painted all of it in matte black so it doesn't show behind the black mesh as much. I also painted the Italian air horns I added in matte black for the same reason.

 

Perhaps there is a difference between the V-Collection grille and the OEM part.

 

This statement confuses me. You say you want to maintain authenticity so you buy an aftermarket grille and then want genuine mounting hardware?



Would be nice to see progress of your car as you go along. We haven't seen pics since you've done a few things to it.

 

Yup, you've got me there. That is a bit of a contradiction, innit!





Okay, I'll see what I can do. However, there's not really much to see. So far, I've installed the glass switches for the glove box and the seat releases. I've also installed the alcantara gear shift, as well as a trunk mat.


Black window surrounds are being shipped, which I should receive tomorrow. I'll be installing those once I figure out how to get mine off the car.


I believe there is a difference between the vcollection grill and the Aston Martin grill because my grill is firmly in place, plus I cannot see a clear location to which the left and right supports would attach to my grill.

 

The brackets attach to the outer mounting holes used by the slat grill. There should be tabs on the 10 & 2 o'clock positions of the grille (assuming they copied the OEM one correctly). It takes one screw to attach each tab to the bracket and two screws to attach each bracket to the car.

Also, there are a ton of screws under the window weatherstripping that hold the window moulding to the car.

 

There are no tabs at the 10 and 2 o'clock position on the vcollection grill. I guess this is a wrap, apart from order the 20 mm spacers.


Ok. This is good to know. I guess, I'll be removing the inner door panels to get this done. My thought is that I should download all the tech manuals for the car so as to remove any ambiguities with respect to assembly/disassembly.

 

A few weeks ago I found a left and a right clear tail light on two separate sources from E-Bay. Just installed them myself this weekend, it was interesting to take out the old red tail lights because it appeared to be two separate styles of mounting - perhaps there was a slight fender bender in the past!

Also I had to do a little inventive modifications because the was some oddity in the mounting posts coming from each light - all appeared to be Aston Martin parts.

In all I have about 2 1/2 hours into it and all the lights work fine - no error codes on my 09 Vantage.

Total cost under $400.

I'll do the seats (extra padding and diamond pattern) in February - the shop says it wants 4 weeks time (approx $2,500), and the new tires (20") when winter is over (thus I don't care about winter flat spotting).

When I take it in for inspection to extend the warranty another two years I'll also likely have the dealer replace the muffler with something a bit louder.

 

My winter projects include:

-Complete piano black interior trim, waterfall, center console and arm rest
-Glass switches on waterfall, center console, glove box and seats
-Bright finish a/c vents, window and seat switches, silver speaker mesh
-Clear front and rear bumper lights
-Switching current clear tail lights with new units that are also clear but have a black border