great story to follow

 

Oh man, that's gonna look so sweet! Where did you source the trunk. Love it!

 

SpeedRcer800 seems to have a knack for DBS type items. I think he has a hood now that is perfect he wants to sell, but not sure. I can't afford another item for now, so no hood .

BUT...... Stripping the paint, priming, painting, etc..... a hood is not an easy job to get done and its a lot of real-estate to have painted flawlessly so will wait on that one.

 

Ok guys, When I was home in June I took care of some of the projects that I had waiting on me.

1. Install new floormats from exoticare.
2. Install new BC Forged RZ21 20" wheels
3. Install 2013 DB9 GT Trunk lid
4. Get my denison sorted out
5. further perfect my paint with additional paint correction

I did install the mats and they look great. I will be posting pictures and diving onto each of these points in separate posts.

Pics below of floor mats----GREAT quality, easy to clean and didnt seem to mar with shoes at all, even with days of rain

 

The night of my arrival I had to immediately install the new wheels. I had my father get the Continental Extremecontact Sport tires fitted. I had a choice between the Michelin PS4 and the Continental Extremecontact Sports. Both are brand new versions of their best tires for our cars. The Conti's rated in tests the same or better in all areas except turn-in for dry conditions. The PS4's are supposed to have slightly better turn-in, but for me that says track usage not necessarily going around a bend on a road or turn at a light. Likely not noticeable. The Conti's are slightly better at wet handling, and are quieter. So there you go- for a total of $370 in savings why not try them. I have used them on all my Mercs including AMGs, but have also tried and loved the PSS's. So hard decision, but thought why not.

PS----they are great, great grip, quiet, great wet driving, and sidewall seems firm.

The wheels are BC Forged RZ21's. BC worked with me to get that particular design to work on my car. They had never made that design on a wheel larger than 10" wide. I needed 10.5 in minimum. So they looked at their design the offsets and tried it and it worked magnificently. We choose to go conservative on the builds and what would look great for anyone and would fit the car no matter what. I will cover offsets and sizes with pics on next post

 

I was running OEM AM Vantage S wheels in 19" at 8.5 fronts and 10 rears, using 235/40/19 fronts and 275/35/19 rears. Fairly standard for the cars but a tad wider wheel at rear. They looked no different than any other non DBS stock wheel. However, we ran 8mm spacers in back and 10mm in front. This appeared to be much better than stock, but still not out far enough. So for the BC Forged we decided on:

Front---9.0in wide 20" tall
Rear--- 10.5in wide 20" tall
Tires:
Front---245/35/20 in keeping of the speedo staying as close to OEM as poss
Rear--- 285/30/20

First pictures are side pics showing the offsets of the OEM Wheels

Fronts


Rears


OEM Vantage S wheels w/ diamond cut face and gunmetal grey painted backs

 

Here are the pics for the BC Forged wheels.

I absolutely love these style wheels on AMs. I personally think they are the best and I have mostly seen HRE P101's. I WAS NOT spending 12k on a set of wheels. Well I guess I might have if BC Forged didnt make these for me. Their pricing is wonderful and very very well worth it. Under 5k with tires for me was the ticket. I had sold the OEM set for a fair price with M PSS's with only 3k on them one day after ordering the BC's. So was very happy.

Front Offset:


Rear Offset:


Side Shot:


Rear Shot:


Total view:

 

OK now onto the trunk lid exchange. As you can see in the picture directly above this post, the V Collection trunk lip is modeled or molded directly off a DBS trunk lid scoop. In making for FRP or Carbon Fiber parts a lot of manufacturers cannot get the exact look or size due to shrinkage of the molding material as it dries, and then the part not quite being correct. V Collection has done an extremely good job on the FRP part, and I am sure their CF one is on the money also. In talking with REDPANTS (Rich) we decided that a CF front LIP as large as the V COLL S2 design is, possibly or planned on CF mirror covers and the V Coll rear DBS diffuser the lip should be painted black and not be CF due to standing out too much and obviously looking like a stuck on part rather than a OEM type lip. So we decided on that lip. I have always wondered if the actual DBS or DB9 GT trunk wouldn't look so much better, but at a cost of 3-4k plus the parts it was just too much money.

However, SPEEDRACER800 came up with the trunk lid at a very reasonable price. Pictured below.

I had this handled over to a body guy (friend) who sanded it down, strengthened a few areas inside it where the CF was thin, and primed and painted it the OEM Fast Track JET Black. I also ordered the new third brake light, license plate and trunk lid opener bracket, 2x AM Wing badges with Black background, the new DB9 trunk wiring harness and one or two other things. I planned to transfer the carpet underneath, the trunk latch, leather strip, and all hinges.








Well now problems. I put all the new parts on the new decklid and started to remove the carpet on mine, and noticed right away the carpet holes were NOT going to match up at all. Then noticed under mine there is a thin sheet with the radio antennae in or on it. Problems.

1. Do I continue? Well I got the wiring harness completely on the new trunk with all wired up, all the parts on it. Now to figure out how to snake the wire from my window mounted third brake light out to the trunk for connection to the new light. Then I noticed the plug for the wiring harness.

2. Notice the different plugs. One round, the other not so round. Sorry only have the pic of the one IN THE car. But the new one is rounder, and they both have different color wires and wire amount in them. I think the antennae wire is not in the new one, and I couldn't decipher what the others were specifically. Wasnt worth the effort at that time.



So I returned the leather strap to my bootlid, put my carpet back on, closed the lid and smiled and said time to go drive.

I then wrapped the trunk up with all new parts except badges (DB9, AM wings) on it, and said things were going to have to wait.

1. I might be willing to sell the trunk lid, (its totally prepped for rough sanding then new paint if someone wants it, its perfect, no chips etc......
2. It has all the parts needed for install on it except the carpet underneath and whatever AM wings you want. It will swap with hinges etc...

3. If I don't sell it, then what i need to do is order a underneath carpet, and take the whole thing to a possible Audio Installer maybe? Someone who can trace the wires, cut both or one locking wire connector off, then splice the appropriate wires together. Shouldn't be difficult, just take a bit of time. Which I didnt have.

My DB9 from what I can gather is a very rare car. Not only is it a 6-spd manual in black on black, but its an 05 model year. From everything I have read on the cars, AM didnt offer a manual transmission in the DB9's until the 2006 model year. So either mine is special, or they built just a few 05's with them at the end of the year for special customers. Mine was celebrity owned as it turned out. So IMO the car should remain as much OEM as possible for value down the road. That doesn't mean it can't be modded, which it has a lot, but only as much as can be done, where returning it back to OEM factory is still simple. Mine is, as I have all the parts in storage if ever needed to change back. Even if this trunk lid is done, it still can be changed back.

I never got to the paint correction part. I decided to just enjoy it, its close to perfect anyway.

 

The car looks great with those 20" wheels!

Regarding the wiring harness, someone might be able to unpin the improper connector and transfer on the proper one, if that makes sense. When those harness connections are made, the pins are normally connected to the wires individually and then each one is inserted into the molded plastic connector. With the proper tool the pins can sometimes be removed. I have done this on other cars in the past. I was able to locate the plastic connector and swap it onto the harness I needed to run. See if there are any part numbers on the original DB9 connector that might lead you to a replacement.

 

That sir was going to be my first objective IF this project continues. As you know where I am, I am only home 2 weeks at a time once to twice a year. So hard to have things lined up. But, for a bit more than 3k I would sell and ship all the trunk bits and just keep the lip. I am happy either way, but it might be 2-5 years before actually trying to install the trunk. All depending job, and then sailing around the world starting in 2019. The real debate is where to store the car for the sailing time, if it happens. Parents are possibly buying condos so no garages. Mustang likely will be sold, but keeping the DB9. I don't think I could ever easily replace it with a car with this certain pedigree. (colors, history, mods etc....) If I ever sold it SPeedracer800 will buy it back. He had me promise to offer it to him first. Of course I would have to raise that price a bit.

 

She is a stunner! How is the panel gap with te new trunk lid? Perfect fit?

Just curious because they are all hand build so not perfect

 

I NEVER installed it completely, so not sure. I was assuming normal? Even if off just a bit, shouldn't be that noticeable unless your looking for it. The trunk is LIGHT, obviously due to CF, but it was surprisingly light. If your interested in it for your car, let me know through PM. No need for it to sit in the garage, or be lugged around when parents move.

 

December 2017---

New 2013 trunk lid carpet, new antennae film for under neath, and new BLACK AM wings are ordered and should be there at home by the time I get there.

1. Will detail the trunk swap with pictures in multiple posts. I plan to splice wires into the extisting trunk wire plug and add wires to connect to the new trunk. that way one day The splices can just be removed.

2. I am waiting on a few Denison parts to round out the connection to that part

Will update then

 

Additionally:
Will be doing either in Dec or in Feb a full paint correction. I plan on most likely 50-75hrs of work on the whole car. Everything will be covered with pictures and processes.

For the paint correction I plan on doing around 5-7x Threads in total covering sections like:
1. Basic Washing Techniques and Equipment
2. Identifying what your car needs for protection and the different ways to protect it
3. Prepping your car for polishing
4. Polishing your car to correct marring, swirls, scratches
5. Protection and how to apply various products
6. Protecting trim, wheels, undercarriage, wheel wells, and interior bits

That should cover in depth all that is needed with very explicit instructions.

 

Looking forward to learn more... Thanks