I thought I'd start a little thread to keep as a diary of what I do/what happens to my 2009 MY 9DB.

I've been an owner for about 3 weeks so far having come from a highly modified 996 turbo with nearly twice the HP of the Aston, but I'm very pleased with the purchase.

I don't wan't to do anything drastic with this car but a few subtle mods to improve it and individualise it will keep me satisfied.

First up, here's a picture of her:



First up was an annoying flap of interior hood trim



This turned out to be a broken cord attached to the hole at the bottom. I simply bought some cord and crimps, made another length and attached it to the spring in the hood frame, just like the other side.




Then it was onto a little paint correction - I got her up on the ramp and used a DA with various Menzerna compounds until I'd corrected the paint. Then I coated with Poorboys paste wax:




After this I took the wheels off, coated them all with Gtechniq wheel armour and decontaminated all the wheel arches.



Now onto the first 'mechanical' modification - The car understeers and I want to dial it out as much as possible. The Volante's until MY09 did not have a rear ARB from the factory so I can only imagine how un-sporting they feel.

The DBS anti-roll bars are much thicker than the standard DB9 items and stiffen things up considerably so I bought both front and rear ARB's and installed them:

I took the rear tray off, removed the existing ARB, wire wheeled the rusty bits of the subframe and covered them in anti-rust paint (not an amazing job as I was short on time), then refitted the new ARB and bushes.


You can see the difference in thickness between the roll bars



Then I did the same at the front:
Removed the billion bolts holding the under tray on


Undid the ARB brackets before removing the bolts at the drop links

Then swapped them over and buttoned it all back up.

The difference between the thicknesses of the two front ARB's is even greater


After this I've installed the CC exhaust valve remote and the Bovee 1000 bluetooth thing.

I'm very pleased to say the ARB's have improved the car dramatically. I've got a few more things in the pipeline over the next few weeks / months too. At which point I might slow down a bit!

Cheers

 

Congrats on the new car. Looks like it's getting lots of attention which is great. Keep posting the updates

graze

 

Interesting. Looking good.

Regards,

 

Very nice - nice paint. I would be curious about the sway bars - that would be a nice add.

When you say color corrected, what do you mean? I have some chips in my paint that I need to take care of as well as remove the brake dust - looking forward to changing the brake pads when it is time.

 

Paint correction is where there are loads of swirl marks or holograms in the paint, easily seen on black paint in direct sunlight. The correction process is using different grades of polish (compound) to reduce the clear coat by micrometers, thereby removing the swirls and scratches and leaving a mirror finish.

 

Next up, secondary decat.

I used a local exhaust fabricator, they made the pipes from scratch and fitted them all for about £300 inc VAT. A little bit more than I was expecting to pay but I'm happy.

The sound is now much better. Still not intrusive, especially with the valves closed, but when pushing on its a huge improvement.

 

Next up I fancied an improvement on the plastic key. There's a firm in England who advertise on the AMOC FB group and they take the plastic key, put a small glass end cap on it and spruce the rest of the key up. I contacted them and got a quote for this plus glass keys. They wanted £750... I was glad I was sitting down!

Not surprisingly I decided against that and found a brand new glass key on eBay which I managed to get for £400. Still a freakin' fortune for a key, but better than the alternative.




So then I started the process of disassembling both the new and the plastic key and transferring the circuit board and chip from the plastic into the glass unit. The whole thing took about 15 minutes being very careful.









I'd also bought a DBS key pouch to prevent the new key getting chipped etc. Its the little things...

 

Is there any programming required if you swap the circuit board to a new crystal key?

 

None at all, as far as the car is concerned you're still using the plastic key.

You must swap over the little microchip which is separate to the circuit board and in the case itself though, otherwise it won't work. You can't miss it. 👍🏻

 

I've been annoyed with the state of the bright grille since I bought the car and knew I couldn't live with it for long.




So with us being in Lockdown in the UK I thought I'd have a go at repairing it instead of paying £800 + VAT for a new one from Aston.

I took the grille from the car, removed the bars from the uprights and sanded them down to bare metal. It appears that the bars are solid aluminium which have been chrome plated. The plating oxidises and once it has happened is irreversible.




Then I went up through various grits of sandpaper before polishing on a wheel. Here's a before and after


Where the magic happens:



Then its a case of coating with a protective liquid - I used a product from 'everbright coatings' which provides a clear barrier and prevents oxidation of the polished aluminium.

Pop the bars back in



Then put back on the car. The uprights are really fragile so I've had to come up with some sort of fix which I'm waiting to fully cure - hence the cable tie.


Not bad for £0. Once the slam panel goes back on the result will look brighter as there won't be as much reflection.

I think all bright grilles will need some sort of refurb at some point, so if anyone wants an idea of what can be done, here it is. Other options would be to re-plate it chrome (£200 iso), paint it a different colour or buy a new/used one. I prefer the bright coating and wanted to see what I could do myself, safe in the knowledge that if it went wrong I could always just get it plated anyway.

 

Finished the fitting today. Pleased with the result.