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Gen 1 DB9 Nose Skid Plate Solution...and an offer!
We all know how steep driveways and parking blocks are an Aston Martin's curse, so many of us install skid plates under our cars' chins to absorb some of the punishment. I bought a polyethylene skid plate from eBay about seven years ago, and it's helped.
There are a couple of things I never liked about it, though: it looks cheap (you can see the leading edge of the plate at the front of the car, and you can see how it was roughly sawed to shape); and it emphasizes the "wavy" profile of the bottom of the "chin" (see Steve McEvoy's skid plate video on Aston1936.com to see what I mean). It cost me about $145 seven years ago, and it bolts into existing holes (once you remove the existing screws).
I decided to cut a piece of .190 aluminum - basically 3/16 inch - to the exact shape of my original skid plate and add a piece of Edge Guard to give it a finished look. The aluminum cost about $90 and the Edge Guard was about $30 for 25 feet, which was obviously about 21 feet more than I needed. If you don't want to cut your own metal, there's a franchise called Metal Supermarket in more than 100 cities nationwide where they'll sell you your aluminum and cut it for you for an extra cost. Either way, your skid plate should cost less than $200 all-in. So here's my offer: if you want to make your own like mine, I'll send you my original polyethylene skid plate so you can use it as a template for cutting the aluminum and drilling the mounting holes. The only thing I'd like from you is to pledge to do the same for anyone else who wants to do it after you're finished with it. So, in other words, you become the "keeper of the template" until someone asks you to send it to them, after which they inherit the responsibility. I'll cut the polyethylene skidplate into a couple of pieces and duct-tape them together so they can be folded and easily shipped, but it'll still work perfectly as a template. By the way, I'm pretty sure that my plate will only fit the 2004-2008 DB9.
If anyone wants it, PM me... Original eBay polyethylene skid plate for Gen1 DB9 on top, aluminum version on bottom.
Aluminum Gen1 DB9 skid plate with Edge Guard added to leading edge.
Front view of my Gen1 DB9 with aluminum skid plate added. Note that the plate is only about 43" wide and doesn't run from wheel arch to wheel arch. And I WILL straighten the bottom of the chin where it's become a little deformed!
