A Brief Return to Normality

2014 was a return to a more normal year of driving and generally enjoying AMV whilst attending some summer events, albeit we knew that more major work was not far away.

Bath Motor Club Aquae Sulis Tour – July 2014

A colleague was involved with organising events for the Bath Motor Club and persuaded us to take part in their annual Aquae Sulis tour. This involved a scenic drive along a pre-determined route through the Somerset countryside, using a Tulip Map Routebook. What we hadn’t realised however, was that the route took in some very minor roads and lanes, to which AMV was not particularly well suited. The extend of this soon became apparent whilst navigating a lane with a very pronounced ‘hog’ in the middle of the tarmac, on traversing an undulation a very loud scrape and bang was heard from the underside of the car. After performing a visual check there did not appear to be anything hanging down or obviously damaged, so we were able to continue, but we later learned that the contact had in fact completely sheared one of the exhaust mounts. At the halfway point in the route, we decided that to protect AMV from any further harm we would opt to take to an alternative route to the ultimate destination, along some more suitable roads. Despite the less than ideal nature of some of the day’s adventures, a good day was still had by all, albeit that the organisers did wonder where we had disappeared off to in the afternoon!

Goodwood Revival – September 2014

Despite having been regular patrons of the fantastic Goodwood Festival of Speed for many years, we had not yet sampled the Revival and so decided that it was about time that we rectified that glaring omission. Predictably enough we were suitably blown away by another phenomenal Goodwood event, where the car park alone would constitute a superb turnout at pretty much any other car show. Naturally enough, whilst this may have been our first visit to the Revival, it certainly wasn’t to be our last.

Wedding Duties – October 2014

The family connection was to be further cemented in October, as my nephew William had asked if I would drive him and his best man to his upcoming wedding. This was because, echoing some of my own childhood memories, Will had fond memories of being taken to the local toy shop by my dad whenever he visited, which more often than not ended up being in the Aston. Naturally I said that I would be only too happy to oblige and so AMV came to play a starring role in another significant family event. I was particularly touched when I heard that my nephew had said that having AMV at his wedding made him feel like grandad was there as well.

This heartwarming comment did prompt me to think about how long I had been the custodian of AMV compared to my dad… I soon determined that it would take another 10 years before my custodianship surpassed that of my father’s.

In place in front of the Tythe Barn at Haselbury Mill before Will’s wedding - October 2014

Part of Will’s big day at Haselbury Mill - October 2014

Classic and Supercars at Sherborne Castle with AMOC - July 2014

Chew Valley Lake before the start of the Aquae Sulis Tour - August 2014

Mixing with some mighty Minis at the Thornfalcon Classic - August 2014

The Tax Exempt Car Park at Goodwood Revival - September 2014

Preparing for the Inevitable

During 2015, it became ever more clear that the engine was not going to continue for much longer without the long postponed engine rebuild. The increasingly dense clouds of smoke that accompanied any acceleration gave the distinct impression that all was not well. Compression testing during the annual service confirmed that compression had been lost again on cylinders 1 and 3, and so the decision was made, the engine would finally be rebuilt over the winter. Before that though, the differential was also in need of refurbishment, especially as it would be required to deal with substantially more power in the not too distant future. The diff was therefore duly removed, stripped down and rebuilt before the season began.

In the meantime, we fully intended to make use of the life that was left in the engine and hope that it lasted the season without any major issues.

Retro Fundraising Martock – July 2015

In July, we joined some friends with their classic Porsches to take part in the Retro Fundraising classic car drive through the Somerset countryside, (but fortunately not the really narrow lanes this time). A typically great turnout for this now much missed annual event made for quite the convoy of classics along the roads of Somerset. The trio of an AM Vantage followed by friends in their Porsche 914 and 944S must have made for quite the site on their own. Although after the drive, we did learn that our friends following directly behind us in their 914 had been leaving more of a gap than was strictly necessary due to the copious quantities of petrol fumes that we were leaving in our wake!

AgustaWestland Centenary Families Day – July 2015

July also saw the AgustaWestland helicopter manufacturer in Yeovil celebrating their own centenary year with a families day. Part of the celebration included gathering a collection of classic cars owned by some like-minded petrolhead employees, as well as a selection from Haynes International Motor Museum. Naturally we were happy to take AMV along to take part. Although when we spoke to the team from Haynes who had brought along the museum’s Dubonnet Rosso DBS Vantage, they did remark that they probably needn’t have bothered, especially as it had proven particularly reluctant to start. Perhaps it had been put off by the typically wet British summer weather we had on the day! Then again maybe it was as a result of not being used often enough. Like all cars, Astons really do like to be exercised regularly.

By the end of the year the time had finally come for AMV to have her engine rebuild. It was looking like 2016 was going to be another expensive year.

An Eclectic mix at the Haynes Breakfast Club - June 2015

A fitting location for such a trio of classics at a Wilton Wake-Up - July 2015

A fine looking convoy on the Retro Fundraising Martock - July 2015

Another great mix of classics at AgustaWestland Centenary Families day - July 2015

The Engine Rebuild – Winter 2015-2016

December 2015 saw AMV’s engine finally being removed in preparation for the long awaited rebuild, and the subsequent teardown process soon started to highlight just how overdue this actually was. The removal of the front face of the engine casing revealed that the mounting bracket for the timing chain tensioner had completely fractured, resulting in the tensioner itself simply falling off! This meant that the only thing that had been holding the tensioner in place, and hence the only barrier preventing a major engine failure, had been the casing. It also transpired that the friction material on the clutch was almost completely worn out, leading Nigel at Davron to remark that I certainly seemed to like getting my money’s worth.

The need for the engine rebuild provided the perfect opportunity to fit some further useful upgrades to AMV. The first of which was the hardened valve seats necessary to cope with running on unleaded petrol without the need for the continued use of lead replacement additive. The second key upgrade was the increase in displacement from the standard 4.0 to 4.2 litres, which would of course serve to provide a useful increase in power. Fortunately the majority of components, such as the larger pistons and liners, required to complete the rebuild were readily available, as this conversion is a popular upgrade for straight six Astons. Unfortunately however, the same could not be said for all of the gearbox components that required replacement, in fact one seemingly innocuous component in particular proved to be particularly elusive. Upon stripping the gearbox down it was discovered that an SKF needle roller bearing had lost several of its bearings. Unfortunately however it turned out that the bearing in question had not been in production for long and was particularly difficult to get a hold of. In fact investigations into sourcing a like-for-like replacement revealed that there were none available in Europe or the USA. Never one to be easily defeated however, Nigel eventually managed to find a warehouse that had a new old stock bearing available… in Australia! The arrangements were duly made and the bearing was shipped halfway around the globe so that it could be fitted to AMV’s gearbox. I also still have the original bearing as a memento of this particular part of AMV’s story.

Once the engine and gearbox had been removed from the car, the rest of the car was transported back to a hangar at Henstridge airfield, where a friend had kindly offered the use of some hangar space, and just as importantly his spare time, meaning that we could strip the remaining components from the engine bay and get it freshly repainted ready for the newly rebuilt engine. Sufficed to say that we had plenty to keep us occupied for the weekends during the winter of 2016. The process of stripping down the ancillary engine bay components, making sure that we fastidiously documented the removal of each component to ensure that we could subsequently re-install them, was both therapeutic and thankfully straightforward. Remarkably we only had one single sheared bolt during the entire process, no doubt helped significantly by the car always having been garaged throughout her more than 40 year life.

In addition to the required engine and engine bay work, some other elements of the car that desperately needed some renovation were the front seats. The foam material that had originally been used in the seats was disintegrating and had been dropping into the rear footwells over time, resulting in the seats becoming less and less padded and more and more uncomfortable. Fortunately Pipers Specialist Trimmers were once again able to come to rescue and agreed to cut brand new foam to fill the existing, (well patinated), seat covers. This was by all accounts a very tricky and time consuming process to achieve, and hence I believe that they are no longer amenable to replacing the seat innards without also retrimming the seats as well. The results of their efforts were however truly superb and AMV’s seats were once again transformed into items that were suitable to complete the grand tours for which she was intended.

Meanwhile, the engine bay had been freshly repainted with a coat of satin black paint and was ready to rehome the freshly rebuilt engine. Unfortunately, whilst the engine bay looked the part, during the process of actually refitting the engine it was discovered that the painter had failed to blank off any of the apertures within the engine bay before stripping back the old paint. As a result, the media blasting material had penetrated every exposed gap, duct, pipe etc. with 2 large plastic bags full of it being recovered during the process. Not only that but it continued to be expelled from the vents for years afterwards.

AMV’s engine and gearbox, removed and ready for the rebuilding to begin

Engine block, liners and pistons after tear down

Timing chain tensioner, complete with fractured bracket!

Freshly re-bored and re-lined block with new 4.2L pistons

Freshly rebuilt engine, ready to be reunited with the gearbox

Something seems to be missing! Time to start stripping the engine bay

Freshly stripped out and repainted

Freshly rebuilt engine reinstalled in the freshly repainted engine bay

Running the Engine In

AMV had visited a rolling road in order to perform an initial tune on the notoriously tricky Weber carbs. As it turned out, the freshly rebuilt engine soon proved that the power output was sufficiently healthy by shearing 3 of the spokes on one of the (original) rear wheels. Predictably enough upgrading such a key element of the car after over 40 years was clearly going to require other elements to be similarly refreshed. Fortunately Davron were once again able to come to the rescue and provide a ‘temporary’ solution in the form of a spare wire wheel, so at least I wouldn’t have another expensive job to do immediately… or as it turned out for some time to come. In the meantime however, it was time to start putting a freshly rejuvenated AMV to good use.

It may have been newly rebuilt, but it was still very much a traditional style of engine and hence required a proper ‘running-in’ phase in order to ensure that all of the new mechanicals were properly bedded in. This involved the standard process of limiting the RPM, trying to drive on a variety of roads and conditions, only going out for longer runs etc. etc. for 1000 miles, before returning for an oil change and once over to make sure that all was going well. None of this was a problem of course, however we had a trip to the Lake District planned about a month after the engine rebuild was complete and were planning to take AMV. This naturally meant that I had to fit the necessary running-in into quite a truncated time frame, hence I had to make sure to use AMV at every available opportunity. You would of course be quite right in thinking that this was no great hardship for me to have to ‘endure’, in fact I was very much in my element. The trickiest part was limiting my enthusiasm with the throttle, especially as it was very clear that the engine had well and truly been given a new lease of life and seemed very eager to be let off of the leash. However I managed to complete the requisite mileage and soon it was time to take AMV back for a check-up and fresh batch of oil.

AMV was once again ready for collection the day before we were due to drive up to the Lake District and seemed to be in rude health. I did notice that the throttle pedal seemed to ‘bounce’ slightly at the top of its travel after I lifted off completely, but I didn’t pay it too much attention. This turned out to be a mistake, albeit we weren’t to find this out until later. So blissfully unaware of what was to unfold, one fine Friday evening, we set off on the initial leg of our planned staged journey up to the Lakes. During the drive along the A303 I couldn’t shake the feeling that the performance didn’t quite seem as good as it should, then whilst climbing Chaddenwick Hill the performance drop-off suddenly became far more apparent. I found myself having to depress the throttle more and more just to maintain momentum up the hill, to the point the it was down to the floor by the time we had reached the top.

It was clear that we were not going to be progressing much further without some assistance, so we pulled into the services at the top of the hill and called Nigel to ask for some advice. Fortuitously, as we were within a few miles of Davron’s workshop, he asked whether we could make it the rest of the way so that he could meet us there. Unfortunately however AMV decided that was a step too far and just after crossing the A350, the throttle pedal dropped to the floor and the revs dropped to idle, she had clearly gone as far as she was going to go for the evening. Opening the bonnet soon revealed that the throttle cable input had become disconnected from the carburettor linkages.

Another phone call to the ever helpful Nigel to inform him of the latest development had him rerouting to meet us to see what he could do to help. Fortunately he was able to use the materials available in his car to jury rig the throttle linkage open to a constant throttle setting. This enabled the car to be driven and attempt to cover the remaining distance to the Davron workshop, albeit that the hills encountered enroute soon proved to be too much for the initial throttle opening. This necessitated another stop to readjust the throttle, meaning that the freshly run-in engine was now roaring away merrily whilst stationary. This did at least prove to be enough to enable the journey to be completed and we arrived at the workshop with no small sense of relief. Ultimately the culprit for this latest misadventure proved to be the throttle input linkage thread having become completely stripped, thus causing the disconnect between the accelerator and the linkage. Fortunately this was a relatively quick and easy fix to accomplish and AMV was soon raring to go once again, albeit clearly not for our trip to the lakes.

AMV parked next to one of the icons of American Muscle that helped inspire the original Willian Towns DBS design at Haynes Breakfast Club - August 2016