V600 Cat D

[marky1]

Does anyone know this car? Any views on it? I have seen a pic of the damage. Front drivers side.

https://www.runnymedemotorcompany.com/Cars/Details...

[marky1]

Thanks everyone for the input so far. I'm no expert by any means on these cars. I thought the interior looked very different, so it's not original basically. I would want to go into this with my eyes open given the Cat D. I'm not sure where it was repaired.

[marky1]

HPI check is showing it as a Cat C write off which I understand means more substantial damage that Cat D. Does that change things much?

[marky1]

Thanks everyone for the info. Will give this one a skip.

[marky1]

Jon39 said:

An interesting conundrum.
With the benefit of hindsight, now that we know the present day values.

New wing, new front panel, bonnet looks repairable.
Owner pays, no insurance claim, no damage category permanent marker.

Increase in present day value probably far more than the repair cost (inflation adjusted).

What do we think the value difference would be, for a perfect car versus a Category car?

I’d say around 80k?

[marky1]

I don’t suppose anyone would have any info on this one? Google search of VIN shows nothing really. Is the Automatic less desirable?
Out of interest can a V550 still be sent back to Aston to be upgraded to a V600? (Apologies if that’s a stupid question). I really don’t know a lot about these cars but really want to try to find a good one, ideally in LHD too. Thanks everyone.

https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/1996-aston-mar...

[marky1]

Thanks for the replies. Anyone know how feasible (and costly) would be to have it changed back to Manual?

[marky1]

DickyC said:

RS Williams are probably the people to ask. They were involved in the development of the car.

Just as an update. Spoke to them today. Near impossible to do unless you have a manual car that wants to swap to auto. They also said parts in general can be very tricky to the extent they won’t work on these cars for new clients anymore. As an example they mentioned impossible to get new ECU’s.

[marky1]

Sorry just to be clear I am not saying it needs a new ECU to convert. They just mentioned that parts are getting hard to find for these cars, one of them being ECU's.

[marky1]

It’s a valid question. In 25 years will it matter as much. I’m keeping an eye too, let’s see.

[marky1]

I think your assumption that it wasn't AM Works is correct. I have not been able to find out who did the repairs so I suppose it wasn't someone "well known".

[marky1]

Thanks guys! Yes looks like I will soon be the owner. I’ll keep the thread updated as things progress. I live overseas in a LHD market so I’m not really sure what I’m going to do. I am in the UK occasionally. First job will be to send it somewhere to get checked out and sort out any work that needs done. I can’t say I’m not nervous, bought unseen etc but let’s see how it goes.

Thanks to everyone on the thread that gave help and opinions. It’s what Pistonheads is great at.

[marky1]

Apollya said:

I would suggest first port of call should be an after purchase inspection from a specialist. Have it properly checked out to make sure no massively hidden gremlins lurking, if there is something serious, you can then provide a report proving it is not as described and save yourself a ton of pain and financial loss.

I’m not really following you here. You mean go back to the vendor and ask for a refund?

[marky1]

Apollya said:

marky1 said:

Apollya said:

I would suggest first port of call should be an after purchase inspection from a specialist. Have it properly checked out to make sure no massively hidden gremlins lurking, if there is something serious, you can then provide a report proving it is not as described and save yourself a ton of pain and financial loss.

I’m not really following you here. You mean go back to the vendor and ask for a refund?

No Marky, saying congrats and hope all is well with it. But saying do the due diligence, if there is something serious that was not detailed and disclosed that would mean you didn’t want the car despite being sold at auction there is recourse. Sold as seen still has to have an honest descriptor for any contract to be valid.

Ah got you thanks. Yes I totally agree and that’s the legal view I have, despite being sold at auction the description has to be accurate. If something major appears on a post sale inspection there is recourse. I also spoke with the vendor on the phone before bidding and he provided me a lot of comfort. Nothing major was mentioned, said the underneath of the car needs a decent clean up etc. The car will be going to Nicholas Mee for a post sale inspection and they will have a good look over it to check no major issues.

[marky1]

anyoldcardave said:

Calinours said:

Absolutely. Probably absolutely zero to be worried about for a Cat D marker from 18yrs ago on a 30yr old car. The marker is likely just an unfortunate consequence of insurance company involvement in what in many other instances might have been a simple minor accident repair. There will be many tens nay hundreds of thousands of cars running around out there with no insurance ‘marker’ but concealing vastly more serious and badly repaired damage including to the chassis.

Cat D. Buy cheap, know you will sell cheap. Simples.

This, most 30 year old cars have had some work, even if not recorded, and the longer ago it was, the better.

Particularly if there are no signs of recent work in the same area, and no signs of poor repairs have reappeared, would rather buy those than fresh restorations, unless it is a documented specialist restoration, but then it comes with a price tag to match usually.

You can have it inspected, and the marker changed to adequately repaired or something along those lines, it is never removed completely, and even if it was, these days it would show in historic checks.

The longer the marker is there, and no signs of shoddy repairs appearing, the less it will affect the value, they ain,t making them anymore.

Thanks for the advice. With time I’ll have a look into this and whether an inspection can be done and the marker changed to adequately repaired.

[marky1]

Time for an update on this.

The car was collected by Nicholas Mee and has been with them a few weeks now.

The first item they looked at was the crash repair and their opinion is unless you were aware of it you'd not notice the repair, it has been done to a very high standard. I still do not know where it was done but we have established that a blue V8 Volante that had suffered heavy rear end damage was used as a donor for some of the parts needed. As an example the paint surrounding the headlights is actually blue, and this area will be repainted.

That's the good news. The bad news is there are, as somewhat expected, a lot of jobs to do. The main one is the car needs a new clutch and this alone is £9,000. There are then loads of minor items that need to be looked at/repaired. Here's a list below for anyone considering buying blind at auction this might be a good way to put you off! Total cost to solve all these issues, including the new clutch will be around £35k. I'm still happy I bought the car as with the £92k purchase price I think I will be in for under £130k. I could leave some of the jobs but the car will most likely be exported out of the UK so I would rather they all just got dealt with now.

N/S Rear Tyre out of date
N/S Rear wheel minor corrosion
O/S Rear Tyre out of date
O/S Rear wheel minor corrosion
Replace all 4 wheel centre emblems
Change Brake Fluid
Top up Antifreeze
Front Lights - Front Hazards not working
Front lights, LHS front indicator not working
Reverse lights not working
Rear Lights both number plates dim, fix.
Refurb all 4 wheels.

Wipers Washers, knocking, arms dicoloured, washer intermittently not working. Investigate knocking sound from wipers, Replace wash/wipe stalk.

Instruments - Supercharger boost gauge erratic, oil pressure gauge erratic, one alarm key fob not working, SRS airbag light showing, investigate and fix all.

Heating/Air con not working, investigate and fix. Knob missing from heater control panel, front heated seats not working.

Vaccum pipe split from heater control valve to underside of intake plenum chamber

Body Condition - see report
Replace corroded fixings to front grill
Clean up door striker plates
Remove non standard rubber seal to underside of bonnet
Refit air intake seal correctly

Supply and fit LHD headlights

Heated windscreen large area not working - no further action.

Front and Rear Disc and Pads slighlty worn with slight surface corrosion - servicable.
Notes 2 Powder coating suspension coming off, surface corrosion in places underbody protection failed. Clean, rust treat and locally touch up areas of flaking and poor underseal to underside of vehicle.

Door weather strips, replace.
Corrosion to upper corner of doors, paint.
Slight movement in seat runners. Fix
Seat hingle plastic covers adrift. Fix
Gear knob fallen apart. Rebuild
Veneer panels cracking various places. Leave for now.
Rust in various under bonnet areas
Scuttle panel trim cracked. Replace
Replace under bonnet insulation pad
Resecure front firewall heat insulation material
Investigate under bonnet light being inoperative
Interior map light lose in roof console. Fix
Bonnet release handle lose.
Fuel flap fixings rusty and drain holes blocked. Fix
Boot weather strips. Lid difficult to close.
Replace both boot lid support struts
Left and Right door card map pockets adrift, reattach. Seat switch veneer surround lose on RHS, Resecure both door map pocket sections and seat switch surround panel right hand side
Exhaust. Catalysts damaged. Centre silencer damaged. Rear exhaust silencers not sitting properly. Fix.
Oil Leaks - replace differential pinion oil seal.
Supply and fit Ctek tail.
Check handbrake efficiency.

Paintwork Rectification, rear lower valance, both headlamp mounting pods, both door frames, front bumper
Fix a few stone chips dotted around the car. Specialist to come in and air brush to improve appearance
Trim Work - to be discussed.

[marky1]

And more importantly, more pictures :-)

[marky1]

Edited by marky1 on Monday 9th September 11:33

[marky1]

Calinours said:

I'd advise going through Nick Mees list with a very fine tooth comb, you can probably shave that bill by up to a half by using Aston Engineering Derby.

Then I'd be inquiring about conversion to LHD - if you are exporting to a LHD market the Cat marker will disappear and the car may be worth much more in its new home market in LHD form.

The big bill you will swallow could almost completely offset by the change in value. Also far better for you with the wheel in the right place for where you live.

You might find that if you go for the LHD conversion, many of the jobs on your list could be done simultaneously dropping the price somewhat.

Best of luck - and great to hear that the repair has been done properly. Obviously keep hold of the bit of paper from Nick Mee that says that...

Interesting idea on the conversion but whilst the Cat marker would perhaps legally disappear nothing else changes. There is little point in hiding the history of the car. You could do a conversion and any buyer doing research would know that chassis number 3 was once in an accident. In my view I have nothing to hide, I'm going to get the car brought up to standard and enjoy using it. Being RHD does not really bother me as I may use it in the UK sometimes.

With reference to Nicholas Mee and Aston Engineering Derby, I am sure the latter are great too. Nicholas Mee were very helpful before I purchased the car and gave me lots of information and help on these cars in general. I had a couple of very long chats on the phone with them to discuss different options. I did call a couple of other places, one of which didn't want more work.

[marky1]

Stick Legs said:

These cars are so rare that people discuss them in terms of chassis number or build number there is little point in going to any effort to 'tidy up' the history.

The best thing you have done is to get the seal of approval for the repair from Nicholas Mee.

This flags to the wider Aston Martin community that the car is 'sound' and that lays it to rest.

The previous owner would have been well advised to have done the same, but then we wouldn't be having this discussion!

Yes totally agree. The story above from DickyC just goes to show how many of these cars have probably been in accidents. The history of this car is there for everyone to see, it doesn't bother me or worry me.