A DB12 - you just have to fix it

[Simpo Two]

Hope this hasn't been posted before - Mat Armstrong's 29 mile DB12 with a slightly modified front end...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LySKmMpWsQY&ab...

[a17thc]

Love watching his video's, a very strange story behind the reason for the accident, which I'm sure will be found.

[Simpo Two]

a17thc said:

Love watching his video's, a very strange story behind the reason for the accident, which I'm sure will be found.

I liked the bit where AM gave him the choice of spending £3,800 or using a hammer

I suspect it will need the latest version of AMDS to get it going.

[Jon39]

He was mystified why an insurer has dealt with the damage claim, before the car had been registered.

My theory is that the main dealer obviously has motor trade insurance, which covers all cars in stock (ie. including unregistered vehicles).

Only the drivers seatbelt tensioner was triggered, so presumably only one person was in the car at the time of the crash.
That probably rules out a demonstration drive.
Most likely to be a dealer employee (perhaps now ex-employee) who was testing the car after PDI and for an unknown reason, drove off the road into a muddy location (ditch?).

[leerandle]

The fact that some paperwork with the shakedown tests were still in the car possibly suggests it was still under AM/dealer ownership when crashed.
I'm sure that didn't go down very well with the proposed owner (Assuming it was already sold)
Lovely car and do enjoy watching his videos.

[Apollya]

Jon39 said:

He was mystified why an insurer has dealt with the damage claim, before the car had been registered.

My theory is that the main dealer obviously has motor trade insurance, which covers all cars in stock (ie. including unregistered vehicles).

Only the drivers seatbelt tensioner was triggered, so presumably only one person was in the car at the time of the crash.
That probably rules out a demonstration drive.
Most likely to be a dealer employee (perhaps now ex-employee) who was testing the car after PDI and for an unknown reason, drove off the road into a muddy location (ditch?).

Yeah to me was also clear dealer insurance, car was crashed, no cannot sell it to customer or repair and sell themselves so claim on their insurance.

As to the cause of accident I’m not sure, clearly it ended off road perhaps even in a ditch, but the damage in different areas threw me a little. It had damage to n/s roof but not all along the side nor n/s front and then the most substantial damage was to o/s front but again o/s side was fine..

I wondered if perhaps a it had come off the road with a trailer or even transporter damaging the n/s top and then impacting the o/s front with ground.

I want to know what actually happened now. He has many followers so perhaps someone will get in touch and fill him and the rest of us in.

[BiggaJ]

I like Mat Armstrong, he has a positive attitude to most things and just gets it done in a fun way. Not sure all his repairs are that good however, when he's repaired cars and then taken them to the main agent for them to check he usually gets an 8/9 out of 10! He has done this with a couple of Porsche's he rebuilt.

Not sure about the wheels he put on the DB12 but the rest looks pretty good.

[dxg]

BiggaJ said:

I like Mat Armstrong, he has a positive attitude to most things and just gets it done in a fun way. Not sure all his repairs are that good however, when he's repaired cars and then taken them to the main agent for them to check he usually gets an 8/9 out of 10! He has done this with a couple of Porsche's he rebuilt.

Not sure about the wheels he put on the DB12 but the rest looks pretty good.

For once, his choice of wrap (to avoid paint) is actually an improvement!

[FourWheelDrift]

Apollya said:

As to the cause of accident I’m not sure, clearly it ended off road perhaps even in a ditch, but the damage in different areas threw me a little. It had damage to n/s roof but not all along the side nor n/s front and then the most substantial damage was to o/s front but again o/s side was fine..

Nose into a ditch then it turns/pivots still with momentum on the nose with the car at an 45 degree'ish side on angle now hitting a fence post or tree/branch to damage the roof.

[WPA]

From the comments on YT

[Simpo Two]

WPA said:

From the comments on YT

A road test on a rainy night in Sports+ mode... that seems like a pretty good way to have an accident.

[Apollya]

BiggaJ said:

I like Mat Armstrong, he has a positive attitude to most things and just gets it done in a fun way. Not sure all his repairs are that good however, when he's repaired cars and then taken them to the main agent for them to check he usually gets an 8/9 out of 10! He has done this with a couple of Porsche's he rebuilt.

Not sure about the wheels he put on the DB12 but the rest looks pretty good.

I agree, like the channel and have spent endless hours watching the repairs, often he does do things pretty well on the whole, although clearly times he has bodged them like in this db12 case but I suspect that was only for time to try and meet the 24hrs.

I also agree his choices when it comes to body kits and often wheels are often not to my taste, but it’s also his choice to make. I very much like him showing that you can open up a modern engine and fix it, even if it’s a McLaren, Ferrari or Lamborghini, and more importantly that modern electrics are also fixable and modules can be replaced and re-coded to vehicle etc.

[Simpo Two]

Apollya said:

he has bodged them like in this db12 case but I suspect that was only for time to try and meet the 24hrs.

I view the '24 hour' thing as a silly stunt, like Anneka Rice. It's not necessary. He could do the work at a more sensible pace, do it better, and the video would still be the same length and just as watchable.

[Jon39]

Simpo Two said:

A road test on a rainy night in Sports+ mode... that seems like a pretty good way to have an accident.

A road test for more than just the car.
Rain, darkness, Sport+, is a perfect test for driver capability.

Failed at the first hurdle (ditch).
Don't call us, we will call you (as they say at auditions). -

[VantageHead]

Was anyone else amazed by just how much sikaflex sealant (Mat refers to it as ’Mansory Glue’ as it was extensively used in the Rashford Mansory RR Car) is used in the construction of a premium car like the DB12?

I understand that surface body panels are held on by this stuff (and also used alongside rivets for bonding aluminium chassis panels), however looks like it’s also used to affix structural items like the bonnet hinges? I glues it could make rebuilding the car much more messy, as this stuff has to be scraped off the old panels (rather than unbolting components). Apparently done for ‘lightness’, but also could possibly be seen as a ‘bodge’?

Also, double sided tape for holding on the fuel tank access panel? Bizarre!

Imagine the scenario of customer entering AML dealership - “Please can you make sure that my new £250K car is held together with double sided tape and glue”? Dealer - “Certainly - and there will be no extra cost (or discount) for doing this”!!

[JeremyH5]

VantageHead said:

Was anyone else amazed by just how much sikaflex sealant (Mat refers to it as ’Mansory Glue’ as it was extensively used in the Rashford Mansory RR Car) is used in the construction of a premium car like the DB12?

I understand that surface body panels are held on by this stuff (and also used alongside rivets for bonding aluminium chassis panels), however looks like it’s also used to affix structural items like the bonnet hinges? I glues it could make rebuilding the car much more messy, as this stuff has to be scraped off the old panels (rather than unbolting components). Apparently done for ‘lightness’, but also could possibly be seen as a ‘bodge’?

Also, double sided tape for holding on the fuel tank access panel? Bizarre!

Imagine the scenario of customer entering AML dealership - “Please can you make sure that my new £250K car is held together with double sided tape and glue”? Dealer - “Certainly - and there will be no extra cost (or discount) for doing this”!!

The bonnet hinges are bolted. The front wing bracket hear the A pillar was bonded with Mansory glue.

[Simpo Two]

VantageHead said:

Mat refers to it as ’Mansory Glue’

As far as I can see from Google, Mat Armstrong is the only person in the world who calls sealant 'Mansory glue'. I can only think it derives from https://www.mansory.com/

[raceboy]

It all stemmed from the rebuilding of the Mansory Rolls Royce and the fact all the carbon tat is glued on using copious amounts of the stuff even though you are paying obscene amounts of money the 'quality' under the surface is atrocious.
For example here's Mansory's quality on the new Ferrari bonnet vents....

[Simpo Two]

'Bonded' sounds so much better than 'stuck on'

(I won't do the one about the the James Bonder, you already know it)

[LTP]

VantageHead said:

Was anyone else amazed by just how much sikaflex sealant (Mat refers to it as ’Mansory Glue’ as it was extensively used in the Rashford Mansory RR Car) is used in the construction of a premium car like the DB12?

I understand that surface body panels are held on by this stuff (and also used alongside rivets for bonding aluminium chassis panels), however looks like it’s also used to affix structural items like the bonnet hinges? I glues it could make rebuilding the car much more messy, as this stuff has to be scraped off the old panels (rather than unbolting components). Apparently done for ‘lightness’, but also could possibly be seen as a ‘bodge’?

Also, double sided tape for holding on the fuel tank access panel? Bizarre!

Imagine the scenario of customer entering AML dealership - “Please can you make sure that my new £250K car is held together with double sided tape and glue”? Dealer - “Certainly - and there will be no extra cost (or discount) for doing this”!!

Not really, no. Not only are the body panels held on with a structural adhesive, on Aston Martins the entire structural strength of the chassis is dependant on the structural adhesive (completely different stuff to that used to bond windscreens); the rivets are mainly there to hold the aluminium panels, castings and extrusions in place until the adhesive fully cured in the paint ovens. Repairing any structural damage to a modern Aston Martin does, indeed, require that correct procedures are used to remove old adhesives and applying new ones in a controlled environment to achieve the required strength.

If you look at many old British cars from the 60's and 70's, exterior brightwork was often held on with metal clips pushed into holes punched into the panels, and badges were often held on by studs and nuts, these all being potential sources of corrosion if they broke the thin paint around the edge of the hole. These parts have been attached with double-sided acrylic foam tape for years, which is a better solution.

As far as using tape to hold a cover in place, it's far quicker than using screws, there's no lineside requirements for power tools that have to have a specified torque and that need calibration, you're not going to get dropped screws or nuts inside some unreachable body cavity (my V8V came with a free nut in the door, despite me being the second owner - I've no idea how he ignored the rattle) and the two parts can't rattle or "tizz" as they have an automatic anti-rattle solution in the fixation method. Then you have to factor in how often are you actually going to remove that cover in service?

It would not surprise me (but I do not know for fact) if that cover attachment solution hasn't been in place since the DB11 was launched in 2016, with no-one the wiser until Matt had to replace a fuel line on YouTube.
typo fixed

Edited by LTP on Tuesday 22 October 16:49