@josephpressinger1525 As @peterrenn6341 says, plus Rover P6's had the same thing. Not sure it's exactly the same but the P6 definitely had a de-dion tube, as does the Aston..
The chassis legs are original and solid, if there are areas that are thin, we replace them. If anyone bought an AM V8, I would suggest a body off restoration. Our car will be better than when it left the factory because we are using slightly thicker steel in some areas and making changes that should have been made when the car was built, such as seam welding the sills, in the way rally cars are welded for strength and stiffness. All the panels are from a reputable Aston Martin restorer, ASR. These cars we're quite obviously built to deadlines. The floors for example have short seam welds holding them in, with gaps in between. The areas that aren't seam welded you can peel them back and see the ground. Not always best in my opinion. Hence, I would suggest, why there are only 11 examples of this era AM V8 left taxed or SORN in the UK out of 288. They rot everywhere. I almost bought a spitfire back in the day. The person who did, replaced all of it, and the engine was from a DH Mosquito. I would still call it a Spitfire. ;-)
Lol, we we're just talking about that today. Looks like it would be pretty simple given the pedal box Alex uncovered. Not sure how easy it would be to find a manual. We would need a flywheel and other parts no doubt which may be problematic I'm sure. So, probably not because we are on a budget.
@@AstonTorslanda i would chat to a few aston car dealers to see if a converted manual makes enough more money to justify it. But if you are going for total originality then it probably does not make sense.
@@AstonTorslanda Manual gearbox is a ZF - from a truck I think? My car is a manual and (apparently) more desirable for it and it makes the car much more rewarding to drive but you've plenty on your pates already! I'd say stick with the auto until you finish the car, Manual conversion can be the next project as and when...
@davekeen1963 Thanks Dave, I hope you mean that in a good way... because it looks like you know your stuff. I just looked at your lovely pictorial of the restoration of your 77 AM V8 (love the music). I might be asking for some advice. 😀
@@AstonTorslanda I absolutely do mean it in a good way. What you guys are doing is unbelievable. I've done half a dozen AMV8 restos in my life time ( over the last 40 years ). Maybe more, cos they're the ones I can remember, including my own car ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M-Ww1QdnudI.html and I know just how hard it is. I took on my first AMV8 resto ( my own car for myself ) in my early 40s and I didn't think I'd live long enough to finish it. I still have the car?? Never mind what it cost. I only do the mechanicals. I sub all the paint and body work out, that's a whole nother level of expertise that I don't possess The last one ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-yW7yO7xTDvg.html cost the customer the fat end of $400K. But I've always had fairly good cars to start off with, what you're doing, I would never have had the courage or the expertise to have taken on in the first place. What your doing makes what I do look like kids play. My hats off to you guys in spades. These cars need to be salvaged they're a testament to what really great British Automotive Engineering used to look like. A lesser person would have written this car off. There's nothing quite like driving a well sorted AMV8. I sincerely hope you keep this car when it's finished and enjoy driving it. I'm gonna be buried in mine????????? Ps I just read your response to my first post. Thx for the kind words but I think it is I who'll becoming to you for advice if I ever take on another one? I should live that long??
That's amazing Dave, having done 6 AM V8's puts you in a unique place. We hardly ever see them in the UK. As I said before, it would be great to see more images. We started our channel because it was very hard to find any restoration information on these cars, anything you can share would be amazing. Thanks for your input Dave, really appreciate it.
@@AstonTorslanda Well I've never done a resto like what you're doing here. That's more like a complete rebuild. When I say half a dozen, that's two complete nut and bolts, but solid cars to start off with and again body and paint I sub out. Fortunately we have a really good resto shop in town where I get all the body and paint work done. The rest were varying degrees of resto including auto to manual conversions, Vantage, XPack, 6.3 liter engine upgrades. Handling packages, Brake upgrades. I'm not sure how to give you my email here without letting the rest of the world know cos it would be easier to do this via email. I have a list of what I call must dos' to these cars to make them more drivable and more reliable that I'd be happy to share. The only structural stuff I can advise on is all to do with the rear diff cage. The cage itself stress fractures as does the diff cage front mount and the two brackets that support the rear diff beam if you wanna share you're email I'll contact you directly with mine and then I'd be happy to share what I do. The one major piece of advice I'd give is that by far the best bang for the buck engine wise is Vantage spec, I see little to no benefit to XPack ( other than bragging rights ) or 6 liter or more unless ya wanna use the car for track days, the additional cost over plain common old garden variety Vantage spec is prohibitive and not worth it in my opinion?
@davekeen1963 you can email us on the channel email address astontorslanda@gmail.com which Alex monitors. Would be amazing to chat. Ask Alex to send you my personal email address. He's got lots on with University. ;-) Joe
