Barn-Find: Rare 1955 Aston Martin Found In Storage After 50 Years | Ridiculous Rides
A rare Aston Martin that may have been used as an unmarked police car in the sixties has been found after half a century hidden in a garage. The DB24, built in 1955, was discovered at a property in Gloucestershire and is believed to be worth over $3000,000 when fully restored. The classic car, which became famous as the model driven by James Bond in Ian Fleming’s novels, was bought by a car enthusiast who intended to work on the engine when he retired. Instead it was covered by a sheet and forgotten by its owner, and was forgotten.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 00;01;10;12 00;01;15;12 COMM: Worth a quarter of a million pounds,
00:08 incredibly this Aston Martin hasn't been seen for almost 50 years.
00:13 Discovered in a Gloucestershire barn, this is just one of the exciting projects currently
00:18 being undertaken by Jonathan Wills and his company, Cotswold Classic Car Restorations.
00:23 00;01;20;00 00;01;29;00 JONATHAN WILLS - COTSWOLD CLASSIC CAR RESTORATIONS
00:24 00;01;29;00 00;01;35;00 The company, we're really excited and it's a privilege to be involved
00:29 with this.
00:30 00;01;35;00 00;01;40;00 COMM: Jonathan started restoring classic cars while he was still
00:34 at school in the 1990s and set up Cotswold Classic Car Restorations around four years
00:40 ago, with the aim of working on mainly British models such as Aston Martins and Jaguars.
00:46 The company currently has a full workload and Jonathan shows us some of their current
00:51 restoration projects.
00:52 00;01;40;00 00;01;50;00 JONATHAN WILLS - COTSWOLD CLASSIC CAR RESTORATIONS
00:54 00;01;50;00 00;01;52;00 It's a 3 litre, 6 cylinder engine.
00:57 Its stored conditions were perfect.
01:00 It was in a dry, open, airy building that was heated during the winter.
01:05 So the amount of corrosion that's occurred within the car is remarkable.
01:13 What marks this car as absolutely unique is it's an Aston Martin DB2-4, which the build
01:19 numbers are only in a few hundreds anyway.
01:22 The few that are left are absolutely cherished, command considerable values, ever rising,
01:29 and for the Aston collector, you're not going to find this again.
01:33 Potentially that restoration typically takes about a year's worth of work.
01:37 Here we have the Maserati Corsa Quarte 1970.
01:41 This is one of only two in the world, and this particular car is a special commission
01:46 by the Argonne.
01:48 The other one was a special commission by the King of Spain.
01:50 It took three years to build this car, Maserati themselves.
01:54 This car features one of the most opulent interiors you'll ever see.
01:58 The super soft calf leather that the seats are trimmed in, the deep Wilton style of carpet
02:03 interior you will not find on many, many cars at all.
02:07 Lovely wooden dashboard with a very full complement of dials.
02:10 This car is apparently a discreet saloon.
02:15 It isn't a word I would use with it.
02:18 And propelling this beautiful saloon car is a Corpam V8, five liter in excess of 350 horsepower.
02:25 It's a variation on Maserati's race engines.
02:28 The design criteria from the Argonne is a car that we do not the 60 under six seconds,
02:33 but 170 miles an hour.
02:35 It's really ahead of its time.
02:37 It's in absolutely beautiful and original condition, pretty much as it left the factory
02:41 all those years ago.
02:44 Construction projects are very time consuming and incredibly detailed.
02:48 We actually break the car down into all its component pieces.
02:52 We mark out any repairs that are required as well.
02:54 We can either build the car as completely original or we may be able to modify it slightly
02:59 to make the car actually more up to current speed of traffic.
03:04 The chassis and body would be acid dipped.
03:05 That's where the actual body and chassis are put into an acid tank and left there for 48
03:10 hours.
03:11 It removes all paint, it removes all the rust, all the sealers and corrosion.
03:15 And when the body's removed, it is then put into a neutralizing tank.
03:18 Then the car will come back to us and we'll inspect it for any cracks or perforation or
03:24 where the panels have become thin through corrosion.
03:27 Then we go through the various processes of the restoration, which include body, paint,
03:32 chassis rebuild, and the retrimming of the leather and the hide, and even down to the
03:36 glass.
03:37 If the glass is marked or damaged, we'll be looking at replacing the glass if the customer
03:41 requires.
03:42 The main challenges in a restoration of a vehicle is getting the originality correct
03:47 and working closely with the customer to ensure that the refinish article is exactly what
03:53 he wants.
03:54 Despite all the beautiful vehicles Jonathan has worked on, he still has a wish list.
03:59 A car we're yet to restore that we would absolutely love to be commissioned to restore would be
04:05 an ex-Formula One car owned by Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, James Hunt.
04:11 The history with those cars, the battles that they were involved with is just second to
04:16 none and it would be an absolute privilege if one of those projects comes our way one
04:21 day.
04:22 It would be a dream of mine to restore one of those cars owned by one of those fantastic
04:25 drivers.
04:27 And it seems Jonathan has no plans to stop working on these classic cars any time soon.
04:33 Restoring classic cars is an absolute joy.
04:34 It's something that I see me doing to the day I die, being involved with them.
04:39 When the cars are actually completed and leave in your workshop and you've seen them progress
04:42 over one or two years, it's good to see them out there being used again and the customers
04:46 enjoying them.
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