1959 Aston Martin DB II Mk III
The History
On 8th April 1959, this car was delivered by Langley Motors to Duncan McIntosh in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. It was painted pale primrose and featured a black interior.
Some eight years late the car was bought by Ross Connell in July of 1967. Ross drove the car for three years in the UK before dismantling it and sending it to Melbourne. It arrived with some damage and corrosion. Mechanically, it was only fair.
The car was bought by Lindsay Gordon who set about restoring the vehicle with Dawes and North in Port Melbourne, the mileage a touch over 62, 000. Lindsay chose to paint it British Racing Green with a tan interior. The car was first driven in Australia on 15th September 1978.
In 1979, Lindsay entered the car in Sandown Concours at Sandown, coming second in class to a 300SL Gull Wing Mercedes and fifth overall. Lindsay also entered the car in Shepparton’s 1982 National Concours , coming second in class to a DB II/IV Mark II.
The car was sold to Peter Hibbert in 1983. Peter commented that the car was performing “better than excellent” with the current mileage 67,500 miles.
The car was then sold to Kevin Howard in 1997 with mileage of 69,000 miles, before selling the car to its current, sixth owner, Anna Purcell on 19th September, 2000.
In 2002, Anna and her husband, Simon completed the 1000 Australian Miglia, a journey of 1369.2 miles without incident. The trip included the task of travelling to Thredbo and Falls Creek – the car could not have performed better.
The car was used sparingly until a minor collision in Hastings prompted a nut and bolt restoration. The restoration was commenced by a shop in Balnarring. The car was disassembled and stripped, and works began, but abruptly, the shop closed its doors, leaving this Aston Martin spread from corner to corner in a shop in the disarray of going out of business.
The Project
Anna and Simon needed to find someone to take on the project, despite the highly compromised state it now lay, and after some hurried consultation as the doors of the former restorer rapidly drew closed, Creative Custom Cars accepted the restoration. Diving into the proverbial deep end, we began hastily collating all the various stripped panels and components spread about. The vehicle arrived to us, not unlike the many thousands of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Some were correct, many were incorrect, and a staggering number of further components were missing.
The restoration brief was simple: a restoration in honest and integral honour to the original build.
And so, CCC began the nut and bolt, often painstaking restoration in July 2015. The panels were bare metal, and the remainder of the vehicle was little more than an assortment of boxes…
Serendipitously, an unrestored vehicle of the same marque was discovered close by, in Mt Eliza. Off this vehicle, we were graciously able to take as many measurements as we required, and observe countless details to inform our project.
Over the course of the four year restoration, there was not a single component or panel that remained untouched. The biggest challenge confronted was the volume of conflicting information to many, many details of the vehicle. From chrome moulds, to material textures, to component positions, it seemed every resource told a different tale.
The Outcome
Thousands of local and abroad photographs, thousands upon thousands of hours of research, and an unwavering determination to restore this vehicle in keeping with its original, hand built heritage culminated into a result worthy of entry into the 2019 Motorclassica Concours D’Elegance.
It seemed like the natural next step, though you’ll have to believe us here – it was never planned for during the restoration!
At the event, we were collectively deflated when our category winner was announced, the award going to a beautiful 1955 Citroen Big BH Sedan. After we’d immersed ourselves in the concours, the category win had been our goal.
So a few short moments later, when this Aston Martin was announced as “Best in Show”, we almost missed it. Then came shock, followed by astonishment, and then finally, elation. Wow!