Bill's Spare Parts

Hi Woodsy

Your piece about replacement spare parts for various types of toys reminded me of a recent project I've completed.

Just over a month ago, I came across my old 1960s James Bond Aston Martin. Other than being toybox chipped, it was virtually intact other than a missing ejector roof and baddie. Plus the tyres were long gone.

So I decided to renovate it, the closest shade of gold I could find to the original Maize Gold colour was a Nissan Gold from Halfords. Which is almost identical. The missing bits were purchased on ebay, and the rest was just patience and a fair wind.

It did occur to me to spray it to the actual colour of the real bond car but this is how I remember the car so I decided to get it as close to the original as I could.

I was surprised that everything still worked, most of it, including James Bond, was present and correct. All the plastic needed was a clean with soapy water. And the 'perspex' simply required some polishing with an extremely fine grade emery cloth called "micromesh".

The attached is the end result. The box/plinth art is a printout from my laser printer.

I've got a second db5 which I've not done anything to. It's a slightly later purchase which was given to me. Interestingly its colour gold is a different shade from the original and also has some very subtle detailing differences.

Have other readers done anything like this?

Bill Ev

UK