A Year of My Life

About the Book

This book comes about due to the love of a motor car for being itself and to tell of a change for a car that has stood for over forty years. In June 2009, the Aston Martin DB MK III Registration Number WYE 847 was first sighted in a locked-up garage in Weybridge, Surrey, UK, awaiting restoration completion that had started some forty-three years earlier and not quite finished due to occupation changes, residence moves, and the passing of time. In July 2009, the DB MK III [WYE 847] recommissioning was started by Aston Works Service in Newport Pagnell, and this book records in part its restoration work details. —Engine cylinder head repairs —Suspension and brakes repairs —Body refurbish, lighting system repair and upgrade —Interior attention Restoration work was attended to and all the while the car was used at every opportunity. The DB MK III Registration Number WYE 847 was garaged for more than forty years, then recommissioned and used on roads never seen before and driven to places never before visited. This short book tells of the first year of a new lease of life. 1959 — 1962 — 1st Owner 17982 miles no details 1962 — 1968 — Previous Owners No details 1968 — 1969 — Previous Owner Minimal road use 1969 — 2009 — Previous Owner Restoration - No road use 2009 — July 9 — October 2010 4863 traveled miles 2011 — March — September 3425 traveled miles 2012 — Jan — September 4892 traveled miles In December 2010, WYE 847 met up with a very close relative, the DB MK III DHC registration XGT 506, made in the same year, 1959, three months younger, and now to be a constant companion. Two brothers meet up after fifty-one years. But that’s another story. The Aston DB MK III truly is a car for all time.

About the Author

The author is a British citizen, born in the northeast of England. First mobile activity with a machine was a boogey, made up of a strip of timber strong enough to hold the weight of a thin youth, a fixed steel rod to accept pram wheels for the rear axle, and the same at the front placed on a piece of timber twenty-four-by-four-inch sheet, with a center fixing bolt and nut to the timber strip to be the front and steering axle. For propulsion, the boogey was pushed by a friend waiting his turn or mounted on one knee, a one-legged scoot was the way along until a downhill was encountered then it was flat out, sitting position foot steering or for the brave, laid face down forward facing, hands steering! The author’s love of cars started at a young age. School days spent talking of sport cars racing at faraway places. Time spent in unused fields with test failure cars and makeshift repairs for an afternoon or evening of enjoyment and cold wet days watching green racing cars at croft Autodrome in the north of England. 1968, my first road legal, Morris Mini, and some sixty to seventy cars later, ten cars still owned, the sight and sound of a car is still a pleasure. To remember a car allows one to remember a time, place, and friends. An open-topped Land Rover with rowdy friends faced with a daunting edge drop off the words “You have all gone quite now” comes to mind. Circa 1974, Ron Harper driving a 1960 Short Wheel Base Land Rover, Cleveland Hills, Northeast England. The Author has resided in the Middles East state of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, since November 1977. A car provides the freedom of travel, the enjoyment of ownership, the occupation of care, and to be able to enjoy these with such flair and style as the DB MK III provides nothing could be any better.