Service / Workshop

Introduction

The workshop was established by Captain Ivan Forshaw in 1931 when he was 20 years old, working on Lagonda’s which remained his passion throughout his life alongside his veteran 1904 Napier.

After World War 2 they started on Aston Martins as well when David Brown purchased both companies and alongside being one of the first authorised parts dealers the business and workshop grew. Over the years we have looked after, serviced and restored many classics, mostly for customers and some for the family collection that included the Works DB2 (VMF63) 5 x DB3S cars a DB4GT and DB4GT Zagato. The workshop closed for a period of about 10 years in 1999 after Richard passed away and reopened in 2012, primarily working on the classic Astons and minor service work on some of the VH Platform V8 Vantage and DB9 cars that didn’t require diagnostic work.

In 2017 we purchased the AMDS 2.0 (Aston Martin Diagnostic System) which then allowed us to fully work on all the “modern” Aston Martin and Lagonda cars as well as the classics and over the past 10 years we have built up a substantial client base in the Southwest for the servicing of the “modern” cars alongside our already healthy classic clients. With an extensive stock of parts for the “modern” cars and probably the largest stock of parts outside of AML for the Heritage models there is not much that we can not undertake in the workshop with minimal if any delay to the customer. Further details of the specialist sections of the workshop are below along with our fixed price services and online booking facility.

Restorations

We are fully set up for the full restoration of your car, please get in touch to discuss further. As you will see below, painting, bodywork and engines are all done in house, only gearboxes and trimming are outsourced to a local specialist ensuring the people for the job are working on your car. Aston Service Dorset are happy to work with you on the project, to a realistic timescale that suits with the project broken down into stages should you wish or completed in one phase start to finish. For the Feltham cars we have all the original drawings so everything from the chassis to component parts can be repaired or replaced back to 100% original specification that only we have the technical knowledge to do accurately.

DB4GT Zagato Recreations

With extensive knowledge and experience of the DB4 GT Zagato, having owned DB4GT/190L Zagato for over 30 years until 1999, we are happy to work on your original car and also any recreation project you would like to do, whether from a donor DB4 or from a brand-new chassis if not road registering. We have an extensive library of reference material for these cars to ensure original accuracy. Aston Service Dorset made and supplied an extensive number of the parts for the AML Continuation run of GT and Zagato cars, we still manufacture and keep those parts in stock, and they are available from our online store. Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss a project or for us to supply the parts for you if managing your own project.

Engine Rebuilds

Engines are rebuilt in our dedicate engine building department, using only the finest components all made in the UK and to the original drawings. The engines are built to original specification with only modifications deemed to improve the overall build of the engines included, otherwise it will be as it left the factory. Ideally we like to have the car here as well for the end of the build so we can install the engine and carry out the full running in procedure and tightening done plus a rolling road tuning set up, all prior to delivery/collection by the customer. This ensures any minor niggles are solved straight away with the rolling road carried out at the end of the running in, a highly tuned engine producing the best useable power it can.

Painting and Bodywork

We are happy to carry out minor paint repairs through to full bare metal resprays in our in-house paint booth ensuring we can control the standard of preparation and painting at every stage to produce a perfect finish. No specific paint scheme is used, every effort is made to achieve a perfect colour match to your existing paint or if a bare metal resprays, then to the colour you choose, whether that be the original colour of the car or something different, please get in touch to discuss any painting requirements. Repairs to bodywork and or new panels can be done at the same time, full panels are made by ex-AML specialists in Northampton and then fitted in house.