Little additions after 5 weeks of Vantage ownership.
Discussion
Hi all
I'm 5 weeks into the fabulous experience of owning a beautiful V8 Vantage.....and absolutely love it! Of all the cars I have owned, and there has been a few, the Vantage is the only one which makes me open the front door of the house and just peek at the car sat on the driveway, it is the only one which after spending time washing and polishing the wonderful lines and curves, it feels right to sit down with a glass of wine and just admire...my wife may think I'm slightly mad, but the car lovers amongst us know what I mean!
I have learnt so much from the forums and I thought I would share some of the subtle additions that I have done, these are ideas which I have only learnt about from you experienced folk, so thank you.
My first addition was a set of Tony Halls wonderful knobs, beautifully made they certainly lift the interior. Simple to fit and elegant to the touch...obviously didn't mention the cost to the other half as I not sure she would understand
The next thing I have done, after reading so many threads on the subject removing Fuse 22.
The noise from the Vantage as we all know is amazing, from 4k onwards it sounds like no other car, below that it has a lovely exhaust note, but not one to make your hairs stand up. I asked myself the question did I want the music all the time, the sensible head on me said no.....however there was a solution. I ordered a remote from fuse 22.net. Easy to fit and the best of both worlds, whenever I want that intoxicating exhaust note I just press the button, when I feel sensible (not that often) I leave it alone. It's a great mod!
The interior of my car was already immaculate and a credit to the previous owner, but I like to clean everything so I ordered some leather cleaning and conditioning products made by Gliptone. Wow the difference is suburb, the iron ore leather looks, feels and smells wonderful. A mod which the wife does approve...as long as I clean some furniture in the house with it!
The latest thing I have done is to swap the map reading and floor lights for LED ones. The difference is massive. I have fitted WLED-CW6 replacements bought via eBay. The CW stands for cool white which matches the illumination on the dashboard, it was a easy job and has made a big difference to the night time appearance of the inside, the cost less than a fiver! I have added some rubbish iPhone pics but hopefully you will get the idea.
I have no affiliation with any of these products just thought I would share my thoughts about them, all good of course!
I will add another post soon about how much I love driving the Vantage, it's not without faults as we all know, but sometimes who cares!
Kind regards
Ian.
Rule 1: Pictures or it doesn't exist.
Care to post the part numbers for the LED bulbs? I thought mine were already LED, but will check again.
The Gliptone Liquid leather is good stuff. Friend of mine bought some Swissvax Leather Milk at roughly the same price per gramme as weaponised plutonium. I keep meaning to try it to see if it's better than the LL.
Care to post the part numbers for the LED bulbs? I thought mine were already LED, but will check again.
The Gliptone Liquid leather is good stuff. Friend of mine bought some Swissvax Leather Milk at roughly the same price per gramme as weaponised plutonium. I keep meaning to try it to see if it's better than the LL.
Hi Guys
My apologies for the lack of photos, thought i had downloaded them via photo bucket? I will try again tonight.
The part no and type for the bulbs are 501 (194-168) W5W sidelamp bulb. 6 LED xenon white. I bought them off eBay and the seller was Argos city ltd, The cost for 4 bulbs delivered was £5.60....The best value for money mod you can do to an Aston Martin!
Chris fitting is a 10 minute job, to replace the floor bulbs feel under the dash and on the top of the bulb holder you will feel a turret, turn this anti clockwise and remove. You now have access to the capless 501 bulb, pull the bulb and pop the new one in, if it does not light, reverse the bulb around.
Refit the turret and job done.
The map reading bulbs are just as easy, There is a plastic bezel around each lamp, gently prise the bezel off, i would use something flat and plastic like a spatula or plastic knife....be very careful here to not to leave in marks in the headlining, take your time and they just pop off. Once off grip the 501 capless bulb gently with long nose pliers and pull out. Pop your new LED bulb in. Now remove the black microphone grill in the middle of the two lamps, it just flicks out. You can now get a finger behind the lamp unit to hold it in place whilst pushing the cover back on, otherwise the whole unit moves when pushing the cover on. The bezel/cover only goes on in a couple of ways due to cut outs so dont force it.
Now pour that glass of wine and wait for darkness, they look great!
Have a great weekend
Cheers
Ian.
My apologies for the lack of photos, thought i had downloaded them via photo bucket? I will try again tonight.
The part no and type for the bulbs are 501 (194-168) W5W sidelamp bulb. 6 LED xenon white. I bought them off eBay and the seller was Argos city ltd, The cost for 4 bulbs delivered was £5.60....The best value for money mod you can do to an Aston Martin!
Chris fitting is a 10 minute job, to replace the floor bulbs feel under the dash and on the top of the bulb holder you will feel a turret, turn this anti clockwise and remove. You now have access to the capless 501 bulb, pull the bulb and pop the new one in, if it does not light, reverse the bulb around.
Refit the turret and job done.
The map reading bulbs are just as easy, There is a plastic bezel around each lamp, gently prise the bezel off, i would use something flat and plastic like a spatula or plastic knife....be very careful here to not to leave in marks in the headlining, take your time and they just pop off. Once off grip the 501 capless bulb gently with long nose pliers and pull out. Pop your new LED bulb in. Now remove the black microphone grill in the middle of the two lamps, it just flicks out. You can now get a finger behind the lamp unit to hold it in place whilst pushing the cover back on, otherwise the whole unit moves when pushing the cover on. The bezel/cover only goes on in a couple of ways due to cut outs so dont force it.
Now pour that glass of wine and wait for darkness, they look great!
Have a great weekend
Cheers
Ian.
Hi Ian,
Congratulations on the purchase. Did you also replace the rear interior lamps (Or are these only in DB9s)? I haven't done my footwell lamps but have the LED bulbs ready to go. The interior and boot lamps are far better when in cool white LED - I can actually see stuff when I turn them on now
Looking forward to seeing the pics when they're working!
Congratulations on the purchase. Did you also replace the rear interior lamps (Or are these only in DB9s)? I haven't done my footwell lamps but have the LED bulbs ready to go. The interior and boot lamps are far better when in cool white LED - I can actually see stuff when I turn them on now
Looking forward to seeing the pics when they're working!
chuds285 said:
Hi Guys
Chris fitting is a 10 minute job, to replace the floor bulbs feel under the dash and on the top of the bulb holder you will feel a turret, turn this anti clockwise and remove. You now have access to the capless 501 bulb, pull the bulb and pop the new one in, if it does not light, reverse the bulb around.
Welcome but you are sailing close to a ban with out pictures Chris fitting is a 10 minute job, to replace the floor bulbs feel under the dash and on the top of the bulb holder you will feel a turret, turn this anti clockwise and remove. You now have access to the capless 501 bulb, pull the bulb and pop the new one in, if it does not light, reverse the bulb around.
On the LED's I've done my boot ones (roadster) but gave up on the foot well ones.
I had two issues the AM 501 bulbs are already blue and the LED's I bought would not go in as they were too long
So I used them for the rear number plates
I replaced every light in my motorhome (and there are lots) with LED's...
the difference it made was night and day
Seriously though, power consumption from the batteries doesn't even register on the volt meter, even with most of the lights on.... Whereas before, just 3 lights would drop the voltage....
I bought mine from here, and have to say service and quality is excellent...
I'll check out the AM and see if any of the van fitments are the same
http://www.bedazzled.uk.com/index.html
the difference it made was night and daySeriously though, power consumption from the batteries doesn't even register on the volt meter, even with most of the lights on.... Whereas before, just 3 lights would drop the voltage....
I bought mine from here, and have to say service and quality is excellent...
I'll check out the AM and see if any of the van fitments are the same
http://www.bedazzled.uk.com/index.html
Did mine in 2009 - bulbs were a bit pricier then and wasn't sure of the fitment so bought a few types.
Got mine from:
http://www.ultimatemods.co.uk/
and
http://www.convert2xenon.co.uk/
Make a big difference to the interior and satisfied my ocd for making the interior lights the same colour as the dash/centre console Don't forget to do the door and luggage space lights
Got mine from:
http://www.ultimatemods.co.uk/
and
http://www.convert2xenon.co.uk/
Make a big difference to the interior and satisfied my ocd for making the interior lights the same colour as the dash/centre console
Don't forget to do the door and luggage space lights Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff