db9 door corrosion

[craig elam]

my db9 has had the dreaded door handle aperture corrosion for years, ive kept an eye on it but it got to the stage where i had to fix it, local bodyshops quoted around 500 quid which is about what i expected.
but i cant resist a challenge and as ive got a fair bit of experience doing minor repairs bumper scuffs and the like, thought i`d do it myself.
oddly my main concern was not the actual painting but the state of the door under the flaking paint and also what might of caused it in the first place.
A strip down of the door to remove handle, mirror, lock etc, pretty straightforward if youve got the manual , couple of hours.
then remove the paint from the corroded areas and this was a surprise really, the actual damage under the paint is negligible, a light sanding with a small DA sander removed it in no time and a couple of coats of etch primer plus 1 ordinary primer sorted it , no filler required.
thoughts then turned to why it happens, during the process of turning as sheet of ally into a door the aperture is formed leaving a return into the door , the handle assy is mounted onto the door with a box that has a rubber seal around it . the car is painted but the thin inner edge of the return inside the door isnt , when the handle carrier is assembled to the car it makes a tight seal so water sits inside the box, after a while the water is going to find its way under the paint and bingo.
with the door stripped i could brush primer onto the inner edge so we`ll see how long that lasts.
the paint itself is a standard clear over base system so no suprises really, i got a good match and a couple of test blow outs onto cards confirmed this,
so now its done and im happy,
main reason for this post is to show that the door can have huge nasty flakes around the handle but my door underneath was ok , i was prepared for the worst case of cutting and welding etc.

[craig elam]

[craig elam]

[crispyj]

Thanks for the info. Mines going there and on the join from the roof to the rear quarter panel.

[R129 300SL]

Hi.

Thanks for the write up.

Did you spray whole door or just around the repair?

[craig elam]

no i flatted the whole door and painted just the back just third 3rd and cleared the whole door , I have a brilliant A.N.I R 150 1.0 tip spraygun which has a cracking fan and excellent atomisation, seems to really suit this kind of local repair but can throw clear out like a full size gun( see youtube gunman mini spray gun review).
in order to cover the repair i had to give it a few wet coats which looked really dark , so last coat was quite dry with a bit more pressure and distance, this made it lighter and close to my test spray outs, as it was a home garage job i knew there would be some inclusions in the clear so i gave it 4 coats of 2k clear, its de nibbed with 2000 grit and polished now and looks great, in other words through luck and a lot of prep /masking i seem to have got away with it!!

[Emilio Largo]

After all those years of reading here and always wondering what´s underneath the paint bubbles this is the very first time I see a picture of the damage underneath posted.

Thanks, Craig, for sharing this.

I just wish more technical subjects like this would be discussed here.

[bogie]

Great job

My car 2012 Vantage is in for paint repair, but its just on the leading edge of the passenger door, and around where the mirror arm fits in. The mirror arm also has really bad bubbling and flaking paint. I do wonder what the cause is, you would like to think if its a process issue and easy to replicate then AM would have solved it by now.

Also had issues with the chrome failing on side strakes. When 4 years old I had new side strakes due to pitting of chrome on the originals. Now 3 years later the passenger side side strake just starting to show tiny bit of pitting too. Im really careful looking after the car over winter, dont use anything harsh to clean it. 3 years for chrome to pit has to be a quality issue, but of course not covered under any warranty. I think I will try carbon fibre next time .......

[steveatesh]

bogie said:

Great job

My car 2012 Vantage is in for paint repair, but its just on the leading edge of the passenger door, and around where the mirror arm fits in. The mirror arm also has really bad bubbling and flaking paint. I do wonder what the cause is, you would like to think if its a process issue and easy to replicate then AM would have solved it by now.

Also had issues with the chrome failing on side strakes. When 4 years old I had new side strakes due to pitting of chrome on the originals. Now 3 years later the passenger side side strake just starting to show tiny bit of pitting too. Im really careful looking after the car over winter, dont use anything harsh to clean it. 3 years for chrome to pit has to be a quality issue, but of course not covered under any warranty. I think I will try carbon fibre next time .......

I’ve got the mirror stem issue (going to do that one myself, remove mirrors, rub down, prime, paint, reinstall), slight bubble on both door handle openings, rust in rear grill in balance and the side strokes were replaced under warranty.

On the other hand the car is nearly 10 year old, I’m not sure if that’s good or not but there are many similar aged non exotic cars running around in good cosmetic order.

Personally I don’t think any of this should happen and am surprised AM allowed it to go on over so many model years. Accountants in charge I assume.

[craig elam]

i dont know if this is a fact but i read somewhere that early production Gaydon cars where painted by humans until the automated line came in, the paint on my 05 is pretty good in fairness but ive seen 08 cars where the finish is miles better.
My own aston experience started in the 70`s with my dads dbs, like all cars of that period it suffered from galloping rot from new so i suppose were lucky with few tiny bits of corrosion here and there. yes its annoying but at least were not welding sills on !!
emilio if you like more tech based AM stuff have a look at steves website aston1936.com to me its THE source for owner maintenance and repair guides.

[Emilio Largo]

Oh yes, I know, every now and then I do take a look at the Aston1936 site. I really appreciate guys like you and him and others who take their time to explain things to those who are clueless (= me).