Aston Martin V12 Vantage AMR New Car Detail and PPF

It was a great privilege for Auto Curators to have this outrageous Aston Martin V12 Vantage AMR at our Hampshire Studio, with the work constituting our New Car Detail and extensive paint protection film (PPF) installation. This is the first V12 Vantage AMR to be delivered to a customer and used on the road.

The background to this new AMR sub-brand of Aston Martin is an interesting one, the concept being launched at the Geneva Motorshow in 2017. AMR takes technology and styling cues from its motorsport programme, applying it to road models to provide increased performance and more focused dynamics. Back in the 1930’s, Aston Martin produced lightweight higher performance road cars off the back of their success in the Ulster TT road race they competed in. Then in 1951, David Brown introduced the ‘Vantage’ name, applying it to the hottest, uprated variant of his models at the time.

Aston Martin Racing (AMR) was formed in 2004, competing very successfully in the FIA World Endurance Championships (we were lucky to be guests of Aston Martin at the LeMans 24hr in 2017, when they won their class with the final appearance of the outgoing Vantage model). It is this success that has prompted Aston Martin to bring their motorsport and road car programmes closer together once more, and the car you see here is a direct result of that.

Our client wanted the best for his new Aston Martin V12 Vantage AMR, and whilst a huge supporter of Aston Martin, was realistic in their expectations of the final finish presented to him. Unfortunately, Aston Martin do have some real issues with their paint finish on the production line, mostly driven by their own success and need to produce cars as quickly as possible. This has lead to a somewhat compromised end result.

In numerous places around the car, usually on panel edges deep patches of sanding marks were clearly visible on trim and paint. The overall finish was lacking depth or gloss, leaving the car rather ‘flat’ as a result.

Work commenced, assessing each and every panel for defects, marking them, then working methodically through the car to correct them using the Rupes Bigfoot system. For better access to the quarter panels and boot lid, the rear wing was removed from the car (which itself needed attention too, displaying scratches on the lacquered carbon finish). This also included inside the car too, the fragile piano black centre panel was badly marred from repeated wipe downs (this had been the car Aston Martin used to showcase the AMR concept). Once the surrounding leather was masked, we used a micro polishing attachment to remove the defects from these areas.

The defect correction was carried out over a couple of days, making it perfect before the next stage of work. Whilst this will never be a big mileage car, our client plans to use and enjoy his AMR as it was intended. We have ceramic coated many cars for him, but with custom paint and special aero pieces on this example, he requested we install self healing Llumar PPF to the vulnerable areas. This ended up being the full front end (bonnet, wings, headlights, front bumper and wing mirrors), the carbon sills, extending up to cover the rear quarters in front of the rear wheels, splash guards behind the rear wheels, and finally a custom piece for the extended front splitter.

We use Llumar Platinum self healing PPF. In our opinion, once installed it has the edge over other films for the quality of the finish, the glossiness, and its brilliant inbuilt hydrophobic properties. Wherever possible, we pre-cut the film using digital templates on our state of the art Graphtec FC-8600 plotter. This ensures accuracy and consistency in the patterns, for the best installation and fit.

To protect the paint not being covered in PPF, we applied our own Auto Curators Signature Coating. This is a two part ceramic system, incorporating organic and inorganic compounds in the different coating layers, leading to a very resilient protection system that is extremely hydrophobic and glossy. This included removing the wheels to coat them inside and out, and the brake calipers. Finally, as a real ‘belt and braces’ approach, Kamikaze Collection Film Surface Coat, a product made specifically to add gloss and water repellancy to PPF, was applied to all the newly installed film.