OK folks, it’s Gullwing Motor Cars time, and today, for your review, we have a 1969 Aston Martin DB6. In keeping with most of the Gullwing cars that we review, this one is not without its foibles. Actually, it looks like Goldfinger swerved left, Largo swerved right and 007 went straight up the middle and into something unyielding. The result? Kaboom! And, before you start with the comments, yes, I know this DB6 is not really a James Bond car, at least not the famous ’64 DB5 that was a star of the silver screen. But, anytime that I spy a vintage silver Aston Martin, Bond, James Bond, is the first thing that comes to mind. Located in Astoria, New York, this scratch and dent A-M is available, here on Gullwing Motor Cars website for $129,500 (gulp!).
What we know is that the DB6 was offered between ’65 and ’70 and production totals were about 1,700. Most were two-door 2+2 coupes though there was a DB6 BVolante convertible as well. We’re told that this example spent 30 years in California where it was part of a collection. It is said to be original and still in possession of its matching numbers engine. As to what happened to the front end, is either unknown or not disclosed. Besides the obvious damage, the finish is faded and peeling and there are numerous dents and contusions. Serious rot doesn’t appear to be a problem but I would be curious about the underside, not only from a corrosion perspective but to determine if that big front end kiss damaged something structural.
Looking untouched for many moons, this DB6’s 282 HP, 4.0 liter, in-line six-cylinder engine, as stated earlier, is the born-with unit. It’s a non-runner and at least one of the spark plug leads is missing – and maybe some other components as well. As to whether or not this engine will turnover, is not stated. Interestingly, this car is outfitted with a Borg Warner three-speed automatic transmission and I imagine that’s a less desirable feature than the standard five-speed manual gearbox.
The interior is a bit of a mixed bag. The red leather upholstery reveals the typical results of aging with its wear, discoloration, and creases. Can’t tell you what’s up with that carpet but it’s pretty grody looking. The dash and instrument panel, however, present well so that’s a plus. I can’t tell you much else about it because there are no other images included in the listing.
The seller claims, “This is certainly the cheapest DB6 you will come across and the bargain of a lifetime“. Bargain huh? Well, I guess that’s in the eye of the beholder. So, what’s your thought, a bargain not to be missed, or…?
Insurance paid this wreck off right?
Sounds like a double dipper
Someone got paid off once
“double dipper” is right (may B ‘quad dipper’) as biz model fits that. Mr.K, much like beverly hills car club, usually sells then contracts w/new owner for the rest0. Acc the ribber in Brooklyn, his customers in Manhattan, this wrks well. Air’s a lill too thin for me there, biz model boxes me out.
Try (John) Elder Robinson instead, spfld, ma – same cars, totally different business model.
I can’t get google translate to work on this one
What?
I think chad went to the same elementary school as chrlsful.
This car was written up in Hemmings a very short while ago. It was bought through / from COPART. Being Canadian, not sure how COPART works whether it can be re-registered for the road or it’s an expensive parts car and wonder how much Gullwing paid for it.
Cheers
kenzo
The story I prefer is that it was granddad’s favorite car which he enjoyed for many years and many miles. When it was clear to everyone, except grand dad, that he should no long be driving, he could not bear to give up the keys. Then this happened. The car was dragged home and pushed into a corner. Why fix it when he knew he could no longer drive. Yet, selling it was just too painful. Sometime later, grand dad became “in-op” as well.
The car’s future is now brighter than his.
The story I prefer is James Bond got a little tipsy one night.
Then, GullWing swooped in, offered Grandad $15k, he thought he won the lottery, and retired to Happy Acres.
This is what happens when you drive after consuming a few too many martinis, shaken…not stirred, lol.
Because this car has been severely shaken, I’m not at all stirred….
I think the DB6 is up there as one of the most beautiful cars ever made. Given what these go for the ask is quite reasonable.
Right hand drive and automatic is not going to generate a lot of excitement over here- most likely some Brit will scoop it up. The DB6 was not a real popular model like the DB5.
DB6 was very well-recieved at the time and sold 1700 units against 1100 DB5.
DB6 was re-engineered wheras DB5 was just a development of late model DB4.
But James Bond had a DB5 so though most people would agree with you, facts are different.
Dooby dooby doo. Dooby dibby doo. Scooby Doo by doo
Ah, to be wealthy. I would do the mechanics on this and drive it around like I do some of my old 50s through 70s things. I’m sorry old so-called valuable cars are a blast like this, as every clown thinks they have found the ultimate dum dum. I am still amazed how many 300.00 kings still wander the country side. Whether it’s an automatic or whatever, it is cool, hands down. You could tell every imbecile that tried to buy it from you for 500.00 bucks that it was a lesser car wrecked by whichever Bond and they would buy it, hook, line, and sinker. There’s 150,000.00 worth of car trolling here. Like the line in the song went,” I get my kicks watching other people drool “.
I just saw one on Bonhams that just sold in France in really nice conditions sell for 135k pounds. 165k USD. Even with shipping and 100k in duties, taxes and whatever else, it’s looks like a better deal.
Oh My!!! There is a few more photos on the site, unless they just added some.
Don’t know anything about Peter Kumar personally, but I do know he’s a genius at finding highly desirable cars and drawing lots of attention to them. Whether he gets his often ambitious asking prices is another question.
I also know that every time I see one of his ads my imagination goes bonkers.
After you pay the $129.5k entry fee, get your passport for a trip “across the pond” for parts, and pray that the frame (if any) isn’t bent beyond repair. I don’t know if these were unibody cars or had a separate frame, but either way, repairs will be very expensive, given that these were made out of aluminum, er, excuse me, al-u-minium, so welding these can be very tricky. You’ll need inert gas welding equipment and the skills to use it. Aluminum will burn if you do it wrong, so practice on scrap metal first if you’ve never done it before.
No-one will restore this at home. Bur someone in UK will. They may not pay full ask.
No need for welding. Today’s aluminum cars are bonded. This technology did not exist in the 60s.
You can by factory fresh engines and transmissions for these now, so if you want to swap out the slush box for a proper ZF five-speed, feel free.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/you-can-buy-new-factory-engine-parts-for-your-classic-aston-martin-db5-now
Let’s see…. Probably a quarter mil restoration… then it is an automatic?? YUK!! I always cringe when I see the original movie of The Italian Job when they crush a DB and throw it off a mountain…. If they only knew then what we know now…. That whole movie’s budget was probably what that cars worth is today!! ( Well maybe close!)
Just cars then. Look at what some assembly line American iron goes for and 40 year back we stacked, pressed, and shredded them like they were aluminum cans. The same goes on now with cars that may at some point be?????
What are you trying to say?
I think the car that went over was not the DB5 convertible, but a disguised Lancia Flaminia Touring substituted. At the time the difference in value made for a significant saving on budget.
Maybe if it hadn’t been punched in the mouth, but it needs a lot besides the damage. Title? Heritage?
Miss Moneypenny, contact State Farm. I have a claim.
While Miss Goodhead and I have tea !
I can almost assure you that there is structural damage which will warp all the adjacent panels. Assume everything from the doors forward will need massive amounts of work. These bodies are aluminum and the are generally painted a metallic color like this one because in time just wind will put waves in the flat portions of that lovely body because that aluminum is so thin and soft.
I worked in a shop that did a black one for Hallmark and getting that body to be free of waves was a nightmare. We finally were successful and the photos were taken and we saw the car a couple of years later with the waves back in the body. Now I like these but they are a mixture of the very crude and very sexy at the same time. I think he has this priced at least double of what it is worth and I agree it will end up in either England, Australia or Japan in some museum. So some craftsmen will be paid to put it right and that is the best thing to be said that those experts will be paid for their knowledge and time. Too much trouble for me especially at the price.
??? bargain of a lifetime/ Gullwing Motor Cars ???
If you need it , the guy who hand makes the metal on the forms he bought from AM lives in Ireland- a little back ordered
Peter Kumar sells nice cars, usually overpriced, but I do not understand why his busines appears in this arena. His inventory is not “Barn Find” material. Let’s leave it up to the cars which have been orphaned, forgotten or abandoned. Much more interesting and thought provoking.
I would imagine, Christopher, that the answer to your question lies in Gullwing flipping genuine barn finds that it acquires. You could say a Gullwing car is a barn find where a capitalist middleman is making a very healthy profit on it! You get a barn find, but not at an expected barn find price!
Maybe he makes payments to BarnFinds.
If only that were the case…
JO
Peter advertises here. I’ve seen his Wanted ads in the classified section. I have nothing against him or Barn Finds for that. He has to reach out through any avenue he can in order to find the unique inventory he carries.
Lawn art for the Hamptons! Lol! Do you have any grey poupon?
PT Barnum said it best. ” There’s a sucker born every minute.” What a arrogant seller. I wouldn’t pay more than 500 bucks for this jelopy, junker, bomb, #$& box. I can count on one hand how many salvageable parts a left.
This car is entirely restorable. Not saying that will make sense to everyone but worse things happen at sea.
I agree with you absolutely. What’s that gentleman’s name on TV who is a Mopar guru who picked up a 72 (1) Dodge Challenger, drop top, had a massive hemi motor, nothing, and I mean nothing was left of this car.
What remained of the carcass was Swiss cheese. Mopars are known for rotting out exceptionally bad. The VIN was still there.
He restored this car using the VIN. It was gorgeous. But he knew these cars sells for north of 70k. But still…he was way more into it than that.
Anything is “restorable” if you write a check with enough zeros on the end of it. The question is, will you break even when you or your heirs go to sell it? That’s the $129.5K+ question. Mark Woman of Graveyard Cars fame restored a totaled Charger with little more than the engine, transmission and rear end left. He basically built an entire body from scratch, jacked it up, and riveted a VIN plate to it. When he was done he was well into six figures on the restoration. That only works on TV. Most of us don’t have his budget to work with.
First registered in Northampton.
That’s what happens when you put twin 50s up against a Javelin…
This is a DB6 , not a DB5 from James Bond , so half of the write up was wasted time.
Thanks for not reading the post, I stated it as a DB6 with the DB5/James Bond reference as a bit of tongue in check. Sheesh!
JO
Jim – Your post got 45 comments in 23 hours. You did your job (admirably as usual). You can’t depend on your readers to do theirs.
Thank you ccrvtt. I should just let it go but…
JO
Some of us (me included) should be on the
other side of the screen.I wonder how many of us
would quit in a short time,after reading criticism of
our posting?
Our Daughter was a waitress (for a time) in Virginia.
She mad $2.13/hour,plus tips.She said that “Everyone-
should work on the other side of the counter”.
I work with the public,& am amazed at just how rude
& oblivious most of them are while trying to get my work done.
I think this car is built using tubular spaced frame construction. Think tubular metal lattice with no solid frame rails. Good luck straightening and aligning every welded lattice joint.
$129K for a wreck? I don’t know what this guy was smoking but it must be awfully strong Stuff!!! The car may be a desirable car but the damage to the right hand side suggests frame damage. The way some shops cut corners on repairs is to literally cut corners. I car I used to own got clobbered on RR the car was totaled, sold for salvage. A body shop bought the car cut the right rear section out welded a replacement section in, two years later the car got hit again and the welded section failed causing some serious injuries. because my name was the last registered owner before the accident Fl. HP pair me a serious visit wanting an explanation. Serious pass on this one!!!!!!!!
Realistically, “the ask” (poor English language…how it’s being butchered and desecrated!!) and what this DB-6 automatic/non-Vantage should fetch, should NOT exceed $50 thousand U.S. The 129 thousand asking price is an outrage, in my opinion, and should not even merit an inquiry.
Anyone willing to pay more than the fifty thousand should forward the pictures to Aston Martin’s own classic restoration shop on Tickford Street in Newport Pagnell and ask for a rough estimate of how much a complete restoration will cost. That person should have blood pressure pills and a glass of water on stan-by! That person should expect to hear four-and-a-half thousand hours of labour and tens of thousands of pounds in custom-fabricated parts.
By the way, the Aston Martin drophead that was supposedly pushed over the cliff by a bulldozer in The Italian Job (“pretty car”, said Mafia boss Raf Vallone as he ordered the car tossed over) was a DB-4 (note the uncovered head lamps).
I had a poster from an Oakland wrecking yard years ago with a perfect 300 SL Gullwing punched in the nose like this one. It was bought first for $20K and then sold two more times in the next week for double each time (so the story went). I’m sure this has a similar story at the current price. No idea if this is a bargain or not but suspect someone will snap it up.
If it was sold out of Copart, and given the damage, it likely has a salvage title. If that’s the case, the value might suffer accordingly.
Way over-priced with the amount of bodywork required, not to mention what lurks mechanically looking at the state of it. With 5% Import Duty to the UK this would simply not make sense with everything that needs doing. Bonhams have been clearing out a “static storage” Middle Eastern collection for over a year now through many of their auctions around the world and their UK-based sales site. These cars always lack documentation, but the cars are generally in good mechanical and body order, albeit requiring recommissioning due to periods in storage. There have been a huge number of Astons, particularly DB6 models, which have sold for well below the figure here and I would have thought they were a much better bet!
Must have been alot of tears shed over this one. Heck, I am almost ready to start crying.