1958 Aston Martin

History of AM.300/3/1683

This car was ordered new in 1958 by Mr Alister Malcolm Creswick of Aune Cross, Devon and was designated the registration 353ATA. The car was ordered in the rare shade of Cardinal Grey by Mr Creswick, who was a wealthy landowner and sixty-five years old at the time of purchase. Mr Creswick passed away five years later in 1963 aged seventy. Having no wife or children, Mr Creswick was to bequeath 'all my motor cars and other motor vehicles' to Mr Richard Leslie Rogers, a local farmer who operated on Mr Creswick’s land.

Richard Rogers took the car immediately to a dealership and the car was up for sale in 1963 as Richard Rogers headed for a new life in the Channel Islands.

As the car awaited its next custodian at the dealership, it received a new coat of dark-green metallic paint and was fitted with a Motorola radio system, presumably to freshen up the car and improve the dealer’s sales potential.

During 1963, Frederick W. Anner Jr. was stationed in Verdun, France. Frederick was a clarinet player with the U.S. Marching band and was the owner of a 1954 Aston Martin DB MkII/4. Fred was having problems running his car and decided to take it to England to have some work done on it. It was during this visit that Fred was persuaded to trade his current model for the freshly painted and spruced-up MkIII model in the dealership. Fred was to have his new acquisition sent to his home in the U.S.A. The cars destination was to be Orchard Park, Buffalo, N.Y. The car would remain here for 49 years. During Fred’s ownership, the car was used as his honeymoon car as well as to be towed to Toronto, by Fred’s brother, to have a new set of pistons fitted.

In August 2012, the car was purchased by the current owner. The car was carefully inspected and found to be in an almost time-warp state of preservation. The metallic dark-green paint had suffered the test of time and was flaking off, and there was some corrosion in the doors and sills of the car, as well as the bonnet. The engine was running well at the time of purchase and the car showed an original reading of only 46,631 miles on the odometer. The interior of the car was factory-original and displayed wonderful patina, but the headlining was in poor condition and hanging down.

Due to the very original nature of the car, it was decided that the restoration should be done extremely sympathetically with care taken to preserve as many of the original finishes as possible. It was decided that no chrome-plating nor refinishing of any components would be done - everything being thoroughly cleaned and left as-is. The only exception to this would be the repainting of the car in its original shade of Cardinal Grey using period correct cellulose-based paint, and the chassis of the car was shot-blasted and repainted black.

The engine of the car, although still running well, had its cylinder head rebuilt using hardened valve-guides enabling the use of unleaded fuel.

The restoration of the car comprises of a total disassembly, including removing the body from the chassis. The car was completely rebuilt from the ground up, reusing all of the original components and fasteners. The car retains its original interior and carpets which were carefully cleaned and preserved allowing the car to retain its original patina.

An opportunity to acquire a beautifully preserved DB2 Mk3 in stunning order both mechanically and cosmetically, the very best available.

Exchanges welcome.