Aston Martin Works Restores a One-Owner DB5 After 50 Years — Fulfilling a Teenage Dream Half a Century Later

Aston Martin Works has completed one of its most poignant restorations to date: a 1965 DB5 saloon purchased for just £900 in 1973, now returned to its birthplace in Newport Pagnell and restored to concours condition for the man who has owned it for more than half a century. The project represents not only the revival of an exceptionally rare DB5 Vantage, but also the fulfilment of a promise its owner, John Williams, made to himself as a teenager over 50 years ago.

Williams, a welder and garage owner from North Wales, was only 18 when he began saving every penny he could toward his dream of owning a DB5. By 1973, after more than a year of determined work and overtime shifts, he had amassed the £900 needed to buy the car — the equivalent of about £15,000 today. At just 19, he took the train to London to view a 1965 DB5 Vantage advertised with wire wheels, Weber carburettors, Sundym electric windows and, as the listing put it, “many bills.” He bought it on the spot and proudly drove it home to Wales, using it daily for roughly four years before leaving the car in storage when he departed for a job in the Middle East in 1977.

Life intervened, as it tends to. The DB5 sat outside, exposed to the elements, even as Williams turned down offers and held firm to the belief — echoed by his wife, Sue — that he would never get another. The neighbourhood children clambered over it; one snapped the exhaust while playing. Yet John kept the car, and with time it became not just a project, but a personal mission: to restore the car he had worked so hard to buy and bring it back to the road.

Returned to Newport Pagnell for a Second Life

In late 2022, the Williams family delivered the DB5 to Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell, the place where the car was originally built and where the marque produced more than 13,000 sports cars over 50 years. What arrived was an extremely tired but complete DB5 Vantage — the most desirable specification of all DB5s — finished originally in Silver Birch with right-hand drive and the uprated Vantage engine. Only 39 DB5s were ever built to this configuration, making the Williams car not just personal history, but a rarity of global significance.

Over the next three years, John and Sue made regular visits to follow its progress. They watched the chassis and Superleggera frame being rebuilt, the aluminium body panels hand-formed in the Panel Shop, and the car gradually return to the shape they remembered. For John, the restoration revived not only the DB5’s original form, but also the traditions of craftsmanship that defined the factory in the 1960s — something he was delighted to see living on through a new generation of specialists.

A Restoration of Extraordinary Depth

Aston Martin Works undertook more than 2,500 hours of work across its Panel, Paint, Trim and Heritage Workshops, supported by its in-house Parts Department. What began as a profoundly worn example is now — by the Works team’s own assessment — better than new. The DB5 has been restored faithfully to its 1965 specification, resplendent once again in Silver Birch with a fully rebuilt Vantage engine and period-correct details throughout.

With rarity, provenance and a factory restoration behind it, the car is now valued at up to £1 million — an almost unimaginable leap from the £900 Williams paid 52 years ago.

An Emotional Return to the Road

For Aston Martin Works President Paul Spires, the restoration encapsulates everything that defines the Newport Pagnell legacy: skill, pride and dedication. For the Williams family, the project represents something far more personal. Seeing the finished DB5 for the first time, John described the moment with fitting simplicity: “My girl’s back and up and running. Back to her former glory.”

Nearly 50 years after he last drove it, Williams finally has the chance to enjoy his dream car again — the psame DB5 he saved for as a teenager, preserved through decades of life’s twists and restored with remarkable care by the people who built it in the first place. It is a story of loyalty, craftsmanship and perseverance, and a reminder that the bond between an enthusiast and their car can endure for a lifetime.