Beloved by James Bond fans, the Aston Martin DB5 has been a staple of the film franchise since its first appearance in 1964’s Goldfinger.
John Williams, 71, a welder and garage owner, was so enamoured with the car he was given a toy version of as a boy, that he saved up to buy one second hand in 1973.
After putting away £900 – the equivalent of about £10,000 today – he bought a silver birch DB5 Vantage, the same model made famous by Sean Connery in Goldfinger and Thunderball.
However, over the next five decades, Mr Williams’ vehicle was left exposed to the elements on his drive in Mold, north Wales.
In 1977, after four years of using it to drive to work, Mr Williams secured a job in the Middle East and put it into storage.
“Then… ‘life’ happened,” he said. “I’d had offers to buy her, and times when I could have done with the money, but I resisted and, as Sue [John’s wife] said ‘you’ll never get another one’.
“As time went on it became a goal of mine to get her restored, to be able to drive her again. Being a garage man, I was a bit ashamed that I’d let her get into that state.
“I worked hard to buy her, and we’ve worked hard to get her repaired.”
Mrs Williams said the car reached such a state of disrepair that children in the neighbourhood would play on the car, even bouncing on the bonnet and roof to see if the ejector seat would work.
Of the 1,022 DB5 models built by Aston Martin between 1963 and 1965, only 887 were built as saloons.
Of those, only 39 had the silver birch paintwork, higher output Vantage engine, and right-hand drive configuration that Mr Williams’s does – making it “particularly rare and desirable”.
After saving £400,000, the couple took the vehicle to Aston Martin Works in Newport Pagnell in 2022, to have it restored to its former glory.
One technician said upon receiving the rusted car that the Titanic was probably in better condition.
However, despite the challenges, after three years and more than 2,500 hours of restoration work the work has finally been completed.
Paul Spires, the president of Aston Martin Works, said: “Although the car was in a profoundly run-down condition when it arrived, we always relish a challenge and I knew we had the skills, dedication and expertise to return the car to a better-than-new condition.
“While it might be uncouth to speculate on values for the car I think it’s reasonable to suppose that if it ever were to be offered to the market once more, and bearing in mind its specification and provenance, a value of up to £1m would be in order.”
Steve Waddingham, Aston Martin’s historian, said: “It would almost be easier to build a brand new car, but to actually repair and put new sections into a very heavily corroded car like this one took an awful lot of skill and patience.
“It’s such an overwhelming car to be in the presence of – the smell of, it the feel of it, the noise it makes.
“They are very special and you cannot get out of your mind those various famous film scenes.”
On collecting his newly refurbished car and taking it for its first drive with his wife, Mr Williams said: “Well, it’s been a long time coming, a long time saving, but it’s been worth every penny. It’s just amazing.
“It’s probably almost 50 years since I have driven this car, but the experience is phenomenal. It’s just... unbelievable. My girl’s back and up and running – back to her former glory.”