The Ultimate Consumer: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Aston Martin Factory

As I stepped out of my car, I couldn't help but feel like James Bond, with my trusty CD player blasting in the background. "Goldfinger" was playing, and I couldn't resist taking the CD home with me. But little did I know, my adventure was only just beginning. I had arranged to visit the Aston Martin factory, where I would be getting hands-on experience with the badge-making process.

My journey began on the motorway, where the weather seemed to be playing a cruel trick on me. The drive from Glasgow was more like an end-of-the-world experience, with rain and wind pounding against my car's exterior. But as I made my way north, the conditions changed dramatically. By the time I arrived at the factory, the sun was shining brightly overhead, making my breath warm and cozy as I stepped out of the car.

As I walked into the factory, I was greeted by a friendly voice and asked to explain what I wanted to do right away. It seemed that my route was about to take an unexpected turn – one that would involve getting hands-on with the badge-making process itself. With a nod from the instructor, we began our journey through the production line. We started with the pressing stage, where metal was heated and molded into its desired shape.

The next stop on our tour was the stamping stage, where the first impressions were made on the metal badges. I watched in awe as the instructor expertly stamped out a Vantage badge, explaining to me that it would require 14 blows, each one carefully crafted to bring out the full detail of the design. As we moved through the process, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and trepidation – after all, this was where the magic happened.

As we continued on our journey, we arrived at the enamel run stage. Here, the metal badges were spray-painted with glass enamel to give them that distinctive shine and sophistication. The instructor handed me a special pen, which I hesitantly held in my hand, feeling a sense of trepidation about what lay ahead.

With a nod from the instructor, I was tasked with enameling the badge – an activity that had been lost on me since childhood. Holding the pen, I felt like I was grasping something entirely new and unfamiliar. Taking a deep breath, I began to apply the enamel to the badge, watching in wonder as it seemed to come alive under my fingers.

As we continued through the process, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at having made it this far – despite the initial uncertainty and fear. The instructor smiled at me, acknowledging that not everyone takes to badge-making with ease, but reassuring me that it was all part of the learning curve.

Finally, we arrived at the last stage of the process – the finishing touches. With a sense of accomplishment, I watched as the instructor carefully added the final details to each badge, before placing them on display for my eyes alone. And what an experience it had been – one that I would never forget.

As I made my way back through the factory, I couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude towards the instructors who had guided me through this incredible process. Collecting badges was just the beginning; making them was where the real magic happened. As I dropped off the finished product, I knew that I would be taking something truly special with me – a badge that would serve as a reminder of my time at the Aston Martin factory.

But little did I know, my journey wasn't quite over yet. With the instruction to sneak in some quick photos before handing back the car, I made one final stop at the parking lot. And what a sight it was – row after row of sleek, high-performance vehicles, each one more impressive than the last. I took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the Aston Martin collection, feeling grateful for the opportunity to have experienced it firsthand.

With the promise of a warm welcome and a fee of $600 in the parking lot, I set off on my final leg of the journey – dropping off my car at the designated area. As I walked away from the badge-making process, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at having made it through this incredible adventure. The Aston Martin factory had truly delivered on its promise – an unforgettable experience that I would cherish forever.

But just as I was about to leave, I caught sight of Tom's car in the distance, adorned with a special badge that seemed to be for him alone. With a nod from the instructor, I handed over my finished product and watched as it disappeared into the hands of its new owner – a badge maker who had just begun his own incredible journey.

And so, as I walked away from the Aston Martin factory, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to have experienced it all. From the moment I arrived, I knew that this was going to be an adventure like no other – one that would take me on a journey of discovery and creativity, where the boundaries between art and science blurred into something truly beautiful.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhow I want to know welcome to see-through glass and welcome to a very very very miserable and fairly wet Scotland this is this is officially stall Diana it's just horrible it's not not fun no fun to film in and I think that's went through a river anyway let's get to the point I'm in an Aston Martin voltage I think most of you know this is one of my favorite cars currently for sale and yesterday quite out of the blue Aston called me up and said will they spend two days in a voltage she'll say yes yes please because I've hardly spent any time behind the wheel of one of these cars so any opportunity to do so it's what I want to grab might be lost essentially Aston had one of their partridges in Scotland which they wanted back at their factory and rather than sending one of their usual delivery drivers to do the job they said would I like to do the honors and I was like yes six-hour drive an advantage why not they then said whilst I was doing this big drive could I do them a couple more favors and swing by some of their suppliers to pick up some plants for the production line so yeah it seems as though I've given up the YouTube job take it on a new job I'm an Aston Martin delivery driver I have to say I don't think it's that bad I'm sorry beautiful voltage office this weather's pretty grim anyway um I'm first headed to bridge of where they are the UK's will sort of leather specialists and they provide leather for the majority vast amount of the interiors so gonna head there pick up some bits before the production line and they continue our journey south in this bill is quite stunning and now very well as well she's in myself so this is the color spray before the color matching the sport booths a so when a customer comes to us with a unique the sport color this is where we try to do that their national marching and so basically what happens if we get given the sample or maybe it's still your so we've put into the color reading machine and basically what that does is come up with a recipe to achieve that color and on that respite they get the guys will then take the pigments that you can see in the wall behind me we then match that recipe and spray it onto the hate onto our sample that you can see there so that's that's being sprayed or that's more that's not beets Bridget so that's getting prepared to be sprayed Michael you can see the bag is actually mixing the pigments as you see so that's like a base color so that yeah that's what we call pure AnnaLynne Tsawwassen but it's actually just been dyed and so it's been dyed dried it's really soft supple but has no protection over the a surface or no pigment so as we've dyed that it's close to the end customer color as Ben Yannick looked like the final pigment coverage will get it to an exact match where the customers looking for this is a finished article now went through though into the national march in hazard I went to the finishing went through final testing has been passed off by final inspection then it comes to our cutting point this product itself is actually known as the spicy red really really break oh so that's a it's an Aston Martin color that's a match to a customer order that doesn't ask the mountain cover for what you can do one from the matching that you've seen we'd still get it through in the same way so any matches from the customer we spoke power they can then give us a imagine like yourselves again and it reaches us here at Mill cuts into their individual car so we've got two traceability of the cup parts all the way back to their initial matching and then all the way through to their final card as well so the spoiler itself is from the Caithness range in that kid there's think you've actually go over 170 postcards for Aston Martin in standard problems that is the oh yeah is there a fill color power and anyone same they'll have maybe 30 to colors or so on their dealer wall that you can from but if you go through the acute division then you can choose any of those colors that you want in your car is that standard anymore other manufacturers and the most that you've seen in any other manufacturers as it may be 50 you standard production cars but enough golf the level of the school can increase the ratio why let's do this is the test now practicality of my delivery vehicle Wacom good glove well guys thank you so much I appreciate the tour I probably need to I let's close this up because I've got a deadline to meet before yeah getting cross a movie but thank you so much for the talk great to meet you actually appreciate it hopefully I'll be back up soon getting some custom leather first I don't know what but yeah soon guys bye more incredibly nice people I really feel like I learned a lot this morning and now sitting back in the vantage bathed in this bridge of wear leather I'm like oh this is lovely and I also know that this is not embossed this is natural grain see I have now completed I guess job one of the three jobs I have to do today I have collected the leather parts for the Aston production line I now have about a five-hour drive south someone called Hortons in Birmingham they make the badges for the bonnet and I think just the bonnet nowadays almost obliterate the badges for instance I think the weather's getting worse he looks alright okay now but I'm headed that way and there's some really dark horrific clouds in front of me and on the radio they keep talking about this storm Diana and gale force winds and things I'm not really sure how this is gonna go but I'm just gonna put my head down and enjoy being in this super luxurious interior I hadn't thought about respecting their vantage like this when I originally expect up my dream car should have had a very black and Alcantara type interior but it's getting so carried away people can sell things to me so easily I'm the ultimate consumer I'm the kind of guy that you know whilst I'm in a petrol station if they're playing James blonde I'm like I'll take that CD so now I just want one bridge of wear leather and all of my cars anyway yes let's not where's my stat math I'm gonna go left let's find the motorway and crack on with our journey this really is so the petrol stations talking to me this really is grim weather um so I've had have been you much footage there of the drive down from Glasgow per just kind of end of the world rain and wind and actually quite scary but anyway it's punch this morning up well and it was dry it's not that great on fuel it's probably my only negative thing I would say about this car is yeah it does seem to churn through the petrol but maybe that's because I'm constantly the Sport Plus mode going through the gears is the sound so good anyway yes a bit fuel and then crack on went off about an hour now from our next stop finally somewhere dry and have now made it into a very convenient parking space at Morton's to check out the Aston Martin badges that I'm collecting for the production line however I have learnt on my way here that I'm not just gonna be collecting badges I'm gonna be making them as well and importance if I'm gonna be walking me through the sort of production line showing me the process and the pounding I'm going to be getting hands-on with it anyway inside so warm it's so nice white Nick please explain what is about what manly activity my route to do right so we're in the pressure and this is where we start process the whole process of making the bag here's how it goes from this into a finished workplace that's the passive action we're already halfway through the stamping process this one precious out the Vantage badge okay so it's already gone through half its progresses so you'll see on this one that's not very much detailed it's slightly rounded we need to keep going it takes about 14 14 blows 14 blows just 300 tons per blow to get the full detail look that we want while you'll hear it's probably best if you either go to in it I'll show you what to do I am very familiar with the emergency alphabet cross outside register I've now made it through to the enamel run because the Aston Martin batters are painted all spray-painted they are glass enameled to make them look so damn pretty so I've just had a I go burning off the dust that might be in there for the now I'm gonna have a go at actually enameling this could go horribly wrong my hands I'm not the steadiest in the business but I've been trusted with oh I have absolute trust thank you very much with an enameling pen I haven't held a fountain pen since was about seven so wish me luck people it's like ice cream how much do I want on the raise that too much that's fine that looks very uneven to me okie-dokie my tour and my my learning of badge making over was i any good i wasn't any good well tahoe tell time was asking said anyway I need to collect this fast for the production line because I'm running a little bit behind schedule but this is the one this is the one so this will be for DBS o TBS haven't even know on cars come out informally that's a proper that's a problem right now okay and this is another one we're gonna give to you going to your advantage don't but still hey look if I haven't got the whole car looks like on the ground sixteenth of the way there were thirty anyway mate thank you so much this pack these up same dream and I got my way appreciate it of course the Sun has to come out just as I have to give this car back I have now arrived at the Aston Martin Factory and I cannot believe for the 45 minute drive over from Wharton's I had blue sky Sun and blue freezing cold Sun a blue sky but still always well there's a fee 600 in the carpark all there's lots of whips in the carpark right I gotta go and find the production line because that's that's the end of my job well isn't it drop in this car back and dropping the stuff to the production line so yeah or maybe I should take some photos fast yeah sneaky so just do some sneaky voters before to really give it back well doesn't have the kind of place that I should be dropping off leathers excuse me you Tina oh I think this is for you I think this is my I delivered this now that's my job and I think this is where I'm dropping off their bad sorry you Tom I am Tom this is I believe for you job Dan\n"