Key Fobs, Updates, and the End of the Clearance Sale
I've got a bunch of updates for you, so let's start off with what you guys will probably want the most: savings!
Clearance Sale
If you haven't already seen it, I've got a big sale going to clear out the last of my inventory. Check out my previous Blog Posts if you want more info about what's going on.
Most stuff has already been snatched up, but there's still plenty more that needs to go. I've just done my final price reductions, which lowered pricing even further than before. Most things are well below my own cost, but my loss is your gain!
The clearance sale is ending very soon, so don't wait to order if there's anything you need! Once the sale ends, the remaining inventory will be shipped to me in Japan. Once I have it, I'll be making it available to purchase again at its normal pricing.
Shipping
Another savings thing to cover is that I've been able to lower shipping costs due to volume discounts, which I can now pass on to you! Yes, shipping is still a painful thing that none of us likes, but I'm doing what I can to keep lowering that cost for all of us.
Speaking of shipping, the issues with shipping into the US are still ongoing. Shipping out of the US is fine, shipping between other countries is fine, but shipping into the US is not at all fine. All of the issues are with US shipping carriers handling shipments within the US, which is why I use the tracking numbers for those carriers when I update orders with that information.
Please keep an eye on your tracking information! If you see any issues with a shipment's progress, contact the carrier and find out if there's a problem. If there is, and if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know and I'll get on it right away.
Motul Sale
There’s a sale on Motul products, with all lubricants getting 10% off!
No coupon code necessary. Discount automatically applied to applicable items during checkout and will be displayed in the cart and during checkout. Additional Terms & Conditions apply.
Key Fobs, Lug Nuts, and Restocking
More good news: Spinstate Key Fobs are back!!
Spinstate (front) vs OEM (rear) key fobs.
That's right, it's something I've been working on for a long time and it has finally happened - I've been able to acquire the rights to the Spinstate key fobs so I can bring them back to market. The first shipment of them has arrived and they're now available to order! I've applied a pre-order discount for them while I get them ready to ship, which I expect will begin in the next few days. As soon as I've finished sorting and prepping them, I'll begin shipping them to customers and the pre-order discount will end.
Also back are the Redpants Titanium Lug Nuts - I currently keep both bare titanium and PVD Black finishes in stock, but the bare titanium had sold out. Those have just been restocked so both are available for immediate shipment! (Other finishes like PVD Gold and Burnt Blue are still available for special order.)
On top of making heavy investments into bringing back old products and introducing new ones, I’ve also been slowly building up my inventory levels for routine products. While I am still often selling out of things before they can be restocked, I’ve been able to get more and more inventory shipments coming in to help reduce the time it takes to ship out backordered items. Just yesterday, for example, I was able to ship out an order that had come in only four hours earlier because the missing items had arrived the same day. I know I say it often, but it’s worth repeating: Please contact me if you need something that’s listed as ”available on backorder” and I’ll let you know if it’s ready to ship or, if not, how long it’s expected to take. It’s often quicker than you might think.
If you're subscribed to the Redpants YouTube channel, you should have seen that I've published a new video!
This one covered all the reasons why my engine hasn't started, and was inspired by the most recent issue I had with my car: a broken clutch pedal start inhibitor switch. I figured if this happened to me, it could happen to other people as well, so I decided to start stocking these switches.
Here are a few more new product listings I've recently made:
ICM lenses
Hood bump stops
Trunk bump stops
The funny thing about these lenses and bump stops is that I usually have some of them in stock, but didn't have listings for them until now! I'd just send them out when people asked for them, but for whatever eason, I didn't have product listings so they could be ordered like anything else.
A product listing I've had since the very beginning of Redpants is for hood struts for the DB9, DBS, Rapide, and Virage. My latest inventory shipment included some of these, but this time they were different. Aston Martin have changed the design slightly (well, I'd imagine the supplier changed the design and Aston Martin accepted it). The original hood struts had a chrome-like finish on the strut body, but the new ones now match the finish on the trunk struts.
New vs old hood struts.
This change isn't the first time it's happened. Aston Martin can (and does) change things without warning. For example, I've got a pair of first-generation Vanquish door check arms available in my Garage Sale section. They're the exact same part name and part number and are identical in every way... except that they're very different colors. They go inside the body so you'll never see the difference once installed, but it's worth making it clear that they may not match what you're expecting depending on what you already have.
Another thing that can (and does) change without warning is the price of any given item. My most recent shock was from those aforementioned ICM lenses - the pre-MY9.5 version had gone on backorder for a while and, when they were finally available again, nearly tripled in price!
In Other News
As I mentioned in my last Blog Post, I’m now offering guided driving tours in Japan! My wife, Luanna, is helping me with this by, amongst other things, providing translation services for anyone that may want them. English is actually her third language, and she speaks Portuguese and Japanese natively.
One of her clients during the last couple years has been a Japanese racing driver that doesn’t speak English, but has been racing for a British team called TF Sport. He raced last year in WEC and this year in ELMS, and hired Luanna to travel with him for races, training sessions, and other events. The funny thing about this is that I already knew about this team because they used to race Aston Martins and had ever since their founding in 2014. The year she gets hired on… they switched to Corvette! Just my luck, right?
Anyway, the 2025 season of ELMS just finished, and TF Sport won the LMGT3 Championship! What’s wild about it is how it ended: In order for the team to win the season championship, they not only had to win the final race, but the team leading in points going into the race had to finish below a certain position. Somehow, it actually happened. And not only that, but after a 4-hour race, TF Sport’s Charlie Eastwood - low on energy and on old tires - managed to hold off a lightning-quick McLaren, and won by a whopping 0.36 seconds.
Luanna and the drivers after winning Imola earlier this year.
A 0.36-second victory after 4 hours of racing, which gave them the season championship. Tell me that isn’t wild!!
Anyway, the point of all this is that the 2025 ELMS season is over, so her schedule is freed up quite a bit if you need a translator, on or off our driving tours. Not only is she a wonderful person to work with, she’s also got more racing cred than most people out there… me included…
Keep Current
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and turn on notifications so you know when I put out a new video about Aston Martins, parts, products, and DIY information.
My second YouTube channel is for Redpants Unzipped. It focuses on events and travel in Japan and elsewhere. (I swear I’ll be making content for it at some point…)
I hate social media so I’m rarely on it, but I have been making an effort to post more often on my Redpants and Redpants Unzipped accounts on Instagram.
If you want to get in touch, email me or use my Contact page (they both go to the same email address). If you message me on a Redpants social media page, I may not see it. If you try to message me on a personal page, it definitely won’t be seen.
I notify people when I publish Blog Posts by sending out a Newsletter. If you’re not subscribed to my Newsletter, you can do so here:
Okay, that’s it this time. I’ll push out more Blog Posts as I have more to share!