T57 Bugatti Grill Build

[skintkarter]

As my signature says, I know nothing...

I doubt that the 5 Bugattis are to be passed off in some way as originals. And with all of the Bugattis being used and raced, kept alive my a myriad of recreated parts, what is an 'original' these days? No doubt when it comes to building the panels, there will be a great deal of anealing, and a'wheelin and a' bashin in time honoured tradition. Some of our local artisans have recently completed a DeHaviland Mosquito recreation (now in the US) and they CNC routered out the buck stations and no doubt some of the timbers. I certainly don't care, not with 2 Merlins at full noise and 100 feet...

I think we should all be celebrating the fact that somebody has the balls to build not one, but 5 (go Pur Sang) and that 5 individuals have the pocketbook to fund the build. One of my local hero's is building a 59B recreation for a customer. The raw castings are from the Bugatti Owners Club, but am sure that some of the internal machining is CNC. And it's 5 litre not 3.3. So some non visual CNC'd bits, but a stunning bespoke body bashed and riveted and about 4 weeks of precision hand work just making the dry sump feeds and crankcase breathers by hand.

I'll bet that with the contentious water-jetted rad surround, there will be some magician sweating 4000 perfectly aligned hexagonal brass tubes together.

If I had a CNC anything, there would be some CNC bits in my Type 51 homage.

[toreadorxlt]

It's working smarter vs harder IMO. Metal shaping is what I enjoy. Not buck making. If technology let's me focus on what I enjoy more, I'm a for it

[flebus]

Sure, but a great deal of what is being talked about is a service to buck making. Very little had to do with the actual metal shaping, which is really my point.

David G. can whang out a magnificent fender - sorry, guard. I mean wing. Oh whatever - just laying it over an original part. That is not less efficient than having to become competent in Alias and have five figures worth of paraphernalia before you've even made the thing you need to make before you make the actual thing you want to end up with. If one says 'but I don't have an original fender' to work off of, one could respond 'well then what were you going to scan? A Hot Wheels?

[RockHillWill]

Martin, no problems here. I also appreciate your viewpoint regarding feminine beauty. I remember what you did for me with the drawings and I appreciate it.

To others: I only made the post as I get a lot of questions about what a water jet is, does, looks like, etc, and I was just passing the time of day by offering some answers to some often asked questions about the water jet. I was not trying to pass it off as the 'next great thing'.

I have about exhausted my participation level with Model A cars, and when my friend Jim asked for some help making some patterns and bucks for his project, I was happy that he asked me for some help and I contributed in one of the few ways that I am able. This is not an attempt to 'change' metal shaping, but only to help Jim get a good start on a huge undertaking.

Since my football playing days, my thinking has always been that of something that I heard from Vince Lombardi. He expected his players to strive for perfection at every practice, on every play in every game, knowing full well that perfection was unachievable, but his point was that by striving for perfection, you will pass thru greatness!

[crystallographic]

Originally Posted by RockHillWill

I have WAY too many projects going on. The hand bead roller (parts on order), update power shrinker (rework actuating arm and convert to 'no-mar' dies), adapting mower deck to wife's new tractor, speedster panels and preparing for Peters class in Nashville and on and on, but once in a while something gets done.

I have been working on building a type 57 Bugatti grill for one of Jim Hery's projects and spent some time on it yesterday at the shop of David Bolding (a major contributor to the Redneck Roundup). I had previously traced the front contour while at Jim's and determined that it was not symmetrical, so it was scanned from the centerline and mirrored to complete the profile. I have a 3D scanned model of the grill, but do not have the skills or software to develop it at this point, so I used the Faro scanner at David's shop. Pictures show David setting up the scanner and picking the points. The Faro scanner exported the file in a .x_t file extension that was then inserted into Solidworks, but I found it to be VERY cumbersome the update/modify, so David saved it as a .dxf file and imported it into his water jet software and did hand modifications to achieve a half model. We cut a half pattern and matched it to the cardboard pattern and made a set of adjustments, then made a full copy on the water jet. The last photo shows the result. I will take it to my next trip to Jims and compare it to the original before continuing.

OMAX is a good machine. Is it running 60grit garnet? About 30ksi water?
Sweet cuts.

kent

[Richard K]

Will and Jim,

What type of Bugattis are you building. Are they replicas of an actual car or a design. If new what are they based on?

Is the grill that we see a shell or the actual radiator? How is the shell or radiator constructed on the original and are you copying that construction? What material and gauges are being used?

[RockHillWill]

Richard: My contribution to Jims efforts is mainly towards the building of some bucks, and any questions regarding what he is doing and for whom probably would be more appropriate to ask him rather than me.

[jhery]

Originally Posted by Richard K

Will and Jim,

What type of Bugattis are you building. Are they replicas of an actual car or a design. If new what are they based on?

Is the grill that we see a shell or the actual radiator? How is the shell or radiator constructed on the original and are you copying that construction? What material and gauges are being used?

Richard, Will and I seem to have ruffled some feathers with this thread. In the 40 years of restoring and building bodies I never made a buck since most of the cars I work on are one off it isn't feasible to make bucks. In the early coachbuilding days bucks were generally only built when 5 or more bodies were going to be built due to cost. When I received this 1935 Type 57 Bugatti Stelvio with a Gangloff body it was a rare opportunity to be able to have one all apart as these bodies are regarded by many collectors to be in the top 10 body designs of coachbuilt cars. Will had a welding class with a professor from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design who offered to scan three cars presently in my shop so we could make bucks. I was impressed by the beauty of the body by Jean Bugatti using simple and basic designs, as I am used to working on huge overcomplicated formal cars and this body interested me. Will graciously offered to help me out with this project and appreciate and thank him for his input. The bodies are going to be framed in white ash from trees cut from my property and will be skinned in aluminum. My goal is to have a car which looks like an old car only sporting a modern drivetrain. The interior, gauges, seats and hardware will all look original. The original Stelvios are now in the million dollar range and most likely will not be driven on the road so the replica bodies using traditional coachworks will be the next best thing. The radiator is separate on this model and have a removable grille shell with operating shutters.

[Mike Rouse]

Just as a side note. The shape of the radiator shell is ment to resemble a horse shoe. Bugatti liked horses and put that shape on his cars.
Good luck.
Mike

[JimRussell]

Hi Jim,

I have to agree, the styling of that car is beautiful. Well worth copying.