Well, things are moving right along. It is now a rolling chassis. I had all the springs custom made and he did a superb job. I have no idea what the spring rate was on the front of an original T-35 but mine is so stiff that I might as well just weld the axel to the frame. The back seems to be fine. I haven't decided what to do about the dampers yet. I am leaning on using tube type because old friction dampers are difficult to find and from what I can tell, they don't work very well anyway.

One night, I started it up and just sat in it and tried to imagine going down the road at 120 miles per hour. It should go that fast easily. I don't know if I will ever do it. I have not quite become used to the idea of all the moving parts so close to me and the vibration that lets me know that the driver of such a car becomes one with it.

If I can persuade Herman to post the pictures I sent to him last time, I will send current pictures.

I will look them up and post them.

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Vive la Marque !!

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Vive la Marque !!

I just got lucky. I found a radiator grill on Ebay. I feel it is lucky because I thought I would have to make one and frankly, I didn't think I could do a very good job. It should be delivered to me in a few days. The pictures of it look great.

The original budget to build my "replica" was U.S. $25,000. As a result of the fact that the dollar has sunk in value to a level near whale dung and a few mistakes resulting in re-works, that budget has been exceeded. Seems the price of anything with the name Bugatti on it or even associated with it has gone through the roof!

After the radiator is mounted and all the holes drilled to mount the body panels, the entire thing will have to be stripped down to a bare frame again and turned upside down. There are some gussets that will have to be added and some welds that were never made. That is because I didn't have the springs at the time I built the frame, so I didn't want to take a chance on having to cut anything off an redo it. Also, I didn't want to have to paint around all the bolts.

I will take some pictures in a week or two and post them. Hopefully, I will find the time to clean up the shop so the pictures will not reveal the mess this has been left in its wake.

Well folks, we are moving right along. Target for first slow speed test drive is June - probably late June. The front scuttle and the rear tail section are both nearly complete. I formed one side of the hood and am working on the other side. Very difficult to keep from denting them while forming and before they are heat treated to 6061 - t - 6511. I shot some paint on both just to see if I am going to like it. I do. There are several parts that are very challenging to make and they have yet to be made. Among them are the brakes, the radiator, and the seat. I have ordered the machine turned aluminum for the dash board and that is quite simple to make. Basically just punching a bunch of holes and cutting.

The radiator is the biggest challenge at the moment. I bought a shell from a VolksWagen kit car and paid an awful lot of money for it. However, it is dimentionally correct and in good shape. I have decided to use a copper radiator. I bought a four core rediator that was used in some unknown American car. I took it to a radiator shop and had them heat it up and remove the top an bottom and clean it out. I am going to make a top and bottom section that will conform to the shape of the "Bugatti" radiator shell and have a filler that will fit in the hole in the top of the shell. This is a lot of work because a lot of the original radiator has to be cut away and removed and yet leave as much as possible to actually cool the two liter high performance engine.

Another problem is the brake calipers. I am using disc brakes and the discs are made and installed. Ten inch discs in rear eleven in front. I have not found suitable calipers that are light enough and that will be able to be made to fit. I'll think of something.

The drive train is basically done. Seems to work okay. Hope I did the shift right. Backwards from front to back and "normal" from sid to side with reverse lower left. 3.78 gears and those 19 inch tires and wheels should work out just about right. No fifth gear - 4th gear straight through.

I worked on the exhaust and removed the fiberglass packed mufflers and replaced them with some much quieter ones. The exhaust headers are split between the three front and the three rear cylinders. The pipes are totally separate back to the mufflers and then two separate pipes out the back on the right side - opposite that of original Bugatti. The sound is nothing short of great! I don't know what an original Bugatti T-35 sounded like but it couldn't be any better than this. I am sending a recent picture in the hope Herman will post it.

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Vive la Marque !!

I have spent the weekend totally dismantling my project. The frame was stripped down and every single bold removed. All the welds were checked and touched up as necessary and lots of sanding, grinding, deburring and so forth. I hope I have done all the welding necessary on the frame so I don't have to repaint around a weldment. Next the frame was hung off the ceiling and primed with "Vari Prime". This week it will be painted and the assembly process begun. I decided to paint the frame a dark blue rather than black or the blue color the rest of the body will be.

Bugatti may not have approved but almost every nut and bolt is stainless steel. Some high stress bolts are grade 8 with a plating but the hundreds of bolts and nuts and washers are stainless and most of them have holes for safety wire. I suppose it is my years of beating myself up trying to remove rusted bolts from my old English cars that left me with a disgust for rust.

Before the reassembly is begun, the shop area will be as clean as possible. I make it a practice to never use a hand held electric grinder near a project nearing finishing. All that airborn abrasive material flying around the area gets in everything ruining bearings, paint jobs, and so forth. I was told by a friend in the insurance business that those hand held grinders are also the most dangerous tool in small shops. Not only do they cause injuries but they start fires when the hot sparks land on solvents, fuel tanks, and other flamable materials including cloths and rags.

....not to mention employees tossing the grinder back in the cabinet, after work has been done, damaging the disc that is on it. The next person to start the thing runs the risk of shattering the disc, with fragments flying everywhere. (including your hands, if the safety cover is not present or misaligned). This happened twice in 2 years, when I worked with a former company. Both times the worker needed extensive surgery to put his hand back together.

-never throw a grinder
-never remove the cover

And indeed, my girlfriends car has grinding residue over the roof, as I ground away some rust. I really need to polish that out. From wednesday on I have 5 consecutive days off. Hmm...

On to the project. 8 grade bolts are a neccesity in high-strain areas. The rest can indeed do with stainless, which is a lot weaker.

I am very curious for the result. Guess you are on the final stretch now...

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Vive la Marque !!

Of course the original chassis were not painted blue, but grey.

Supposedly Bugatti after WW1 bought very cheaply a big lot of grey warship-paint. He used it for the chassis, other parts that were not in sight (like the wooden blocks to support the fuel tank, all kind of crates etc.).

On some photographs this color can still be seen. Many cars have been restored wrongly though, with a chassis painted blue.

I can support the story with the grinder. This caused an explosion once in the hobby garage where I worked on my car sometimes (a Daimler Conquest Century Saloon in those days). People grinded something (I wasn't there, luckily), the sparks flew into the used oil barrel, which was also used by some to throw in dirty cleaning petrol and all other kinds of liquids. BOOM!

For some reason, this garage on the university grounds, was closed not too long after....

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I had no idea what color a Bugatti frame should be. I took some very dark grey paint I had extra from another project and added some dark blue to it until I ended up with a dark bluish grey that I felt would show off all those beautiful bolts. Ettore' would be proud. I didn't use any filer whatsoever on the frame. Any flaws in the welding, scratches, or anything else is clearly visable. I don't know how others feel but I would never trust a frame that had filler on it.

No filler please. This hides eventual cracks in the structure, might they appear. (I hope not)

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Vive la Marque !!

Herman, we agree on that. When I was a young man somebody told me never to paint a wooden ladder or trust one that had been painted by somebody else. I have always thought the same basic rule should apply to frames or other structural components and structures.

I have seen many cars at shows and auctions that look "too pretty". Frames with all the welds covered up and smooth as silk. I close my eyes and imagine a whole bunch of bondo over rust. Sometimes it seems a guy gets his hands on a gallon of "Bondo" (polyester body putty) and, like Michael Angelo, sees something inside the cured blob and has only to remove that which hides his sculpture.

Same goes for chroming wheels: No idea what is happening under there, untill it is too late.

If you get hold of some Bugatti wheels, just polish them up. That way you will always be able to see what is going on, and polishing helps preventing stress risers. Once, after polishing they get dull again, they look great and periodicaly correct.

Bondo... great stuff. Limited purpose, though...

Want to mess with the show car guys? Go to a show, and bring a magnet, to check for bondo on welds... (or anywhere else...)

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Vive la Marque !!

I believe some "restorers" add metal shavings to the bondo mix. Speaking of which, what do you guys make of the newly patinated T39 in the latest issue of Classic & Sports Car? Apart from a new engine block, wheels, some new metal in the body and fresh, yet very old looking paint, it is totally original - apparently.

To me, patina is something that only time can provide...

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Vive la Marque !!