Yes please David. Appreciate it.
Gordini recently given away?
- Thread starter Bowie
- Start date
Liked! yes please
Well done Rory. Send it this way...
I read years ago about a Type 35 Bugatti that had been restored (recreated) just from an id plate and half a fire wall. So nothing is impossible, just will have to be a long(er) term project for you.
Totally possible.
Or just buy a Bugatti 35 with the money it's going to cost.
Memories of Bugattis. This is hard to believe these days but here's a true story of my mates dads Bugattis. Growing up in Melbourne in the 60's my mate (who I still see today) dad had 2 of them. One was a blue type 35 on the road and he use to take us for rides in, the other was a V8 sedan that was always down the back of the shed as a future project.I read years ago about a Type 35 Bugatti that had been restored (recreated) just from an id plate and half a fire wall. So nothing is impossible, just will have to be a long(er) term project for you.
His parents split up, dad ran off with someone else and the cars sat in the shed for years, one day he comes home from school and there gone, his mother got sick of them and rang a scrappy to come and get them. Never heard of them again. We're now in our 60's and he still talks about that day.
funny that, a long time ago i had a neighbour who claimed he had ridden in Stan Jones MAYBACH as a kid ,on a test drive down there street in Melbourn ,he said his father had struck up a friendship with Stan after giving him some front brakes ,off a Bugatti ,he had under there house ,[as you do ] ,I have no reason not to believe him , ,i was blown away that people would have those kind of parts just lying around ,those were the days
yep, I had an uncle,long gone now, who had a Bugatti in late thirties to late forties, in between serving in new guinea, reckoned the thing went like stink but didn't, like stopping, eventually went to scrap from what I can recall.... jim
My dad use to know them. Stan ran a garage in Ascot Vale my dad would walk past on his way home from school. Often saw and heard the Maybach being tuned, one night he was out walking the dog and heard a roar behind and the Maybach flew past him, no lights and flat out. He saw the driver's long scarf and recognised it to be Otto Stone.
An F1 car being tested in the back streets of Essendon.
He says Stan Jones was a top bloke who enjoyed showing the local kids the cars and had lots of time for his fans but his son Allan was a smart arse little shit.
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Back to spring compressors, Bowie, if all you want is to compress the spring in situ, you can use a long threaded rod through the hole in the top shock tower and a small flat bar with two holes at the bottom, one hole for the threaded rod, one hole to anchor the bottom to the top suspension arm in one of the bolt holes for the top balljoint.
Either way, there is more than one way to skin this cat, just make sure you use high tensile threads. Other than that, I have seen many designs along the lines of the original factory tool and some of these didn't need welding. You just need to have some way of reaching the fulcrum point designed into the chassis on the shock tower. It is a horizontal fore-aft hole going parallel to the suspension arm(s) hinges, somewhere above the bottom spring perch. Bolt a couple of flat bars there to gain leverage to compress the spring and tighten (pull up) with a threaded rod through that hole at the top.
I have managed to get these springs off with commercial compressors from Repco, but you need to get the model that has the travelling nut at the bottom, because there is no room at the top. I think I used four of them because they don't have enough travel either, so I just released the tension in stages, keep it clamped with one pair, move the other pair on the coils and so on. A bit of a faff but it worked.
Either way, there is more than one way to skin this cat, just make sure you use high tensile threads. Other than that, I have seen many designs along the lines of the original factory tool and some of these didn't need welding. You just need to have some way of reaching the fulcrum point designed into the chassis on the shock tower. It is a horizontal fore-aft hole going parallel to the suspension arm(s) hinges, somewhere above the bottom spring perch. Bolt a couple of flat bars there to gain leverage to compress the spring and tighten (pull up) with a threaded rod through that hole at the top.
I have managed to get these springs off with commercial compressors from Repco, but you need to get the model that has the travelling nut at the bottom, because there is no room at the top. I think I used four of them because they don't have enough travel either, so I just released the tension in stages, keep it clamped with one pair, move the other pair on the coils and so on. A bit of a faff but it worked.
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Unfortunately they aren’t really worth having. This is the drivers one. Passengers one is likely in a similar state.
Attachments
The metal work may be worth saving. On my 17TS a number of metal bits and springs were broken. I had to strip bits from other seats to make two good ones. The foam and vinyl had to be renewed but the spring steel wire bits would have been difficult to make or obtain from other sources.
True. I am interested in the metal only anyway, but I imagine it's quite a fair bit of work to get it out and have a look at. If you don't mind doing it. And I only need one seat anyway. I was asking for both because I expected I would have to reuse bits and pieces of one to repair the other.
I am willing to pay for your effort.
Does anyone here know if the base is identical between tombstone and separate headrest versions?
I am willing to pay for your effort.
Does anyone here know if the base is identical between tombstone and separate headrest versions?
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Not sure of that differences Between the two types but the L/R are different because of the mechanisms. But you knew that.
And supplies:
www.homeupholsterer.com.au
And supplies:
Quality Springs & Platforms for Supportive Furniture Sydney NSW Australia
Springs for upholstery, trimming and furniture. In Sydney and Online. Deliver Australia wide.
Thank you angru. If it is possible to make one out of the two, that would be good enough for me. I probably need all those plastic knobs and stuff too.
That said, the hinge is the easiest to repair. The bent tube frame is an exercise in engineering of the annoying kind and it's above my pay grade anyway. Cutting some plates, drilling and filing them to shape and some square tubing to replace that one I see rusted in the picture should be fine. I can even make the toothed sector (probably much better than the factory) but bending tube and welding it in place to give the overall shape of the frame is just torture.
That was the part I found destroyed in my original seat too, though now I think I shouldn't have thrown it away. Back then however I didn't have the options I have now to manufacture the parts that were destroyed.
That said, the hinge is the easiest to repair. The bent tube frame is an exercise in engineering of the annoying kind and it's above my pay grade anyway. Cutting some plates, drilling and filing them to shape and some square tubing to replace that one I see rusted in the picture should be fine. I can even make the toothed sector (probably much better than the factory) but bending tube and welding it in place to give the overall shape of the frame is just torture.
That was the part I found destroyed in my original seat too, though now I think I shouldn't have thrown it away. Back then however I didn't have the options I have now to manufacture the parts that were destroyed.
That photo of the seat makes me sad! I remember picking up my new 15 from Renault Western avenue Acton and turning that plastic knob!
Can't understand how car like that was allowed to rot.
Can't understand how car like that was allowed to rot.