Lancia Motor Club

I'm in the middle of rebuilding my Fulvia but don't have very much mechanical expertise.  However, I am reasonably good at woodwork so was pleased to see in the following link that somebody has built an engine out of wood - and it's a 9 cylinder radial to boot.

https://www.aopa.org/News-and-Media/All-News/2016/May/03/Wooden-radial-engine-inspires-online-viewers?utm_source=ePilot&utm_medium=Content&utm_content=tts&utm_campaign=160513eftrng

I thought you fellow Lancisti would appreciate the effort and ingenuity that has gone into this.

So, suitably inspired, I can now get started on a wooden narrow angle V4.  I'll need to keep a fire extinguisher handy as I'm not sure how well it will handle internal combustion!

   

Here's something to put your wooden engine in. Yes, it's a real supercar.

That's amazing craftsmanship.  Unbelievable what some craftsmen can do with wood.  I remember pictures of a 1924 Hispano-Suiza that had its body finished in strips of tulipwood - each held in place with (I think) copper rivets smoothed down level with the surface. 

The incomparable Gerald Wingrove did a run of 1/8th scale models of the Tulipwood Hispano each with 13,000 brass pins to replicate the rivets on the original. He is my all time hero in the car modelling world.

Do you happen to have a higher res picture of the model you could post? It looks really interesting!
thanks.

I think it would rapidly become external combustion as well!
Regards, John

Not quite the same but this one is used and is a one off by the owner.

Brian
8227 8)

You could break away from the LMC and form a splinter group.

And a Citroen Cloverleaf. Tempted to build this on my chassis ;D

Robin

Well Mike, I did consider a splinter group.   I could bough out of the LMC and branch out on my own but it would leave me out on a limb and sap my energy.  I'd be lumbered with all the administration.  It wooden be a good idea really, but thanks for suggesting it.

nthomes1, I think you really have to leave after that little lot.

GG re: Gerald Wingrove tulipwood Hispano, I'm afraid that is the best resolution picture I could find online and I can't put my hand on my copy of "The Complete Car Modeller" at the moment to try scanning anything better.

What I don't understand is how Gerald Wingrove not only built one in the span of a normal lifetime, but a series. Plus all the other models he made too. I'd still be trying to lace the first wheel when I keeled over.

I thought maybe Wingrove worked in the manner of some of the great Renaissance painters, sketching outlines and having a team of talented assistants filling in the colour. That seems not to have been the case and the only help he had was from his wife Phyllis. She's an unsung hero in the Wingrove story. With no previous experience before marrying Gerald she mastered technical drawing, soft soldering, silver soldering, lathe operation and milling, and then she began building chassis and engines.  They worked side by side in the workshop.  Now if I could just get my wife to learn these skills I might just finish my Fulvia  rebuild in half the projected time!

Gerald Wingrove did have a bit of a head start by being a highly skilled toolmaker before embarking on his model making career. His book "The Complete Car Modeller" is a revelation. He breaks things down in such a logical way you think "I could do that".

By the way - that wood-bodied 2CV is superb.

From the photo I suspect it is a three wheeler but I agree, it looks superb. It's possibly on a Lomax chassis but an infinitely more elegant car.

Yes it is based on a Lomax, but the level of the woodworking skills is amazing.

Brian
8227 8)

http://raggus.net/bilforum/viewtopic.php?t=1451

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fd/c7/b8/fdc7b83930f9801151d8536f3d4491f4.jpg

Good to see so much interest in wood being used in automotive applications. The Mosquito-derived use of plywood in the early Marcos cars and the Costin Amigo always fascinted me. Also tales of machine tools being damaged by shrapnel in the Belgian timber used to make Morgan frames. On a more prosaic note my first recollection of wood on a car was a Morris Traveller owned by our next door neighbour in Liverpool in the mid 1950s. Once a year he would come out with a tin of green Valspar paint and give his car a coat with a 2" brush, then a few days later he would lightly sand the wood and give it a coat of varnish!

I remember Dame Edna Everage doing a piece about the history of England and as a Morris Traveller drove by she said "Oh look! A half-timbered car!". I also remember looking at some old car magazines from the 50's/early 60's at school and on the back of everyone was an advert for some make of paint for brush painting your car, guaranteed not to leave brush marks. Having said that, if anyone saw the recent programme about the restoration of the Flying Scotsman you would have seen the beautiful smooth finish they achieved by brush painting. The signwriter hand painting the lettering and numbers was also incredible.

There used to be a product available that I think was called "Repaint" which was a brushable cellulose paint. Coach painting by brush was common before the last war and would have been standard finish on high end cars like Rolls Royce. During the '70s I saw an early '30s Bentley being restored by a friend's uncle. The brushed paint was immaculate and every bit as good as any spray job.