Chuck Most Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 Can't find the info online, or in any reference books, need to know if the body is aluminum or not. I'm assuming it is, but I've been wrong before.
Art Anderson Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 Can't find the info online, or in any reference books, need to know if the body is aluminum or not. I'm assuming it is, but I've been wrong before. Yes, Bugatti Type 35B bodywork is aluminum. Art
Chuck Most Posted January 7, 2011 Author Posted January 7, 2011 Thanks! Good to know, as I plan on weathering the old Monogram kit. How weird would a rusted out 35B look?
Foxer Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Thanks! Good to know, as I plan on weathering the old Monogram kit. How weird would a rusted out 35B look? Only if it came from someone else ...
Modelmartin Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Aluminum corrodes! Think whitish fuzz like on your battery posts!
Chuck Most Posted January 8, 2011 Author Posted January 8, 2011 Aluminum corrodes! Think whitish fuzz like on your battery posts! My battery posts have no corrosion. I TAKE CARE of my vehicles!
Modelmartin Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Here are some cruddy T35s for your perusal. I saw a T37 ( 4cylinder version of T35) at Lime Rock several years ago with a brush paint job, another T35 had a Ford Flathead in it! This is the famous "found in a lake" car! This one has a Model T engine it! This car was buried under stacks of fertilizer bags for years in a French farmer's barn. There are many holes in the bodywork.
Art Anderson Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Aluminum corrodes! Think whitish fuzz like on your battery posts! Andy, Bear in mind that by the end of WW-I, aluminum alloys, such as duraluminum were in production, and were relatively corrosion resistant, certainly in automotive use, such as bodywork. In point of fact, aluminum alloy sheet was widely used in the coachbuilding side of auto production, due to it's light weight and easy of working with both hand tools as well as power equipment such as the English Wheel and planishing hammers. Old race car bodywork made from these materials tend to be rather durable over time, and only slightly oxidize even under severe weathering conditions. Such corrosion as did occur was more within the metal itself, most seriously as "intergranular corrosion" in which the metal crystalized, often to the point of appearing sound, but readily crumbling or breaking up. This is what took out many old aircraft for example, and still does--which is why the Douglas DC-3 and similar vintage monocoque airplanes of the 1930's are now slowly disappearing from the skies. When bared to the elements, such as with an old race car body, aluminum panels dull and darken, but they don't go to powder, in say, the manner of the whitish powdery compound found around battery terminals--that's the result of sulphuric acid corrosion of the lead battery posts and the lead couplings on battery terminals, and the copper cable leads that are encased in those couplings. Aluminum exposed to such an acid would disappear far more quickly than do battery cables and connections. Of course, there would be the galvanic raaction where aluminum panels were attached with steel bolts or screws, but that's rather rare on an aluminum car body shell--most fastening was/is done with aluminum rivets. Art
Modelmartin Posted January 8, 2011 Posted January 8, 2011 Art, You need to check out the pictures of the T35 that Antoine Rafaelli uncovered in the south of France. The farmer stacked bags of fertilizer on the car and left it for 30 some years. It really corroded the body and left gaping holes in it. I know that atmospheric conditions won't do that.
Chuck Most Posted January 9, 2011 Author Posted January 9, 2011 Cool! That second image is kind of the look I'm after.
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