Roll Your Own Classic: Delahaye 165 Wood Forming Buck
We’re all experts at forming sheetmetal here at Barn Finds, right? So a project like, say, building a replica of one of the most sensuously curvaceous interwar French classics is all in a day’s work around here, but sometimes you wouldn’t mind taking at least a little shortcut—which makes today our lucky day! Yes, reader Patrick S. has found this major time saver for us, a pre-made, complete wood forming buck for all of our Delahaye Type 165 replica-building needs! Surely the time saved in not having to build our own buck is worth a few, er, bucks, and this one has a starting bid of just $2,500. Find it here on eBay out of Blair, Wisconsin.
I kid—and lord knows I don’t have the skills—but what a cool project this would make! There’s plenty of proof of concept on the website of the seller, Coachsmithing; they’ve already used this buck to make a complete car. Only four actual Delahaye 165s are known to have been built, and this replica is patterned after the Figoni et Falaschi bodies worn by the two surviving cars (the other two, destroyed during the Second World War, were bodied by Chapron).
The car built by Coachsmithing, which seems to run on Jaguar V12 power, lacks a little bit of the chrome pizzazz of the real thing, but that’s just gingerbread—the basic shape is pretty sound. This auction is just for the wood forming buck, but some additional forms and fiberglass molds, including for the grille, as well as a partial tubular structure are available for purchase separately.
Building a complete car more or less from scratch is not for the faint of heart, but if you’re going to do it, do it big, I say—and you can’t get much bigger than a Delahaye. Do any of you think you might have the skills to pull it off?
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Comments
I’d use the buck to build a steam bent wood bodied replica. I’d do it in cedar strips 1/4″ x 3/4″ followed by weave fiberglass fabric and clear resin and automotive clear coat. I would think a 1/2 ton pickup frame and drive line with lowered suspension. Sbc overdrive trans fuel injection and all the options. I’d paint it forest green with wood high lights remaining exposed.
I’d get totally frustrated and use it for firewood
At least you know your limitations. They rack right up there next to mine.
I probably would build a car like Johnny Cash’s „One Piece at a Time“ more successfully.
Now that is one impressive piece of work (the buck and the car).
Exposed Carbon fiber version as long as we aren’t concerned about literally copying the original!
Harbor freight sells an English wheel (Well, Chinese wheel?) for only $299.99 and it really ain’t bad once you weld a bigger frame onto the base to keep it from falling over. You will need the six additional anvils for another $50 bucks. I’ve used one of these fairly extensively in shaping a small car body in 3003 H14/.063 aluminum and it will actually do what you want it to do. Probably one of the better things HF sells. With a little patience and practice, you could actually shape the panels with one for this delahaye. Welding those panels together might be another story.
You could alway do what Bugatti did and rivet the panals together. It would be a dam shame to see this used for fire work. Most people have no idea how much planing measuring and cutting went into making this buck. It is worth way more than the wood itself. If I had some where to put it and was able to afford it, it would be heading my way right now. It’s possible that the pc’s could be numbered than disassembled, if so than storage would not be as big of an issue. What’s cool about this is its not a car it’s a big step toward making many cars
If you have a room with a tall ceiling, mount it upside down and call it a chandelier.
No one willing to say the buck stops here?
You just did !
The buck stops here. So there!
Great post, this should at least go to a museum who has one of the originals. They are amazing. The link
https://www.google.com/search?q=delahaye+165&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS715US715&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTw9GPh5veAhUMna0KHW79DTMQ_AUIDigB&biw=1280&bih=690
To the originals blew me away, never seen one before. Thanks for the eye candy.
A “Whatdahey”? No, a Delahaye,,
Most unusual! Those Frenchies knew how to shape curves. Are there any artisanos out there that can do this metal work?
There are lots of guys doing it now. Probably more than ever with the internet. See my post below.
Two good sites:
allmetalshaping.com
metalmeet.com
I could make the car but just not my style.
And for anyone thinking they want to make a car, get on the metal shaping sites, go to a meet and find out what it’s all about. Big learning curve and you’ll need something better than a HF piece of junk.
I’ve got hundreds of hours on just the front clip for my Chrysler and it’s a long way from completion. A whole car, the average Joe will give up on for sure.
Once upon a time I had the skills probably still do, but I am to old to do it now! Takes a lot of time to build a replica, but when it’s done you are very proud of yourself!
When I first saw this buck, I immediately knew what it was for. About 25 years ago, I was fortunate enough to have as a landlord Peter Mullin, owner of The Mullin Automotive Museum who along with his partner Jim Hull, restored one of the two remaining cars, chassis 60744, which I first saw as a rusty hulk with almost no body and no engine (V12). Actually, it looked like a desert bound ancient truck chassis.The original engine was sourced from a collector in Germany, and was completely rebuilt, including machining a new crank. I was asked to photograph the restored engine before it was installed. The incredible story and provenance are on his website:
http://www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com/#!/discovery/car/42/historic
Enjoy.
Well if I could find enough space to work and the money to buy all the aluminum magneseum I wanted. I would flush rivet one together like a P-51 Mustang. I think it would be wise to make a duplicate buck just to be on the safe side in case. The Delahayne to me is the most beautiful car ever made. Why nobody has made numerous copies of it I will never know. There are a bunch of AC Cobras in the world. Probably more copies than originals. Why hasn’t someone with money and brains done this already? Not like you would have a problem selling them if ya did.
The ebay link is no good