1939 Delahaye

B

Brad J.

Oldtimer
Heres a car I wasn't going to post anything on because it isn't mine. But I thought I'd share a few pictures of it. It won a Finish Award from Meguiar's last weekend at the Concourse De Elegange of America. A lot of black cars there but I'd like to thank SPI for having a great black.

SPI black base and 5 coats Universal. The green is Dupont Chroma Premier SS layed over the clear. They couldn't get me the colors before I wanted to shoot black so I just layed it over like they would have originally. These cars were bought as a chassis/running gear and then taken to a body maker where they used the grille
shell as a starting point and then design the rest of the car. This body was made in Switzerland.


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Nice job! Did you put on all 5 coats of Universal back to back? What did you use for a gun and what are your cutting/buffing procedures? Great Job!
 
Brad,
Are you and your wife still involved in the Auburn/ Cord association?
I'd like to go to the next major meet.
Sponsor?
 
5 coats back to back with 30 minutes between. Tekna for base and an Iwata ws400??? supernova that his hvlp. 800 Klingspore wet rolls on 16" durablocks followed up by 1000/1200/1500/2000 3m sleeves with wrap and roll block then DA with 3000 and 5000 trizact. For some reason I can't use 3m 2500 sleeves as they seem to scratch the finish bad like random imperfections in the paper. Chemical guys yellow foam with 32, orange foam with 34, white foam with 36, black foam with 38 or 3m perfect it (still playing with those). Want to play more with blue foam or get an oscillating one because I have slight swirls if I look just right in the sun. The reason I go 5 coats is I really don't want to sand/tape/spray again. It makes sense to do this but not on my shoulders.

Barry, we belong to the club but my wife is no longer meet chairman for the labor day show. Labor day in Auburn is a great weekend. The ACD club goes all weekend and their is a big auction from Auctions America if ones gets sick of looking at 30's cars downtown and at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum. If you go look for a cream colored 1935 Auburn Coupe. It's the only one there and the trunk has plenty of good bourbon. The old Auburn Hotel downtown is where the ACD cars gather everynight in the street. Unfortunately like all the clubs we belong to are less and less everyear as the owners pass on or become to elderly to drive the cars.
 
Thank you Brad, and Great work! Sound like you are blocking the clear, like you'd block out a primer, only with finer grits. How long do you wait for your 5 coats to dry before going through all these sanding steps?
 
Each piece sat 1-2 months and some more. I sprayed the body/doors in January and remainder by march. Each piece was set in the sun each sunny day which isn't much in the Michigan winter. At least a weeks worth of that time.

This is what the car looked like. I think the color change and ditching the white walls did a lot of good.
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Barry said:
Great question I guess 500 hours?? Anyone else wants to guess before Brad tells us?
Click to expand...

I'll guess more.

500 hours is 12-13 weeks labor. I'll jump in at 650. Of course productivity is not my strong suit. :))

It is beautiful indeed.

John
 
I won't let the cat out of the bag yet. But think about a few things. Wooden skeleton on part of body. No adjustability in the doors/trunk lid/hoods other than some striker movement. Team of guys doing the left side of the car different than the team on the right side. 4 fenders built with a powerhammer and don't appear to be planished or wheeled. Lots of leadwork but rust was fairly minimal for a car of this age. Expectations for gaps different back then than today. Aluminum hoods with a brass radiator shell. Overall it was a good car despite some rocker corrosion and some poor work when it was built originally.
 

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I don't know about Barry, but I will go ahead and retract my guess right now!

It would be great to see more of the build pictures.

John
 
Would have been a shame not to post this one.
For a timeframe I'll quote one of Tim Allen's movie voiceovers,,,,, to infinity and beyond..........
That should cover it.:D
 
Awesome stuff Brad. :) I'd love to attend one of the Auburn Meets someday as well. My Dad (who was 64 when I was born:)) loved Auburn's and Cord's. I remember him talking about driving a brand new 851 Boat Tail Speedster a friend of his had back in 1936! He talked about that car 50 years later.
Oh and if we are guessing, not knowing the full extent of everything you had to do but I would say somewhere north of a 1000 hours.
 
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