Ferrari Craft » Bugatti

Old World Wool Seal Making

admin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:08:34 +0000

Wool felt front wheel seal

Today Peter created new bearing seals for the 1934 Lagonda M45 Rapide. The seals of the day did much the same job as today’s plastic over steel equivalent. The main sealing surface is wool felt that, soaked in oil, does a good job holding most of the oil and grease in place. The tools of the trade are pretty simple ones: a spoon, a ball-peen hammer, scissors and a razor blade. The thick wool felt is traced and cut via razor blade.

To make the wool a bit “proud” – to stick out like the chin of a duke – paper gasket material can be cut and built up behind the wool. A spoon and a ball-peen hammer are all that is needed to make an imprint to cut out.

This twenties automotive seal technology was used in agricultural equipment for decades such as wheel seals on an Oliver or Cockshut tractor.

Using the ball-peen hammer to trace the inner lip on the gasket

A spoon has a nice radius for tracing the outer edge of the seal

Lagonda M45 Rapide front brake shoes and axle with hub removed

[Video] Bugatti Type 52 Driving

admin — Mon, 03 May 2010 12:07:58 +0000

Racing it is not, especially with Ruby who is such a cautious driver but she will get some more seat time later this summer. We are thinking of trading this original 1927 car for a couple of the reproduction “Pur Sang” cars so the kids can race around without worrying about destroying something valuable.

The Bugatti type 52 performed beautifully and the hand operated brakes stopped the car with confidence, “my cars are made to go, not to stop”.

Read more about the Bugatti Type 52 here: http://www.ferraricraft.com/2010/03/baby-bugatti/

Baby Bugatti

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:19:57 +0000

Here is a lovely child’s toy Bugatti that we have had kicking around the shop. It took some time to locate the odd sized tires and we need to tune up the potentiometer (gas pedal) but when the weather warms up the kids will be able to do some hot laps in this spectacular go kart. Since I am a sucker for details, this little car freaks me out – with beautiful cast wheels, a hollow forged front axle, and Ducellier electrical components – it isn’t really the toy that it appears.

These original Bugatti toys are very valuable, so this car would best be sold to a collector and replaced with a replica – so I can feel more comfortable letting the kids drive it around.

Baby Bugatti