Photos courtesy of Webb Ferrer and Mike Kleeves.
Like many of you, we’ve been curious about the progress of the incredible Bugatti Type 64 coachwork project undertaken by Oxnard, California’s Mullin Automotive Museum. For those readers who may have missed its initial unveiling at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, during the August 2012 Pebble Beach week, here’s some background, courtesy of the Museum:
First designed in 1939 by revered designer and engineer Jean Bugatti, Chassis #64002 was never finished due to Bugatti’s tragic death during the road test of a Bugatti Type 57. After years of extensive research, planning and coachwork build, August 17 will mark the first time in history Jean Bugatti’s final chassis will wear a streamlined, handcrafted body, a vision left unfulfilled for 73 years.
Created in collaboration with the Mullin Automotive Museum, Stewart Reed Design and Automobile Metal Shaping Company, the new body will pay homage to Jean Bugatti’s original concept. The hand-formed body, crafted using many of the same coachbuilding techniques employed in 1939, will feature numerous original styling cues including iconic papillion doors and an intricate riveted body structure.
We recently spoke with Webb Farrer, director of restorations and logistics for the Mullin Automotive Museum, who shared numerous photos and some insight into the car’s current state, and how it will appear when it’s completed. “The idea behind this project was that we’ll show people how coachwork was done in that period; the entire project has been done in period style,” Webb explained. “These days, they design bodies with foam core, which they shave to make the shapes that the panels are formed over. Back in the 1930s, this was done off of a wooden buck.
“We’re not going to primer or paint this car,” he said. “The body will be in the original, hand-pounded aluminum finish. There will be weld lines and hammer marks – you’ll see the building scars, just as it would have looked back in the day, prior to being painted.”
Those amazing doors have given the build team some long nights. “People think of those doors as gullwing doors, but Bugatti actually named them ‘papillon,’ which means butterfly. He designed those doors about 15 years prior to Mercedes-Benz making the ‘Gullwing’ SL, so although people think of Mercedes-Benz as the first to use that style door, it’s not the case,” Webb said. “They’ve been a huge challenge. We’ve refined the doors, and now they’re swinging with the hinges, and have the proper shocks so that they will stay open. They now work beautifully.
“We’ve got all of the body panels completed, and are in the final stages of fitting the hood. It will clamshell right into the shape of the radiator – it’ll be very reminiscent of the Type 57. The taillamps and headlamps will all function, everything will work. And we won’t be putting a full interior in it; there will be a driver’s seat, which is a period-style seat. You won’t see leather or wood inside – it will all be aluminum, and will be finished to the highest standard. You’ll be able to see all of the lightening holes in the inner structure, which is very technical and quite beautiful in itself. The attention to detail on the interior will be incredible.”
The team has planned for a very unique method of displaying the Type 64; the body will be fully removable from the rolling chassis, in a matter of 15 minutes, and will sit on a stand so that both it and the fully finished chassis – with its single downdraft-carbureted 3.3-liter straight-eight engine – can be admired independently. “At The Quail last summer, it was far from completed, but we had the body bolted onto the chassis, and we drove it on and off of the field. We’ve proven that we can do it,” Webb smiles. “We’re confident that we will be able to put the body on the chassis and drive it 30 miles, if we want to.
“We’re now in the middle of February, and I would think that by the middle of April, we should have the car at the Museum. Our goal is that it will be a learning tool, so we’ll have the wooden buck on display next to the body and chassis. It will be a progression: buck, body, chassis. Mr. Mullen can’t wait to share this learning tool of how this process was done in the 1930s. He’s very excited about sharing this with the public at the Museum, as is everybody who’s involved in it.”
