Obsession (Post # 156 )

I’ve been finishing the instruments, windshield washers, rally clock, firewall insulation and carpets so I can put the seats and transmission hump back in and move on to putting The Alfatross back on the road, but there was one more thing left to do. I can’t believe it took this long to do something seemingly so simple.  

Although restored, the trim strips on the wheel arches of *02056* are well done.

The Alfatross' unadorned wheel arches.

The Problem

When I got The Alfatross in 1969 the interior was complete except for the rear quarter panels that were lost when the previous owner had the car repainted in 1965. As part of The Alfatross’ restoration, I sent it to Paul Russell for re-trimming. There, Derrick Dunbar did a fabulous job, and recreated the missing quarter panels, but because I could not provide him with any information about the thin polished aluminum trim strips on the rear wheel arches protruding into the cabin on either side of the vestigial “back seat”, he omitted them.  Some restored cars do not have them e.g. *01954*, but all of the most original cars I have seen have the same trim strips.  Although The Alfatross’ were lost, the fastener holes were clearly visible in the original upholstery over the steel chassis as well as the chassis itself. 

The restorer of *01954* decided to omit  the trim strips .

Thought to be highly original, *01915* has the trim strips

The Alfatross' original  wheel arch cover showing holes.

The Strategy

Obviously, these hand-made trim pieces are not available at your local Zagato store, and although there might be an experienced aluminum fabricator in my area it was going to be the kind of job that involved a lot of activity inside the car so I decided to take a shot at making reproductions myself. What were the original dimensions?  What type of fasteners were used? What was the level of workmanship?  I didn’t know. The only thing I had to go on was photos of them in original cars.

This is a part of any car that is almost never photographed, but I was lucky enough to get revealing photos of *01915*, *01845*, *02056*, and *01947*.  From them it was clear that each wheel arch had one strip running up over the top adjacent to the quarter panel and another running up the side of the hump, both secured by three screws and meeting at a miter at the top of the wheel arch.  I concluded they were made of aluminum because that was used on virtually all other trim on the car, and because it is relatively easy to shape and can be polished to a bright shine.

Filing and sanding, filing and sanding, filing and sanding

The Process
It seemed like a simple task. All I had to do was find some aluminum bar stock with the right dimensions, cut it to length, radius one edge, create smooth curves hugging the shape of the wheel arches, drill a few holes and screw them into place. The first problem was obtaining the stock. I could not find it locally so had to order it online, and it was only sold in 12 ft lengths that had to be cut down to 6 ft for shipping.  I ruined several pieces trying to create the edge radius, even resorting to nearly disastrous experiments on a router table before finally resigning myself to hours of Old School manual filing and sandpapering.

Capturing the smooth arc of the wheel arch at the quarter panel was a piece of cake, but the strip running up the side of the arch was much more of a challenge because it had to have a three-dimensional shallow S-shape with a subtle twist along its length.  Suffice it to say that my aluminum recycle bin was getting overcrowded.

Annealing and shaping one of the trim strips.

I wasted time making patterns from thin copper strips to create plank-and-wooden-peg bending jigs without much success until I pulled out my propane torch and experimented with annealing the aluminum strips. After that, it was possible to do most of the shaping, bending and twisting with just my bare hands—but it was a tedious business:put it in, take it out, tweak it, repeat. Then there was the necessity of the two pieces meeting in a precise miter at the top of the arch.

The finished product. Obsession satisfied.

The Result

Yes, it took way too long, and maybe it isn’t a perfect match for the original material, but now after final buffing and installation the interior has a more finished appearance in line with the rest of the car.  More importantly, now I can reinstall the seats and carpets and get on with putting The Alfatross back on the road!