Auto Restoration 101

A few years ago I had the opportunity to do a body and paint restoration on a rare 1947 Bentley. It was a coach built car by a Swiss company called Worblaufen. (Worblaufen, Fritz Ramseier & Co. 1929–1958) It was a one off car, meaning that it is the only one of its kind. The body is made all from aluminum. We refreshed the older restoration work that was done on the car so unfortunately I didn’t get to see the car in bare metal because I didn’t strip all of the previous paint off. We repaired some stress cracks in the front and rear fenders, aligned the doors and worked on the fit of the convertible top mechanism. We also primed and block sanded it smooth, repainted it and put it back together. Mike Standifer handled the new upholstery and convertible top.

The doors on this Bentley were very heavy and had a hinge design like I had never seen. After you removed the chrome covers in the door jambs, the hinges on the doors used a large triangular type pin that set into a reverse triangle on the post side. To remove the door you just had to lift straight up. Aligning the doors was very hard to do because you had to have the hinge angles just right or they would bind up.

Worblaufen was one of the most important Swiss coachbuilders for passenger cars. They produced a lot of elegant cabriolets and roadsters on the chassis of Isotta-Fraschini, Mercedes Benz, Alfa Romeo and Bugatti. After World War II, they mostly did the bodies on Talbot Lago, Delahaye, Citroën and Lancia. They also did some one off bodies on Jaguar, BMW, and Bentley’s

Here is an excellent website about a restoration on 1947 Talbo-Lago Record T26 with a Worblaufen coach built body. Also visit the Swiss Car Register