THE WINSTON CHURCHILL MEMORIAL TRUST OF AUSTRALIA
Report by - MARK NUGENT – 2007 Churchill Fellow
To study the techniques used by tradition coachbuilding firms to design
and fabricate the bodywork on vintage and classic cars
I understand that the Churchill Trust may publish this Report, either in
either hard copy or on the internet or both, and consent to such
publication.
I indemnify the Churchill Trust against an loss, costs or damages it may
suffer arising out of any claim or proceedings made against the Trust and
which the Trust in respect of or arising out of the publication of any
Report submitted to the Trust and which the Trust places on a website for
the access over the internet.
I also warrant that my Final Report is original and does not infringe the
copyright of any person, or contain anything which is, or the
incorporation of which into the Final Report is, actionable for
defamation, a breach of any privacy law or obligation, breach of
confidence, contempt of court, passing-off or contravention of any other
private right or of any law.
Signed Dated
Mark Nugent 21
stAugust 2008
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
REPORT
CONCLUSIONS
RECOMMENDATIONS
INTRODUCTION
My Churchill Fellowship enabled me to travel and gain experiences in
my chosen field of tradition panel beating and restoration of vintage and
classic cars that I could never have been able to undertake on my own.
The fellowship gave me the opportunity to travel to the UK and Europe to
work and visit the top workshops and museums in my chosen career. I
was able to work along side some of the people I regard as the best in the
world in traditional panel beating and coachbuilding.
I would like to thank the trust for giving me this amazing opportunity and
I would also like to thank all those who welcomed me into their
workshops, homes and collections during my trip. The contacts and
people I meet during my trip were very generous with their knowledge
and experience, what I have gained from this trip is priceless and I thank
all those that have helped to make this possible.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Mark Nugent
Nugent Coachbuilders / Self Employed Panelbeater PO Box 677
Dubbo NSW 2830 (02) 68818999
The fellowship travel was undertaken between the 1st May and the 14th July 2008. The
aim of the fellowship was to work and visit leading Coachbuilding firms and Museums in the UK and Europe. The first 6 weeks of my trip I spent working, the first 2 weeks at Shapecraft located in Northampton, England. Following that another two weeks working at Bodylines in Olney, England and the final two weeks were spent working in Lymington, England at Vintage Cars. During this time I expanded my technical and hand skills as well as gaining valuable knowledge of workings of larger workshops. I then travelled through France, Germany and to Italy visiting major Museums and restoration workshops.
Highlights
• Working in three prestigious workshops in the UK with some of the worlds
best panel beaters
• Visiting Beaulieu Motor Museum and touring there restoration department
• Visiting the huge Schlumpf Collection at the Cite de Automobile Mulhouse
France
• Meeting and staying with Wolfgang Rolli the former Director of Mercedes
Benz Museum in Stuttgart who took me on tour of Museum and Stuttgart
• Meeting the owner of HK Engineering who has 5 large restoration shops in
Germany and visiting two of the workshops in Stuttgart and Polling
• Visiting the workshop and meeting world famous Italian car restorer Dino
Cognolato
• Touring the private collection and visiting world famous Bertone Carrosserie
in Caprice Italy, and meeting car designer Valery Muller
• Meeting and staying with Italian coachbuilder Carlo Maina in Turin Italy
Outcomes/Recommendations
• To see the working of large scale workshops
• Learn how some workshops benefit by specialising in one type of car
• The benefits of specialising in Bespoke work
• To experience and learn some aspects about the Italian style of panel beating
• Learn more about the design and shaping processes of cars
• Learn hand techniques and skills from watching others in workshop
environments
• Recognising the importance of passing on skills of a rare trade
• To physically see some of the rarest vintage and classic cars in the world first hand
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME
4th May Visit Brooklyn’s Motor Museum England
5th May - 16th May Northampton, England
2 Weeks working in the workshop Shapecraft
Made the front nose for Aston Martin
19th May – 30th May Olney, England
2 Weeks working in the workshop Bodylines
Made Aston DB5 front end
2nd June – 13 June Lymington, England
2 Weeks working in the workshop Vintage Cars
Worked on restoration of Austin
7th June Visit Beaulieu Motor Museum
Beaulieu, England
18th June Visit the Schlumpf Collection
Cite of Automobile Mulhouse France
19th June Visit Workshop HK Engineering
Stuttgart Germany
20th June Visit the Mercedes Museum
Stuttgart Germany
22md June Visit the BMW Museum
Munich Germany
23rd June Visit the workshop of HK Engineering
Polling Germany
25th June Visit the workshop of Dino Cognolato
Padova Italy
27th June Visit to Bertone workshop and private collection
Caprice, Turin Italy
28th – 29th June Visit the workshop of Carlo Maina
Turin Italy
1st July Visit the Ferrari Museum
When the internal combustion engine materialised in Europe in the late eighteen hundreds, the industry of coachbuilding which had been around some four hundred years had to adapt to the revolutionary technology of the automobile.
The fast growing automobile industry produced the motorcar, and naturally turned to the coachbuilders to produce the bodywork.
The coachbuilders would clothe the chassis with an aluminium or steel clad timber frame, paint it, trim it, install the glass and create and assemble the countless features that refined the bodywork ready for the customer to take delivery of.
In the nineteen twenties there were sixteen hundred coachbuilding firms in England alone and the industry thrived, but with the economic downturn during the nineteen thirties the industry struggled, and the outbreak of world war two was the final nail in the coffin.
After hostilities ended the skills in hand making bodywork were keep alive by either small independent low volume bespoke body shops, or by large automakers that had in-house bodywork departments.
Some examples of independent shops are AutoKraft, Williams and Pritchard, Pininfarina, Bertone. Some bodywork departments of large automakers were Mulliner Parkward for Rolls-Royce Ltd, Aston Martin and AC.
For the first two weeks of my fellowship I worked at Shapecraft in the city of Northhampton. This is a company with a world-renowned reputation for producing and restoring hand crafted aluminium bodywork for original and replica classic and collector cars, such as Ferrari, Aston Martin, Maserati and Jaguar.
The proprietor Clive Smart served his time at Aston Martin and Panther cars Ltd as a panel beater and he started Shapecraft over thirty years ago.
During my two weeks at Shapecraft I made a new front nose for an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato replica, over one of the many body bucks at the shop. Over a period of the two weeks Clive gave me a lot of his time to talk to me about hand skills, his early day’s as an apprentice and about the industry generally.
It was interesting for me to see as a business the benefits of specializing in certain types of cars, particularly the cost effectiveness of individual skilled tradesmen making one type of body. The business develops a reputation, therefore attracting those clients who are passionate about a certain type or make of car.
When hand-making bodies from scratch from flat alloy sheet the skills involved are numerous and are difficult to put into words. The fabrication of bodywork at Shapecraft are traditional panel beating skills, using the English wheel and Eckold Kraftformer to produce the shaped panel work and the majority of welding done with Oxy/acetylene. The dedicated bucks and jigs to form the panel work over were of many various makes of classic, collector and race cars from the great motoring era’s of the 50s and 60s.
Being in the workshop with a number of highly skilled craftsmen I picked up new techniques and approaches to types of problems that can arise when making and shaping up a new panel. The approach to the restoration of original body and panel work was on an individual level of what a client may want salvaged of the existing body.
Shapecraft was a high quality traditional coachbuilding shop with the craftsmen having collectively over one hundred years of body making experience that over my two weeks I benefited from immensely and was extremely thankful to Clive and the guys for the time and knowledge they gave me.
My next two weeks I spent at Bodylines in village of Olney in Buckinghamshire. The proprietor Alan Pointer like Clive Smart served his time at Aston Martin and also worked for Rolls-Royce Ltd. Alan set his business up in 1988 in Olney and has a staff of eight craftsmen. Bodylines is company mainly specialising in Aston Martin DB4, DB5 and DB6’s, but has made many new bodies for most of the top marque’s like Ferrari, Jaguar, Maserati and Lotus.
Many of the traditional skills and processes used at Bodylines were very similar to Shapecraft. The English wheel and Eckold Kraftformer were used to create the panel work which was made mostly from aluminium sheet, the welding processes to join the panel work together was done by both oxy/acetylene and tig/arc.
Over the course of my two weeks Alan gave me a great deal of his time and of his top panel beaters time, Paul Temple.
I worked along side Paul whilst at Bodylines and picked up, once again more different techniques and skills for producing high quality panel and bodywork. During my time there I made the panel work of an Aston Martin DB5 front end over an original 1960’s factory body buck. Being at Bodylines allowed me to mix with the other craftsmen in the shop and gave me a great insight into many of the backgrounds and styles of panel beating and body making techniques used by other shops that the guy’s had served there time at.
Not only was Bodylines a company that produced highly quality bodies for Aston Martin’s and other top marques, but it also had a niche sideline business fabricating limited edition bespoke aluminium furniture for world famous designer Marc Newson. The exacting standards used to make Marc Newsons designer furniture at Bodylines was amazing to witness and I was very fortunate to see the process and the end product of a piece.
The third shop I worked in was Vintagecars in Lymington, Southampton. Vintagecars is a new company which was created in 2004 by four craftsmen, Dugal Revie, Gary Yates, Miles Renton-Skinner and Andy Wort, and has a total staff of nine.
All four guys previously worked for world famous coachbuilding shops Rod Jolley Coachbuilding and Roach Manufacturing in the south of England for many years before they formed vintagecars in a joint partnership. The company specializes in One-off bespoke coachbuilding on vintage and classic cars of all marques, but mainly premium collectable automobiles.
Whilst at Vintagecars I worked on an Austin 7 special, making a new rear wing and fabricating new brackets to mount and set the headlamps up. I worked along side the craftsmen in the shop and gained once again more new techniques and skills needed to fabricate quality panel and bodywork. Offering a specialist service of bespoke coachwork requires skills in design and technical drawing, which is a skill often over looked by collectors who want to re-create a body from old photographs on a Bugatti, Bentley or Alfa Romeo chassis. Over my two weeks I was able to learn a great deal about drawing full-scale drawings interpreted from photographs, and the creation of timber forms and bucks which guide the fabrication of external body panels and skins for classic and vintage cars.
Head panel beater at vintagecars Gary Yates has built many famous collectable vintage, classic and prototype automobile bodies and was very inspirational to work with. The standard and quality of his work was of a degree that raise’s the bar in traditional body making to a level excellence and perfection. I would consider Gary to be the best in the industry and it was a great experience to work along side him at vintagecars.
After my six weeks of work in England I travelled to France to visit the Cite de I’Automobile National Museum, Schlumpf Collection at Mulhouse-Alsace. The Schlumpf collection is one of the worlds largest collections of vintage and classic cars. The collection house’s many of the rarest makes and models in the world, such as Bugatti, Gordini, Isotta Fraschini and Alfa Romeo to name a few. The preservation of these exotics is of great importance and although most are in unrestored condition due to the heavy costs and lack of skilled tradesman, the cars that were restored were in impeccable condition. The Museum had on display many different body makers’ tools and timber frames that the Museum in-house restoration shop used to restore some of the cars. Ply wood bucks and forms used in the fabrication and restoration of a Bugatti Royale along with a timber body frame of a Royale body awaiting further restoration.
The next stop was HK Engineering bodywork department in Stuttgart, Germany. Hans Kleissl the proprietor of HK Engineering set up his restoration company over 20 years ago and concentrates on the restoration of classic Mercedes Benz cars.
HK Engineering has five restoration departments in Germany and his shop in Stuttgart builds and restores only the body and chassis work.
It was particularly interesting to see much of the work being done on dedicated jigs and tooling specially designed for the model of Mercedes Benz the company mainly restores, 300SL Gullwings and Roadsters. Detail factory plans and drawings were set up around the walls to assist the craftsmen in the restoration process. The English wheel and Eckold Kraftformer were also an integral part of the shops many tools and machinery that help create much of the body and panel work. Although the head panel beater did not spoke little English, we had no problems crossing the communication barrier when it came to the raw processes used to make body panels from flat alloy sheet metal.
The next port of call was the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart, a Museum that housed many of the most important Mercedes Benz’s in the company’s history. I was lucky to get in contact with the former director of the Museum before I started my fellowship, and was invited to stay with him for a few day’s at his house in Stuttgart and was given a personal tour of the Museum and Mercedes Benz classic centre which I am eternally grateful for. The Museum is one of Stuttgart’s
architectural masterpieces and is structured like a helix inside which allows a visitor to witness the evolution of Mercedes Benz from the worlds first combustion engine invented by Karl Benz through to the present day. Many vintage and classic Mercedes were on display and the Mercedes Benz classic centre is where most of the collection has been restored. Visiting the classic centre was a highlight as facility was like an operating theatre and the class of the workmanship was outstanding.
Leaving Stuttgart I drove to Munich to visit the BMW Museum, which opened the day before a got there after being closed for two years due to a total refurbishment. The Museum was spectacular and like the Mercedes Benz Museum was stunning from the outside as well as the inside. The Museum has the nickname “The Salad Bowl” and also house’s a collection of classic and vintage BMWs. Although BMW doesn’t have as long a history as most other makes, its engineering has always been cutting edge. The collectable models in the Museum ranged from the world famous BMW 328s bodied by Italian carrossier “Touring” through to the iconic late fifties model BMW 507. The restoration of the collection was not done in-house.
From Munich I went to HK Engineering’s main head quarters in Polling, a small village one and half hours from Munich. Hans Kleissl’s shop in Polling is housed in a 13th Century Monastery he converted into a restoration facility.
It was a great experience to see the running of one of Germany’s premium restoration shop, which restores many of the world most collectible cars.
Hans Kleissl gave me a lot of his time and talked about the industry and about how he started HK Engineering. The facility mainly concentrates on the assembly and
mechanical side of the restoration process and was very interesting to see that HK Engineering’s approach to preservation and on going maintenance for a client’s car helped to create much continuity and loyalty for the company.
The next shop I visited was Dino Cognolato’s shop in Vignoza just outside Padova, Italy. Dino’s name reverberates around the world as the best restorer of top end Italian cars, and when I walked into his shop I understood why. Dino has had many wins in the worlds most prestigious concours events. When entering Dino’s shop I was struck not only of the quality of the craftsmanship but also by the calibre of the cars they were working on. Dino took me through his shop over the course of about three hours and guided me through the restoration process he performs. The bodywork
department was very Italian, naturally, as it had no English wheel or Eckold Kraftformer, but a leather sand bag some mallets, hammers and some incredibility skilled guys making panels and bodies the same way Italian carrosserie’s had done since the beginning. The whole shop had an incredibly old world atmosphere until Dino showed me the design department at the rear of the shop. The design department was like an operating theatre, glass booths, drawing boards and a 12x6 ft flat platform with a robotic cutting arm able to re-produce any vintage or classic component that is scanned or programmed into it. Then Dino said that’s the small one there is a larger one at his other facility.
Dino and Roberto his son gave me much of there time and it was clear to me that restoration, design and fabrication of classic and vintage car components was taken to a whole new level at Dino’s facility.
Bertone is one of the oldest carrosserie’s in Italy and is still owned by the Bertone Family. I arrived at Bertone in Caprice, Turin to meet David Wilkie the head designer at Style Bertone. David being very busy unfortunately was unable to meet with me that morning and I was taken on a tour by his second in charge Valery Muller. Bertone had survived since 1901 creating many of the world most recognised body styles and today still creates prototypes of large automakers along with bespoke or one-off creations for clients.
Valery showed me through Bertone’s collection of privately owned cars, which is a reflection of the styles Bertone created over its life. Photographing and sitting in these cars was something many people don’t get to do and it was amazing for me to see this collection of over forty cars.
During the 1960s Bertone was responsible for designing and clothing three Alfa Romeo chassis with bodywork now nicknames the BAT car. The usual shapes of the cars gave them this name due to the rear of the car looking like the wings of a Bat or Batmobile. Not overly attractive, the design statement was extremely important for Bertone at the time and today is even more so as the three cars are now iconic. Valery was the designer of the new BAT car unveiled earlier this year in a Geneva nightclub. Although the design and prototyping department were off limits, Valery explained the processes and challenges from concept to the finished product while designing the new BAT car.
I visited and stayed a night with Carlo Maina and his wife at there home in Comero just outside of Turin. Carlo made a very big impression on me, as he was the
traditional Italian body maker I always wanted to meet. His large workshop was under his house and was truly magnificent; it had every old world Italian panel beating and coachbuilding machinery and tools that to me were priceless. Carlo gave me all the time I wanted to ask him questions about the skills and techniques he was taught and the way he goes about fabricating making bodies and panels for his private clients. Carlo’s workshop had walls of hammers, tooling dies, dollies and mallets all with unique purposes for the fabrication of flat alloy sheet into a high quality panels and body’s. His main tool was the Eckold Kraftformer and the many tooling dies he specially fabricated over the course of his life. What I learnt from Carlo was in invaluable to me as many of the traditional older generation panel beaters have now gone and Carlo would be one of the oldest and most experienced left in the world.
The Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Modena was my last visit and it was a place I would recommend to any Ferrari fan. Maranello itself was draped in Ferrari colours and was inspirational to be around such a heavy influence of this world-renowned marque. The museum houses many rare Ferrari’s and even has Enzo Ferrari’s first Ferrari. The preservation of the collection is extremely high and had much
information on the early styling and fabrication techniques in the early part of the company’s history.
CONCLUSION
*Traditional coachbuilding and panel beating as a trade has become extremely rare and requires more exposure to attract young people to come through and learn the trade.
*The level of quality in the fabrication of new or the restoration of existing bodywork of a vintage or classic car has become extremely high as the values of collectable cars rise.
*Using new technologies such as CAD has not only become more cost effective to produce missing or damaged parts and components, but has become integral in the fabrication of extremely accurate components.
*Use’s in new materials such as different timbers, glues and alloys can aid in the longevity of a new or restored classic or vintage car body.
*The history of coachbuilding in Australia is quite small compared to England and Europe and the Designs, skill’s, methods and materials used by coachbuilders in Australia over the last 100 years were not as advanced as our European counterparts. *Now with Australia having many collectors importing premium vintage and classic cars and values of collectable cars rising each year along with demand for ever increasing quality restorations, the need for quality craftsmen’s in the automobile restoration industry in Australia is of great importance in retaining these historically significant cars to be restored in Australia and not overseas.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Improvements that I could make in Australia would be by passing on the skills and knowledge to future apprentices. For younger people to be coming through the trade would be a step in growing the industry as a whole and assist restoration shops and small business associated with those shops. Already with the publicity I have gained through my Churchill fellowship I have realised the importance of promoting the industry through magazines and newspapers articles, and raising the profile of the industry in Australia, which attracts more people to the industry.