Story and photos by Paul Wilson
Photos courtesy the author
My Alfa 6C roadster still awaits its engine, but I found a few more jobs I could do on what’s here. The biggest one was the top.
The Online Magazine for Italian and French Classic Car Enthusiasts
By pete
By pete
Story and photos by Paul Wilson
Lest we forget, over the past few years, Paul Wilson has designed and created three distinct cars on Alfa Romeo chassis; a beautiful coupe and sister roadster on 6C 2500 chassis, and a B.A.T. recreation on a 1900 chassis. He has chronicled each in the pages of VeloceToday. Below is an update on the status of his 6C2500 coupe, which is now roadworthy. Click here to read a previous story about the adventures of building the coupe.
When Pete first suggested that I write about my projects, I told him I couldn’t because they weren’t finished. What kind of story has no ending? Just write, he said. So I did, and it’s been fun.
But the problem didn’t go away, and now I’ve reached the mess that I foresaw. Supplier delays and unexpected problems have continually postponed the happy endings I was so eager to write. The 6C2500 coupe, nearly done seven years ago, is now truly done. But the final stages were agony. The roadster still awaits its engine, though there was still some work I could do on it. Only the BAT, seemingly the most farfetched of them all, has made steady progress.
By pete
Larz and Isabelle Anderson
Diplomat and ambassador Larz Anderson and his wife, Isabelle Weld Perkins, were fascinating people. Both were wealthy, but Isabelle was by far the richer.* [Read more…] about Paul Wilson and the Larz Anderson Museum
By pete
Paul Wilson at the Larz Anderson Museum
For all of you who have followed the adventures of Paul Wilson as he designs and constructs his own coachwork on the Alfa 6C 2500 chassis, we’ve got some great news for you! On November 30, 7 p.m.- 8:30 p.m., Wilson will formally present his coupe at the prestigious Larz Anderson Automobile Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts.
As we all know and can readily see via the VeloceToday articles, Wilson is a master craftsman, who learned his art as he went along, thinking about each process while limiting his tools and materials to those available to coachbuilders of the 1930s. How he worked through the problems of doors, interiors, trunks, hood and fenders is a fascinating process and reveals his unique genius. Why he used steel instead of aluminum is also interesting as it altered the final form, as he was able to literally design the car as he created it. [Read more…] about Paul Wilson, Karl Ludvigsen, Dalton Watson
By pete
Story and photos by Paul Wilson
The most satisfying part of any restoration is the last stage: putting sparkling new pieces onto a gleaming car. Minimal effort, maximum reward. After a few minutes’ work, you can stand back and take deep breaths, enjoying a visual feast. That’s part of it, anyway. But there’s another side. You discover how many parts a car really has, and how much time it takes to deal with mundane matters nobody thinks much about.
As my roadster nears completion, I’ve had both the pleasures and the pains. [Read more…] about Paul Wilson’s 6C 2500 Roadster, Part 8
By pete
Story and photos by Paul Wilson
From the VeloceToday Archives, November 2021
Readers may have already guessed why this series has stalled: the story has caught up with progress on the car itself. I spent the Pandemic Winter pushing a sanding board, then it went to a paint shop, from which it has just returned. Now as I start on the reassembly, wiring, making and trimming the interior, and sorting out mechanical issues, I’ll have more to write about.
I didn’t tell about constructing the center body, which presented more dilemmas than I expected. I thought, how hard could it be? It’s just two boxes, one ahead of the cockpit and the other behind it. Just make them light and stiff, and what else is needed? A lot, as it turns out. Most of the problems arise from what comes in between: the doors and the rocker panels. Often there’s a chicken-and-egg dilemma: if two pieces have to fit together, which do you make first?
By pete
Story and photos by Paul Wilson
Readers may have already guessed why this series has stalled: the story has caught up with progress on the car itself. I spent the Pandemic Winter pushing a sanding board, then it went to a paint shop, from which it has just returned. Now as I start on the reassembly, wiring, making and trimming the interior, and sorting out mechanical issues, I’ll have more to write about.
I didn’t tell about constructing the center body, which presented more dilemmas than I expected. I thought, how hard could it be? It’s just two boxes, one ahead of the cockpit and the other behind it. Just make them light and stiff, and what else is needed? A lot, as it turns out. Most of the problems arise from what comes in between: the doors and the rocker panels. Often there’s a chicken-and-egg dilemma: if two pieces have to fit together, which do you make first? [Read more…] about Paul Wilson’s 6C2500 Roadster Part 7
By pete
By Paul Wilson
To complete my Alfa’s body I still had to construct the center body, with the cowl and doors. But first I had to solve several aesthetic dilemmas. I was unhappy with the rear view, and I wanted to take care of it–at least improve things–before going on. The rear deck looked too wide and bland, and somehow I needed to incorporate a license plate and taillights into it. Making a suitably racy windshield would not be very hard. But a curved, downward-sloping hood line, to harmonize with the car’s aerodynamic look, was surprisingly difficult. [Read more…] about Paul Wilson’s 6C 2500 Roadster Part 6
By pete
Story by Paul Wilson
My “one-man band” system of designing and building a custom body has obvious defects. The lone worker is going to get overwhelmed. And at best, he’s slow. But with many people involved, how does the designer explain what he has in mind? With just a few drawings, how does the builder know what to make? And if what emerges doesn’t look right, how can mistakes be corrected? Without seeing the full-sized car, in the flesh, how could any designer anticipate what it will look like from every angle? [Read more…] about Paul Wilson’s 6C2500 Roadster Part 5
By pete
Story by Paul Wilson
For my 6C roadster body, I made two important improvements in my technique. I used steel instead of aluminum. And with a few changes, I made my wire-form buck much better.
The Lotus and the Amilcar were originally made with aluminum bodies, so I had no choice of material. Aluminum is light and easily worked. So why would anyone use steel? Experience suggested some answers. First, it’s hard to get good welds in aluminum without much better (more expensive) equipment than I have. More skill, too, maybe. But I still don’t have it after twenty years of effort and instruction from many experts (none of whom could do fast, tidy welds with my welder). If practice would do the trick, I’d have it by now. [Read more…] about Paul Wilson’s Alfa 6C 2500 Roadster Part 4
By pete
Story and photos by Paul Wilson
Once the chassis of my Alfa was sitting on its wheels I could start on the fun part, building the body. Over many years and several major projects, I’ve developed methods of fabrication that work pretty well for me, but it’s important to understand what my situation is, what my goals have been, and the limitations of my system. [Read more…] about Paul Wilson’s 6C 2500 Roadster Part 3
By pete
Story and photos by Paul Wilson
My dream of building a roadster body on an Alfa 6C2500 took a startling turn, from something absurdly impractical to an idea that might be possible. I was talking to a collector who was restoring a unique 6C for Pebble Beach, when he casually mentioned that he had a parts car. [Read more…] about Paul Wilson’s 6C 2500 Dream Gets Real