Panel thickness of original Ulsters

[Erich]

Hi All,

This is more of an academic question to enrich my knowledge, rather than something that I can change on a car. In working on my CC Ulster body, with some welding that a friend is doing, the body is made from 40 thou, what I would guess is 1100. Pretty soft and basically pure aluminum, rather than a harder alloy. Were the original cars the same or similar? I would guess, pure aluminum, but would the thickness have been the same rather than perhaps 50 thou which is a bit more robust?

Erich in Seattle

[Bill Sheehan]

Hi All,

This is more of an academic question to enrich my knowledge, rather than something that I can change on a car. In working on my CC Ulster body, with some welding that a friend is doing, the body is made from 40 thou, what I would guess is 1100. Pretty soft and basically pure aluminum, rather than a harder alloy. Were the original cars the same or similar? I would guess, pure aluminum, but would the thickness have been the same rather than perhaps 50 thou which is a bit more robust?

Erich in Seattle

If any help, the Original Ulster bodies were built in Imperial thicknesses - ie- SWG (Standard Wire Gauge). The only two Original Longbridge AE bodies I worked on (the others were either replacement repairs or replicas) were Steel floor, bulkhead etc = 18gauge (TT versions possibly 20g for lightness, or even aluminium), the Aluminium skin 18gauge.  As I believe your Special is a long wheelbased, stretched copy of a 1930/31 AE, (and AEs were never called an Ulster by the factory), I can understand why your question is academic.  But why do you keep calling your good-looking special  an Ulster?  Good Luck with it.   Cheers,  Bill in Oz

[Erich]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the info. My car(1930 Ulster rep) or as you correctly point out, a Replica or Special based upon the EA Sports, has not been lengthened, but is still SWB. Here in the US, aluminum is not provided in a gauge, like steel, but as a thickness, which is why I referred to 40 thou. 18 gauge steel is .048 while that gauge in aluminum is about .040. BTW, I had thought that "Ulsters" were properly called EA Sports or EA Super sports, depending on whether they were blown or normally aspirated and the AE designation was used for Tourers.


Erich in Seattle

[AustinWood]

40 thou is 1mm. Sheet is now metric in UK.

[Mark Atkinson]

Hello Erich,

This little bit of info which may also be academic, particularly because it is related to a one off car built by the competition department, but, for her second race season in 1926, Austin modified Slippery Anne's bodywork fitting a new bonnet, which, when measured with my digital callipers and the original paint still in place, this surviving panel is 1.24mm thick. The material feels like pure aluminium and is rather malleable.

I remember Richard Horigan at the Smithsonian Silver Hill aircraft restoration facility showing me a WW1 Nieuport Fighters engine cowling recovered from its crash site. The cowl had been completely flattened in the impact of the crash. However, he said that, even after 80 years in the ground, without any difficulty they had reshaped the item by gently pushing it out with stockinged feet. He found it to be very soft and believed it was pure aluminium.

Regards,
            Mark.

[Erich]

Hi Mark, that is helpful. My friend who has welded up a few cracks on my car, also does a lot of work on vintage aircraft. He has mentioned that many of the aircraft, like Stearmans and the like, use .050, as with pure aluminum(1100) it is just a bit too easily dented. 1.24 mm is about .048 so pretty close to that.

Erich in Seattle