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Baby Bugatti Replica


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I recently bought a Baby Bugatti replica #BG 304014, I have very little knowledge of these cars, except that my type 35 Bugatti Matchbox car was my favorite and that the crankshaft (on the real car) was machined out of a block of steel. I just knew that my Grandson would like it almost as much as me. Can anyone share any information or lead me to the proper place for information.

Thank you,

Jay

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  • 10 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Yes sir, I just saw your reply, there was never any activity on my post and I just happened to check subscribed posts. There are photos of the Bugatti in an album you should be able to access by clicking on my user name (I think).

I should have posted my initial request in general discussion there may have been more interest.

I thought that with a motor kit the Bugatti would be ready to drive, until I really started to examine things. Finally got a motor kit this February, it was ordered last March. The original front axle material had the structural strength of a frozen chocolate crunch bar, good thing for a friend who happens to be a machine shop supervisor, he shaped a new axle out of a piece of 6061 aluminum and I am doing some blending on it with a die grinder and sanding pads. One king pin measures .302" the other .312" good thing for adjustable reamers.

One photo shows the original axle mounted with the main leaf coming over the top of the front mount, with the spring like this the frame of the car rested on the axle I turned the springs upside down and re-arched them so there is axle clearance. How about the plywood brake lining!

There is so much work involved in the different components it must have taken some time to build these cars.

The Motor is fitted to the motor mount, required grinding, the front axle needs a little more blending and polishing, the king pin holes are reamed, currently working on fabricating small turnbuckles for brake adjustment.

Shown in the photos is the "Electric Motor Upgrade Kit" I was taken for a ride on this, should have done much more homework before spending the money. Call for details, if you internet search "Baby Bugatti" you will probably see a really nice website for toy restoration, beware.

This car was built by Authentic Models I haven't been able to find much information on them and would like to know approximately how many were made.

Thanks for your interest I'll be posting more photos. I hope to have this thing running for my Grandson's 4th b'day 5-18-12. Although I want to have the car operational all driving will be monitored for aggressiveness.

Jay

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Started to make turnbuckles for brake adjustment but couldn't find my left hand machine screw dies, have from 1/4 to 3/4 but none smaller. I have them someplace. Went to a popular fastener supply co. and asked about purchasing a left hand 10-32 die and was told they would have one on Wednesday. I was surprised and asked "you can have a 10-32 left hand die here on Wednesday" the reply, "no it will be a right hand die you just turn it upside down". I was very courteous as I knew the young lad from the race track and explained that that wouldn't work. He looked confused so I asked him what happens if you take a nut and turn it upside down. Nice kid he understood. I ordered some on line for @ $10.00 each.

All the ball ends on the steering components are too small for the socket ends of the drag link and tie rod, I'm going to try teflon buttons on either side of the ball to see if I can make them happy. The leather washer is what supports the steering column, apiece of teflon will back-up the leather.

Jay

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alsancle is it possible for you to post the photo?

Mr. Peterson did I see that the AACA either auctioned or sold a Baby Bugatti Replica a few years ago?

I am curious as to how many of the replica cars were produced and the survival rate of the original cars.

Tonight was working on brake adjusters (turnbuckles), found a piece of 5/16" cold rolled, that should look good not to bulky. Decided that a manufactured nut won't look good as a jam nut so I'm making knurled nuts out of the 5/16" also.

Tomorrow will be dedicated to the Bugatti will post photos of progress.

Jay

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Mr. Peterson did I see that the AACA either auctioned or sold a Baby Bugatti Replica a few years ago?

I am curious as to how many of the replica cars were produced and the survival rate of the original cars.

Jay

Not that I'm aware of. As far as production... I can't even tell you how many companies reproduced them.

Thanks for keeping us updated on your progress.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello there, I've been working on the Bugatti but have also been caring for the two Grandsons, one almost 4 the other 1.5, while their parents were in Jamaica "mon".

I'm including a few photos of things. This past Saturday I had the rear wheels spinning by power, hooked up some temporary wiring and ran it a little bit. There is a bit too much noise coming from the gear set, I wish I knew were the "custom made gear" was sourced by the supplier of the "motor upgrade kit". If anyone is curious as to the history of these cars there is some information on the website for "Old Foundry Toy Works" just don't do business with them till you send me a private message and I will fill you in. My personal belief is they would have trouble casting a shadow on a sunny day.

It is very damp here today and don't know how much time I'll spend on the car but I want to run it a little bit more before I pull the rear axle apart and check the wear patterns of the gears. The driven gear, I call it the bull gear, thats what we called the large gear on pavement rollers, looks to be cast from some bronze composition and rings if struck. The drive or pinion gear, I don't know.

You electrical guys should like the original throttle pedal.

If anyone is interested in any motorized projects, "Monster Scooter Parts" is the place to go.

The photos include, Original thottle pedal control, brake adjusting turnbuckles, (waiting for left-hand die to finish), steering support strap, (the belly pan was flexing a great deal with the turning of the steering wheel), the steering gear, worm and nut I guess, needed busings, reaming the three bushings to make that pitman arm shaft happy took awhile.

Anywho, need to mount the original throttle pedal minus the resistors and connect it some how to the twist-grip throttle supplied with the motor kit, make a proper wiring harness, we're going to use fabric loom for the wire covering, check out the rear axle gear noise, battery hold down bracket, finish and install brake adjusters and it will be all done, just like that!

Have a great day and a better tomorrow,

Jay

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Hey, I would like to point out that I filed material (in keeping with the nature of the original construction methods) from the bottom of the steering mount support to compensate for the frame rail thickness. The strap is tapped with screws coming from the bottom I used through screws with nuts on the steering mount bracket due to the heavy material being in the middle.

The first photo shows a spacer under the steering mount to duplicate the thickness of the bottom strap but I took it out to get a better angle on the pitman arm for more tire clearance with the drag link. The steering mount being of light stock did not mind being bent a little bit and nothing else cared about the slight angle.

Wasted enough time it's about as warm as it's going to get, going to the hardware store for some sticky sided foam (battery mounting) and head to the shop. I'll have to walk around a while collecting material for the battery hold down, I usually try to gather a lot of possibilities and then see how they can fit together.

Jay

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello all,

I've been working every available moment to get the baby Bugatti operable. Had the two Grandsons in it tonight with the oldest operating the throttle the young one 1 1/2 yrs. old was very excited, it is supported on a table with the wheels hanging, elbows are really close to the rear tires. I'm going to start checking out fenders on anything with a tire close to 14" in diameter.

Did a lot of finishing touches, put rubber edging on the frame rail flanges and any where else a sheet metal edge would allow, adjusted the brakes, added an additional throttle return spring. I think it's ready for a shake down run but don't know if the 4 year old is strong enough yet. He manhandles a few other electric powered vehicles with no problems and is good with the steering wheel but they stop almost instantly when the throttle is released and the throttles on them are either on or flat out. we'll give him a lot of room and see what happens. In fabricating the throttle linkage I allowed a lot of adjustment hopefully to control sensitivity.

I told my son we have to show the boys vintage racing films and teach them how to do cartwheels, he wanted to know why and I told him when a driver wrecked in a car of this type they usually did cartwheels down the track.:eek:

Jay

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Thank you Alsancle I have to get some photos minus the clutter. When I'm fabricating I usually make quite a confusing pile of fasteners, tools and miscellaneous bits and pieces of metal that may or may not be used.

Jay

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Well Fellows, the Bugatti went for a block and a half when it coasted to a stop just like Andy Ganatelli's turbine car only the part that broke on the Bugatti cost more.

Another wonderful example of the work performed by "Old Foundry Toy Works". I doubt if they used any formulas concerning torque or stress but rather seat of the pants engineering and their pants are probably full!

The original diameter of the motor shaft was 12 M.M. and it was turned to 6 M.M. to accept the "custom made gear".

The way the shaft was machined there was a step between the spur gear and the motor which measured a bit under 12M.M., this is what I thought was the diameter of the shaft. The shaft did not come flush with the end of the gear and it appeared there was a shoulder in the gear where the shaft stopped, about a quarter of an inch in. There was no attempt made to dress the end of the turned shaft with a chamfer or even breaking the edge so it appeared that the outside diameter of the shaft was hidden by the shoulder that didn't exist.

Any how I doubt the mechanical capabilities of anyone thinking a shaft the diameter of a quarter inch bolt could successfully drive a 150 pound vehicle.

I can buy the identical motor with a sprocket(for #25 chain) installed for about $80.00 with shipping and may try to get a chain and sprockets inside the original Bugatti rear housing. I don't want to modify anything so that it can't be returned to original.

Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

My Grandson, Donovan, did a good job while it lasted, the throttle was set that it took lots of travel to go from stop to full out so there were no "jack-rabbit starts" but his dad was running to keep up at one point. I had thickened the steering wheel up a bit with hose and tape so he could grip it better, the original rim was only about 3/8" in diameter.

So back to the boring drawed

Jay

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update: The last post I was ranting about the practices of others, this didn't help in solving the problem.

My Daughter-in-Law's Grandfather (would he be by Grandfather-in-Law?) told me he knew a fellow that pushed the shafts out of armatures and replaced them so I spoke to him but he did it on AC motors and this was a DC motor and he thought the commutator would be a problem.

I put the armature in my arbor press and after not too long decided that something was going to break before the shaft started moving.

Next trick, I put the armature in the lathe with an ancient steadyrest and faced the end of the snapped shaft and drilled a hole, #21 drill I think. Then took the shank from a grade-8, 1/2" bolt and turned a stem to fit into the hole in the motor shaft and cut a bevel and welded it to the motor.

Now my friend, the machinist who made the axle, gets the gear and the motor. He bored the gear to 0.4375 and turned the shaft to 0.4390.

I put the motor together and it ran just as smooth as before, which was good.

I decided that a hole was necessary in the right side axle housing which allows the drive gear to go deeper into the housing giving 100% tooth contact where as before it was only contacting about 1/2 of the driven gear, so three step drills later and a little filing and we got a hole.

Now the gear got heated and dropped onto the shaft i thought it went a little too far and tried to move it a bit but it said NO! where it ended up is fine.

To get the proper gear mesh shims are placed under the motor, with the outside hole it is easy to see what is going on with the placement of the shims.

The motor is mounted and everything seems to be Ok. Made a cover for the new hole in the axle housing. Now everything has to be reassembled with the proper fasteners and away we go. I hope!

Jay

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Guest Killerbunny

Great work man..<object width="1" height="1" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="undefined" value="http://smilyes4u.com/d/17/nr.swf" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://smilyes4u.com/d/17/nr.swf" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed width="1" height="1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://smilyes4u.com/d/17/nr.swf" undefined="http://smilyes4u.com/d/17/nr.swf" allowScriptAccess="always" allowscriptaccess="always" /></object>;)

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The boys were in the Bugatti tonight, Donovan was very careful to the point his mom told him to go faster and you can see Demetri's hands are where he was told him to put them. Once Donovan got comfortable he was "letting it eat" for short bursts. I think I'll have to limit the throttle for less speed. He had a helmet on for a while but he pulled over and took it off.

Jay

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello again, I worked on the Bugatti today. I made what I'll call a torque-arm for the steering nut. the steering shaft has a triple lead screw and the nut is only 3/4 inch or 19 mm so there was lots of rocking going on with the nut when turning the steering wheel from one direction to the other creating play in the steering. When we first got the car there was no less than one-half turn of slop in the steering. So I captured the nut within a metal cage with an arm running to a guide tube on the steering shaft, on the table there is very little play in the steering and i hope it will be more drivable. The last trip out I thought Donovan was going to get frustrated trying to keep the car straight. post-39071-14313907344_thumb.jpg

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No alsancle, I have the shaft supported at the top with a nylon bushing originally only a leather washer supported it. The problem was the class of fit between the threads in the nut and the shaft. Being it is a triple lead screw there are three individual threads running only 3/4 inch which gives very little stability to the nut so the nut would tip before transferring movement. With the arm attached the nut can't tip eliminating steering play. I haven't decided about showing it as it is a bit of a pain to transport.

Thanks for your interest,

Jay

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello everyone, a Baby Bugatti Update, last time out my grandson drove the Bugatti for approx. 45 minutes before it stopped. I had plans on making a strap to keep the motor from rotating due to torque reaction, but did not. Although the strap clamp supplied with the car was still tight the motor managed to rotate enough to cut the power wires to the motor. Shown in the attached photo is the anti-rotation device.

There were some other items that needed addressing so the car came apart again. Work didn't progress too rapidly as I developed a 5mm kidney stone that was uncomfortable at times, it has passed.

I finished assembling the car today and along with my Grandson am anxiously awaiting the next outing. I am hoping I have all bases covered as I want to work on a car I can drive.

A reversing switch for the motor and wiring the amp gauge will wait for winter. The electronic control box in the car has a pilot light lead but puts out 24 volt so I either have to use a 24 volt bulb or drop the voltage to 12 volts, this can also wait for winter.

Good night,

Jay

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  • 1 month later...

Hello all,

The Baby Bugatti Replica is working well. It will run just over an hour on a full charge and hits approx. 10 MPH. Donovan who was 4 in May drives the car with ease, Demetri who will be 2 in November pulls himself forward using the steering wheel in order to reach the throttle and away he goes. We put the car in the middle of the yard (lawn) and with the wheel at full lock he goes around in circles. We have spotters located on the course for emergency steering assist. Taking the key out off the power switch has foiled Demetri from departing on his own, he hasn't quite managed to master the task of inserting the key. Demetri is also crazy about our old cars, the first thing he says when seeing me is "drive it old car"

Have a wonderful day,

Jay

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  • 2 months later...

Baby Bugatti Replica update. This thing has been in our living room for the last month, it's hard to hurt a house that dates to @1830 with hardwood floors, while deciding where to store it for the winter so I decided to do some more wiring. It now has reverse but still no pilot light. While cleaning up and thinking, I do most of that after the fact, I am now worried about shifting while in motion, I had a friend who would torture his torqueflight with reverse to first shifts, so I'm thinking about putting it in, "marche avant" pardon my French, and taking the handle off. Attached are some photos, I did all soldering in the kitchen where it is supposed to be done.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone,

Jay

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alsancle, Thanks for posting the Photograph. I wonder when someone first decided to replicate the baby, I have not been very successful in finding information on "Authentic Models" the most likely builders of our car but I was told the Authentic cars were built in the 70's (I don't know if that info is correct).

The boys were driving the Bugatti forward and backward in the living room, about a 20 foot ride, they got a kick out of the reverse feature.

Jay

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The Craven Foundation (CF) in Toronto had a few authentic models. That collect was closed in the 1980's and the model Bugatti's were purchased by someone in France. Sorry I don't have any photos. I do remember the full page ad in Hemings when these models were advertised for sale. I'll likely see the past curator of the CF over the next few weeks and I will ask for some details for you.

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Thanks Mike I would appreciate any information available. We bought our car at an auction house in the coal regions of North East Pennsylvania, there were many unusual, mostly high priced, items scheduled for sale with the Bugatti being the headliner. according to the auctioneer he bought a storage locker from somewhere in New Jersey and stated it was an inheritance gone awry.

Jay

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  • 5 months later...

Hello out there, so far there are over 4000 views on the Baby Bugatti and before someone notices that I spent some time trying to eliminate gear noise on straight cut gears.

A few months ago while lying in bed reflecting I realized thet the car has straight cut gears and eliminating gear noise isn't happening.

The car is ready for another season, I still haven't decided on what to do about the 24 volts feeding the ignition on light but that is something I have to do when the spirit moves me.

Jay

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